The New Scroll of Originality

This morning I received an email from Giant Squid headquarters, it was not such a happy email to receive. The email stated that too many of my lenses were not original enough, or contained too much “duplicate content”, otherwise known as content that could not be found anywhere else online.

I’m thinking that what they are referring to is the amazon reviews on my Squidoo Christmas cash lenses. The email went on to say that it would be likely that lenses with such duplicate content would be locked within the next few days.  I have gone through my best lenses that are ranking well, and making me money and taken out the review module. I suggest you do the same.

I’m pretty sure this change (or crackdown as it were) is due at least in part to Google’s changes over the last couple weeks.

As I was looking into this a little bit I came across a new blog post on the Official Squidoo blog that would be worth your time to read. The Scroll of Originality.

I will be working on revamping the Squidoo Christmas Cash Blueprint, but wanted to give you the heads up before you found any of your lenses locked.

This is just my interpretation of the situation, I could be right on, or totally off, but I did want to let you know. I will continue to bring you updates as I hear them, but for now, make sure you continue to write original content on your lenses, and take out any of the reviews from Amazon that may be considered duplicate content.

I followed a few more links to the new Original vs. Duplicate Content lens and found this:

Q: Can I post other people’s Amazon reviews on my lens?

A: Let’s look at an example. Here is the list of Amazon reviewer comments about the Marx Brothers DVD collection. No, certainly you cannot copy and paste full reviews that other people have written and post them on your lens as your own content. But yes, if there is a review you particularly agree with, I don’t see why you couldn’t quote a sentence from it, attribute it to the Amazon reviewer, and link to his or her post. Just do this very sparingly.

So there you have it… that’s a no no.  Everything changes, and as times and policies change so must we. I’ll see what I can figure out as a different strategy to create social proof, and maybe rethink the entire process of the Christmas Cash lenses… until then, if you have questions please feel free to ask. I have no idea if I’ll be able to answer them or not, but I’ll be glad to try.

Squidoo Christmas Cash Video Series
Step by step video tutorials walking you through the entire process of creating a Squidoo Christmas Cash lens
Get your Squidoo Video Tutorials NOW!

Building Your List With Squidoo

Quite a while ago (back in 2007)… when I was relatively new to Squidoo I put together a lens on backlinking. I talked about a bunch of different ways people can create backlinks to their lenses to help them rank in the search engines.

I did a little bit of checking on keywords at the time (but like I said, I was relatively new to the game). Well, this lens has done really well. It gets a lot of comments, and a lot of thumbs, a lot of tweets ~ all of which have helped it rank not only for the original keyword, but for many many others as well.

Seeing how well this lens has  done  in the search engines, made me think about all the people who were slipping through my fingers.   I was not doing anything to connect  with all the people going through this lens. I was totally dropping the ball. They stopped by once, and then I could never contact them again.

As you probably know, I’ve done a lot of posts on my other blog about backlinking, and I knew I was going to create my own backlinking product so I decided to start a new list… a backlinking list and start collecting the names and email addresses of people who were interested in learning more about backlinking.

Now this is easier said than done, since Squidoo has taken out the module that allowed you to put an opt in box right in your lens. But that’s ok. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?!

How to add an opt in box to a Squidoo lens

I created an opt in box in my get response account. I then did a “preview” of the opt in box. Using Jing, I took a screen shot of the opt in box.

Then I created a squeeze page that had an actual opt in box on it ~ where people could sign up and they could see the benefits of signing up on the list. (I am giving away some backlinking tutorials ~ which are some of my best backlinking posts I’ve written).

Once I had the squeeze page done, I added the opt in image to a text module at squidoo ~ but then I didn’t like how it looked (couldn’t center it), so I tried a “big black box” module and that looked much better. In the big black box module I created a clickable image using the image of my opt in box, that when someone  clicked in the space to put their name in they were taken to the actual squeeze page to sign up. (Make sure you open it in a new window so they can get back to your lens again.)

How’s it working?

Generally I get about 5 new people a day. I’ve grown that list (without doing any additional work) to over 850 people. It’s working pretty well.

Why bother?

