What do you get when you cross Squidoo with YouTube? You get SquidVids!
It's so easy to get hooked on YouTube; there's so much to watch with video clips of nearly every topic imaginable. Likely there are video clips of something you're especially fond of, from your favorite team to your favorite hobby. Put the two together and you get an easy subject for a SquidVids lens. Better yet, choose your favorite Squidoo lens topic, find related video and you have yet one more way of seducing the search engines.
Once you've made your SquidVids lens, make sure you lensroll it to your related lens, and vice versa like I did with my eBay lens and my eBay Video Showcase. Let the Squidoo-Google dance begin!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Many Faces of Squidoo - SquidWho?
Just when I thought Squidoo couldn't get any better, along came SquidWho. Then along came SquidBid, SquidBoo, and SquidVid. Each of these is a site within the Squidoo site, all part of Squidoo. The same, but different. Got it?
You could call them "skins," I think. They're all basically different Squidoo templates, each for a different purpose which you can probably guess from their catchy names. SquidWho is for lenses about people (famous as well as just regular folks), SquidBid for eBay lenses, SquidBoo for Halloween-related lenses, and the new SquidVid, all about videos. When you set up a lens on any of these sub-sites, Squidoo automatically includes modules that make it super easy for anyone to build a lens.
My favorite of the sub-squids is SquidWho. Choose your person, choose the domain name, claim your lens and add an introduction and you have a pretty darn good beginner's lens, which is probably why there are so many SquidWho lenses; it's that quick and easy. Thing is, too many of the resulting lenses remain beginner lenses, with canned creativity and not enough personal input. What I like is the challenge of doing some research, adding some meaty modules, and making an outstanding SquidWho lens that rises above the rest.
It's a good idea to enhance your basic SquidWho lens, too, as when someone searches SquidWho for a name, only the highest-ranking SquidWho lens about that person shows up. That's why on each SquidWho lens there's a challenge: Think you can do better? If you think you can do better, click on that challenge and make your own lens about that person, improve it and take over the top spot. That's what I did with my latest, new and improved SquidWho lens and I'm pretty pleased with it.
Are you up to the challenge? Pick your favorite person and give it a shot. Then leave us a comment so we can take a look and leave you some stars.
You could call them "skins," I think. They're all basically different Squidoo templates, each for a different purpose which you can probably guess from their catchy names. SquidWho is for lenses about people (famous as well as just regular folks), SquidBid for eBay lenses, SquidBoo for Halloween-related lenses, and the new SquidVid, all about videos. When you set up a lens on any of these sub-sites, Squidoo automatically includes modules that make it super easy for anyone to build a lens.
My favorite of the sub-squids is SquidWho. Choose your person, choose the domain name, claim your lens and add an introduction and you have a pretty darn good beginner's lens, which is probably why there are so many SquidWho lenses; it's that quick and easy. Thing is, too many of the resulting lenses remain beginner lenses, with canned creativity and not enough personal input. What I like is the challenge of doing some research, adding some meaty modules, and making an outstanding SquidWho lens that rises above the rest.
It's a good idea to enhance your basic SquidWho lens, too, as when someone searches SquidWho for a name, only the highest-ranking SquidWho lens about that person shows up. That's why on each SquidWho lens there's a challenge: Think you can do better? If you think you can do better, click on that challenge and make your own lens about that person, improve it and take over the top spot. That's what I did with my latest, new and improved SquidWho lens and I'm pretty pleased with it.
Are you up to the challenge? Pick your favorite person and give it a shot. Then leave us a comment so we can take a look and leave you some stars.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
I'd Rather do Squidoo than . . .
. . . almost anything, really. I love Squidoo! Unfortunately, my Squidoo time is more limited than I would like it to be, but I don't let little things, like cleaning my house, get in the way when I find a few free minutes. Squidoo trumps dusting and cleaning every time!
One of my favorite lensmasters, rms (a.k.a. Robin), seems to agree and says it so well in one of my all-time favorite lenses. If you choose Squidoo over the broom, too, you'll love this lens.
One of my favorite lensmasters, rms (a.k.a. Robin), seems to agree and says it so well in one of my all-time favorite lenses. If you choose Squidoo over the broom, too, you'll love this lens.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
How to Link to a Squidoo Module
Here's another Squidoo tip. Do you have a blog or a website where you might want to include a link to one of your Squidoo lenses? Instead of sending your readers to the lens page, making them have to look for the information you want them to find on the lens, try this. Refer them to the exact module you want them to see.
To do that, look on the left margin of the Squidoo lens you want to link to. Look where it says "What's here" and click on "more" in that list so you can see every module within that particular lens. Click on the name of the module where you want the person to end up. Use the address that is now in your browser as your link.
