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Pinterest Tips for Squidoo Lensmasters

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Pinterest & Squidoo Make a Great Team

Pinterest and Squidoo make an awesome duo. If you haven't tried Pinterest yet or are a little puzzled about how to use it with Squidoo, here are tips for that. I find the site lots of fun and you'll see lots of Squidoo lensmasters on Pinterest.

With no further ado, lets jump into some tips for how to use Pinterest to increase traffic to your Squidoo lenses, get ideas for new lenses and have a good time doing it.

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Contents at a Glance

Getting Started on Pinterest
Are You Using Pinterest Yet?
Video Tutorials for Using Pinterest
Pinning a Squidoo Lens to Pinterest
Use Pinterest is to spot trends or to co...
Other Pinterest Tips

Getting Started on Pinterest

Push Pin by ContinQueen

1Ask a fellow lensmaster or a friend on Facebook for an invite to Pinterest. That gets you onto the site faster than going to Pinterest and requesting an invite from them.
2Sign in and set up your profile, just as you would for any site. They start you with a few generic boards and you can start adding more topics as you go along. Set up pin boards for your niche topics on Squidoo. For myself, I added boards for genealogy, Civil War, library stuff, Kansas and other topics that I write about.
3Click on the PINTEREST logo at the top of the page. It takes you to the latest pins. Browse around and pin a few of the images that catch your eye. You don't want your pin boards to only contain your own lenses.

Are You Using Pinterest Yet?

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Video Tutorials for Using Pinterest

Generate Traffic Using Pinterest: by Entrepreneuress | video info

12 ratings | 702 views

curated content from YouTube

Pinning a Squidoo Lens to Pinterest

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1You can pin using the Pinterest button on any lens. It posts the introduction photo and the first few sentences from the introduction. Change the text if you don't feel it does justice to the lens you are pinning. (hint: your first few sentences on a Squidoo lens should be able to stand alone for this type of use or for a Google search).
2Pinterest will let you choose which pin board topic you want to pin the lens to. If none are a good fit, scroll down to the end of your list and you'll get a blank slot to put in a new topic. Click on PIN IT.
3I added the Pinterest PIN IT to my bookmarks toolbar on Mozilla Firefox. With it, I can pin any image on my Squidoo lens (any image that isn't too small). Add a few keywords or a sentence to intrigue viewers on Pinterest. Then PIN IT on one of your pin boards. You can also highlight any text in your lens, then click your PIN IT bookmark tool and it will pin both the picture and the highlighted text.
4To catch the eye of browsers on Pinterest, I prefer to keep the text part of the pin quite short. You want them to visit your lens, NOT read it all on Pinterest.

Use Pinterest is to spot trends or to collect ideas for a new lens.

I saw pins for projects with mason jars. It intrigued me & I started repinning them. I made a lens called 101 Uses for Mason Jars. Within a month, it received over 500 visits and is close to tier one already.

Other Pinterest Tips

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1Would you like a button like this to put on your Squidoo profile?

It's available on Pinterest. Go to Pinterest, then click on the ABOUT button, then HELP, then GOODIES to get the html.
2Click on EDIT BOARD, to change the title or to add a description. In the description, you can put a link to one of your lenses on the topic. It isn't a hyperlink.
3To move a pin from one of your boards to another, hover over the picture. At the top it says REPIN, EDIT, COMMENT. Choose EDIT, there's a place to change the board (to another category).

Tips from Fellow Lensmasters

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PKMCR says "Don't forget if you are on pinterest that there is an rss feed that you can use as well and submit elsewhere - it's the rss icon under your profile image."

JSeven reminds us that the Terms of Service on Pinterest don't allow reuse of the pictures for commercial purposes. (I'm guessing a Squidoo lens might be considered a commercial purpose)

DesignedByLisa points out that Pinterest warns against self promotion, so she hasn't shared her lenses on there.

