If you get discouraged with your progress on Squidoo (we all do sometimes, don't we?) read this advice which I offered to a new lensmaster today on the SquidU forum. (It did me good to read it after I wrote it. I hope it helps you, too.)
Set daily goals as well as long-term goals. Write down what you will do each day and when you finish one thing, draw a line through it. Seeing a list with completed tasks each evening is very encouraging.
Devote a portion of your day to Squidoo education, some to promotion and social networking, and some to updating old or making new lenses.
Pace yourself and focus, focus, focus and I think you'll find yourself feeling encouraged more than discouraged with your progress on Squidoo.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Rainbow Fonts - Just Say No!
Oh, my. I know it's fun to play with color codes and make our lenses look pretty, but I'd like to offer a piece of advice. Please don't use multiple colors of text on a lens. If there's a particular, really important piece of text that warrants highlighting, then it maybe, possibly, might be okay to make that text a different color. But in most cases, in fact in almost all cases, black text on the normal Squidoo lens background is perfectly sufficient and much easier to read - all the way down the page.
That's all I'm going to say about that.
What do you think? Am I right or just being a cranky baby boomer?
That's all I'm going to say about that.
What do you think? Am I right or just being a cranky baby boomer?
Monday, January 10, 2011
Squidoo Quick Tip: Celebrity Birthdays
If you have a Squidoo lens about a celebrity or other public figure, or even a historical character, include their age and date of birth on the lens. People often google, "How old is" so-and-so and if you have a lens about their so-and-so, your lens might just show on the search results.
Consider using a countdown module for the birthday, too, but keep a record on your calendar so you can update the counter each year on the appropriate day.
That's today's Squidoo quick tip.
P.S. Happy 7th birthday, Kaitlyn Maher!
Consider using a countdown module for the birthday, too, but keep a record on your calendar so you can update the counter each year on the appropriate day.
That's today's Squidoo quick tip.
P.S. Happy 7th birthday, Kaitlyn Maher!
Friday, January 7, 2011
A Lesson on Lensrank
One of the things you have to learn to understand Squidoo is the language. "Lensrank" (or lens rank) is a term that you'll hear a lot and it's important to understand what it means.
Simply put, lensrank is where your lens ranks compared to all the 1.8 million (and climbing) lenses on Squidoo. The lower the number, the better. In other words, a lensrank of 1 is the very best and the rank that everyone strives for but few achieve.
So, how is lensrank calculated? Good question! The answer is a closely guarded Squidoo secret, but we do know some of the factors that affect lensrank. Traffic, or the number of visits to a lens, is a big factor. Fresh content, or how recently the lens has been updated, is clearly a huge factor. Record the lensrank on one of your lenses then give it a quick update by replacing dead links with good ones, adding a poll or a picture, or even simply rewording a paragraph. Then check lensrank for that lens the next day and see how it has improved. You might be very surprised at the result.
Another important factor in lensrank is the number of clickouts a lens gets. Make sure that when a visitor to your lens is finished reading that they have someplace to go next. Yes, they can click on an ad or on one of the related lenses that Squidoo provides for them on the right sidebar, but wouldn't it be better if they went to, say, one of your own related lenses that you've featured in the body of the lens? Or, better yet, to an Amazon or eBay link that you've provided where they can buy something? The back button doesn't count as a clickout, so make it a practice to provide links for your readers to use to move forward as they read your lens.
If a visitor to your lens does click on one of those product links that you've provided and makes a purchase, that counts as a sale for your lens. Sales, too, are part of the lensrank calculation. So are "likes" or "thumbs up" ratings that the lens receives. When you visit a lens, be courteous and rate it with a thumbs up (assuming you like it). That helps the lensmaster who, in turn, may just visit your lens and help you.
Some of the factors in lensrank must be earned along your Squidoo journey. That includes purple stars (which used to be awarded to Giants only, but now anyone can earn a purple star for an outstanding lens), Squidangel blessings (Squidangels patrol Squidoo looking for great lenses to "bless" with a special boost), and boosts that all Giant Squids automatically receive for their lenses. To earn Giant Squid status, you must make 50 great lenses and then apply for the Giants program. Your lenses will be evaluated and, if they are deemed truly great, you will be awarded Giant Squid status and all of your lenses will benefit from it.
