RSS Feeds to Earn Extra Money

Are you using your RSS feeds to earn extra money on Squidoo?   I'll put my hand up to say no, I hadn't thought about it, but a recent comment on Squidu made me bang my head on the desk and think - why aren't I doing this!

Basically if you're an Amazon affiliate you can use their affiliate feeds in the Squidoo RSS modules - I think this would be ideal for the sidebar which means I have a lot of work to do next week.

There appears to be a couple of ways of getting this feed and the easiest way (in my opinion anyways) is to get some tag-based feeds which is done like this -

www.amazon.com/rss/tag/books/new

or 

www.amazon.com/rss/tag/books/popular

Now to translate this feed you need to understand the different parts of the url which are these -

tag - this is your affiliate code which should end in 20

books - this is the tag you want to use - it could be blu-ray, shoes, anything that is relevant to your lens.

the part in green - this relates to how you want to sort the results ie new is as it suggests products tagged with (in my example) books for the very first time.   Popular is the most popular products with that tag.

Another way of sorting out an RSS feed is by using the bestseller feeds and this looks pretty easy as well, but instead of typing it all in here I'm going to give you a link to Squidoography as they have got their url bar captures to show you exactly where to find the numbers you'll need.

This is definitely going on my to do list for next week as I think (especially in the lead up to the holiday season) this could be an absolute windfall in sales.   

If you're already doing this let me know how you've found it and if not I hope you'll join me to try and maximize our Squidoo returns.

Making Sales With Amazon Part Two

In my last post I talked about finding your voice in order to make sales with Amazon, but another important part of converting your visitors into buyers is by knowing your audience.   Now I don't know about you but I have a wide variety of different interests and my friends range in ages from 20 years younger than me to about 20 years older than me.   Why am I telling you this?   Well I have totally different conversations with my different groups of friends and acquaintances and this is the same with my lenses.

I always remember a fellow lensmaster called kab commenting on Squidu about writing on different things versus having niche a/c's and she said that is you looked at all of the different things that she wrote about you'd think she was like a monkey on crack.    That vision just cracked me up, but the same could be said of my lenses.   How do you sell Agatha Christie books alongside Katy Perry Nail Polish?   Obviously you present them differently.

If you've read a number of my lenses you may have noticed that both my layouts and language changes with the different types of subjects the same as the way you talk to different groups of people change - you speak to your child differently to how you'd speak to your best friend and you speak to your child's teacher in a different way again.

Identifying your audience and then knowing how to talk to them will definitely help your sales.

I  think that there are a couple of different types of buyers, those that want lots of quality information and then you just have to hope that you swing them over while they're in the buying process and not 'find them' while they're still in the research phase.

Another type of buyer are the ones that know they want say a Big Bang Theory t-shirt, but they're not sure which one - these buyers actually just want to see what's available and don't need a lot of information on the product, they'll click on what they like and buy from there.

The main thing, which is worth repeating again, is to know your audience and know which type of buyer you're writing for and then (hopefully) you'll start to make regular sales.

New Tools For Me - Amplify & More Blogs!

Well I'm back in Australia and I've finished the A-Z Blogging Challenge on two of my other blogs so it's back to trying to get on track with earning money.   How are you all going with your targets for your income?

I have to say that my targets are not co-operating as they should, not because of Squidoo as much as my other online income.   My Google income was really building via my Hubpages, but it has taken something of a nose dive since the Panda Update.

Squidoo is still going well, although I haven't got as far with updating as I probably should have by now I really don't know where this year has got to - we're in May already!   It's time to revise what I need to do and get more organized again as I've been flitting from one thing to another this week and not really making the most of my time.

I did discover a lens by Word Custard called How To Use Amplify - I have ended up joining Amplify and I think it's a great tool to use, because it's so easy.    I'm not sure if I would've found it so easy had it not been for the great step by step instructions in the lens though.   This is great to promote any site you're using and I've been using it on Squidoo, Hubpages, Zazzle and even some blog posts.   Check out the lens first and then join up.

I've also finally looked at Posterous which I joined when Correen (clouda9) first mentioned it in July 2010.   There are so many sites that it really is impossible to keep track of everything :(   I have heard great things about this site, however, across a number of different sites so I decided to start using it - Lou16's Posterous - I'm basically just linking new things to it across all of my different endeavors as a way to build backlinks.   It's not very exciting, but it does provide you an insight into what I'm up to (if you're interested) as I do like to keep this site to Squidoo and not talk (too much) about other places where I am earning money.

If you Zazzle as well as Squidoo you may be interested in another site of mine - I've started up a Zazzle blog which also includes links to some of my Zazzle lenses.   Again this is still new so I'm not sure how it will evolve, but if you'd like to check it out it's Lou165 on Zazzle.

So there you have it, not alot of Squidoo tips today, but I did want to touch base with everyone and let you know what I've been doing

Blogging & Squidooing

Well it's the last days of April which means that it's the last days of the A-Z Blogging Challenge that I have been undertaking on two of my other blogs - All Eighties, All the Time & Unique and Funky Gifts.   I must say that the challenge has been fun and challenging (as a challenge is supposed to be by definition).   It has taught me something however - I can do it!

I have managed to post a minimum of 12 blog posts per week for a month.   In that month I've spent 2 weeks overseas with restricted access to a very slow internet connection, had to survive 9 days of school holidays and a 5 day long weekend with the whole family at home wanting my time.   If I can do that I know I can at least make 10 blog posts a week, every week :D

Why is blogging so important?   One word - backlinks!

Now there are a couple of different ways to blog and it's easy to get confused by them.   Many people blog for traffic hoping that people will click on adsense or purchase products listed, other people just blog for backlinks.   For Squidoo purposes you don't have to garner 100s of followers and thousands of hits every day because what you're after is backlinks - of course if you can achieve all of these things then that's even better.

A lot of people get discouraged when blogging because they don't get feedback and wonder if it's worth it.   One of my blogs has never received a comment, but it's given me a number of backlinks, while another blog has made sales, I think both of these blogs are successes because I established them for different reasons.

Niche blogs or general blogs is a question that a lot of people have and if you only have time to write one blog and you cover a number of different subjects on Squidoo as well as other sites you may belong to then stick to a general blog.   For each blog post focus on one thing and make sure that you write the post with seo in mind and then add the link to your lens/article/zazzle product etc.   This will ensure that you get a good backlink.

If you're after a blog that sales then you definitely need to go niche as you would with lenses, but to get backlinks for your Squidoo lenses (and whatever else you do online) then general is absolutely fine.

Succeeding With Props

Large companies have long known the importance of 'props' to help their employees meet targets/company expectations and the biggest prop that seems to be used is Motivational Posters.   If you've worked in a bigger company then you're bound to have had posters on the wall encouraging you to reach for your goals.

My first awareness of motivational posters in the workplace came when I worked at what was at that stage a family business.   There were 3 employees at that time (the company did get bigger and the spin off company can be seen nationally) and the first motivational poster appeared complete with it's own catch-phrase.   The poster was one that said TEAM and I'm sure you all know what the acronym for that (and our work's new catch-phrase) is - Together Everyone Achieves More.

