Confessions of a Giant Squid

My first inkling of something called Squidoo was in an interview Seth Godin did with Etsy's online blog The Storque. I have a store on Etsy featuring some items from my brick and mortar gallery, Lake Erie Artists Gallery, and was in the process of adding a shopping cart to my home website. I was looking for ways to promote Lake Erie Artists Gallery on the internet. I am really a total novice to the internet, and pretty much soak up whatever I can from sources all around me, (including my teenage daughter, Tamar, who introduced me to Facebook).

The article, initially about how to market Etsy to men, sparked my attention. I had heard of Seth Godin's books before, although I had never read one; I knew that he advocated permission marketing, so I decided to look into Squidoo.

I am the owner of a unique gallery in Cleveland, Ohio----Lake Erie Artists Gallery, and a jewelry designer. My primary goal is to promote my gallery, my artwork, and the artwork of the artists that I represent in my gallery.

This year, I have been working to steadily to increase my presence online through social networking. From the interview, Squidoo, seemed like it would be another place to promote Lake Erie Artists Gallery.

So I joined and I wrote a few lenses--about the gallery, about myself, and about my job as a gallery owner.

Once I had written my lenses, I wasn't sure what to do next. Then I happened upon a lens that drew me right in--Are you a Stay at Home Mom (or Dad) Interested in Earning a Monthly Income? by Janet 21.

I am not a stay at home mom, but I was looking to make extra income to help stabilize the bottom line of my gallery. The art business is tough, especially in Cleveland.

Janet's lens really inspired me. First of all, I was really intrigued by the idea that over time, I could really make money on Squidoo. I had been working all year to build the gallery in many ways and this could be one more. I was willing to work for it, and wait several months to see results.

I took Janet's advice. The first step was to submit my lenses to the Isle of Squid. Then I started submitting to other forums, and sites listed on her lens. I started really learning more about Squidoo, and how to promote my lenses and how to make them better.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

About the Author

Seth Godin is the author of ten international bestsellers, including the New York Times bestseller The Dip. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and include Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, and Meatball Sundae. He is also the founder and CEO of Squidoo.com (a huge and fast-growing tribe) and the most popular business blogger in the world.

Tribe Management (from Seth's blog-posted by Seth Godin on January 30, 2008)

Brand management is so 1999.

Brand management was top down, internally focused, political and money based. It involved an MBA managing the brand, the ads, the shelf space, etc. The MBA argued with product development and manufacturing to get decent stuff, and with the CFO to get more cash to spend on ads.

Tribe management is a whole different way of looking at the world.

It starts with permission, the understanding that the real asset most organizations can build isn't an amorphous brand but is in fact the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them.

It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.

And of course, since this is so important, product development and manufacturing and the CFO work for the tribal manager. Everything the organization does is to feed and grow and satisfy the tribe.

Instead of looking for customers for your products, you seek out products (and services) for the tribe. Jerry Garcia understood this. Do you?

Who does this work for? Try record companies and bloggers, real estate agents and recruiters, book publishers and insurance companies. It works for Andrew Weil and for Rickie Lee Jones and for Rupert at the WSJ... But it also works for a small web development firm or a venture capitalist.

People form tribes with or without us. The challenge is to work for the tribe and make it something even better.

One of the challenges to becoming a Giant Squid is that you have to create at least 50 quality lenses. What I learned along the way is that finding 50 lens topics is not hard.

Each lens was a new learning process that I needed to go through to continue to make better lenses. On each lens I tried something new that I learned from doing research on Squidoo and reading other people's lenses.

Every time that I write a lens now, that lens is better than all of the lenses that I have written before because I use the giant squid information that I have learned along the way.

Writing about a closely focused niche is what a lens is all about. That is more difficult than it sounds, but it makes the lenses sharper and more interesting. By really focusing on a topic, you have to write a richer, more developed lens with better research.

I had trouble finding a niche at first that readers really responded to. That was discouraging. But I kept writing anyway, and happened upon a subject of interest--living green. From there, I learned to find ideas in other lenses, and learn from other lensmasters.

"When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing." ~Enrique Jardiel Poncela

I am very proud of being part of the Squidoo community. And this is a site with a real community. The SquidU Forum is just full of encouraging, helpful people that have more experience in one way or another, and the great thing is--they want to share!

I have learned so much from other lensmasters over the past few months. There is no way to list all of you here, but thank you. And what is so great now, is that I can find newbies and help them learn.

I am going to devote the rest of this lens to letting you know what resources I use to improve my lenses. There is no secret formula or catch. All successful lensmasters spend a lot of sweat equity on each and every lens, group, forum, or directory that they run.

You can write a lens in 5 minutes but a great lens takes much longer. And each lens is a work in process. The best ones are consistently being updated, revised, and added to. Content is king, and it is what the search engines look for. So don't skimp on content. Everything that you add to your lens is something that a person may search for online. So make your additions count.

I am an artist, and I believe that people like to look at great pictures.

And pictures are not the only way to make your lens look great! There are loads of ways to make your lens interesting without cluttering it up.

Here are some of the lenses that I have used cool special effects to enhance the look of the lens.

Rosh Hashanah--The Jewish New Year

Wedding Gift Guide: Where to Find the Hottest, Most Trendy Gifts

Weddings Gone Green

Unusual, Unique, and One of a Kind Holiday Gifts

More information on this mousepad can be found here.

No matter how great your lens is, it will not get noticed unless you promote it. Or maybe I should say, it will get noticed by more people much, much faster if you promote it.