For instance, my find-stuff-for-ebay lens is rather long so if I wanted someone to find the section about the book for stay-at-home moms, I would have them link to http://www.squidoo.com/find-stuff-for-ebay/#module3863032. I figured out how to do this from somebody else's lens one time and love the shortcut!
Sometimes I even link within the same lens to a different module on that lens. Ron Passfield does that on his big Squidoo Marketing Strategies lens, linking from the table of contents that he has added near the top of his lens. Another of his great ideas!
To do that, look on the left margin of the Squidoo lens you want to link to. Look where it says "What's here" and click on "more" in that list so you can see every module within that particular lens. Click on the name of the module where you want the person to end up. Use the address that is now in your browser as your link.
For instance, my find-stuff-for-ebay lens is rather long so if I wanted someone to find the section about the book for stay-at-home moms, I would have them link to http://www.squidoo.com/find-stuff-for-ebay/#module3863032. I figured out how to do this from somebody else's lens one time and love the shortcut!
Sometimes I even link within the same lens to a different module on that lens. Ron Passfield does that on his big Squidoo Marketing Strategies lens, linking from the table of contents that he has added near the top of his lens. Another of his great ideas!
Squidoo Tip of the Day
Want more visitors to your lens? More comments on your lenses? More stars? My tip of the day today is this: Visit the Squidoo Lens of the Day, leave a comment and rate the lens. Then go visit several lenses that are lensrolled on that lens and do the same thing there. Next, visit lenses of a few of the other people who have commented on the lens of the day. Leave more comments and stars. There's a good to excellent chance you will receive visits, stars, and comments in return.
Make your comments sincere; don't just bombard everyone with links to your own lenses. I have received personal emails from a few of the top lensmasters on Squidoo thanking me for my interesting comments on their lenses. I'll admit that I was flattered (I confess to being a bit of a Squidoo groupie), but mostly I was happy that those people will recognize me when they see me in the future - and recognition means a lot on Squidoo.
You can find the lens of the day in the right margin of your Squidoo dashboard so when you see it next time, use it as a reminder to go and do some socializing Squidoo style with your original, creative, and sincere comments.
Make your comments sincere; don't just bombard everyone with links to your own lenses. I have received personal emails from a few of the top lensmasters on Squidoo thanking me for my interesting comments on their lenses. I'll admit that I was flattered (I confess to being a bit of a Squidoo groupie), but mostly I was happy that those people will recognize me when they see me in the future - and recognition means a lot on Squidoo.
You can find the lens of the day in the right margin of your Squidoo dashboard so when you see it next time, use it as a reminder to go and do some socializing Squidoo style with your original, creative, and sincere comments.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Keep Your Squidoo Visitors Coming Back
Have an interesting lens full of great information? Are you getting visitors? How about return visitors?
To keep your visitors coming back, consider a nifty little tool called Add This. With just a couple of clicks, you can create bookmark and RSS feed widgets for your lenses then add the code to a "write" module on your lens, giving your visitors an easy opportunity to bookmark your lens.
Add This supports most bookmarking and feed reader services, including social bookmarking sites like Del.iciou.us, Facebook, and Stumbleupon which, in turn, will bring your lens even more traffic. Of course you can use the same widget on your blog. I did (left margin, near the top).
Check out how I used the Add This widget to my find-stuff-for-ebay lens.
To keep your visitors coming back, consider a nifty little tool called Add This. With just a couple of clicks, you can create bookmark and RSS feed widgets for your lenses then add the code to a "write" module on your lens, giving your visitors an easy opportunity to bookmark your lens.
Add This supports most bookmarking and feed reader services, including social bookmarking sites like Del.iciou.us, Facebook, and Stumbleupon which, in turn, will bring your lens even more traffic. Of course you can use the same widget on your blog. I did (left margin, near the top).
Check out how I used the Add This widget to my find-stuff-for-ebay lens.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Use Squidoo to Promote your eBay Business
Have an eBay business? You should have a Squidoo lens.
It’s super simple to set up a Squidoo lens with a special eBay template that sets the lens apart as an eBay lens. You can start with this lens to see what the template looks like. Then, if you want a lens like it, look at the top of the page and click on “Make Your Own.” When you publish the lens, it’ll have the eBay squid template.
If you want to know why you should make a Squidoo lens to promote your eBay business, go back to the top of the same page and click on the link that says “Get the eBook” and Megan will tell you why.
So, what are you waiting for? Squidaddle on over there and get busy.
It’s super simple to set up a Squidoo lens with a special eBay template that sets the lens apart as an eBay lens. You can start with this lens to see what the template looks like. Then, if you want a lens like it, look at the top of the page and click on “Make Your Own.” When you publish the lens, it’ll have the eBay squid template.
If you want to know why you should make a Squidoo lens to promote your eBay business, go back to the top of the same page and click on the link that says “Get the eBook” and Megan will tell you why.
So, what are you waiting for? Squidaddle on over there and get busy.
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