Will Christmas Cash Squidoo Lenses Be Considered J...

You may or may not be aware that Google has recently made some changes to its algorithm. (that’s a link to the actual post by Matt Cutts on the Google blog about the changes) They are trying to get more and more junk sites out of the index.

It didn’t take long before I got my first concerned email, wondering if the Christmas Cash lenses would be considered junk sites.

Here’s what I think and what I’ve seen so far.

No. I don’t think they will be considered junk sites at all. Provided you are using the blueprint correctly. If you are creating unique content for your intro module, your benefits module (and not just copy/pasting the product description), you’re adding your own two cents at the top of your other modules. If you’re adding in the interactive modules like the poll and guestbook. Even with Amazon reviews you’ll be fine.

The key here is you are not just copying and pasting content that is found elsewhere. You have plenty of unique content of your own creation. You are also helping people make buying decisions.

I think the real concern will come in, not with Squidoo lenses, but for people (like me) who are using wp robot to pull in content for their Christmas blog. Although, at this point my Christmas blog is still sitting on page 1 for its main keyword. I think my wp robot sites will probably be dropped at some point soon, unless I take some time and go in and do a real review of the products… like recommended in the Amazonian Profit Plan. Pulling products in with software probably isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Again though… think about the purpose of your site. My Christmas blog (though it does get traffic around the holidays) serves the purpose to give me a place to link to my lenses. It’s main purpose is NOT to rank on the first page of Google.  So unless it ends up getting completely deindexed it’s not going to be a problem, Google will still be able to find the links from my site.

I also think the other sites that will be nailed in this new change are RSS scraper sites. You know the ones. You’ve spent all this time writing this awesome unique content only to get a pingback saying you’ve got a link from another site. You hop over to check it out and realize it’s your exact content, copied right out of your RSS feed. I do not think those type of sites will make it through this change.

Your Christmas Cash lenses? I think they’ll be fine.

I checked my Ironman lens this morning, as well as other lenses I have that are ranking well and they are all right where they were a few days ago. I haven’t seen any movement.

I suggest you keep doing what you’re doing. Keep creating unique content for your lenses. Keep making them with your user in mind… thinking about how you can help your reader make the best buying decision, and give them the information to do that. You’ll be fine.

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Step by step video tutorials walking you through the entire process of creating a Squidoo Christmas Cash lens
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6 Simple Things You Can Do To Make Google Love You...

How are your lenses doing? Are they getting traffic? Are they getting to the first page of Google? If they’re not doing well, and they’re not getting to the front page part of the problem may be your SEO. What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization. This is  big term but simply means, creating a lens that tells Google very specifically exactly what it’s all about.  You want Google to know exactly what your lens is about because it’s their job to find the best matching site to searchers queries, and if they don’t know what your lens is about ~ they can’t pick you.

There are 2 types of SEO. Onpage SEO and off page SEO.  Off page SEO  includes things like backlinking. If you’re onpage SEO is right, then it’s probably your off page SEO you need to work on.

This post is going to focus on on page SEO.  This means the things you do ON your web page to make Google happy.

They are pretty simple to do, but if you want search traffic they are NOT optional.  If you have a lens that is not performing up to your expectations check to make sure you have done a good job with your on page optimization. If you’ve missed some of these things, changing them could make a huge difference for your lens. These things, if you haven’t done them, are worth going back and adding or changing on your already published lenses.

1. Use your keywords in the url.

When you’re creating a squidoo lens this is a huge element of SEO. This is the first place google looks to see what your lens is about. If you don’t have the specific keywords you are trying to rank for in your URL, you are putting yourself at a serious disadvantage.

Example:

My keyword for the ironman lens is: Ironman Gravity 4000 Inversion Table

My url for the lens is: www.squidoo.com/ironman-gravity-4000-inversion-table

The url is my EXACT keyword. It is not ironman-inversion-table or gravity-4000 or inversion-table-ironman.

It is my keyword, exactly and only.

So what if you go to make a lens and someone already has your exact keyword? I would look at the lens that’s already on Squidoo ~ check it out, see what it looks like. Is it any good? Check Google and see if it’s ranking on the first 2 pages for the targeted keyword.