Being able to contact people once they’ve left your site is huge. Now I can send these people emails ~ which generally lead them back to my blog (for the tutorials they asked for), and they get to know me better. I get to help them out, they get to learn about products that might help them out in their backlinking journey, AND when I put out my new backlinking product I had over 850 targeted people to invite to check it out.

Who should try this?

I’m not going to advise you to start sticking opt in images on every one of your lenses. In fact, you probably won’t use this technique on many at all… I have, I think this one and maybe one other out of all my lenses. But, when you have a lens that’s stable at number one for a rather general topic, and it’s getting quite a bit of traffic, and it has multiple products that could be recommended, it might be worth it.

Having a way to connect with your lens readers even after they leave your lens can be priceless.

What do you think? Do you have a lens that might be worth adding an opt in box to?

Are You Building Lenses or Building a Business?

I hear from a lot of people… many times I hear something like this:

I have built a bunch of lenses, but I’m not making any money.

My first question for them is this:

Are you just building lenses or are you doing the rest of the work?

The thing is, you can build lenses until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t do the follow up work ~ which is really like 80% of the work you should be doing, you’re not going to make money. Lenses alone do not a business make.

Here’s a question:

What if you decided to set a goal to have 1 new keyword (lens) ranking on page 1 each month for the next year?

What would that kind of goal do for you? Would it make you focus on one lens at a time? Would it get you building links to get your keywords ranking? Would it help you stop doing incessant keyword research? Would it help you stop checking your stats multiple times a day? Would it help you figure out what the “right” actions are for you to be taking during the day? Would it move you to create a plan of action?

When you change your goals, it changes your actions. When you change your actions (depending on those changes) you begin to change your results.

If you are wanting to create a primarily passive income from Squidoo you need to stop focusing on making lens after lens and start focusing on getting your keywords those lenses target to rank on the first page… top 5 would be best.

Are you willing to shift your focus? Are you willing to start taking the actions that need to be done to get your lenses ranking for your keywords?

Do you know how to do that? Can you create a plan to get it done?

Let me know. If there’s things I can help you with to make this happen I will be glad to do it, but you have to make the decision. You have to decide if you’re just going to keep building lenses or if you’re going to build a business.

Amazon Modules or Your Own Links?

I recently had a reader ask me a question about the difference between using Amazon modules and direct links on your lenses. He said they both point directly to Amazon ~ what gives?

It’s a good question and something that is important to understand, so let’s talk about it today. Then you can ask questions and make decisions for your business that will be best for you.

1. Amazon modules ~ Squidoo provides quite a few different amazon modules. These modules make linking to an Amazon product super duper easy. You basically go to amazon and grab the ASIN number, stick it in where asked for and the module does all the work for you.

With such ease of use why wouldn’t you use the modules.

Here’s the thing:

Every amazon module uses Squidoo’s affiliate ID. So when you make a sale through a module it’s basically like Squidoo making a sale, and then through your Squidoo dashboard they give you a portion of the commission they made. This ends up being about 4% on whatever the product was you sold.

Squidoo makes tons and tons of Amazon sales a month so you can bet they are at the 8.5% rate for commissions. So when they split that with you it comes to about 4%.

2. Your Amazon links ~ If you go to Amazon and find the product, hit the “link to this product” and use your own affiliate ID to create the link you can use this link on Squidoo. You can create visual calls to action, or text links using your targeted keyword in the anchor text. You can even connect your link to images in your lens. It takes a little bit more work, and it takes a little more html knowledge to put it all together.

Does it pay off?

Totally depends. If you only make a few sales a month from Amazon it probably isn’t worth all the extra work ~ you’ll end up making about 4% commission from your sales. However, even if you make only 7 sales of Amazon products in a month your commission goes up to 6%. So even if you aren’t making a ton of sales, but you’re making more than 6 a month, it’s worth it to use your own links.

If you make 31 sales in a month your commission increases to 6.5% so it would REALLY be worth your while to NOT use the modules and use your own links instead. (here’s the complete chart if you want to take a look)

Any sales you make through your own affiliate links will NOT show up on your Squidoo dashboard. They will show up in your Amazon Associates account. They will also not show up in your Earnings area until the product has actually been shipped to the customer, until then they will only show up in your orders area.