Years later and nearly every where I've worked has had some form of motivational poster up to 'encourage' us all to achieve.   Now if big multi-national companies, such as the bank I worked for a few years ago, are using posters to motivate employees then I'm sure they've seen research that backs the theory up.    Why do I mention this - you can use it to achieve success with Squidoo.

Let's face it when you're trying to get an income from home you can easily get side tracked, despondent and very de-motivated.   If you want to succeed then you need to stay on track.   Why not steal ideas from big corporations and apply them to your home.   Pop a motivational poster up near the computer with a power word that works for you whether it's Determination, Believe, Courage - you'll know which one will help you the most.

Now you may not need a motivational poster, it depends on what you're trying to achieve from Squidoo.   Years ago when I was first married I had a little picture of a house (just a generic house that was on a piece of junk mail) that I had cut out and stuck on the fridge.   My dream was to have my own house, I wanted to be reminded of that regularly so I popped it onto the fridge as it was one of the first places I looked when I got up.   When the opportunity came to job share a second job with my hubby (between our different working hours we could manage it, with our other commitments we couldn't have done it as individuals) I took it because I was still thinking of that house.    We saved the deposit by working 7 days and on days when I felt tired I would look at that picture and I knew that it was worth it.   Nine months later we're in our new home and it was worth it.

If your dream is to stay home so that you can be a stay at home parent then pop up a photo of your children. If you want to travel and your Squidoo earnings is needed to pay for airfares - go to the travel agent and get a picture of where you want to visit next and pop it up near the computer.

Incentives or props will help you to do the 'boring bits' of Squidooing so that you can earn money.

The most under-rated 'prop' is definitely a to do list.   On days when I have a to do list I always achieve a lot more than on days when I don't.   Writing down what you want to achieve the night before or first thing in the morning is a great idea (I find it helps me more if I write mine the night before, but whatever works best for you).   Then you need to stick to your list, now this is another place where I will (some days) get sidetracked so in order to stop that from happening write things like visiting a forum you like or checking emails, having a coffee etc on your list as rewards for completing certain items on your list.

What prop will you be using to help you succeed?

Interactive Lenses

As long time readers will know I don't believe that chasing lensrank is the way to go if you want to make more money on Squidoo because sales don't know your lensrank.   However, as I mentioned at the start of the year I want to earn $30,000 online this year and with the tier payments increasing I have looked at how I can increase the number of lenses in tier 1.

Last year I had 5 lenses in the top tier all year and for a couple of months it went up to 6 when a couple of my seasonal lenses rose to the occasion (at two different times).   This year I have attempted to do very quick updates to each lens in my top two tiers every week ...........I have done this well for the most part, but there was a break when I was away.   This has kept my tier 2 lenses safe and increasing, but my tier one lenses would increase for a day or two and then drop just outside(!)

There was one of my lenses that has flirted with tier one on occasion, but seemed to settle into tier two and I wanted to change that - updating wouldn't work so what would?   The lens in question is How To Earn Money On Squidoo - it's a help lens that doesn't make any sales so in order to make me money I really wanted to get it into the top tier and keep it there.   I finally seem to have cracked it and it has stayed in the top tier for a few weeks now and will hopefully hold steady.

I was never going to get thousands of visits a week on a lens that was solely for the Squidoo community so I had to make the visits count and to do that I decided to add some interactivity on the lens - it worked.

I've added 3 polls to the lens - polls are easy for people to click on and 3 polls for the length of the lens didn't seem obsessive.   People are taking these polls and I think that's what is responsible for the extra push needed to get it into tier one and keep it there.

Do you have something to encourage people to interact on your lenses?   Polls, quizzes, even guestbook modules are great ideas.   On my Julia Child's Cookbooks lens - I have used several guestbooks to encourage people to leave their own reviews on the page.   All three of these ideas are great ones to add to your lenses.

Take a look and see if you can add something to keep your reader on your page for a little longer.......you may find that your lensrank will improve as well :D

The other thing to think about is that the 'stickability' of a website (how long someone stays on your site) is said by many experts to increase your chances of making sales so even if your lensrank doesn't increase your sales might.   I have to say that my Julia Child's lens has made a lot of sales so that seems to back up what the 'experts' have stated.

The A - Z of Squidooing

The alphabet has been on my mind for the last couple of days, in fact it's been ever since I heard of an A-Z Blogging Challenge.   I've signed up two of my other blogs to it - Unique and Funky Gifts & All Eighties, All The Time.   It looks like  a lot of fun, but I couldn't think how I would keep this lens about Squidoo tips and still manage to write 26 blog posts - one for each letter of the alphabet.

I have, however, taken a break from updating lenses to produce Lou16's A-Z on Squidoo in an attempt to get my mind in shape!   On that note I thought I would devote this blog post to the A-Z of Squidooing (let's see if we can make it through the alphabet shall we?)

A is for Anecdote - adding your own anecdotes, experiences and stories to your lenses are a great way to make them stand out from the crowd.

B is for Blogging and Backlinks - we all know how important backlinks to our lenses are and one of the easiest ways to get a backlink is to blog about them and how did you like the combination of 2 bs for the price of one?

C is for Commitment - if you want to succeed at Squidoo you can't expect to become a millionaire overnight, you need to commit to creating at least 50 great lenses (in my opinion) and if you want to create an income you need to do the 'boring bits' too because as much fun as Squidooing is if you want an income you need to treat it as a job!

D is for Determination - sometimes you can follow all the advice and your lens still doesn't do well, what separates successful Squids from others often comes down to determination.   We've all had lenses that didn't do as we would have liked, but we've picked ourselves up and kept going.

E is for Excitement - Squidoo has lots of exciting moments to strive for whether it's receiving that first sale, getting a lens into the top tier, getting a lens into the top 100, receiving a purple star or getting a LOTD (I'm still waiting for this one myself).   The great thing about this excitement is that fellow lensmasters will also share it with you when you use up your bragging rights and there's not many online communities that do that :)

F is for Featured Lenses - this is one of my favorite modules and I think it's fantastic for interlinking your lenses or adding other peoples.   Could you imagine setting up a lensography without this module - it would take forever!

G is for Google - whether we love Google or hate Google the fact is that if we want to get a lot of traffic to our lens we need to get it ranked in Google and finding it on the front page is another chance to revisit the letter E again - Excitement!

H is for Hubpages - okay I know Squidoo is often seen as a competitor to hubpages, but a number of people actually participate on both sites and as much as I love Squidoo I do believe that you shouldn't keep all of your eggs in one basket.   Hubpages are a great alternative.

I is for Interlinking.   If you haven't read my Interlinking Your Lenses lens yet, then open it up in another tag and read it after you've finished this post.   I cannot stress how important interlinking is with helping your lenses to do better.

J is for Joker - no I'm not playing cards, I'm talking about having a laugh!   Some days (especially if you're busy updating lenses all day) Squidoo can become a bit of a chore and that's when you need to have a bit of a laugh to brighten up your day.   Squidoo is home to a lot of funny people - if you're a RocketMom then the Chatterbox group certainly knows how to lighten the mood, one of my favorite places to visit is a blog by a fellow lensmaster called Laugh Quotes - this is a great place to relieve any tension.