If it’s not a great lens, and it’s not ranking mess with the dashes in the domain. Either take them out or add them in, so you can get your exact keyword in the ulr.

If it’s a great lens, and it’s ranking in the top 2 pages I’d personal reconsider targeting that keyword. I’d probably find something else. Google is not going to put multiple lenses on the front page for the same keyword. If that lens is already there, it’s going to be tough to knock it out. Find a keyword that doesn’t have that kind of  Squidoo competition.

Dashes – no dashes?

For Squidoo I don’t think it matters. Squidoo’s default is dashes so that’s what I usually end up doing.

Sidenote:

Google’s one and only job is to give searchers relevant, unique,  targeted information for each and every search query a searcher does. So think about it this way. I go to google and I put in ironman gravity 4000 inversion table. What is google going to think is the best match to my query?

www.Squidoo.com/ironman-inversion-table

www.squidoo.com/inversion-tables

www.squidoo.com/ironman-gravity-4000-inversion table.

Yeah ~ of course it’s going to be the third one. This is why it’s so important to not only choose your keywords correctly, but use them in your url exactly as you’ve chosen them.

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2. Keywords in your lens title

Every page on the internet uses html tags in the background. This is the “title tag”. When it comes to squidoo you don’t need to know about the tags stuff,  they  do it for you automatically, but what you do need to know is that you have to use your keywords in the title.

Here’s what the code to the ironman lens looks like ~ and you’ll see the “title tag” is the title of the lens.

That gives google exactly the information they need in order to know exactly what this lens is about.

Where it says Title: in the edit area of your lens you ALWAYS want to have the keywords you are targeting.

If you don’t feel like just the keywords are a good enough title for your lens (which they are), you can always add words AFTER your keywords in the title. You always add your additional words AFTER your keywords in the title because Google gives a little more emphasis on the first 3 or 4 words in the title, so you want your keywords to be up front.

3. Use keywords toward the beginning of your intro module.

This is another html tag area called the “meta tag”. This tag provides a description of your page to Google. In squidoo this tag is grabbed from your intro module.  This is what will show up in the description under your listing in the search engine results, so you definitely want your keywords in there.  When keywords show up in the description area of the rankings they are bolded ~ this also helps bring more attention to your page.

4. Use keywords in your module titles:

In your squidoo lens you want to make sure you also use your keywords in your module titles. While your title gets its own “title” tag in html, module titles get a tag too ~ it’s called an h1 tag. This is a tag that google weighs very heavily when determining what your lens is about.

You don’t have to worry about creating that tag,  you just have to remember to put your keywords in your module and post titles.

5. Use your keyword in your content.

Obviously you want to make sure you use your keyword in your content  because that’s what you’re talking about right? So make sure you talk about it ~ specifically. It’s ok to use variations of your keyword and related keywords/terms in your content, but you also need to have your exact keyword phrase in the content as well.

In the past “keyword density” (using your keyword a certain amount per 100 words) was a lot more important. Now it really is pretty irrelevant. Just talk like you would talk to a friend and you’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about calculating your keyword usage, just use it as you would in conversation.

6. Use your keywords in outbound links.

Links in your lens are another good way google identifies what your page is about. In your lenses you may be linking to an amazon page ~ so make sure you use your keywords as the anchor text of the link.

Using anchor text pointing to your sites is important, but the anchor text of the links on your site pointing elsewhere also count when optimizing a page.

I know  some of you want to get creative, and tell a story with your lens ~ which is FINE ~ but you still have to find a way to do it within the framework of on page SEO.  You can tell a story that converts all day long, but if you never get traffic then there’s no one to read it or click your links.

If you have questions about on page SEO please feel free to ask in the comments section and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

How to Create a Clickable Link to Your Product

When you want to create a link that is clickable and you’re working somewhere that doesn’t have a text editor (where you can just click the little chain button), like Squidoo, you will have to use html code. Html code is extensive, and you can use it to make your site do all kinds of things. However, for this post I’m just going to show you how to use it to create a link in your lens that is clickable to your product.

