Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by GIZMO GEODOG on February 19, 2013 at 11:09am

Kathy I'm not exactly sure what the Squidoo lens is/does...I'd love an explanation of why that was your first step

Permalink Reply by cd mclean on February 19, 2013 at 3:02pm

I pinned it to Coach's pinterest page!  Very nice.  I'm not sure either what a squidoo lens does...

Cheryl and Coach

Permalink Reply by Kirby andLea on February 19, 2013 at 6:16pm

I would like to know what the sqidoo lens does/is too..

Permalink Reply by Kathy H Porter on February 19, 2013 at 7:31pm

Thanks for jumping in to help and I'll try to answer all of your questions - I'm a newbie to Squidoo too so we can learn together. One thing that it can be is a way to create a passive income around a niche topic. I didn't realize this when I looked at Squidoo - but that's very much a part of how it can work. Think of the platform as a "ramped up" version of your blog - you can "repurpose" some of your blog content and include related products from Amazon that people can buy if they want to. Once your "lens" is built - think of a lens as a mini-blog, Squidoo will build into it related AdSense and contextual link adds. Those become a source of income too. How much money you can make, I have NO idea - one nice feature is that you can "take the cash" or decide to donate some or all of it one of the charities that Squidoo supports. (PS Seth Godin is one of the guys who created Squidoo which, for me, is an automatic "Good housekeepiing seal of approval."

BTW, it's all free to set up and you can have a 4-5 block lens set up in less than 40 minutes.

My purpose with the lens that I created is to have it be part of a link-building strategy to drive traffic to my Amazon sales page for my book. If you noticed, the one direct link (that's mine, not any of the contextual links) is set up in one of the blocks - Squidoo calls them modules - it's that block near the bottom that says "Remember to buy "my" book.

About the money-making part of this: there are no "hidden agendas" to lens - the ways that you can monetize them are pretty straightforward: Amazon, AdSense adds, contextual links - these two happen natually depending on what the topic of the lens is - or eBay.  I may go back and add a few more dog-related lens linked to my first one just to play around with this aspect of it.

It was a lot of fun and really easy to make this lens. Squidoo has a pretty foolproof platform put together and there is a pretty active Squidoo community....

I'm probably leaving out a lot - I'm still learning myself. You're more than welcome to look over my shoulder I haven't connected the Google Analytics to my lens yet, but when that happens, it will be interesting to see what happens.

How was that? Do you feel like you've been through Squidoo 101 yet?

Permalink Reply by Kathy H Porter on February 19, 2013 at 7:35pm

I'm "re-purposing" some of the content from my dog blog onto different online platforms. Squidoo was recommended by someone I know who's been online for a long time very successfully using different platforms to drive traffic to his own profit-making web sites - I'm going to see if I can drive traffic to my Amazon sales page using some of the strategies he talks about....And building a Squidoo lens was 1sr on his list...mostly because it's pretty darn easy to make one. I only wish my web site had been this easy!

GIZMO GEODOG said:

Kathy I'm not exactly sure what the Squidoo lens is/does...I'd love an explanation of why that was your first step

Permalink Reply by Kathy H Porter on February 19, 2013 at 7:37pm

Thank you for that, Cheryl. Let me know if my rather lengthy discourse on Squidoo was helpful. My best advice is to suggest that you go poke around the site to see what other lens people have made. And there is an animal/pets category....
cd mclean said:

I pinned it to Coach's pinterest page!  Very nice.  I'm not sure either what a squidoo lens does...

Cheryl and Coach

Permalink Reply by Katie Shellhorse on February 19, 2013 at 8:55pm

Wow, great lens! Really liked it, so of course I had to tweet it.

Permalink Reply by Kathy H Porter on February 20, 2013 at 6:03am

Why thank you. 

Katie Shellhorse said:

Wow, great lens! Really liked it, so of course I had to tweet it.

Permalink Reply by Kat Bengalcatdomination on February 25, 2013 at 2:57pm

Nice job on your 1st lens at Squidoo. I have been on there about 1  1/2 years.  Some people really love to write on Squidoo. I write a lens here or there, I have 29 that are released. Like anything online you get out what you put into it. Since I don't work on it all the time, I don't make a lot of money from it.

I think it is exciting that you are releasing a book. I had a full size Doberman for many years. After she was gone I considered getting a min pin but read a lot about them having terrible separation anxiety.  Right now a dog does not suit our family lifestyle so we have out cats.   If I ever get another dog someday, it will be a small one.

Permalink Reply by Kathy H Porter on February 25, 2013 at 3:07pm

Fortunately, separation anxiety isn't one of Tessa's issues - one of my whippets had it - not pleasant. Thanks for your comments about my book - it's fun to hear other people's reactions after they've read it.

I hear you loud and clear about lifestyle and large dogs - we've always had large/giant breeds which might explain my fascination with smaller dogs these days.....  Kathy

Kat Bengalcatdomination said:

Nice job on your 1st lens at Squidoo. I have been on there about 1  1/2 years.  Some people really love to write on Squidoo. I write a lens here or there, I have 29 that are released. Like anything online you get out what you put into it. Since I don't work on it all the time, I don't make a lot of money from it.

I think it is exciting that you are releasing a book. I had a full size Doberman for many years. After she was gone I considered getting a min pin but read a lot about them having terrible separation anxiety.  Right now a dog does not suit our family lifestyle so we have out cats.   If I ever get another dog someday, it will be a small one.