K is for - Keep Calm


Buy This Allposters.com

This poster just says it all.........let's face it in any avenue we venture up (including Squidoo) we can find ourselves struggling with a range of feelings that aren't very useful to us.

L is for Lensographies - these are fantastic for interlinking your lenses and I would be totally lost without my gazillions of lensographies.   If you don't have one yet then you need to read Why Should You Have A Lensography.   Now I have so many lensographies I need a lensography to keep them all in - don't believe me?   Then check this out Lensography of Lensographies, despite this there is another type of lensography that I came across recently......I don't even know if the lensmaster thinks of it as a lensography, but it's a great idea - Where in the World - this is actually a fun geography quiz, but if you look even more closely each quiz points you to a lens, it's a fantastic idea that's worth considering for your own lensographies.

M is for Making Money or just Money!   Sure Squidoo is fun, but the reason a lot of people are reading this blog is because they want to learn how to make money with it.   I believe that the best lens on making money on Squido is my one (but then I am biased) and I've recently updated it so here's the link again - How to Earn Money on Squidoo.

N is for Niche - as I've talked about again and again (or so it seems) the key to earning money on Squidoo is niches.

O is for Organization - not always my strong point, but the people who are successful are the ones who are organized and I've always found that if I have a to do list then I achieve so much more than if I don't.

P is for Professional - if you want to make Squidooing your income then you need to think of it as a career and don't let people dismiss you for anything less than a professional.   It's also important to present yourself in a good light online (just like you would if you worked in an office), so if someone asks for help in Squidu then help them politely - being treated nicely is something that gets remembered and I can still remember the people who helped me out in the beginning and I will often tweet their lenses or promote them when I can.

Q is for Quiz - the Squidoo Quiz lenses are a lot of fun, but if you want to make money out of them you'll need to add content as well - I used my Quiz lens as an opportunity to create backlinks to some of my hubs.

R is for Rinse and Repeat - basically once you've found a formula on Squidoo that works for you just keep doing it.

S is for Squidu - Squidoo's help desk and Squidoo's forum.   There is so much information there and so many lensmasters willing to help that it's well worth sifting through whether you want to add your 10 cents to the discussions is entirely up to you.

T is for Top 10s, if you are ever short of an idea for a lens try and think of a top 10 as they're always great ideas - top 10 coffee flavors, top 10 places to visit in your state, top 10 favorite movies the list just keeps growing.

U is for Unique - write unique content and use the word unique as well - in Kimberley's morning coffee (on Squidu) she mentioned a while ago that unique was a surprising keyword find, so there's another idea for a few lenses - unique wedding locations, unique holiday activities.............I hope you're taking notes :)

V is for Very Addictive, this is your warning (if it's not too late already) Squidoo can become extremely addictive and can end up ruling your life.

W is for Web Profile - don't just stick with Squidoo, find other forums to join or other sites and develop your own web profile - tweet, facebook, blog - whatever suits your personality, just create your web profile.....and then link it back to your lenses.

X is for the X Factor - some lenses just have this X factor and work, they're often lenses that you didn't expect to take off quite as well and whatever you do you can't replicate the results with similar lenses.   Don't stress, just enjoy the ride.

Y is for You - your lenses are all unique because they're written by you.   You are also the only one who can make Squidoo work for you which means that you're the one you need to pat on the back when you do a good job.

Z is for Zazzle - Zazzle is a great affiliate partner to use with Squidoo, just make sure that you use the text module to sell products on because Squidoo's Zazzle module doesn't pay you a referral.   Zazzle's referral rate is 15% which is not to be sneezed at.

Wow!   I can't believe I've managed to write and A - Z, I hope you've enjoyed it.

Which Keyword Phrase Should I Use?

If you read my Let's Talk Niche post then you'll know that when I do keyword research I'm quite happy with low traffic numbers if I think it's a market where I can make sales, but how to determine which keyword phrase to use?

This is where it's important to check out your competition so you take the keywords/keyword phrases that you've isolated and you open up Google as well as a page rank checker tool - Google's PageRank Checker is totally free to use.

Use quotes around your keyword/s and search in Google to see how many sites are competing with you for that keyword, now if I'm looking at a niche keyword phrase that attracts 500 monthly searches and there are 5 million sites competing then I'm going to look at the next keyword phrase that will work whereas if there's only 500,000 competing I may go to the next step.

How much competition you feel you can handle really depends on how much value you feel you can bring to the equation and how strong your competition is.......how do you determine how strong your competition is?

Enter the next stage - once you've found how much competition you have you need to analyze how good the competition is and how easy it will be to outrank them.   I look at the top five sites on the front page and pop them into the page rank checker.   If they are under PR5 then you can beat them with good content, if only one of them is a PR5 or higher than I would check the rest of the top ten and I'd still consider it a fair chance if the others were all really low.

If you find two or more with high page ranks then I would look at your other keyword phrases to see if you can find one that will still give you search results with less stiff competition.

Once you've found some great keyword phrases with low competition and you've written some compelling and unique information that makes people whip out their credit cards and buy buy buy then you'll want to treat yourself to a nice steak which means you'll need a lovely set of steak knives.

But wait theres more...........actually there's not, but I though you deserved some light relief after the boring nuts and bolts of keyword research!

I did promise to give you the steps I take in deciding which keywords to use, but that was before the big Google shake-up.   I actually wrote the last couple of posts before I went on holiday so whether I'll have to tweak it further in light of the changes I don't know, but if I do you'll find out all about it.

Using Amazon Tracking IDs

As you know I am busy changing over some of my links from Amazon modules to my associate links as I do more I also find that there are some products which I'm promoting on both Squidoo and Hubpages so it's time to  introduce a new Amazon Tracking ID.

People have asked me in the past how do you know whether your sales have come from Squidoo or Hubpages and I've been able to make an educated guess because my lenses and hubs are all very targeted - the shopping sprees that have occurred leave me unsure as to which a/c they've come from - hence my next move - adding a new Amazon tracking ID.

I had been told it was easy to do and it really was, here's how you can do it -

When you visit your associates account page you need to click on Manage your tracking ids.   Once you've done this you'll see a list of all of your tracking ids that you have (this includes a-stores if you have them) along with a button that says Add tracking id - click this button and add what you'd like to use as your tracking id and click search.   If no one else has that tracking id then you're all good to go!

How easy was that?   Now I'm thinking that this would also be a great tool if you wanted to compare different niches within your Squidoo a/c - you can have up to 100 different tracking ids.

I always felt that the stats provided when a sale was made through Amazon or eBay was one of the advantages to using the Squidoo modules - just knowing exactly what lens made a sale is really helpful.   I have one product in particular that I have featured on two lenses - to me it really belongs on one of these lenses and on the other lens it made a good filler (because it's related), but as I got more information I would've been tempted to get rid of it.    Guess which lens sales the most!

In all honesty I won't be adding several different tracking ids to my different Squidoo lenses, but it certainly would have an advantage that is worth considering.

