The latest Site Reference newsletter is reprinted here. Read the featured article titled “How I Made 78 Cents On Squidoo!” by Titus Hoskins. [Newsletter Reprint]


The latest Site Reference newsletter is reprinted here.

How I Made 78 Cents On Squidoo!

by Titus Hoskins

Don’t laugh, this is not as insignificant as you might think at first glance. Not by a long shot.

Actually, it is quite significant.

Here’s why: making any amount of money on the web from a free site is quite rare.

At least this has been my experience. Others will no doubt disagree and argue otherwise, but I have found very few free sites worth pursuing. Google’s Blogspot using Adsense is the only other exception that readily comes to mind.

Not that I haven’t tried looking for these free sites in the past. When I first started exploring the web around 10 years ago I tried out a lot of foolish ‘make-money’ sites like getting paid to read emails, paid-to-surf… etc.

Everybody Loves A Freebie!

They tell me people actually make money at these kinds of programs but I could never get them to work for me. Probably lack of patience on my part or not enough will-power to keep working these sites. Most are a waste of time because you’re simply building someone else’s and VRE. They own this domain and content – not you.

I never really started earning any significant online income until I created my own domain and web site. You must create your own virtual real estate. Your own content. Your own domains. Your own sites. It is the correct way to proceed unless…

Unless… you just don’t have the funds or resources to create and build your own sites. The next best thing is using a Web 2.0 program like Squidoo.

What Is Squidoo?

Squidoo is a free easy-to-use service or site that lets anyone post or write a lens (web page) on any subject that they have expertise in.

Squidoo lets you create your own lenses and pick highly valuable keyword phrases in your Squidoo URL. They are still some very worthwhile URLS to be claimed and more being born as new products come online.

Experienced marketers will know to place popular (well searched for) keywords or keyword phrases in their Squidoo URL and then have these keywords in the title of your lens and sprinkled throughout the page. Don’t overdo it, but optimize your lens for your chosen keywords. Savvy marketers also know using a long tail keyword phrase often results in more targeted traffic which converts better.

How Is Squidoo Different?

Squidoo is a quality site. It offers highly focused content which often rises to the top of the search engine rankings very quickly. The Squidoo site has a PR7 (Page Rank) in Google. According to Alexa, Squidoo is ranked in the top 1000 sites on the whole web.

Why Is Squidoo Effective?

The main reason Squidoo is effective stems from its vibrant online community constantly creating diverse quality content and links. In the process, this community has made Squidoo a search engine haven. As with Wikipedia, Squidoo can be seen as the ultimate authority site. Besides, it is fun and easy to use because you have all your valuable content and links on one convenient page. It is also community rated so all the cream rises to the top!

How You Can Earn By Using Squidoo?

Every page on Squidoo carries Google AdSense ads which generate funds for the site and you. Also you can display affiliate links from Amazon, eBay and CafePress… Squidoo is more like a co-op where you share in the revenues generated from your lenses. There is also a charity element where you can donate your earnings to a whole host of charity groups.

Keep in mind, Squidoo is completely scalable. As with any marketing venture, once you know how to create that first one dollar profit, all you have to do is scale it up. If you make one dollar with one page, create a hundred pages and you will make…

Why You Should Use Squidoo?

From a purely SEO angle, Squidoo is worth your time, even if you’re a professional marketer making 2 or 300 dollars a day from your sites. Squidoo lets you quickly tap into the whole Web 2.0 social media tagging system. It will help you improve your rankings for your other sites if you closely tie-in your links and content.

This is not keyword spamming. You must create unique quality content on Squidoo in order to generate the interest in your lenses. In a community monitored site like Squidoo, quality content does rise to the top. Done properly, Squidoo will easily let you tap into the whole Web 2.0 everyone is talking about.

In addition, Squidoo is an excellent hands-on training field for anyone wishing to learn more about Internet Marketing. It is the perfect place to study affiliate marketing and you can discover how SEO really works without even spending a dime.

More importantly, Squidoo is just plain easy and a whole lot of fun. Besides, if you give it a try, chances are almost 100% certain that you will make more than 78 cents!
Copyright (c) 2007 Titus Hoskins

About this author

The author is a full-time online marketer. For the most effective internet marketing tools try: http://www.bizwaremagic.com
One of best free resources on Squidoo is from Bob Jenkins:
http://bizwaremagic.com/Recommends/Squidoo-Secrets.htm
2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Webmaster Discussions

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

I finally have talked a client into a paid directory campaign. ie; targeting directories that only accept paid listings. I was thinking the first two would dir.yahoo.com and business.com were the big one I was gonna submit to right away. What are some other paid-listing directories that pass the most page rank for the buck?

http://bizwaremagic.com/Recommends/Squidoo-Secrets.htm

This is in reference to this SR article below. As I point out in the Editor Note the author’s findings should not be interpreted to mean that 7Search and Google are the best PPC providers in general. Different people will experience different results. The point the author makes which I think is very important is that analytics should not stop at the CTR (click thru rate) but rather to the cost per desired action (desired action being a sale or sign-up for example).

Analytics- Which Program to choose?

I’d never use google analytics I’d love to get full version of urchin installed and get all our sites on it, but for now i use AWstats and some stuff i built myself. There’s only so much information you can get out of your weblogs, and they’re only useful if you know what you’re looking for and act on the information you get.

Social Sites- Worth the Effort?

I set up a paid account with Stumble Upon a while back and have been pleased with the results. Similar to what’s been mentioned in earlier posts above concerning demographics, the site I promote on Stumble Upon is aimed at 18-30’s, so perhaps this has a bearing on it’s success. It wouldn’t be suitable for some of the other sites I manage. Perhaps an easy intro to paid Social Media Marketing for those with a bit of budget.

Web site popping in and out on Google

I have had my web site for 7 plus years and am nearly always on Google’s first search page for keywords “shower curtains”. Last month my site started jumping around from page to page and often is not on some of the search pages at all ! I can check in the a.m. and I am gone and in the p.m. I am listed.

Adsense Targeting

Adsense is geotargeted. The ads that I see on my site, in many cases, would be quite different to the ads that overseas visitors would see on the same page. From the perspective of clicks and adsense revenue, that’s OK. People will click on ads that are geotargeted to their own location and I get the 10c. However, when I do my homework in Adwords Keyword Tool, I’m looking at keyword sugestions and bid prices from a global database which is heavily weighted toward the US and secondally the UK, because of the population differences

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