There are other factors involved in calculating lensrank, including the social activity on Squidoo that we talked about yesterday. Since part of your earning potential on Squidoo is based on the rank of your lenses, keep all of these things in mind when planning and writing your lenses. Make time to update lenses on a regular basis, and reevaluate your lenses periodically with improving lensrank in mind to see what you might add, delete, or change that could help move your pages on Squidoo up the lensrank ladder.
For more information on lensrank, check out this lens, and this one. To see the top 100 lenses on Squidoo by lensrank, look here.
How about you? What do you do to help improve your lensrank? Tips are always appreciated!
Simply put, lensrank is where your lens ranks compared to all the 1.8 million (and climbing) lenses on Squidoo. The lower the number, the better. In other words, a lensrank of 1 is the very best and the rank that everyone strives for but few achieve.
So, how is lensrank calculated? Good question! The answer is a closely guarded Squidoo secret, but we do know some of the factors that affect lensrank. Traffic, or the number of visits to a lens, is a big factor. Fresh content, or how recently the lens has been updated, is clearly a huge factor. Record the lensrank on one of your lenses then give it a quick update by replacing dead links with good ones, adding a poll or a picture, or even simply rewording a paragraph. Then check lensrank for that lens the next day and see how it has improved. You might be very surprised at the result.
Another important factor in lensrank is the number of clickouts a lens gets. Make sure that when a visitor to your lens is finished reading that they have someplace to go next. Yes, they can click on an ad or on one of the related lenses that Squidoo provides for them on the right sidebar, but wouldn't it be better if they went to, say, one of your own related lenses that you've featured in the body of the lens? Or, better yet, to an Amazon or eBay link that you've provided where they can buy something? The back button doesn't count as a clickout, so make it a practice to provide links for your readers to use to move forward as they read your lens.
If a visitor to your lens does click on one of those product links that you've provided and makes a purchase, that counts as a sale for your lens. Sales, too, are part of the lensrank calculation. So are "likes" or "thumbs up" ratings that the lens receives. When you visit a lens, be courteous and rate it with a thumbs up (assuming you like it). That helps the lensmaster who, in turn, may just visit your lens and help you.
Some of the factors in lensrank must be earned along your Squidoo journey. That includes purple stars (which used to be awarded to Giants only, but now anyone can earn a purple star for an outstanding lens), Squidangel blessings (Squidangels patrol Squidoo looking for great lenses to "bless" with a special boost), and boosts that all Giant Squids automatically receive for their lenses. To earn Giant Squid status, you must make 50 great lenses and then apply for the Giants program. Your lenses will be evaluated and, if they are deemed truly great, you will be awarded Giant Squid status and all of your lenses will benefit from it.
There are other factors involved in calculating lensrank, including the social activity on Squidoo that we talked about yesterday. Since part of your earning potential on Squidoo is based on the rank of your lenses, keep all of these things in mind when planning and writing your lenses. Make time to update lenses on a regular basis, and reevaluate your lenses periodically with improving lensrank in mind to see what you might add, delete, or change that could help move your pages on Squidoo up the lensrank ladder.
For more information on lensrank, check out this lens, and this one. To see the top 100 lenses on Squidoo by lensrank, look here.
How about you? What do you do to help improve your lensrank? Tips are always appreciated!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Getting Social on Squidoo and What It Can Do For You
There are a lot of reasons to be social on Squidoo. By being social, I mean doing such things as visiting other people's lenses, joining fan clubs, leaving comments on lenses and on lensmaster pages, and participating on the SquidU forum. If you aren't doing those things, here's why you should.
Participation on Squidoo unlocks privileges. Leaving comments or voting in polls on lenses will help you earn points. The more points you earn, the higher your level will climb and the more privileges you will unlock. For instance, when you first open an account on Squidoo you do not have access to certain templates and even certain modules within Squidoo. As you earn points from making lenses, leaving comments,"liking" lenses, participating in polls on other people's lenses, etc., those templates, modules, and a number of other privileges become available.
Participation on the SquidU forum leads to more traffic for your lenses, which leads to higher lensrank and more visibility for your lenses. As you become active in conversations on the forum and people get to know you, they're going to want to check out your lenses. The more noticeable your presence, the more likely it becomes that people will find your lenses, join your fan club, leave comments, participate in your polls and leave comments in your guestbooks, and rate your lenses. That extra traffic and subsequent interaction with your lenses results in better lensrank.