Well I must carry on with changing over my amazon modules and if you're in the process of doing the same let me give you another gentle reminder - do them slowly so as not to spook Google!   I am only changing one module per day on a lens that has a good ranking in Google and so far it's working really well.

Lens Stats Tell A Story

I'm sure we've all received a great pay this month as it relates to our December pay, traditionally the best pay of the year. Mine saw an increase of 150% on the previous year which is fantastic. In fact every month of 2010 saw great increases over the year before. I'm not saying this to brag, if you keep reading you'll see I have a point!

My January pay (due next month) does not look good though and although I'm expecting it to be up on the previous years, I don't think it will be such a big percentage increase.......my February pay also hasn't looked as good. Now luckily Squidoo isn't my only online income source and one of these is going to buck the trend.

Looking at my pending payment (due next month) for January at Zazzle my pay will be slightly up on my December payment.

Why am I telling you all of this? So that we can analyse why these things are happening.

 At the beginning of 2010 I realized that I'd effectively missed the boat with Valentine's Day traffic and extra lenses on Squidoo (luckily Hubpages performed well for me) and I was dangerously close to missing out on St Patrick's Day as well. I sat down and made plans to be organized for Halloween and Christmas months in advance and I also factored in a few other occasions. At the same time I was also looking at expanding my income stream.

I had a few problems in real life and made several trips backwards and forwards between Australia and New Zealand, but I stayed on track until October.

October was when I was due to start on my preparations for New Years and Valentines Day - I ended up getting about 4 hours total internet time during this month and most of that was in 10 minute lots!

I believe that this was a major reason why the beginning of 2011 hasn't seen the increase (percentage wise) that I had seen throughout 2010. The key here however is to look at what did work.

Planning ahead of time - magazine editors know to do this and will plan at least 6 months in advance and that's what we need to think about with Squidoo if we want to keep growing our income.

What About Zazzle?


When I got home and was settling back into my usual routine (in November) Zazzle introduced iphone and ipad cases.   I produced  a few of them, but the big thing that I did was to produce lots of Squidoo lenses on them.   Initially they didn't sell very well, but I had read in a couple of places that iphone cases were seen as fashion accessories, I had seen teens buying several cool designs at market stalls.

I also read that the ipad was the most requested gift for 2010 and even commented on a Rocket Mom's forum that I thought the sales of the cases would go up after Christmas.   I didn't manage to make as many lenses on the ipad cases (unfortunately), but I'm sure that if anyone did they would also have made a few sales during January.

I know a lot of people personally who were given iphones for Christmas including two of my friends (mid 30s and early 50s), and two teenagers.   All four have brought themselves iphone cases during January and they're not alone.

Should you all be making lenses on iphone cases?   No!   What you need to do in the lead up to Christmas 2011 is to pay attention to what is heralded as the hottest gift of the season and instead of trying to sell it (and going up against hoards of other people) focus on the accessories for it and aim for the post Christmas market especially on products aimed at teens who have often received money for Christmas and have disposable income.   This way you'll (hopefully) have less competition and will also not see such a huge drop in income between Dec/Jan.

My Plans To Increase My Earnings In 2011

Okay it's the middle of February now and schools have been back (down under) for a couple of weeks so it's time to turn up the notch and start thinking about how much I want to earn in 2011.   Ideally I'd like to bring home $30,000 - so how am I going to do it?

The first thing I looked at was Squidoo and I decided I had to change my lenses as far too many of them have amazon modules on them.    This would greatly affect my Squidoo income however and I'm not sure I want to see that go down - dilemma, dilemma.

I make 6.5% on Amazon under my associates a/c and if I didn't make so many sales through Squidoo I'm sure that would be up to 7 maybe even 7.5% (although that might be wishful thinking).   At the moment 94 of my lenses have pending dollars from Amazon so this is where I need to start - and I have.

I am changing over amazon modules to text modules slowly - why?   Because the lenses are ranked well in Google and I don't want to spook Google by changing them too much.   This is the reason why I hadn't changed them over before - well one of the reasons, the other is my natural laziness!

I am spending 30 minutes per day changing over modules in lenses, but only one module at a time.   I've started with the lenses that have the most sales from Amazon and I'm working my way down.

What about my Squidoo income?   I am worried because most of my income from Squidoo comes from sales as opposed to tier payments and psychologically I know I'll feel upset if my income starts to go down (even though overall it'll be going up).   To counteract this I am taking a few steps.

• Updating
• Legofun
• Updating

Wait you've got updating down twice!   That's because I'm using a two pronged approach to my updating so before we go into that I'll get the Legofun out of the way!

I am going to be writing 2 legofun lenses per week - those of you who are regular followers will know that this is my niche a/c.   I'm also running a Lego on Squidoo blog and I'm hoping that this a/c will do well as it's a niche a/c.

Updating 1

The first type of updating I am doing is a 30 minute per day routine.   It is often said that keeping lenses fresh will help with ranking...........I must admit I didn't pay a lot of attention to that as I have had lenses in the top tier that hadn't been touched for months.   However, I've looked around at some of the top lenses in certain areas where I 'know' the lensmaster makes a lot of their Squidoo payments through lensrank and they do keep their lenses pretty well updated.   

Any lens in the top two tiers will be updated at least once a week and I will be working my way down the list so how many in tier 3 get updated will depend on how quickly I work my way through them!   This is quick updates and nothing major.

Updating 2

I haven't worked out how much time I can allocate to this, but I need to spend so much time each week doing major updates on some of my lenses.   My older lenses in particular are in dire need of a change.   I will be starting by looking at keywords, then the serp tool etc.   I need to update amazon modules as well and make lenses click friendly.

Using these techniques as well as continuing to increase my lenses should keep my Squidoo earnings steady for the year (fingers crossed).

Where else am I going to get my income from?   Amazon, as I've already mentioned, Zazzle, Google and Shareasale are the areas that I am concentrating my efforts on.

My question to you today is - how much do you want to earn in 2011 and have you planned how you are going to achieve it?

Before you go - would you like to buy a set of steak knives?

More of Legofun!

Legofun

Well I promised that I was going to keep you all up to date on my niche a/c and I've been quite busy with it so here's the promised update. If you're new to this blog then you can catch up on Legofun here, essentially it's a second niche account that I started with a view to a. making money and b. showing you exactly how.

The most exciting thing is that I got my second sale, now the grand total is still less that $1, but I think it does show that to make sales in the first couple of months with Squidoo you do need to have tightly focused niche accounts.

So what have I been up to? I am trying to remember to take notes as I go along so that I can share everything with you that way you can apply the same techniques to your own lenses so here goes! -

I identified a couple of other keyword phrases concerning my Lego City Police Sets lens and one of them is lego city police station 7237. I added the 7237 to the Lego City Police Station headings on my lens.

I’ve also written an article for Xomba on the Lego City Police Station that links back to the Lego City Police Sets lens. I focused on the other pieces included in the set besides the actual police station so that I could make sure it was different to the lens and I checked it in the Google SERPS tool first.