I’m going to use Amazon for the example ~ because that’s pretty much our focus, but realize the code is the same no matter where you’re linking. The code below will work to create a clickable link for anything, you just have to change the information that points to what site you want them to go to.

With that, let’s get started.

How to get code from Amazon:

1. You must be in the associate program in Amazon to be able to get code. (You must be an affiliate)

2. Go to the product page you wish to link to (on the actual amazon site, just like you were shopping).

3. Along the top of the page you will see a grey bar.  On the bar is a link to “link to this page”. (If you go to the product page and you don’t see a grey bar it’s because you don’t have it turned on. Log in to your associates account and go to the site stripe page. You can turn it on from there.)

4.Click that link and a new box will open.

5. Go to squidoo and open the module you want your link in. (click edit at the top of the module)

6. Right click your mouse and choose paste. Your code will be inserted into your module.

No matter where you’re linking you will be using the same html code. Amazon provides the html for you, other places you may need to write it yourself. It’s very simple.

Here’s the code you will need to use:

<a href=”http://yoururl.com”>Your keywords here</a>

You simply replace yoururl.com with your actual affiliate link ~ or whatever link you want people to go to.

Then change the your keywords here to the actual words you want someone to click on. There are other pieces of code you can add to this, but this is the basic code you need to create a clickable link.

That’s all there is to it. You can pull an affiliate link from any where ~ it doesn’t have to be amazon.  You can also use this code to link to another lens in your lens or to another site.  Squidoo is one of the few places that doesn’t have a text editor ~ so you just need to write this bit of code down, and keep it with you so you can easily create links where you need them.

If you have html questions feel free to ask them in the comments below. I’ll do my best to help you out.

5 Quick Ways to Make a Better Lens

Creating a lens is  as much an art as it is a science. Yeah, you can do all the keyword research you want, and you can follow all the SEO “rules” but there are some things that will help your conversion that have to come from a place other than the numbers and rules… they have to come from you.

Here’s some tips to get your lenses to convert better.

1. Pick something you care about or think is so totally cool that people really SHOULD have it.

yeah, you can pick any keyword or any product, but when you choose to write about something that you have great feelings about it comes through in not only what you write, but how you write about it. This difference comes through to you readers.

2. Make sure the product you’re offering is exactly what they are looking for or exactly solves their problem.

If you find a certain model of a certain thing has great search volume ~ then make sure when people click away from your lens they go to that specific product. If you are talking about one thing on your lens, and they click and land on something similar ~ but not quite ~ it feels a little bit like bait and switch, which doesn’t instill buying confidence.

3. Tell a story.

Now don’t make up a story, but it shouldn’t be too hard to incorporate a story if you’re totally digging the product you’re talking about.

Here’s an example:

My mom has these boxes, boxes and boxes of notecards filled with our family recipes. Recipes from my Grandma, and her Grandma, and probably her Grandma too. I wanted to somehow get ahold of those recipes and create an actual book that would be a little easier to navigate, and actually find recipes and also would stand the test of time.

Well… I happened to find a place that did exactly that. It was wicked cool. You could upload your recipes from home, or even from another site and then create a recipe book that they would send you ~ a real hard back book. The binding would open so you could continue to add recipes as time went on.

Well I thought this was perfect for my situation, and I just thought it was a hella good idea. So I dug around and found a nice keyword that had some good search volume. I didn’t know if it was going to convert, because it didn’t really seem like a buying keyword, but I was really digging the product so it was fun to do, and didn’t take much time.

In the lens I told a little bit of my story. I showed the site, how it worked, how you put your book together (I mean, it’s 3 little steps). Friendly, interesting, informative.

This lens doesn’t do all that great most of the year, but come the holidays… it ROCKS.

It’s now ranking for quite a few keywords and in the past 7 days received 786 vists, with 245 click throughs to my merchant and 38 new sales.

Stories sell people.

4. Provide REAL information that people can use.

This is easier if you’re promoting physical products, but if you’re still promoting clickbank products make SURE your content is good. Not just well written, but informative. Helpful. You will NOT make sales if people come to your site looking for some help or information and all they get is a big “BUY THIS” to get your questions answered. It will not work.