As your lensrank improves as a result of more traffic from people ON Squidoo, search engines begin to notice the attention to your lenses. This ultimately results in greater respect for your lenses by the search engines, leading to higher visibility of your lenses in search results and, thus, more traffic from people OFF Squidoo. Getting traffic from the search engines, of course, is your ultimate goal.
Oh, and did I mention that social interaction is tracked on Squidoo and is part of lensrank calculation? That's a fact.
Can you see how spending even 10 minutes a day interacting with other lensmasters and their lenses is a good investment of your time? Your lenses benefit in so many ways. Besides, you'll meet some of the smartest and friendliest people in the world on Squidoo. It's true!
How about you. Are you social on Squidoo?
Participation on Squidoo unlocks privileges. Leaving comments or voting in polls on lenses will help you earn points. The more points you earn, the higher your level will climb and the more privileges you will unlock. For instance, when you first open an account on Squidoo you do not have access to certain templates and even certain modules within Squidoo. As you earn points from making lenses, leaving comments,"liking" lenses, participating in polls on other people's lenses, etc., those templates, modules, and a number of other privileges become available.
Participation on the SquidU forum leads to more traffic for your lenses, which leads to higher lensrank and more visibility for your lenses. As you become active in conversations on the forum and people get to know you, they're going to want to check out your lenses. The more noticeable your presence, the more likely it becomes that people will find your lenses, join your fan club, leave comments, participate in your polls and leave comments in your guestbooks, and rate your lenses. That extra traffic and subsequent interaction with your lenses results in better lensrank.
As your lensrank improves as a result of more traffic from people ON Squidoo, search engines begin to notice the attention to your lenses. This ultimately results in greater respect for your lenses by the search engines, leading to higher visibility of your lenses in search results and, thus, more traffic from people OFF Squidoo. Getting traffic from the search engines, of course, is your ultimate goal.
Oh, and did I mention that social interaction is tracked on Squidoo and is part of lensrank calculation? That's a fact.
Can you see how spending even 10 minutes a day interacting with other lensmasters and their lenses is a good investment of your time? Your lenses benefit in so many ways. Besides, you'll meet some of the smartest and friendliest people in the world on Squidoo. It's true!
How about you. Are you social on Squidoo?
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Traffic on Squidoo: It's All About UUU
Probably the most-asked question on Squidoo is, "How can I get people to look at my lenses?"
There's a very short e-book with the answer. It's known as the UUU book, "Unique, Useful, and Updated: Three Secrets to Web Traffic." Its author is none other than bestselling author and famous internet marketing expert Seth Godin, who happens to be the inventor of Squidoo.
Before you do another thing on Squidoo (or your first thing on Squidoo if you're new) I suggest that you download and read the UUU book. It only has 13 pages and some of them have pictures, so it won't take long to read. Read it through once, then go back and read it again and click on its links to see the examples that Seth uses to demonstrate his points.
Memorize UUU. Not the book, the letters and what they mean. (Or the book if you really want to.) Write it down and tape it to your wall or computer screen so that when you make a lens - no, before you make a lens - you'll see it and apply Seth's advice.
Trust me on this one. It'll be worth your time.
Click here for the book.
There's a very short e-book with the answer. It's known as the UUU book, "Unique, Useful, and Updated: Three Secrets to Web Traffic." Its author is none other than bestselling author and famous internet marketing expert Seth Godin, who happens to be the inventor of Squidoo.
Before you do another thing on Squidoo (or your first thing on Squidoo if you're new) I suggest that you download and read the UUU book. It only has 13 pages and some of them have pictures, so it won't take long to read. Read it through once, then go back and read it again and click on its links to see the examples that Seth uses to demonstrate his points.
Memorize UUU. Not the book, the letters and what they mean. (Or the book if you really want to.) Write it down and tape it to your wall or computer screen so that when you make a lens - no, before you make a lens - you'll see it and apply Seth's advice.
Trust me on this one. It'll be worth your time.
Click here for the book.
Squidoo Policy Changes and How They Might Affect You
There are a couple of recent Squidoo policy changes that pertain to everyone but are especially important for those of us with existing lenses.