I don’t write many articles for Xomba as I usually just do bookmarks, but they don’t require a long article, so I thought it was worth trying it. This way I might still be able to bookmark the lens at a later date for a different keyword phrase.

I’ve had a lot of success with getting my Xomba bookmarks listing well in Google (without even using the serps tool to double check myself) so here’s hoping the article does well.

The following day I was at number 4 on Google so we’re moving in the right direction.

Since then I have updated the lens – I noticed that I’d only added two lenses to the discovery module so I added another one. I have also turned off the chitika ads and added an affiliate banner at the bottom of the page in lieu of the chitika ad.

I have also put a few links out for my Lego Hearts lens (this is the lens that my second sale was from), I haven’t kept a track of them, but I think they’ve mainly been on Squidu. I have also written a top on Best Reviewer about Unique Valentine’s Day Gifts and a blog post on my gift blog about Top 5 Unique Valentine’s Day Gifts which both included a link to my Lego Hearts lens.

I am currently holding the number 5 spot on Google for this lens and I’m getting between 70-80 visits a week as we lead up to Valentine’s Day.

I have done a few more things on my Legofun account including –

• Adding my Lego Christmas ornaments to my unique Christmas tree ornaments in my main account.
• I published Legofun’s Giant Squid Challenge as the about me lens for week 1 of Rocket Moms.
• Started (and published) the lensography for this Rocketmom’s session – Legofun Joins Rocketmoms.
• I made a lens on Lego Ultimate Building Set and also made a blog post on yousaytoo about this set.
• Week 4 challenge I wrote a lens about the Lego City Camper which I was able to link straight to both the Rocketmoms Lensography as well as the Lego City one.
• Next I published the lens on Lego City Hospital which I linked to both my Giant Squid Challenge lens and my Lego City lensography.

Over the weekend I decided to start another blog on yousaytoo which is called The Latest Lego Fun on Squidoo – this is a very short blog which I plan to update everyday and basically I’m looking at the Squidoo categories for all of the latest lenses published in the Lego sub category and blogging about them.

To promote this blog and to establish myself as a Squidoo Lego ‘expert’ I’ve also started a lens on The Best Lego which features other Lego Lensmasters who seem to be dominating in the category.

If I’ve missed out any other steps that I’ve taken then I’m sorry, but I think I’ve let you see everything that I’ve been doing on this niche a/c. Reading all of this I feel quite tired LOL!

Backlinks - How Important Are They?

Do you need to get backlinks?   Well no, not really BUT if you want to get found you'll need them!

When I first started Squidooing my backlinking strategy was very hit and miss.   I would hear about a site and my most recent lenses would be submitted and then I'd forget about it!   Despite this 'I can't really call it a tactic' some of my lenses have done well.

Yesterday I looked at my top lenses and they had lots of backlinks, I looked at my bottom lenses - guess what's missing?

Now luck or good SEO has helped me pick up what I think are the best backlinks - organic ones.   It's getting organic backlinks that make people think as long as their SEO and content is good people will automatically link to them and so they don't NEED to add backlinks themselves.   I have certainly found that this can work, but how much better would the lens have performed with more backlinks?   After all people have got to find your lens before they can link to it.

Some sites are better than others and you can check out your existing backlinks and see what ones are showing up to determine the best sites to submit your lenses too.   If you remember last year's HIMYM tee experiment Xomba and She Told Me proved that they were must have backlinks (although she told me doesn't appear to be doing as well these days).

There are so many sites available that it's hard to know where to start.   Some sites are what is called Do Follow and some are No Follow.   A lot of people will tell you that you need to only use Do Follow backlinks, but in all honesty I think the more links to your site from out there in Cyberspace the better regardless of their follow attributes.

HOWEVER

One thing to keep in mind - don't list too many sites in one go because Google will get spooked and may penalise your lens.   The best thing to do would be to make yourself a worksheet that you follow for ever lens ie

Day 1 = submit to Xomba, She Told Me, Squidu
Day 2 = Submit to Isle of Squid, Squidom, Best Reviewer
etc

Submitting Your Backlinks

With some sites that you submit your links to a description is required.   Now you could copy and paste the first few sentances of your lens, but I have found it's better to write an original synopsis using the same keywords that are in your lens - check what you've written in the Google SERP tool before submitting.

Articles for Backlinks

Articles can also create backlinks to your lens.   For the best results take a topic like How to Cure Eczema as your lens.   Next you can write articles such as Do You Have Eczema? or Signs and Symptoms of Eczema and link these articles to your lens on How to Cure Eczema.   Remember to submit your articles to the same sites as your lens (where applicable) ie Xomba, She Told Me etc.

Now right another article or a hub if you're on Hubpages  on The Top 5 Natural Remedies for Eczema and link back to your lens for more information.

Checking Your Backlinks

I usually use Squidutils to check my backlinks, but one thing you should be aware of is that it doesn't mention the links within Squidoo, but Google does rate these.   This is why it's important to interlink your lenses AND make the most of the discovery module.

I've been pretty bad at checking my backlinks lately, but I am going to get more organized again now especially with my new (and so much faster) computer!   What I used to do was have a look at what sites are linking back to me and if I liked them and I thought they looked good (do not do this with all of the sites or it will lose it's effectiveness) I would tweet them.   Giving their site a push will (hopefully) help your lens.

Don't forget to check out the Squidoo Directories that we looked at last year.

Legofun - Working On A Niche Account

Today we're having a break from doing lens dissertions and we're looking at my second account which is a niche account focusing on Lego.   I'm trying to take note of everything I do so that you can follow along from the beginning of a new account to what I hope will become a very successful account - we live in hope anyways!

I was so excited when I logged in yesterday because I got my first sale on my Legofun account!   Now my main account still has three figures showing on the dash and yet I’m doing a happy dance over a mere 29 cents, but I know that you’ll understand.   Since starting this second account I haven’t really had a chance to do much in the way of marketing and promoting so I wasn’t expecting to get a sale so soon.

The sale was on my Lego City Police Sets lens, this was my second lens ever created and was ‘born’ on 20^th December 2010.   Considering how little I have done with this lens I think that it’s pretty cool to have had a sale in less than a month.   (See below for what sold.)

Now, however it is time to start promoting this account and as I was going to start at the top that will be the Lego City Police Sets lens, so what am I going to do?

First I’m going to take a look at the lens and see if it needs anything changed and to refresh my mind as to the lens itself.   Next I have to look at Google and I’m number 8 for Lego City police sets, the ones above are all big players like Lego’s own shop, Amazon, K Mart etc.   Being on the front page does explain why I’m getting regular traffic though.  

According to the Google keyword tool I am well optimized for legos city police which gets 22,200 monthly views, I’ve had 213 visits since I published (just under a month ago) – obviously I need to get to the number 1 spot!

First up I lensrolled my Lego City Police Sets to all of my other Lego lenses.

Next I submitted the lens to – lensroll.com, squidom.com, isle of squid, lensmasters.slinkset, squidpoint, squidirectory.

With each of these submissions I entered the ‘description’ into the Google SERPs tool that we’ve discussed previously to make sure that I had some keywords in them.   That’s all I had time for yesterday, but that alone has seen an increase in Google this morning as I find myself at #5.  

