Why Squidoo?

I know, you’re thinking: “But, I don’t have time to manage another website!” The good news is that a Squidoo “lens”, which is just another word for web page, doesn’t require much upkeep. This article will talk about ways to tweak the lens so that you have fresh content without a lot of ongoing maintenance.

The reason you need a Squidoo lens is that the search engines love Squidoo lenses. So, if you’ve decided the time has come to jump in, here are five steps that will make creating a lens as painless as possible.

There are lots of things you can do with a Squidoo lens. And, if you look at a variety of them, you’ll discover all the different variations. These five steps describe a way to create an interesting lens that will attract traffic and help you drive that traffic to your website.

Then, once you have the basics down, if you want to get fancy, there’s plenty of opportunity!

This is a long post, and I didn’t have time to upload any pretty pictures, so prepare yourself!

Step 1: Pick a Topic

Squidoo lenses are one-page websites. You’ll find some that go on for 12 screens, but the folks in the know suggest making a lens of a manageable size. And, you can create a series of lenses that cover different topics, so don’t choose a very broad topic – narrow it down to something manageable.

Using a real estate example, let’s pick this topic: Mayberry Real Estate. Mayberry is a ficticious large planned community in your market area that you are targeting.

Step 2: Pick 2-4 Sub-Topics

At this point, you should be starting to think “Hey, I better write this down.” That’s a great idea. Get out pen and paper and jot down notes, starting with your topic.

Under the topic, list 2-4 bullet points, or sub-topics you want to cover. Keep in mind you want to drive traffic to your website, and you don’t want to spend 3 days writing this lens. To achieve those two objectives, think about the information that already exists on your website that can provide more detail on your sub-topics.

For this example, we’ll choose the following:

• Homes in Mayberry – You decide that the first question people will have about Mayberry is what types of homes are available there. And, you have a page on your main site that describes the various “villages” in the Mayberry development.
• The Mayberry Lifestyle – The second thing that will be on people’s minds is how convenient it is to live in Mayberry. So, you’ll include information about shopping, schools, the HOA, etc.
• Nearby Attractions – It happens that Mayberry is in a great location with easy acccess to both your big city’s amenities, and outdoor recreation areas. And, you have pages on your main site that discuss those two topics.

Step 3: Create Your Lens

Important Note: When you ceate your first lens, you also create a Squidoo account. If you don’t receive the Squidoo account confirmation email, you won’t be able to login to your lens. Here are things to try:

1. If you have strong spam filters on your e-mail account, add the e-mail address squidooteam @ Squidoo.com to your address book or white list before you create a lens
2. If that doesn’t work, Squidoo will confirm your account if you send a bug report using the same email address you used to create the lens. Go to this page: http://www.squidoo.com/pages/feedback and in the drop down list, choose the “Report a Bug” option.

You can use this link to start a new lens at Squidoo. You’ll be guided through the process of setting up a lens, but before you go, jot down a couple more notes:

• Your Squidoo URL: You can’t change this later, so choose well. In this case, the best URL would be MayberryRealEstate. If that is not available, choose the next best thing you can find that includes keywords for your topic.
• Category: You’ll probably put your lens under Business, but there are other choices you can review once you’re creating the lens.
• Keywords: Identify a few keywords – you can always add more later.

Follow the guided set-up process. You can change everything you enter except for the URL.

Step 4: Add Content

A Squidoo lens is made up of a number of content “modules”. There are lots to choose from. These are the basic modules I’d recommend that you use.

1. Introduction – Write a very brief description of what your lens is about.
2. Text/Write Modules – These are the basic building blocks for content. You’d use a separate one for each of your sub-topics. When you first create the lens, there is one already in place. You can easily add more with the Add Module button at the top of the edit page.
3. RSS Feeds – There is one of these in place initially, too. I suggest that you add an RSS feed from your blog or some site related to your topic. This is an easy way to get updated content on your lens without being there!
4. Guest Book – This module is also in place. It allows your visitors to leave comments for you, so it’s a good thing to use. You can change the name of it and write a brief invitation to your visitors to chat.
5. Link List – This is a great little module that allows you to include a list of related resources with brief descriptions of each. This is another easy way to change the content on the site – you can simply add additional resource links periodically. NOTE: This module must be added. Just click on the Add Module button, and click on Next at the bottom of the Basic category to find the link to add it.
6. Featured Lenses – This module lets you add links to other lenses of interest to your visitors. And, adding a few lenses each month will again provide new content to the page. NOTE: This module must be added. Just click on the Add Module button, and it’s the first choice under the “New” category.

To finish your lens you would:

• Edit the Introduction
• Edit the existing Text Module to add information on your first sub-topic
• Add a separate Text Module for your other two sub-topics
• Edit the RSS feed to include your chosen feed
• Edit the Guest Book module to invite interaction
• Add the Link List module and post your links
• Add the Featured Lenses module, although you might need to check out other related lenses before you want to put this on your page!

Once the modules are all there, you can use the Up and Down arrows for each module to get them in the order you think is best. Or, I found it easier to use the Reorder Modules button at the top of the editor.

If you look at the lens I recently created, you’ll notice that there isn’t a lot of detailed information in each text module. So, the task of creating the lens was not overly time-consuming. I wrote an overview of two sub-topics, and used links to my main site to provide the detail.

It’s certainly not the only way to create a lens, but it worked for me to get the lens online without spending weeks getting it done.

Step 5: Publish The Lens

At the top of the “workshop” or where you edit your lens, you’ll notice that there is a large button that says PUBLISH. Your changes won’t be seen on your lens until you publish each time you make changes.

If you’re not ready to publish your lens in one session, you can use the Keep This Draft button to store your changes until you think they’re ready to be seen by the public.

This is another one of those things that is much easier to do than write about! I found the user interface to be fairly intuitive once you have some of the basics down.

Once your lens is in place, you’ll want to do all the things suggested by Squidoo to promote it. And, you’ll want to check your “Dashboard” from time to time to

• See what traffic you’re receiving
• Check the Stats to see where the traffic is coming from
• There’s even a great feature where there is a list of the keywords your lens is being found for, and you can automatically add those keyword phrases to your list of keywords

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Get the site live first – I think you’ll be pleased with the results!