One more thing to keep in mind… these numbers are not based on the sales of one lens ~ they are based on all the sales you make from any place you have amazon links… the total number of sales for your whole account. So if you have 10 lenses, and they each make 1 sale a month you would already be at the higher commission range than what using the easy modules will offer you.

Now it’s time to decide…

Are you going to use the modules or create your own links?

1. How many sales are you making?

2. How well do you know how to use html?

3. How much more frustration is it going to be for you to create your own links?

4. How much more time is it going to take to create your own links ~ how many less lenses will you get done if you start doing your own links?

5. Is the difference in time/frustration/number of lenses you can create worth the difference in the commission level?

Those are some things I would think about if I was making this decision.

If you need any help, or have questions… feel free to ask in the comments.

Reader Squidoo Lens Review

In a recent post I offered up some keywords I had found. They were keywords that didn’t exactly fit the mold for the Squidoo Christmas Cash template, but would still work quite well for lenses, you’d just need to use a little imagination. If you chose to create a unique lens (not using the exact SCC template) I would put your lens through Traffic Bug for you. There were some of you who took me up on my offer, and I’ve submitted all your lenses to Traffic Bug.

While I was looking at them though, I noticed a few things and thought it would be fun to do a quick review of one of the lenses that was made.

I chose the Jungle Party Supplies lens to review for a couple reasons. It used one of the keywords I provided.  It was  ”plural” keyword which means you have to get a little more creative, and the person used a lot of Amazon modules.

The thing I RRRR want to get across here, is even if you’re not using the exact Squidoo Christmas Cash outline there are still some things that are crucial you do. These are things that help your on page SEO ~ which helps Googe know what your lens is about, and helps them choose to rank it for your targeted keywords.

Brittany did a pretty good job of this, but there’s a couple things she could have done a little differently that will help with the SEO and her conversion.

1. There’s no Intro Module Title.

The titles of your modules are what are known as “H1″ tags. These are the tags that Google looks at the most when trying to figure out what a site is all about you. You definitely want to get your keywords in your module titles ~ especially the ones nearest the top.

2. Keywords in the lens url and title ~ good job on this one!

3. No link in your intro module.

There has been a lot of testing done by Squidoo and they have learned that the first link in a lens is the one that is clicked by far, the most often. (that’s why they have info links in the intro module). If you have an affiliate link you can use, you should always use it as close to the beginning of the intro module as you can ~ with your targeted keywords as the anchor text. (Anchor text is another way Google identifies what a page is about).

4. Poll Module isn’t really related to the topic.

You want all your content to be congruent. People looking for party supplies are probably trying to put together a party. Maybe a better poll would be to ask what kind of jungle party supplies they need/looking for? This will allow you to put your keywords in the poll module title ~ it will also give you great information as to what products to really feature in your lens. If everyone is looking for jungle candy ~ and you’re not offering it, well that’s something good to know.

5. Amazon spotlight module:

Nice way to use the module ~ just make sure you use your keywords in the title. Use them in a way that will help the reader understand the product is ALL the supplies in one party pack. I didn’t really get that the first time I looked at it.

Also with these spotlight modules ~ used in the lens itself ~ you might want to pull some content, whether it’s a product description or a review out and put it in the “why should this product be highlighted?” area. A little more content is always a good thing. (this isn’t necessarily true if you’re using the spotlight module in the sidebar)

6. The amazon modules:

Remember the keyword you are targeting is jungle party supplies ~ you want to include the targeted keyword as often as you can ~ so maybe instead of “Jungle Party Hats” You use Jungle Party Supplies ~ Hats as your module title.

Each of these amazon modules also gives you room to write some content in the description area. I would use it. Write a little bit about how hats are going to add to the party. People are obviously looking for supplies, but you want to give them the confidence that what you are offering is going to be perfect for what they are doing. This kind of content is going to help increase your click through and conversion rates. You will have them “sold” before they even get to Amazon which is exactly what you want to do.

7. from _____

In your titles you’re using Hats from Amazon, music from itunes ~ I wouldn’t do that. You want to give them a benefit to THEM ~ so instead maybe Jungle music to keep your guests dancing ~ or the party moving or whatever. It doesn’t matter where it’s coming from, what’s important is what’s in it for them.

8. video ~ love it.