I think the fact that I wasn’t able to jump on and add all of my backlinks straight away might be working in my favor.    Google has some pretty complicated algorithms and gets suspicious if you try and add backlinks too quickly, maybe leaving the backlinking for a few weeks before starting was a good idea??

Winter Jackets - Another Lens Dissection!

From Chocolate to winter jackets we’re looking at more lens critiques today and this one comes from a long time reader of our blog and a fellow Australian lensmaster ElleDeeEsse.   Her lens is Best Winter Jacket for Men.

ElleDeeEsse has also told me that she has had some sales from the lens and if you read it you won’t be surprised to hear this, she also sent me the top keywords that had sent her traffic from Google which is always a great place to start looking at your own lenses when trying to improve.

The top keywords that were finding traffic were –

best winter jackets

best winter jackets for men

heavy jackets for men

best jackets for men

When you first look at this lens straight off the bat you see what looks like a really warm and comfy jacket and you’re also drawn by highlighted text in the intro.   You can buy that jacket without scrolling down at all!   Having 2-3 links in the introduction has been found to be very good and I love the way that ElleDeeEsse has done this, I would say it’s part of the reason she’s had some sales.

Now let’s see what the introduction looks like in Google –

Best Winter Jackets For Men

eview by Darren Slatten - Jan 1, 2010 - Price range: $999.99

 ... Winter is coming for those in Northern parts and as the weather gets colder now is the time to start thinking about whether to struggle on for another ...
www.squidoo.com/best-winter-jackets-for-men - Cached - Similar

Unfortunately as you can see there are no keywords showing in this text, so if you’re searching for a winter jacket and you saw this result along with a result that actually said winter jacket in the first sentence you’d click on the one that says winter jacket wouldn’t you?  

Before we look at the introduction more though we need to work on what keywords we are going to use.   First up let’s look at the top two keyword phrases that showed up in ElleDeeEsse’s stats.

best winter jackets

best winter jackets for men

Best winter jackets gets a monthly global search of 1,900 which isn’t bad and ElleDeeEsse comes in at number 8 which means she’s on the front page of Google.    5 of the results above her have the words best winter jackets showing in their SERP, only one as a complete phrase.    This could be good for us.

Best winter jackets for men gets 390 monthly searches and ElleDeeEsse is at number 6 for this result.   The search doesn’t show anyone above ElleDeeEsse using this exact phrase in their SERP, the closest is Best Men’s Winter Jackets which is only used by one person above her.  

Okay so that was one step to looking at keywords, but what does Google keyword tool think the lens is about?

The biggest keywords that it recognizes are coats, men’s coats and coats for men, but we’re going to ignore these as they are too broad (coats) or with too much competition (and hopefully if we optimize for a different phrase we may find that we naturally start ranking for these too).

Mens winter jackets – 6,600

Mens winter coats – 5,400

Winter coats for men – 9,900

Winter coat for men – 2,400

It seems to identify more with the term coat than it does jacket, do we want to change the keyword?   Personally I don’t think so because when you search for best winter coats for men or winter coats for men you get double the amount of competition as when you search for jackets.

Okay so I think we’ll stick with the two keywords that we already know have brought ElleDeeEsse traffic and combined these keywords account for 2,290 monthly searches.   At the moment ElleDeeEsse gets 123 per week.  By targeting on these we should also find ourselves ranking for mens winter jackets which gets an additional 6,600 monthly searches.

Although we’re only targeting for the two main keyword phrase you will usually find that your style of writing, products on the page, images etc means that you will usually hit other keywords as well.

Let’s look at the introduction – the title contains the words winter jacket and for men even though they’re not together, but the title doesn’t actually show in the search it shows afterwards.   In this case I would leave the title because it actually doesn’t scream keyword stuffing it reads as though you were being given a lovely, warm idea.

We do need to work on the introduction however, I don’t like to see lenses targeted too much for seasonal things (except international holidays) because you want to be selling the whole year around.   It is always winter somewhere and the internet is global.   I have one particular lens that makes sales every week because I resisted the initial urge to put it into a pigeonhole for something that was primarily targeted at a US market, despite the fact that this is my biggest market.   I wrote it so that it was relevant all year around and I think this is key as I’ve spoken to an online friend who wrote something very similar and they make a lot of sales, but primarily just for three months of the year.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again The Internet is Global!

Okay rant over and back to the lens in question!  

Here's an idea on how to change your introduction -

As winter fast approaches it means that it’s time to check out the best winter jackets for men and I have found a great collection of some of the best winter jackets online.   It’s always hard to know when to struggle on for another year with that old favourite and oh so comfortable jacket or take the plunge and ditch it for a new one.

If you’re in any doubt at all then check out this collection of the best winter jackets for men that I have compiled, you may find that just one look is all you need!   Look at the picture opposite for example – this fabulous…….continue on with existing intro.

This is what it looks like –

Best Winter Jackets For Men

eview by Darren Slatten - Jan 1, 2010 - Price range: $999.99

 ... As winter fast approaches it means that it’s time to check out the best winter jackets for men and I have found a great collection of some of the best ...
www.squidoo.com/best-winter-jackets-for-men - Cached - Similar

Now only one of the keywords show up in the serps, but if you remember only one of her main competitors has the phrase as a whole in their serp and I’ve tried to emulate ElleDeeEsse’s chatty and friendly tone,    It also doesn’t look like it’s stuffed which, in my opinion, her main competitor does look like.   This is obviously subjective and you have to go with something that you’re happy about.

Now moving on down past the introduction ElleDeeEsse has Great Savings and Free Shipping as a title, this is also repeated on the link below which stands out enough so I wouldn’t waste a heading with these words.   Instead I would change it to the type of jacket (which is in the subheading and add the keywords to the subheading for example –

Carhartt Men's Extremes Arctic Quilt Active Jacket

One of the Best Winter Jackets for Men

I would add this subheading to all of the headings that name a particular jacket.

I would change the heading on the selection of Carhartt jackets to –

Selection of the Best Carhartt Winter Jackets for Men

This will just add the keywords best winter jackets for men in their quite naturally.

Again I would change the heading of – Most of the Excellent Marmot Thermal Jackets to Most of the Excellent Marmot Thermal Jackets for Men.  

Personally I would get rid of the ad for heated shoe insole as it dilutes this lens’ niche, if you really wanted to add it I would pop it on the bottom of the page instead of running the Chitika ads.

You’re on the right idea with asking a question in the guestbook, but I would rephrase it to get your keywords in.   Try - Did You Find the Right Winter Jacket for Men From This Selection?

Or - Did You Find the Right Winter Jacket for Your Man From My Collection?

Having the sidebar widgets to sell something that compliments your main lens is a great idea, but I would also incorporate a little keyword juice in here as well.    For example on the first Amazon widget use the title for something like – Even the Best Men’s Winter Jacket Needs Some Headwear! – then add your existing titles as sub-titles for the individual modules.

Hope all of this helps and not just ElleDeeEsse, I’m hoping that as we look at people’s lenses we can look at how the advice can be applied to our own.  

