Paul Duxbury

How To Build A Squidoo Lens

March 25th, 2007

It’s ten days into the Squidoo Challenge and as from here on in it’s about more tinkering. The lens I entered into the Challenge Hair Loss Remedies has risen from a lensrank (rating) of about 109,000 at the outset to 486 as of today. It’s also rated 13th in the Health Category of lenses. So I thought it would be an opportune time to post some thoughts and reflections.

Why Use Squidoo?

The most obvious question to start with and perhaps a way of explaining a little about why I like it so much! Let’s just recap on what Squidoo actually is! It’s a community of people who are building web pages, which they call lenses, in a diverse range of subjects. In fact the range of topics is incredibly diverse! The other great thing about Squidoo lens building is that it is easy! You have a series of modules that you can pull together and develop. It’s almost like one of those “drag and drop” type website builders and you have the opportunity to tweak them as you become more adept with using their system.

To quote the people at Squidoo when asked why you should use them:

It’s free.
It’s amazingly easy to set up.
People with lenses get more traffic to their blogs and other sites.
People with lenses earn money.

In fact I use that last one to donate some money to Charity so you even get to feel good using them!

From a Marketer’s perspective this is ideal! It gives you a great opportunity to create a series of lenses around what are termed the “long tail” phrases within the niches in which you operate. You can drive visitors to your other sites in the niches in which you operate and to your blogs and of course to your affiliate links! For those of you who like me use Firefox they have also added a rather nifty Firefox extension!

So let me give you an example of a lens like that so you understand what I mean. I created How To Stop Your Dog Digging yesterday and by the time of the update today it had already risen from about 109,000 to 6,360 and had been viewed by a fair few people. Now that lens was developed from a PLR article I had sat on my computer doing nothing. Imagine if you are one of those who subscribes to a PLR Membership site where you get packs of articles around particular niches each month. A fantastic opportunity there to develop as many lenses as you want!

So what’s the advantage in building lenses? Well as I mentioned a little while ago there are benefits in terms of being part of a growing community, driving traffic to your other sites and making sales. In addition there is an opportunity to create content in a niche that you want to explore but have not yet had the chance to. So let’s think about the lens that I created for The Squidoo Challenge around Hair Loss and Hair Loss Remedies. I have been able to make some affiliate sales from it and I might therefore decide that it is an area that I want to pursue. Or I might think, well I will just keep it ticking over and see how things go. In fact that is probably what I will do in this instance. However, with some others that I am exploring at the moment I will certainly be developing them much further because I am interested in them and they are profitable.

The other thing to mention is that Google really seem to like Squidoo. There is a bit of a glitch going on at the moment because they have added something like 600 characters worth of javascript at the start of each lens – but from the fuss that is being kicked up at their forum Squidu I suspect that will soon be sorted. I am sure someone more technical will be able to explain that one!

Okay Paul, I hear you say, you have got me interested! What do I need to do to make my first lens?

Building Your Lens

The tips that follow are based on what I have discovered from what I have done on the site. I am sure others will be able to add more and as I continue to learn I will be adding more tips. In fact what I have done is started a new lens today at How To Succeed at Squidoo so that those who are interested can follow along over the coming days and weeks.

So you need to start by creating an account at Squidoo and setting your personal preferences. I think it weighs in your favour if you set your income earning to be split with the charities – no hard evidence but just a gut feel about that one.

Then you will want to take the big leap and start creating your first lens. Don’t worry if you get it wrong at first – you can always delete it! What I would suggest is that you find yourself a niche and then look at something like Good Keywords and find some of the lower rated keyword phrases to build your lens around. Notice how each of the lenses that I have quoted in this post has dashes between the words – as I am sure you have picked up from other threads here that seems to be something that Google like. So go with it!

Okay you have created your lens, chosen your category and you have added the first set of keywords as they request, you are half way there! Then a page appears saying “Edit Your Lens.” Don’t panic! I have this vision of Sergeant Jones from Dad’s Army at the moment – which may mean nothing to non-UKer’s! However, really do not panic! Have a play, try adding some modules and even get really adventurous and try deleting some. You can always add them back. In fact I would strongly recommend that you do add and delete some and fill them with content and see how they look. Until you push the big button labelled “Publish” no-one will see your creation.

Once you have started to get a little more familiar with the way it works it’ time to get serious about building your lens. Here’s what I did with my The Squidoo Challenge Lens and what I will be replicating at How To Succeed With Squidoo so that you can follow along.

Day One of Your Lens you should

Add an Introduction – conveniently they have a module called Introduction already there for you. Put a few words about the Lens and what you will be covering. Make sure you use your primary keywords (the name of your lens) in the Introduction and “bold” them. Add an appropriate picture so that your lens is already starting to look different than others and draws the reader in.

Add Some Content. This is done through the Text/Write Module. Content is vital if your lens is to be taken seriously and rated by visitors. It’s something that an increasing number of marketers seem to be forgetting that actually we do need to have content which real people can read when we are trying to get their attention! You can use some basic html in the Text/Write Module so you can have links in there if you wish. You can also “bold” your keyword phrase which again helps.

Add some Interactivity. Web 2.0 sites are about interacting with your visitor and giving them the opportunity to make comments or take a poll. So we have the Guestbook and the Poll Module which you can add. Here’s a good place to talk about adding Affiliate Products. The Links Plexo Module allows you to add your links and give the visitor the opportunity to vote on them. This is the module through which I would ordinarily add some affiliate links.

Now take a break! I am very conscious that this post has become very long! I will add more tips through the lens I have already mentioned over at How To Succeed With Squidoo during the next few weeks. Have a look around that lens and see what you notice I have already done that will hopefully help it move from it’s first day ranking of 110,406

For now take action!

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