Archive for the ‘Squidoo Secrets’ Category

I’m a firm believer in making your Squidoo lens pretty. You want people to land on it and feel like they’re in the right spot for professional information. Think about if you were handed a plain old flyer someone printed out with nothing more than text on it versus a nice colorful brochure with text wrapped around relevant images.

Which would you consider the authority on the subject matter?

The same goes for all of your web 2.0 pages - Squidoo, Google Knol, Hub Pages. You need formatting and images that make it pop.

Let me show you a comparison right now. Which one would you rather visit and buy from:

This lens: http://www.squidoo.com/glasschristmasornament

or

This one: http://www.squidoo.com/toptoddlertoys

The images alone make a world of difference in the experience your visitor has on your lens (or Knol or Hub).

But there’s also some cool formatting you can do, too! You can bold and italicize words. I bold links and italicize to make words pop. This is done with simple HTML code like this: [b] and [i] (replace the brackets [] with arrows <>).

Here’s how to put a color box around a text module and enlarge your text (again, replace brackets [] with arrows <>):

[b][p style="border: 3px solid #069; padding: 14px; text-align: center"][a href='http://www.plrminimart.com/blog' target='_blank'][b style='color: blue; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold']PLR articles[/b][/a][/p][/b]

Using that code, you can change the color, the font-size, and the border color. I’ve hyperlinked my text, too! Here’s the result you’ll get:

To simply change some text to a different color (and bold it), use this code - again, change brackets [] to arrows <>:

[b style="color: green; font-weight: bold;"]green with envy[/b]

This would make green with envy turn to a bold green color!

To wrap text around an image that you host on your server and hyperlink the image, Which is what I love to do, use this code (arrows, not brackets):

[a href="http://www.URLYouWanttoLinkto.com"][img src="http://www.ImageURL.JPG" alt="relevant keyword" align="right" hspace="5" /][/a]

Now you can change the right to left or center and the spacing makes sure the text isn’t sitting right on the border of the image. It’s nice to have a bit of space separating the image and the text.

Where to get images?

IStockPhoto is my top choice. I buy $60 here and there and use them up as I go, keeping the images for later use. They’re $1 per small image, and small is kind of large for the ‘net.

Also, remember to break up your text modules with some Amazon or polls or something else of your choosing.

Hope this helps!
Tiff

Want in on some simple Squidoo Secrets that will help you enhance your lensmaster status? Here are a few Squidoo Secrets we top lensmasters use consistently that you need to implement yourself:

Squidoo Secret #1: Lenses that are more narrow get more traffic. Of course we’re talking generalizations. Sure, there’s the unique case where a lens on “toys” outperforms a lens on “toddler toys,” but if you want your lens to rank well in the SERPs, narrow your niche!

Squidoo Secret #2: Get yourself a good 50 lenses and use a template - it’s a lifesaver when it comes to time. I build templates for various purposes. I have them for specific Build My Lens customers who buy in bulk - 1 for each customer so it suits their needs perfectly. I have them for my Amazon product lenses. I have them for my Lens Alert list where I sell pre-made lenses on niche topics I know will be hot. Shave time off your lens creation.

Squidoo Secret #3: Use QuickBuilder. Located here: http://www.squidoo.com/build/quick the QuickBuilder is a one page lens registration area, so you can forget going from step 1 to step 2 to step 3 to step 4 and then FINALLY getting to edit your screen.

Squidoo Secret #4: Forget tags except add one to your primary lens registration and the same one in your “add more tags.” After that, concentrate on putting tags (keywords) in your titles and content.

Squidoo Secret #5: More modules mean more traffic. It makes good sense, doesn’t it? The more modules you have, the more content you have. The more content you have, the more opportunities you have to attract a search engine user. Do a nice combination of broad and narrow keywords and you’ll cast a wide net.

These are the 5 Squidoo secrets I use on a regular basis. Most people don’t implement them. They read them, then do it their own way - to their detriment.

Tiff