Got a lens?

[Diloris]

hi all,

I'm here again with your input and opinions and experience using Squidoo Lenses to boost your website traffic. I have read on a number of websites about using squidoo to get your website with a higher ranking also.

What are your thoughts on this?

Here's a link to a video which sparked off my question in the first place: YouTube Video. The guy should have redone the as I think he may have had to have surgery to remove the microfone from his throat.

If anyone is interesed I have come across a guy building squidoo lenses for people for $129 with lots of content, graphics etc but as my question would suggest I don't know how effecteive using a squidoo lens is to improving your ranking, (Posted here in another forum)

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Diloris,

Here is my opinion. It may not be right, only my opinion from what I have learned and read. I do not own a lens.

I think this is one of those situations where if you got in early, did all the right things, built some rep, etc. it worked well. Then the scammers and spammers got wind and Google slapped it down and the rules at Squidoo became stricter.

And now it's not as good, especially for someone just starting out because it is overrun with too many people trying to use it to game the system or pros that know how to optimize it better than any newbie could.

There are lots of other similar opportunities out there and I would be on the lookout for ones as good or better that have not yet become abused and over used.

That's not to say I would not create a lens. That may be one of the options I would try, I just think it's not an amazing opp like it once was if you are just trying to get started with a lens now as a newbie.

 

[Diloris]

I would be inclined to agree with you regarding squidoo not being an unknown phenomenon resulting in maybe too many members using the services as a traffic source as like every online resource it suffers from over exposure.

Finding new sites offering new services is also proving to be a difficult task and by the time something does get known it's already too exposed.

Thanks a lot for the great answer to my post!

 

[Niche48]

Agree totally with Linda and like Linda I don't have a squidoo lens either [seems like a bit of tautology there but i can't figure out where]

I suppose Squidoo would be useful for generating backlinks to your site

With regards to making sales off your lens ie conversions, I get the impression that conversions are not great

I also am a little selfish about where I put my content

I really think your best content should be put on your own sites, not on someone else's site [And in all reality, squidoo is someone else's site]

You may argue that sharing information in forums is putting your content on someone else's site, but that is totally different. We share information in forums to help one another and learn from each other.

I think the way to go is build your own site, put your great and unique content on your site in a search engine optimized fashion, add an opt in list and drive traffic to it

For me this is a model that has worked time and time again.

 

[genuwine4532]

answers

Hmmm to build or not to build?

I will tell you that I am an active Squid user, and everything Linda said was right. Squidoo has its uses, but like Niche said I would not put my best content on Squidoo, AND I would NEVER pay anyone a dime to build my lens, god there is so much more you can do with the $129!

Squidoo is good for a backlink but in reality much better for promoting certain affil prods independent of having an actual site, it all depends on the product, Affil Marktng tools are VERY hot!

Squids rank with google, get yanked and then comeback, (same old google dance). If you regularly update and have lots of good content then it will remain in serps.

If you are going to build a lens here are some important tips:

1. Join ALL applicable groups
2. Network and Lensroll with relevant lenses/lensmasters
3. Use KW in the url and Title
4. Add lenses to http://www.squoogle.com-directory
5. Use your KW in headers and sub headers and at least 2-5% density throughout.
6. Make lenses full of content and images, have at least 6 text modules and 3 image modules.
7. Use CSS/HTML tricks to spice up the lens, here are some easy guides with codes: My Favourite CSS Tricks for Lenses
Basic HTML for Squidoo
Advanced HTML for Squidoo

 

[Linda Buquet]

Wow genuwine4532, thanks for all the tips.
Maybe we should crown you the 5 Star Squidmeister!
I don't know squat about squids, but sounds like some great advice!

 

[genuwine4532]

LOL, thanks Linda,

Just things I learned the hard way, and had to redo a couple of lenses to get them right.

Personally I always thought Squids sucked because they were hard to build, but once you get used to there being no WYSIWYG, learn a little code, and learn to navigate through the dashboard it gets a lot easier to build them quickly.

 

[your-inforcom]

Great discussion going on here.

Just my opinion. Squidoo is a good place to be used as part of your overall website promotion.

As you have already alluded, gone are the days that one could just put up a site or blog and start to attract organic search engine traffic.

Because of the competitive nature of online business, you will need to do a few things, submit articles, post on forums, social bookmark or network and the list goes on.

I think that is where squidoo comes into perspective. Unfortunately a squidoo lens is just like another sub-domain - mini-site - blog.

Why? because once you decide that you are going to build a lens, be prepared also to optimize the lens for the search engines, continually update the lens, build traffic for the lens...

Just like anything else online their are benefits and disadvantages attached to using a squidoo lens.

 

[Diloris]

Wow, Why didn't I find this forum a while back. Thanks for all the input folks.

Some excellent information posted!

 

[Linda Buquet]

We're lucky to have so many members that are not only smart,
but willing to share their knowledge with other members.

 

[The Hulk]

I have a few squidoo lenses and Hub Pages linked to my adsense blogs and they`re useful for bringing traffic because the lenses/hubs get higher Google placement for my keywords than my blogs do. So some people make it to the blogs by way of the lense/Hub (similar to article marketing I guess).

Whether or not they actually improved my blogs` search placement, I don`t really know.

I don`t spend much time on the lenses and hubs. I just put up a description, a couple photos, a youtube video, the links, and maybe an RSS feed from my blog. A 15 minute job.