5 Steps to Increase Holiday & Seasonal Traffic on Squidoo

Do holidays make a difference in your Squidoo traffic?  They certainly do with mine.  Easter is tomorrow and traffic stats this week show a steep incline, particularly on my seasonally-relevant lenses.

Without a doubt, Pinterest is the leader in referral traffic sources for my lenses and this week my Pinterest numbers have soared. I'm very grateful to all who pin and re-pin, and especially grateful to those who click through. 

Now the question is, how do I keep the traffic coming once Easter is history?  Here are 5 steps that I plan to take to increase traffic to my holiday and seasonal lenses.

1. Keep track of upcoming popular holidays and seasonal celebrations.  Mother's Day is next and summer is coming up fast.
2. Update existing topical lenses by updating keywords and phrases.
3. Make new lenses, taking a useful, unique, or even trendy approach to seasonal topics. 
4. Choose and use outstanding photos to catch the attention of prolific Pinterest users.
5. Make a promotional plan that includes my favorite social media sites. I don't want to depend on having all my eggs in the Pinterest basket. Facebook and Google+ are proving to be good traffic sources, too.

Are you seeing an upswing in your seasonal lenses?  Have any tips to share on how you attract traffic? I would love to read your success stories.

Why Connections are Better Than Promotions

These days, using social media properly is more important than ever when it comes to promoting our lenses, articles, or blog posts. 

Something I have to continuously remind myself is that sharing on social media isn't about spreading links around, it's really all about connecting with other human beings.

Speaking for myself but surely others can relate to this, I'm often always in a rush, trying to get as much done as quickly as possible. So it's easy for me to just drop a link on Twitter or do a quick pin on Pinterest.  What's important, though, is spending an extra few seconds (and really that's all the time it takes) to compose a quick comment to include on someone else's post or lens, or replying to a tweet that catches my eye with as little as two words: "Loved that!"  Do you have followers who do that on your posts?  I do, and I just love them for taking the time.

Repinning, re-tweeting, and leaving personal responses on social media sites are the things that set us apart from link-droppers and spammers.  "Thanks for the pin/tweet/comment" are words that we all love to read, and words many of us need to use more often.

Connections build reputations and good reputations build businesses. So don't just promote. Connect!

P.S.  I love the graphic, don't you? 

Learn Internet Marketing in Person

So you have an online business. Now what? If you found out the hard way that the "build it and they will come" philosophy doesn't necessarily work online - even on Squidoo - then you might want to invest some time learning internet marketing principles that you can apply to your business. Internet marketing training is probably exactly what you need, and I know someone who can help - in person.

My friend Phaedra Stockstill has scheduled an internet marketing training seminar November 22, 2010, live and in person in Patterson, Louisiana. Phaedra has worked online for over 10 years in e-commerce. From merchant to consultant to social media representative, Phaedra knows what she's doing and she's ready to share her knowledge and experience with you, knowledge to empower you with tools and information to help your business grow.

Learn how to market your business online using current relationship marketing techniques, social media, branding, building trust with your customers and much more.  Though the class isn't designed for Squidoo lensmasters specifically, the marketing principles are still ones you can apply to promote your Squidoo business.   

You'll enjoy Phaedra's dynamic personality, and the small class size will allow for plenty of personal attention.  Sign up today for one of the just ten seats in this seminar for relevant information that you can apply to your business immediately, and watch your business grow in 2011.

Social Squidoo: More than Just a Fan Club

Lensmaster ideadesigns became my 900th fan on Squidoo the other day and left a comment to let me know.  I was honored and truly appreciated the kind comment. 

Do you join fan clubs on Squidoo?  I hope you do.  And I hope you leave comments on lots of lenses, too.  Sincere comments.  Did you know that now you can leave comments on profile pages?  I love that new feature, great for a general comment to the lensmaster as opposed to a lens-specific comment.  Comments are wonderful tools for building social relationships on Squidoo.

Have you looked at your profile page lately?  If you haven't, take a look at the new design.  It includes your bio and lens list on the left with a comment area below and a "trophy cabinet" on the upper right followed by a few profile stats  - including the number of lenses you've rated and how many you've favorited. Do you look at those numbers on other people's profiles?  I do.  It's a great way to gauge how active that lensmaster is within the Squidoo community.

The importance of the social element of Squidoo is something that some lensmasters overlook.  In fact, the profile page provides a great opportunity to make a good impression, so its contents (specifically the bio) should be well thought out and written in a way that complements and promotes your online brand and reputation. Try to give your readers a glimpse of the real you, the person behind the lenses.  Don't lose out on the opportunity to start a great relationship with each visitor who takes the time to read your profile page.

Relationships are important in social networking, so open up to others, leave a few comments and join a few new fan clubs every day on Squidoo.  The investment in time could be a great investment in the future of your online business, even well beyond Squidoo.