First, the Intro module MUST contain at least 200 characters, so be sure your intro text is long enough! The intro must also contain a picture. IF YOU EDIT AN OLD LENS and the intro is too short when you hit "publish," the lens will revert to unpublished. You'll get a message that your intro module is too short and you'll have to fix it. However, when you fix it and publish again, lensrank will start all over, which means your first lensrank will likely be in the millions. Since Squidoo ad pay is based on average lensrank for the month, even if the lens previously ranked in the top payout tier (from 1 to 2000), your average likely will be shot and you probably won't get that top tier payout. So be careful when you edit your lenses and check the length of that intro module!
The second policy change is that lenses may contain no more than 10 Amazon modules and five eBay modules. If you have existing lenses with more, don't worry because those old lenses are grandfathered into this policy; however, when you edit one of those lenses you won't be able to add any more of those modules, so just keep that in mind. For new lenses, though, no one is exempt from this policy so plan accordingly.
To keep updated on important changes within Squidoo and how they might affect you, subscribe to the SquidBlog and visit the SquidU forum regularly.
First, the Intro module MUST contain at least 200 characters, so be sure your intro text is long enough! The intro must also contain a picture. IF YOU EDIT AN OLD LENS and the intro is too short when you hit "publish," the lens will revert to unpublished. You'll get a message that your intro module is too short and you'll have to fix it. However, when you fix it and publish again, lensrank will start all over, which means your first lensrank will likely be in the millions. Since Squidoo ad pay is based on average lensrank for the month, even if the lens previously ranked in the top payout tier (from 1 to 2000), your average likely will be shot and you probably won't get that top tier payout. So be careful when you edit your lenses and check the length of that intro module!
The second policy change is that lenses may contain no more than 10 Amazon modules and five eBay modules. If you have existing lenses with more, don't worry because those old lenses are grandfathered into this policy; however, when you edit one of those lenses you won't be able to add any more of those modules, so just keep that in mind. For new lenses, though, no one is exempt from this policy so plan accordingly.
To keep updated on important changes within Squidoo and how they might affect you, subscribe to the SquidBlog and visit the SquidU forum regularly.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Squidoo Lens Reorganization Project for the New Year
If you've been thinking that you need to get more organized in the new year, you're in luck when it comes to organizing your Squidoo lenses.
This SquidBlog post is a heads up on the new, three-level categorizing system coming soon to a Squidoo near you. I think everyone will be thrilled to know that we will soon be able to categorize, sub-categorize, and sub-subcategorize each of our lenses. (Well, not everyone. Sometimes change doesn't come easily to Squidoo lensmasters, but I digress.) Clearly, having a new, more specific way to assign topics to our lenses should be a good change.
Once the system is live, lenses will be re-ranked within the new topic areas. Seems to me this should allow more lenses to rank higher on more top 100 lists, but we shall see. Before the new topic ranking is published, Squidoo will allow a week or two for lensmasters to go through our lenses and find a proper topical home for each one using a bulk topic recategorizer tool.
I love the timing of this release in that it coincides with the natural inclination many of us seem to have this time of year to tidy up and organize our belongings, including our pages on Squidoo. Begin thinking of how you'd like to group your lenses and watch for further announcements of the new topics. This is one change I'm really looking forward to.
How about you? Does re-categorization of your lenses sound like a positive move? I'd love to read your thoughts in a comment below.
This SquidBlog post is a heads up on the new, three-level categorizing system coming soon to a Squidoo near you. I think everyone will be thrilled to know that we will soon be able to categorize, sub-categorize, and sub-subcategorize each of our lenses. (Well, not everyone. Sometimes change doesn't come easily to Squidoo lensmasters, but I digress.) Clearly, having a new, more specific way to assign topics to our lenses should be a good change.
Once the system is live, lenses will be re-ranked within the new topic areas. Seems to me this should allow more lenses to rank higher on more top 100 lists, but we shall see. Before the new topic ranking is published, Squidoo will allow a week or two for lensmasters to go through our lenses and find a proper topical home for each one using a bulk topic recategorizer tool.
I love the timing of this release in that it coincides with the natural inclination many of us seem to have this time of year to tidy up and organize our belongings, including our pages on Squidoo. Begin thinking of how you'd like to group your lenses and watch for further announcements of the new topics. This is one change I'm really looking forward to.
