Easy Guestbook Tutorial

Michelle Willow is addicted to Facebook and Twitter sharing. Indeed, she more often than not shares the guestbooks she comments in. Problem being that she mostly shares "Reader Feedback" stuff than actual topic of the lenses she likes. And so, she thought of building a page that would explain her fellow lensmasters why they should edit and customize their guestbook.

As a Greeter, WordCustard enjoys welcoming new Squidoo-ers who built their first lens through their lens guestbook, or adding a first comment to a brand new Squidoo lens built by an experienced lensmaster so that they don't feel lost or left aside. However, she is often frustrated by the average "Reader Feedback" that she often finds on these lenses, which does not encourage any interaction beyond a simple "Welcome to Squidoo" or "Nice lens".

As an Angel on Squidoo, Prosperity66 is always browsing the whole Squidoo community, looking for lenses that are worth a blessing and therefore she is aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the lenses in general.

Guestbook Facts:

• How many lensmasters do forget to add a guestbook module to their lenses? +/- 30% of them actually do.
• How many lensmaster don't edit the guestbook title? +/- 30% of them forget about it.
• How many lensmaster do replace the default guestbook title with something like "Reader Feedack" or something neutral? 70% of them do.

These are the reasons why WordCustard and Prosperity66 made the decision to create this page
in the name of Michelle Willow.

Let's take some examples:

1. Michelle Willow likes your lens and wants to share your guestbook with her online friends as well as lensmasters she things will enjoy both visiting and commenting. She thus will choose the option "Twitter" or "Facebook" so that the comment will go live on the World Wide Web. However, the message that her friends get is "Reader Feedback" or "Sign my Guestbook"... What would you do if you get such a message? Do you think they're going to click on the link if they have no idea what that link is about?

2. As a Greeter, WordCustard enjoys welcoming new Squidoo-ers who built their first lens through their lens guestbook, or adding a first comment to a brand new Squidoo lens built by an experienced lensmaster so that they don't feel lost or left aside. However, she is often frustrated by the average "Reader Feedback" that she often finds on these lenses, which does not encourage any interaction beyond a simple "Welcome to Squidoo" or "Nice lens".

3. As a Squid Angel, Prosperity66 browses the entire collection of Squidoo lenses looking for blessworthy ones. However, she only blesses high quality lenses or outstanding promising lenses. Not only does she check the content uniqueness or the overall layout of the lens. She also checks each and every module and whenever she sees a guestbook that proudly shows a default or neutral title, she wonders if the lensmaster actually cares about their lens and/or readers. Therefore, she's less inclined to bless a Squidoo page that doesn't include customized modules; including the guestbook.

There are several reasons why you should add a personalized guestbook to your Squidoo pages. We're going to discuss some of them:

WordCustard says:

• If you don't invite feedback, how do you know what your readers thought?
• Monologues are no fun. Make it a two-way conversation!
• Readers love to share their thoughts and ideas, and could inspire you to add something to the lens that makes it even more useful to others.
• It's a chance for people to ask you questions (make sure you answer them!)
• If you don't, you could be missing out on the compliments others wanted to leave you, and on making new friends with other lensmasters.

Prosperity66 says:

• You surely want to drive external traffic to your lens by bringing unique content that gets noticed and indexed by most search engines.
• Your guestbook is what allows you to direct the type of comment your readers will leave.
• It's the best way to show your readers how much you care about them and their opinion and don't just try to sell them something.
• External visitors are those you want to touch base with and is there a better way than through the guestbook?

Photo: Guest Book-binder by ormsbyeditions
Shop for a vinyl binder at zazzle

WordCustard says:

Asking a question can be a great way to invite conversation -- provided, of course, that you still include keywords and word it in such a way that it would still make sense out of context. The same goes for a clever word-play or joke. Readers enjoy seeing lenses with personality, but your joke could go flat if it relies on people reading a long story on your lens first.

Prosperity66 says:

If you're somewhat familiar with search engine optimization, you might want to learn that your guestbook can also be customized to get you some additional search engine juice. I suggest to first play with the main keyword in the guestbook title, then add a secondary keyword in the subtitle and add the main keyword in the guestbook content you're going to type to invite your readers to submit their comment. If you write a long guestbook introduction you might want to use a third related keyword along with the main one.

A nice graphic related to your lens topic or which represents your own personality is a great way to make your guestbook more attractive and catch your reader's interest. However, don't overdo the guestbook content nor add a too big graphic, after all, it's a guestbook.

