Using Squidoo to Make Money Online
Oh yes, as if MySpace, blogging, Craigslist, coregistration, MyBlogLog and Technorati were not enough, now there’s a new player on the block in the Web 2.0 world.
It’s an orange-colored one-eyed alien squid affectionately know as Squidoo. I’m sure you may have heard some hype about it, but what is Squidoo, really?
Squidoo launched in December 2005, and the man behind the idea is Seth Godin, a well-know author of several marketing and business books, and the authoritative figure in marketing concepts and ideas for small businesses.
Since this IS a blog about making money online, I’m going to focus on how to use Squidoo as an effective marketing tool, being quite aware of the backlash I may receive from certain “pure” readers. In this case however, I don’t feel so bad as the owners of Squidoo themselves acknowledge that Squidoo will be used by marketers to make money online, and they clearly encourage that act.
The idea is simple really - allow individuals to create a lens which is basically a one / two page collection of relevant content, RSS feeds, articles and products related to a certain keyword / market. The lens master is the owner of these lenses, and he can create as many as he wants, on as many different topics as he wants.
The lens master is then viewed as the authoritative figure on that topic, or at the very least an enthusiast that has taken the tie to research the topic and present a “list” of information sites relevant to that particular market.
On each lens, the lens master can monetize his page by:
- Adding Google Adsense (insert your ID) and monetizing from clicks
- Linking to his other blogs / sites and monetizing on the off-site traffic received
- Linking directly to his own books or products
- Linking to an individual affiliate program and monetizing from affiliate commissions
- Adding additional Ebay and Amazon modules to his lens, and monetizing from the affiliate commissions
So what’s the big deal, really?
Why would you want to use Squidoo instead of building your own web page?
The answer is simple, as I discovered in my Myspace marketing interview and a couple of other interviews I’ve done about using popular sites to form a symbiotic (or parasitic) relationship with an existing business.
The answer: SEO or Search Engine Optimization
Sites like Squidoo.com already have massive amount of traffic and is viewed as an authority site. A friend of mine, Sean Wu, has an entire course devoted to this concept of leeching off authority sites in his Tag and Ping course.
But while that course deals with sites like Del.icio.us and social bookmarking, Squidoo is quite different in a sense that you don’t need your own website or blog to start using it.
The idea behind it is that since these sites already rank high on search engines, it will be easier to create a specific page on a specific keyword, and rank high in Google for that particular keyword with little or no effort. Every page you create will somehow get linked to from the main pages of Squidoo.com, and through those links the search engine spiders will eventually find your Squidoo lens (page), index it, and rank it.
A lot of people claim that they can get first page rankings in Google for the keywords they use, and make money from the onslaught of traffic they get. As easy as it seem, experience has thought us (me at least) that it’s never really that simple. Can I really hope to create a lens with the keywords of “make money online” and instantly topple all these people?
Probably not, but as I’m writing this, I did find one Squidoo lens listed on the first page, at the 9th spot.
I don’t know about you, but I’d consider myself very blessed to have this kind of result, especially considering that my 2-page collection of related articles can compete with the big dogs like JohnChow.com or ProBlogger.net, each running established blogs with thousands of pages worth of content.
So, clearly, there’s something to this Squidoo phenomenon. Although some critics say that Squidoo is a sad Web-2.0 wannabe founded by a guy that is better at marketing himself than at creating solid business models, I say if there’s an opportunity I’ll take it.
So watch out a series of articles on how you can use Squidoo to get high search engine rankings, create traffic, and make money online. I’ll be throwing in some videos as well, if possible.
If you want to get a crash course on making money online with Squidoo, I strongly recommend you get Squidoo Profits by JP Schoeffel
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Gobala Krisnan is a direct-response marketer turned blogger who makes over $10,000 a month from his blog empire. If you want to make money online from blogs, he is the only person who can reveal the secret of merging time-tested direct marketing strategies with web 2.0 traffic. Read more about him >>
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Squidoo is definitely awesome!!
hi i am Hina from Pakistan and looking for an online job like data entry all other sites are demanding for money and are scam plz help me out
Hina … getafreelancer.com is your place.Good luck
You could try Craigslist or eLance too.
Can you use Squidoo with other search engines besides Google i.e. MSN, Yahoo etc.?
hi Hina,
you can get freelance job online, try this gofreelance.com
thanks
“Can you use Squidoo with other search engines besides Google i.e. MSN, Yahoo etc.?”
How do you mean?
Google, MSN and Yahoo, et.al., are independent entities that will spider your content on Squidoo. I currently have no evidence of Squidoo on MSN or Yahoo but I’ve been targeting Google’s 75% of the search market.
I am going to seriously start using squidoo to get traffic to my websites, and rank for keywords. There are many competitive keywords squidoo lenses rank for in Google. Now is the time to take advantage of it.
i am new for it.
[...] about a given subject in one easy to read page. You can also add Google Adsense to your Squidoo “lens” and make a little extra money. It’s simply one additional monetization method you can use to grow your home [...]
Squidoo is indeed exceptionally easy to use and make money with.
It’s easy for newbies to effortlessly have several modules monetizing content that would otherwise go unmonetized.
Lots of people publish content just for the pure enjoyment of sharing their knowledge. Squidoo makes it possible to earn money while doing so, even if you didn’t start out trying to make money online.
It’s awesome.
Wow- I was just surfing, and came upon Squidoo. What a fascinating concept. I hope to become part of the phenomenon soon. My particular interest is on the subject of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and how it affects the families of combat veterans.
I know of where I speak, for I am a former wife of a Vietnam vet (two tours-Marine Corps). While we’ve learned a lot, there is still much we can, and must learn, from each other. Awesome…
i have done alot even did try in freelancer but it does not give me very good result i want something whick really works without taking any innvest m worn out reading scams dealy on sites.i thought adsense is a good way of earning i placed it but it does not pay mush and gives .10 cent and less per day which is equal to none i came to know that internet is the bad place to trust in someone.although i have still hope as life will go on and i have to trust anyways if somebody really know abt a place and site which does pay without anything and give a job like an employee then let me know on
sana.khan.2@hotmail.com
http://www.worldoffashion.wordpress.com
tc