Squidoo turns five today. To celebrate, they're giving away money.
Happy anniversary, Squidoo! And many, many more!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Happy 5 Year Anniversary, Squidoo!
Squidoo turns five today. To celebrate, they're giving away money.
Happy anniversary, Squidoo! And many, many more!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
How to Use Wikipedia to Get Traffic To Squidoo
You've no doubt heard of Wikipedia, the online, collaborative encyclopedia of almost everything. When people want to know more about something or someone new and interesting, they often search "wikipedia" first. Here's how you can use the popularity of Wikipedia to get traffic to your Squidoo lenses.
The first and most obvious is to include information from Wikipedia about the subject of your lens, making sure you attribute that information back to Wikipedia as its source. While that's easily done with Squidoo's Wikipedia module, I often pull pertinent facts from the article and present them in a text module with the attribution in a link at the bottom, like this. If the Wikipedia article is well written, sometimes I'll use the Wikipedia module or use a text module and quote a portion and then link back to the source with a "read the rest of the Wikipedia article" link.
But what if you're writing about a topic that isn't on Wikipedia yet? (If you are, good for you - you may have hit on a nice niche of your own.) In that case, find a related Wikipedia topic to include in your lens. Use either of the above methods to include the information in your lens, but make sure to attribute and link back to Wikipedia. Then, chances are that when someone else wants to learn about your subject and they search the name of the subject plus "wikipedia," they'll find your lens.
What do I mean by a related topic? In my Voca People lens, I used Wikipedia to explain the meaning of the term a cappella. Now, the word "Wikipedia" is associated with "Voca People" and my lens has become the authority site for that singing group. Try the search, or see how I did it here.
The accuracy of information published on Wikipedia is a subject for another place, but if you're comfortable that the facts presented about your topic are, indeed, factual, by all means use this popular location - and search term - to help get traffic to your lenses. If you try it, do leave a comment and let me know how it works for you.
The first and most obvious is to include information from Wikipedia about the subject of your lens, making sure you attribute that information back to Wikipedia as its source. While that's easily done with Squidoo's Wikipedia module, I often pull pertinent facts from the article and present them in a text module with the attribution in a link at the bottom, like this. If the Wikipedia article is well written, sometimes I'll use the Wikipedia module or use a text module and quote a portion and then link back to the source with a "read the rest of the Wikipedia article" link.
But what if you're writing about a topic that isn't on Wikipedia yet? (If you are, good for you - you may have hit on a nice niche of your own.) In that case, find a related Wikipedia topic to include in your lens. Use either of the above methods to include the information in your lens, but make sure to attribute and link back to Wikipedia. Then, chances are that when someone else wants to learn about your subject and they search the name of the subject plus "wikipedia," they'll find your lens.
What do I mean by a related topic? In my Voca People lens, I used Wikipedia to explain the meaning of the term a cappella. Now, the word "Wikipedia" is associated with "Voca People" and my lens has become the authority site for that singing group. Try the search, or see how I did it here.
The accuracy of information published on Wikipedia is a subject for another place, but if you're comfortable that the facts presented about your topic are, indeed, factual, by all means use this popular location - and search term - to help get traffic to your lenses. If you try it, do leave a comment and let me know how it works for you.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Join the SquidBoo October 2010 Challenge
Between October 4th and October 28th, publish five new lenses on Squidoo using the SquidBoo template and you could become King of SquidBoo!
Halloween is really, really hot this year, so you'd might as well take advantage of the fact to get more visitors to your lenses. Choose a Halloween topic - scary, creepy, or cute - proceed immediately to SquidBoo HQ and start a lens. You have over three weeks to complete five lenses, so take your time and make them great, awesome, noteworthy lenses. That'll pay off later when Squidoo HQ chooses a cauldron of their favorite qualifying lenses to be in the running for one of 13 special, limited edition "King of SquidBoo" trophies. (Not sure how many lenses a cauldron holds, so don't hold back a thing when it comes to quality.)
You'll find all the rules on Megan's SquidBoo October 2010 Challenge lens. Remember to make your lenses using the official SquidBoo HQ front door or they won't qualify.
Remember five new SquidBoo lenses published October 4 to October 28 will earn you an entry into the contest and (I almost forgot) 500 points and a special trophy. Oh, and a hug from Frankenstein. Will you be one of the first-ever SquidBoo Kings? Ready, set, boo! Get started here!
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