WordCustard says:

The easier you make it for your reader to comment, the more likely you are to find your guestbook filling up with messages. Don't make them guess what you want them to say. Tell them!

Ask your reader a question. Find out her opinion on your topic. Ask him whether he actually would buy the product you recommended. If you are talking about a destination, have your readers been there, and what are their favorite memories? You get the idea!

Be clear about what you want to know. How about asking for a recommendation, or getting your readers to tell you whether they had a similar experience?

You can be a little controversial if you want a debate. But make it clear you welcome all opinions, even those that disagree (assuming the opposite point of view does not promote violence or hatred, of course!). It is also OK, if writing about controversial issues, to add a line to say that comments should be respectful and will be moderated.

Humor is a fun way to involve others, but be careful with jokes. What's funny when you are talking with your friends does not always translate on the Internet. Without seeing your face and seeing the playful glint in your eye, or hearing your tone of voice, irony and sarcasm can sound abrupt and hurtful. Using a smiley :) can help.

"Did you like this lens?" is not specific. If your reader did like it, you might get a "Nice lens" comment but experienced lensmasters are bored of this kind of prompt and will often pass on. As for the public, the word 'lens' often means nothing to them. They arrived at Squidoo by chance to read about a subject that interested them. They don't care about 'lenses', only about content.

Prosperity66 says:

Besides the advantage of personalizing your guestbook there are a few additional tips that will help you make your guestbook become the actual traffic driver of your lens.

While it doesn't happen in 100% of cases, I often noticed that people like to come back to check and see if you replied to their comments. They will really appreciate to see that you cared about their post and replied. Depending on the quality or length or kind of the comment, you might just say "thank you" but you can also end up giving further information.

From the comments left by your readers, you can get more ideas for new Squidoo pages to create and start an entire collection; which would become a niche market that you can take over. Alternatively, they might also show you that some crucial information is missing from your lens and thus this will help you create an additional module with needed data.

Another idea would be to follow up your reader comments: just answer with some details and if they really liked the lens, chances are that they added it to their computer favorites and will come back, then they'll see your reply and will probably keep adding comments, and why not, share the page with their own friends.

As you can see, your lens guestbook can be much more than a simple guestbook. From being a simple place where people will thank you for the information you shared to a public place where your visitors can discuss the subject or even your actual business card, your guestbook can only be what you make of it. And making the most of it is the best option.

Photo: Please Sign our Guestbook - Quill Pen in Hand
by AntiqueImages - Create custom printed binders at zazzle

Besides customization, another important point is the one of the type of comments you leave in someone else's guestbook.

WordCustard says:

The most welcome comments are those that showed that you not only read the lens but enjoyed it or learned something new. Even if you are only paying 'courtesy calls' and visiting a batch of lenses to introduce yourself to the Squidoo community, remember that everyone likes to feel special. You will find that other lensmasters have more time for you if they can see that you paid attention to their work and didn't simply take a few seconds to skim-read and leave a generic comment before moving to the next lens.

When NOT to comment:

It might be best not to comment if you did not like a lens or found it had very little content or was badly made. Squidoo HQ encourage the community to be polite and supportive, so if you can't say something nice, say nothing at all. If you find something offensive or obviously spammy in a lens, use the Report Abuse link at the very foot of the page.

Prosperity66 says:

I second WordCustard on this: most welcomed comments are those that show you actually read the lens and you'd rather avoid adding comments to a lens that you dislike. However, even if you've read the lens and appreciated what you've read, you might be short on comments - for whatever reason: the lens didn't interest you but is very well done, the lens looks ugly but the content is really informative, etc. In this case, I suggest a neutral comment that includes the lens main keyword, such as: "This page contains useful information about XYZ. Thanks for sharing" or "One does really feel that you love XYZ, you did a great job".

Whenever for whatever reason you want to contact the lensmaster but they didn't enable the contact button on their profile, you may use the guestbook to tell them what you want to say. Personally, I use this way to contact lensmaters who forgot to fill their bio, didn't upload their photo or avatar, or left a few default titles in the lens. Remember to add "you can delete this message" after your note. Obviously, you can add a second comment if you liked the lens despite its weaknesses.

Unless the lensmaster clearly invites you to do so, never add links when you post comments to a guestbook. Avoid spamming a guestbook with unrelated comments and/or whatever offer or advertisements!
Thanks for reading :)