How about you? Does re-categorization of your lenses sound like a positive move? I'd love to read your thoughts in a comment below.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas 2010
I talked a little about goals in a previous post and that subject has continued in the front of my mind. I'm developing a plan to help mentor new lensmasters in the coming year and I'll talk more about that here in a few days. If you're new on Squidoo or know someone who is, someone who might appreciate a little extra help getting started, be sure and check back soon to see how you or they can get involved. Better yet, subscribe to our updates using one of the links to the right.
In the meantime, have another slice of pumpkin pie then snuggle in front of the fireplace with your sweetie and enjoy one more holiday movie. Make the moment last a little bit longer before getting back to business.
I hope Santa brought you everything you asked for! See you soon back on Squidoo.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Two Thousand Squidoo Goals for 2011
Someone earned $2000 this payout on Squidoo. Now, that's a noteworthy accomplishment. In her topic of the day on the SquidU forum, Kimberly asked how earning $2000 a month would change your life, and she asked what you're going to do to make it happen. That got me to thinking about goals for 2011.
I've already decided that I need to do more to give back to the Squidoo community. There's a rule of life, called the law of reciprocity, that the more you (unselfishly) give, the more you get in return. In terms of income, it's tempting for me to make lots of lenses to promote affiliate products, but there's really very little sharing in that. Logically, it seems that the more I use my own affiliate links, the more money I should make. And it's true that I've made a lot more this year than last with personal affiliate earnings. But I have to wonder what I'm missing as I more frequently bypass the modules that are designed for sharing revenue with Squidoo.
I've always told new lensmasters that Squidoo provides their fabulous platform to us for free and that it's my opinion that we should honor that by donating a portion of our lenses' earnings to charity, through Squidoo. I also believe that we should use at least an occasional revenue sharing module on each lens even when we use our own associate links (Amazon being the prime example). I was really happy when the right-margin module option was added to our lenses; that's such a quick and easy way to spotlight an Amazon item or two (or three) and, frankly, it's an easy way to honor the revenue sharing relationship. While I'm doing all these things, though, I still feel that there's something I'm missing.
Could I give more? Could you? We each have to answer that question for ourselves, but I know I'm going to be thinking hard about it that law of reciprocity and acting accordingly. Whether I'll get to the $2000 mark or not, time will tell. But I know I'm going to feel better about myself for trying.
How about you? Any thoughts about your 2011 goals that you'd like to share?
P.S. The law of reciprocity applies to more than money. Giving of your time and talents pays off in great rewards, too. Just something else to think about.
I've already decided that I need to do more to give back to the Squidoo community. There's a rule of life, called the law of reciprocity, that the more you (unselfishly) give, the more you get in return. In terms of income, it's tempting for me to make lots of lenses to promote affiliate products, but there's really very little sharing in that. Logically, it seems that the more I use my own affiliate links, the more money I should make. And it's true that I've made a lot more this year than last with personal affiliate earnings. But I have to wonder what I'm missing as I more frequently bypass the modules that are designed for sharing revenue with Squidoo.
I've always told new lensmasters that Squidoo provides their fabulous platform to us for free and that it's my opinion that we should honor that by donating a portion of our lenses' earnings to charity, through Squidoo. I also believe that we should use at least an occasional revenue sharing module on each lens even when we use our own associate links (Amazon being the prime example). I was really happy when the right-margin module option was added to our lenses; that's such a quick and easy way to spotlight an Amazon item or two (or three) and, frankly, it's an easy way to honor the revenue sharing relationship. While I'm doing all these things, though, I still feel that there's something I'm missing.
Could I give more? Could you? We each have to answer that question for ourselves, but I know I'm going to be thinking hard about it that law of reciprocity and acting accordingly. Whether I'll get to the $2000 mark or not, time will tell. But I know I'm going to feel better about myself for trying.
How about you? Any thoughts about your 2011 goals that you'd like to share?
P.S. The law of reciprocity applies to more than money. Giving of your time and talents pays off in great rewards, too. Just something else to think about.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Free Shipping on Custom Ornaments Today
Good news, but you have to act fast. Through November 11, 2010, at midnight Pacific time, order an ornament from Zazzle and get free shipping! Use the code ORNAMENTSHIP at checkout.
I made this simple ornament which is customizable with your lensmaster name and the name of the recipient on the back. Or, of course, you can design your own. Click here to get started.
Hurry!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
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.
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.
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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