There are many places online to promote your lenses, and also places offline. Some very simple hints are to add your lenses or lensmaster page to your email signature. If you have a blog, then add it there. Most of us are already members of some online communities; talk about your topics, add links to your lenses, find discussions where you can bring them up. The more backlinks you have, the more roadways that traffic can follow to find your lens.

I want to make a special mention of SquidUtils, a site run by thefluffanutta. This site has very useful tools to help you understand some of the ways that your lenses are linked to the rest of the internet, and how to streamline your lenses to make them more search engine friendly. I know that thefluffanutta has way beyond my own understanding on these topics and I appreciate his willingness to share with the Squidoo community.
Update on 12/3/2008: After chatting with thefluffanutta and Captain Squid in the Squidoo Chat Room yesterday, I was interested in trying out the upgrades to SquidUtils, especially the keyword evaluator. Captain Squid and thefluffanutta assured me that it would only work in Firefox. I hadn't used Firefox before, but decided to take the plunge, and now I am so sorry that I didn't before. I have been missing so much that SquidUtils can offer. What Firefox does is integrate SquidUtils right into the regular lensmaster dashboard. It is incredible! This is a must do for every lensmaster! You don't know what you are missing until you try it out.

There are really very many resources on Squidoo, so many that they can be hard to keep track of, especially for newbies. Adez7, recently created The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe of Squidoo Lens Creation! to help guide all of us through the Squidoo Universe.

The Hitchhiker's Guide is jam packed with loads of links to useful and informative lenses. Adez7 has done a wonderful job of providing us with a thorough guide as to where to find information on how to Squidoo. This is a lens to bookmark and revisit when you have a question.

Do you have a style? This building does.

When we write on the internet, it is very similar to speaking in public.

In some ways, we are reverting to an earlier era, when most people communicated via correspondence, before telephones. The difference is the rate at which we communicate.

My point is that your writing needs to reflect your personality. You need to develop a style that your fans can come to rely on.

You may have one style of writing for your blog, another for Facebook, and even one or two for Squidoo. However, I firmly believe that you should have a style that is your own. That will add life to your lenses, and invite people into your subject matter, whatever it may be.

To get an idea of what I mean, read other lensmasters' work with style in mind. See if you can see the differences between, for instance, the way Jaguar Julie writes and rms writes.

Everyone can make money online with Squidoo. But it is not a get rich overnight kind of scheme. And frankly, that makes me believe in Squidoo even more, because "there is no free lunch". Squidoo is similar to many businesses in that you have to build your customer base, your inventory, and your marketing in order to make real money. The more customers that come into your store, the more customers that will buy.

Squidoo has several ways that you can earn money either for yourself or for charity. It is very easy to monetize your lens.

I do want to urge caution when you do monetize your lens. Your customer is more likely to donate or buy from you if you encourage them, not slam them with a giant commercial. Think about how you feel when approached by an in your face salesman. As offensive as that can be in person, in writing it can even be more offensive and annoying.

I recommend either writing your lens around the topic of what you are selling or selling items that relate to your content. Let your customer decide to browse or buy based on your interesting content. And if your lens is all about selling, then let the reader know in the introduction, so that they don't feel duped. An example of this is my lens, Unusual, Unique, and One of a Kind Holiday Gifts. The first sentence of the introduction is, "This holiday gift guide is an eclectic mix of unusual, unique, and one-of-a-kind gifts." That way, if someone isn't interested, they just won't even click on it.

In addition to the money you can make through Squidoo tiered ranking, and through Squidoo money making modules, another way to earn money from your lenses is to become an affiliate marketer.

Affiliate marketers sign up with companies to help promote products and services. You can sign up with some companies directly, but most you have to sign up with through an agent or broker. Most affiliate programs cost you absolutely nothing to join, and they pay when a customer uses your link to purchase a product or service. Your payout usually comes 45 to 60 days later.

Here are some of the companies that I am signed up with:

Clickbank



Commission Junction

Pepperjam Network--they give you a $10 Sign On Bonus



LinkShare UK

Amazon

The AllPosters.com Affiliates Program

As anyone in any kind of business knows, in order to get people to come to your store or buy your product, you need to market. Marketing is a tough concept to explain for people who don't already know what it is--but this is how I think of it.

If you are having a party at your house, and you want people to come, you invite them either by phone, by mail or evite. Otherwise, how else do they know about the party? Sometimes you ask them to RSVP to confirm that they are coming.

Inviting people to the party is the essence of marketing. You are not selling anything, you are inviting. You may sell something in the end, but if so, it is your guest who makes that decision.

Marketing for a website or lens is the same as marketing for a brick and mortar store. You can market by passing out business cards, or other print items that have your website or lensmaster web address. You can market one single lens or all of your lenses.

Marketing offline will send traffic to your lenses. Frankly, I would put it on your business cards, or on postcards and just hand them out when you meet people at various events. I do it all of the time when I meet people anywhere to let them know about my gallery.

The one thing to understand about marketing is that you never know when you will get a return on your investment. Sometimes it happens immediately, but more often it happens when you are not expecting it, months later.

Today I received the news that I made it into the Giant Squid 100 Club. I was extremely thrilled to become part of this hardworking, elite group of Giant Squids.

One of the things I have come to love about Squidoo, is how much the members of the community support each other and help each other grow. I have seen evidence of this support over and over as I learn to become a better lensmaster. This Squidoo community does an outstanding job of blending the strengths of its individuals together into one synergistic whole.

I am truly proud to be part of this dynamic, growing community and invite you to join us as a Giant Squid, but know that it takes a lot of dedication and work to get here, and many people do not make it the first time they apply. In my opinion, the journey to Giant Squid is well worth the work. So don't get discouraged. Every lens you write is another step toward Giant.

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