5. Add images.

Fancy up your lenses. The nicer you can make them look, the better. Yeah, there’s a point where too many things to look at can decrease your clickthrough rate, but if you keep your images relevant, and allow the PICTURES to help tell your story, they will serve you well.

There you have it, 5 things to help your lenses do a little better, and make a few more sales.

I realize I give you a “blueprint” to follow… but realize it’s just a beginner’s road map. A place to get started. Once you’ve done a few of these, allow yourself to stray a little from the blueprint. Allow YOU to shine through your lenses. As I’ve said before (and I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing) people buy from people, not websites, or pages.

OH one more thing… if you’ve just got the orange squidoo guy as your image in the about section, go to Squidoo and change that right now. There’s nothing worse than seeing someone wants to sell you something but hasn’t taken the time to be a real person. really. I mean it. Go now if you’ve got the orange guy.

If you’ve got a lens you think should be doing better and you don’t understand why it’s not I’d be glad to do a lens review for you and tell you what I think is going on.

If you’re still struggling to get your lens built, the Squidoo Christmas Cash Video Series is available, where you can watch over my shoulder as I walk you through the entire process of building a lens (the way I do it).

Hopefully your lenses are doing well for the holidays… the rush is upon us. If you’ve got questions regarding Squidoo and how to use it please feel free to ask.

Finding Content to Post to Your Posterous Network

Hopefully by now you’ve got your Posterous network set up.  In case you didn’t see it, you can also add wordpress blogs you host yourself to that network. So if you have a wordpress “Christmas” blog (one that is on your own hosting account) or something similar you can add that to your network.

This can save a lot of time updating your “Christmas blog”.

I wanted to talk today about the content you send out for your network. You don’t really want to just send links out pointing to your stuff. You want to add some other related information, resources, topics.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to create this content! That’s what makes it really fun and easy. You can use other people’s content to help fill in your network.

Here’s some places you can find content:

Article directories ~ post the article (including the author links) in your post

Youtube ~ make a comment about the topic then add the video

Blogs ~ you can make a comment about the topic of the post and then put in a link to the full post.

About.com ~ they have tons of information on every topic ~ talk about an article from there and then link to it.

Anything that has an RSS feed ~ I’ll show you below how you can easily keep track of multiple RSS feeds.

This is just a few ideas to get you started. If you want a simple way to keep track of all of this you might want to use an RSS feed reader, like Google Reader. I’ve recently started doing this and it makes it very easy to scan through all the new information in my niche and quickly share it with my network if I choose to.

Here’s a video (thanks Ed) that will show you how to use Google Reader for this purpose.

Once I had my Google Reader set up I could quickly go through it and find some interesting things to send out to my network. If I found a bunch of things and didn’t want to send them out all at once I star them ~ and then I can just clicked starred items and find the things I wanted to post later.

Hope this gives you some ideas about content for your network. If you have questions please ask in the comments section and I’ll do my best.

How to Write a Product Lens for a Product You Have...

I got an email from a reader this morning and thought I’d go ahead and answer it in a blog post since it’s a question I get quite often.

How do I write a lens for a product I’ve never used?

Here’s a couple tips to answer that question:

1. Change your mindset. You’re not personally recommending all the products you create lenses for. You’re actually providing people with information, benefits/features for products they may be looking for.  So whether or not you’ve used the product you can still write the lens.

(it is sometimes easier to write really compelling lenses for products you do have or have used ~ you can also include your OWN images then ~ check out this one I did after Hanna got a ride on toy for her birthday: John Deere Ride on Gator ~ but I know that doesn’t help answer the question lol)

2. Make sure you choose products with plenty of reviews. Reading other people’s reviews can tell you a LOT about the product. What it does, what people like about it, what the best features are. All of those are the content you need to create your lens.

3. Reviews along with the manufacturers description should give you plenty of understanding of the product to write an informative lens about it.

Here are a couple examples of products lenses where I haven’t used the product at all:

Breadman Bread Machines ~ this one the reviews really carry the show.

Advanced Elements AdvancedFrame Inflatable Kayak ~ this one the reviews really allowed me to pull in the real reasons people love this kayak in my benefits module.

Hope this helps, and if you have more questions feel free to ask in the comments section.