Lens Critiques & Chocolate!

Well it appears that a lot of you are brave enough to have your lenses publically analyzed which is fantastic, but when the first email appeared in the box and included the words chocolate and cupcake in a single line I'm afraid I momentarily forgot I was supposed to be analyzing it - I was suddenly very hungry!!

Chocolate Cupcake Postcard by jamieanne
More Cupcake Postcards

MamasCritics is a lensmaster that I haven't come across before and she wanted me to look at her lens - How to Make a Giant Chocolate Cupcake.

The first thing I did was to simply google - how to make a giant chocolate cupcake - and this lens came in at number 1 which was fantastic, unfortunately there are no monthly searches for this phrase according to the Google Keyword tool which explains why MamasCritics was only getting 31 visits per week.    

How do I know the number of visits to a lens - well I checked Squidaholic - this is a great site to use not just on your lenses, but on your competition to see how they're achieving a higher ranking than you (you can't see everything though).   What you can see is the traffic of a lens and the backlinks to that lens.   With this lens there are no backlinks either.

What do we do now?   We have to find some better keyword phrases that will apply to this lens for starters so I looked at - how to make a giant cupcake - this phrase is searched for 1,000 times each month, but unfortunately this lens isn't listed on the first 5 pages for the term.

Giant Chocolate Cupcake is a phrase that has 260 monthly searches PLUS MamasCritics ranks at number 7 for this keyword.   This is obviously a good place to start.

This is what MamasCritic's lens looks like in Google -

How to Make a Giant Chocolate Cupcake

eview by Darren Slatten - Jan 1, 2010 - Price range: $999.99

 ... I made this Giant Chocolate Cupcake for a church get-together, it was a hit. I took pictures as I put it all together, it was so simple! I thought I ...
www.squidoo.com/how-to-make-a-giant-chocolate-cupcake - Cached - Similar

It's the reason why she ranks well for Giant Chocolate Cupcake, because she's one of only 2 on the front page that actually has the words together.    Remember my last post we discussed using the Google SERP tool?   That's what you're seeing above.

In that same post we discussed checking what Google thought your lens was about and using that tool we find that Google already thinks that MamasCritics lens is about these keywords -

how to make a giant cupcake - 1,000 monthly searches

giant cupcake recipes - 720 monthly searches

giant cupcake decorating ideas - 1,600 monthly searches

giant cupcake cake - 4,400 monthly searches

giant cupcake - 33,100

I think we should work on the keyphrase 'how to make a giant cupcake' the reason being that is already in the title and I've looked at the top ten results for this and stringing the words together in the first two sentances has NOT been done in the results, the closest has been how to make a polka dot giant cupcake and how to make a giant 3d layered cupdake.  

The first step is to change the introduction for example - I am often asked how to make a giant chocolate cupcake because my recipe is always a hit.   My giant cupcake recipe is very simple to make, let me show you how.   This is what it will look like-

How to Make a Giant Chocolate Cupcake

 ... I am often asked how to make a giant chocolate cupcake because my recipe is always a hit. My giant cupcake recipe is very simple to make, let me show ...
www.squidoo.com/how-to-make-a-giant-chocolate-cupcake - Cached - Similar

It includes the keyphrase how to make a giant cupcake as well as giant cupcake recipe which is another keyword phrase that has been identified on this lens already. 

I would continue on about the 10 easy steps and when you endorse Betty Crocker (if you're an Amazon Associate) I would make her name a link to her products on Amazon.

Before leaving the introduction we need to do something about the introduction title - at the moment it reads

 In 10 Simple Steps – this doesn’t mention any potential keywords so we need to beef it up.

The Easy 10 Step Way to the Perfect Giant Chocolate Cupcake is an example or Make a Mouthwatering Chocolate Giant Cupcake in 10 Easy Steps.

We really need to look at your titles and make sure that they add keywords because the best recipe in the world won't be found unless it appears in Google and keywords are crucial to Google finding it.

What You Will Need could be changed to Ingredients for a Giant Chocolate Cupcake.

Now Let's Put It Together etc could be changed to How to Make A Giant Chocolate Cupcake in 10 Steps with the sub title Giant Chocolate Cupcake Recipe.

Another thing you could do is after the cake is assembled and you say now for the icing you could start a new module and have a title or subtitle whichever looks better as it's part way through your 10 steps with the words Decorating Your Giant Chocolate Cupcake.

As well as this lens I see you enjoy cooking so I would consider settng up a food lensography which would link not just to your recipe lenses, but also to your blog recipes.   You can then add the lensography to the bottom of all of your food recipes with customized headings such as Because You Can't Survive on Giant Chocolate Cupcakes Alone! 

Hopefully those tips will help, but getting backlinks will also help as they're like signposts to content.

For other people hoping to get tips from this you're at an advantage because you can look at what keywords are bringing traffic to your lens already and see where you're rating for these.   Once you've found these you need to Google them to see what position you hold.    Next you should compare with others that are above you and ask yourself which link would you click on if you were making this search?

 

 

What Do Google and People Think Your Lens is About?

Now you've written a great lens about thingamejigs and it has everything you could ask for of a webpage, but no visitors. What can you do now? Well first up you need to check what Google thinks it's about because if Google doesn't index it for thingamejigs then it won't show up in searches.

Let me introduce you to the Google Keyword Tool - now you've probably already seen this, but did you know that you can leave the keyword area blank and enter your url? I didn't until I read Thriving Mom's blog post about it. It can be quite interesting to see what Google thinks you've written about and it can help you keep focused and to the point.

Once Google and you are on the right page and you've managed to rank on page one in the Google results are you still not getting traffic? This was the case for me on one of my lenses - I was ranked well, but people weren't clicking on my lens for some reason.

The reason was my introduction - I thought my introduction was very clever with a play on words that worked really well when read completely. Other people had commented to me about this too and I loved it. Enter the Google SERP Snippet Oprimization Tool, by entering your lens details in here it will actually show you what people see of your lens when they find it listed in Google. Your introduction that looks great as a whole doesn't always look great as a snippet!

This is a fantastic tool and I'm planning on going through all of my lenses and hubs and checking them out with it - I've already started to sort through some of them - the words 'what was I thinking' has come to my mind a few times!!!

Now who among you is brave enough?

With such an enticing heading, what am I going to ask you to do?   I have helped (I think anyway!) a number of people over the last couple of years that I have been on Squidoo and I thought I'd put something out there on this blog.   If you're brave enough to have your lens dissected on this blog then email me through my Lensmaster page.   

I'll post the lens on this blog for people to see and then I'll critique it for you and we'll see how it goes.   Now I'm not sure how many people will be brave enough to do this publically so I can't promise I'll get back to everyone, but I'm looking at starting this in next week's blog if you're up to it.   Think of it this way - it will be another backlink!

2010 Updates and Looking Forward

Hubby's back at work today and the sky is actually blue which is great so it's time for us to recap on 2010 and see if we've learned anything which can help us as we enter not just a new year, but a new decade!