This is a great video ~ and again, in your title you want to give them a way it’s going to benefit them. Jungle animal cupcakes is boring ~ you want to spice it up and give them a reason to watch the video.

9. Call to action

This lens is really missing a call to action. There’s no place that tells them what the next step is, what they should do next. I’m thinking you don’t have an amazon account ~ but even without one you can create a call to action using the spotlight module ~ You really want to have something that tells them what to do next “click here” kind of thing.

All in all this is a great start ~ some things you can tweak to help with your SEO and conversion but off to a good start.  While doing lenses is fun, remember creating the lens is really the smallest part of the process. You’ve got to build links using your targeted keyword as the anchor text to get this lens to rank for your keywords.

This was just a brief review of a lens. I offer lens reviews, and they are much more in depth with more information, tips and ways to improve your lens. If you think you could benefit from a lens review I’d be glad to do one for you. You can find all the squidoo lens review details here.

3 Most Asked Squidoo Questions

I get emails about Squidoo pretty frequently. Most of the emails have some version of the same three questions. Here’s the questions from an email I received yesterday. I’ve taken out the hi, how are you’s, and just left the questions.

1. How long lens will be indexed and get ranking on page 1 google? 3-6 months?

2. Sorry this is quite to the point, but do you think we are able to get decent income from Squidoo lenses alone?

3. If now I start to make new lenses to prepare Christmas time, do you think I can make it?  I am thinking that the time span it’s quite short to promote the lenses and get rank on Google.

1. How long will it take to get to page 1?

This completely depends on the keyword you’ve chosen ~ the level of competition the keyword has and how diligently you build backlinks to the lens.

I’ve had lenses indexed and ranked in a day. I have lenses that were indexed in 24 hours and STILL don’t rank for the keyword.

There is no set answer to this question because there are too many variables, between the keywords you choose, and the action you take.

You can certainly choose keywords with minimal competition and get them indexed in a day or two ~ if you do some basic linking.

It’s possible to get them ranking on the first page in a week, to a couple months ~ again depending on the competition level of the keyword and how diligently and consistently you build backlinks to the lens.

2. Can I Create a Full Time Income from Squidoo?

You probably can, but why would you want to? I love Squidoo, don’t get me wrong. But I would never create my entire income from a site I don’t own, where someone else makes the rules.  The thing is… your lens could be locked or taken down at any point, simply because Squidoo decides to change the rules.

The other thing about Squidoo is it’s going to take a LOT of lenses. I’m not talking 5 or 10 here. If you’re trying for a full time income you’re going to need at least 100 lenses (probably more than that) … researched, promoted, backlinks built, the whole process done for EACH and EVERY lens.

People do make a good income from Squidoo. (You can see here how many lenses Capt Squid has) I would not personally use it as my main income source though. It is a perfect place to get started, to learn SEO, to learn about creating content, to learn about conversion ~ and what it takes to get people to click through and buy. It’s great to earn your first dollar ~ or your regular $500 a month. But at that point I would take some of my earnings and reinvest it into a hosting account and start building sites I own ~ using all the things I learned from working at Squidoo.

3. If I start now, can I make it before Christmas?

If you don’t start now, you’ll never make it for Christmas. The first year I did the Christmas Cash Blueprint I started in the beginning of October. It cut it close ~ and I had to work my ass off, but I did get some of my lenses to page one and made some money.

The next year those lenses had some age on them and they did quite well again.

It’s not all about “today” or “this Christmas”, these product lenses are products people are using throughout the year. People buy stuff all year long, they happen to get into a bit of a feeding frenzy the last couple months of the year, but the work you do on these product lenses doesn’t end the day after Christmas. These lenses will continue to work for you for sometimes years to come.

So… in conclusion:

1. You’ll never get to page 1 until you decide to do something and do it.

2. You’ll never get to a full time income until you decide to do something and do it.

3. You’ll never get something ready for Christmas until you decide to do something and do it.

I truly appreciate your questions… I truly appreciate the doubt and the fear that is involved in getting started, in making a decision.

But really. If you don’t decide and get started you will not reach any goals.

What’s your decision? What are you going to do today? Pick something… (just about everything will work, so pick something) and start doing it. Daily. Consistently. Persistently. Today.