When I first started this blog I made a lens to demonstate how important niche was, now long time readers will remember that things didn't quite go as planed!   However I've been happy with the results I have had, here's where you can recap on the HIMYM t-shirt lens and the steps I took.

HIMYM Part 1
HIMYM Part 2
HIMYM Part 3
HIMYM Part 4
HIMYM Part 5
HIMYM Part 6
HIMYM Update

HIMYM Update

So what do I think of my HIMYM experiment?   I'm pretty happy with it, although it certainly isn't one of my biggest earners it has made a bit of money so let's see how we're ranking in Google -

how i met your mother t-shirt - #5
how i met your mother tee - #6
himym tee - #2
himym t-shirt - #8

These rankings are a lot better than we had to start with which shows that sometimes you need to add time to the equation so January is still a great time to make Christmas lenses that will have time to 'percolate' for next Christmas!

My How I Met Your Mother Tees lens is currently in Tier 2 while my 'supporting lenses' (Barney Stinson and Barney Stinson for President) are both in Tier 3.

I've received $19.83 from this lens and I have just under $3.00 on my dashboard.
My other two lenses have earned me a grand total of $2.75.

Every month my hub on the Bro Code is making me a few dollars on Google, unfortunately I can't reveal exact figures as it's against adsense toc, but it's aroundabout the amount on my dashboard for my HIMYM tee lens.

Amazon shows $1.96 for purchases which have definately come from the hub, but of course it's hard to track which hub was responsible for some of the spending sprees so it could have netted me a lot more than that.

My article on Bukisa also gets a lot of views and is responsible for just under half of my earnings on there.   

For the time involved and the lesson to do a search on google using site: squidoo.com instead of relying on Squidoo's search next time I don't think it's too bad of a payoff especially considering that it's at the best ranking it's been so far which means it can only get better!

My other experiment in 2010 was with the Chitika ads, but to be honest I haven't implemented this on enough lenses and had a chance to analyse the results that well yet, but I'll report back when I have.

Looking forward I've decided to create a second account as I told you all last time my Lensmaster name is Legofun and (as the name suggests) it's devoted to the world's favorite building blocks - Lego!   I have a whole 1 fan at the moment so I'd love some visitors (hint, hint!)

At the moment I have 5 published lenses under this account and one of them  is in tier 2, another tier 3 while the other 3 are way down.   They have already found Google traffic which is great.   Going into 2011 I will be updating you with how I'm managing this account and seeing if a non-Giant can earn decent money.   I'll continue to write posts on my tips as well.

Here's to a prosperous New Year for everyone.

Amazon Spotlights & Starting All Over!

Well I did promise to let you in on something new with this post, but I was computer-less for a few days with a nasty virus and then this pesky thing called Christmas means that I can't spend as much time on the computer!   Speaking of which I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, ours was pretty quiet this year and very wet.

I decided to open a brand new account with Squidoo, when I first started I really didn't realize how important creating a niche was so I wrote about all sorts of things under my one account.   Watching an episode of How Things Are Made with my hubby inspired me to write about Lego.   I was thinking about what I could write about and with a piece of paper was able to come up with 39 ideas for Lego lenses, that was without doing any research into what sets were now available!!   Because I had a clear objective I decided to set up a second account that I could keep as a very niche account - would I recommend it?   I'll let you know.

With the monsters things have changed and it was quite an eye opener to see what people first starting out had to work with - no Amazon Spotlight modules to start with, they only come in at Level 4.   Now it really doesn't take long to get to Level 4, but if you're writing your first lens and when you read recommendations you're told to use the spotlight module it would probably get a little confusing.

My plan for my first lens included -

• Amazon Spotlight modules - Denied!
• Blackbox module - Denied!
• Talk Bubble - Denied!

Time to go back to the drawing board!   I decided that I would have to use my own Amazon associate links and I used the Text with Big Picture module to display them.   For the blackbox module I just used html to add a colored background.   The result was Lego Architecture Series .

I then decided to start my lensography lens right at the beginning.   I had lots of information about Lego that I wanted to convey and then add my other lenses in the appropriate place as I went.    Featured Lens - Level 11 - not there yet!

By the time I had written my second lens I was able to use the Amazon Spotlight and the result was Lego City Police Sets.   I have since realized that I'm going to have to change some of my plans - I wanted to create lenses about different themed sets etc which means adding all of the sets in a particular series available and writing about them.   Sometimes this might be more than 10 items and this became a problem just before Christmas.

Squidoo Changed The Rules!

Now it's Squidoo's playground so if they want to change the rules it's up to them, but what can we do?   Well I was actually thinking about telling you all how I was going to be changing over some of my lenses so that I had less Amazon modules and more of my own associate links.   One of my best lenses made over $200 in Amazon sales (through Squidoo) a few months ago, which I thought was great, but another lens which was similar, but had affiliate links made me $200 in commissions through an affiliate as well as royalties through Squidoo!   I had far less sales on the second lens so I know how much better I could do without using the modules.   With the restrictions that Squidoo are enforcing I personally think they will lose money, but hopefully we'll all make more :)

Back to Lego!

Now I've already got some visits from Google on my new a/c, but I haven't started promoting them yet.   I will start promoting them more in the New Year and I'll be devoting a blog post a week to keep you updated on everything I've done as well as the results.   I thought that by starting with a new account it would be good for non-giants as well as giants to get an idea about how to earn on Squidoo.

Titles Are Important - Make Them Count

I often think of pithy newspaper type of headline that would suit my lenses, but I don't use them!   Well maybe on some of my older ones that I really should change, but it is the one small change that you can often make to your lenses in order to rank better.

Since I have started to take more care of all of my titles, not just the main one, I have found that it's far easier to rank well in Google.   Of course not just titles are going to do the job, but if you have a lens which seems pretty good for content and yet it's getting no traffic because it's just not ranking well then revisiting the titles may be a great idea.

Look at your keywords or keyword phrase - is it highlighted in your titles?   Now obviously you can't always have your main keywords in the title of each section especially if your keywords are something like The Lego Architecture Series and so you want your different titles to reflect each of the sets in the series such as The White House and Fallingwater, what you can do is add Lego Architecture Series to the sub-heading.

The biggest mistake people use is with their Guestbooks - we all know not to leave the generic New Guestbook as the title, but what do we put instead?   Use your keywords in the title in the form of a question.   Why, well two reasons really -

• It adds your keywords into your title easily.
• It makes it more likely that you'll get commenters to use keywords in their comments.

If you're thinking, but I like pithy headlines - you can still use them if you want to, but as sub-headings.   Make the main title one of your keywords and have your subheading as something fun.   If you're not sure what I mean then check out Funky Chic and Cool Laptop Bags - this lens has been in the Top 100 for as long as I've been on Squidoo.   Kate highlights the bag she's reviewing in the title because that's one of her keywords ie - The Allie Laptop Tote Bag by Rainbrooke - and then adds a pithy sub-title ie - Get in touch with your inner Elle Woods.   


Now stay tuned for next time as I've started a new project which I'll be revealing to you and hopefully it'll be a really interesting journey that we can take together.   Also as the year is coming to a close I'll be looking back and updating you on some of the experiments we've tried this year.