My answer: Lisa - Here's the line in the Pinterest etiquette: "If there is a photo or project you're proud of, pin away!" and I'm certainly proud of my Squidoo lenses. Yes, the next sentence says not to use it solely for self-promotion.
I recommend that for every 10 lenses or zazzle items you pin, that you spend an equal amount of time browsing and repinning content from others or in finding websites that interest you and pin those to your boards.

FlaminCatDesigns - "One thing that I do is when I find something that I like the photo of, I make sure to click the link to find the original post. Once in a while I can't get to the original post that the photo came from. So in that case, I don't repin it. There is no sense in repinning a recipe or craft I want to try and then can't find it."

Important!

Overloaded?

Click on the people you are following on the site. Glance over their boards and click UNFOLLOW on the boards that don't interest you, like fancy shoes or other topics. That will make the selection more focused and take less time.

Have You Seen Results from Using Pinterest?

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Examples of Using Pinterest Pin Boards

with Squidoo

Pin Board for Squidoo Tips & Techniques

Pinning Squidoo Lensographies

A Board of Favorite Lensmasters

My Latest Pins on Pinterest

Add an RSS module to a Squidoo lens, then add the RSS link from your profile on Pinterest. (hint: it is the symbol under your profile picture)

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Share Your Opinion on Pinterest?

Love It or Don't Quite Get It

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I love it because...

Suze05 says:

Totally addicted.. Lol

Posted February 18, 2012

JohnGreenstone says:

I couldn't believe the amount of traffic I got from Pinterest. I will definitely use it in future.

Posted February 16, 2012

newbizmau says:

I'm now creating a lens for my RSS Feed thanks for the great idea.

Posted February 11, 2012

Sarata says:

I will try... maybe.. :)

Posted February 11, 2012

AlishaV says:

I just joined Pinterest a month or so ago, and already am addicted. I've found it useful for advertising my lonely or just created lenses, and finding all sorts of interesting crafts and recipes and pictures that I like personally.

Posted February 10, 2012

What's the big deal? Here's my opinion...

MaxReily says:

I'm still trying to figure it out--but I did request an invitation to join. I don't really know enough about it to form an opinion.

Posted February 14, 2012

Joie says:

I'm still trying to 1) understand it, 2) figure out if I've got the time for it, and 3) decide if the negative reports I've heard about it lately have any merit.

Posted February 14, 2012

JackieSonia says:

Still don't quite get it even after reading your very informative lens. Btw, great lens. I want to use it but don't quite understand how to go about it. How do I get invited? Do I ask someone to invite me?

Posted February 07, 2012

athena2011 says:

I recently hear about Pinterest and have not gone through it in detail yet to get how it works. Enjoyed your lens about it. Thanks.Gave you a squidlike.

Posted February 03, 2012

MiddleSister says:

I don't quite get it yet, as far as how to pin. Therefore, I'm going back through to get all I can from this good lens. thank you, Virginia.

Posted February 01, 2012

view all 98 comments

Squidoo Lenses on How Pinterest Works

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Link to Pinterest

Want an Invitation to Pinterest?

Go to my profile page and click on the CONTACT button under my photo. In the message, let me know you want an invite and I'll send it from Pinterest.

A Sampling of Virginia Allain's Pin Boards on Pinterest

Topics I'm Pinning

Note that some focus on Squidoo, but many are just topics that interest me and may/may not end up being lens topics in the future.

1950s childhood memories: nostalgia, and the source of ideas for more lenses.
2012 New Year's Goals: Sort of a vision board for me in 2012.
Authors I Know: Friends (authors) that I want to help spread the word on their books.
Backlink Sites: Squidoo lenses with backlink advice, lists of backlink sites and directories. A handy spot for me to check when I want ideas for places to backlink my lenses.
Best Lenses on Squidoo (my angel blessings): I've given up maintaining a lens featuring angel blessings (because it was so time consuming). Now I pin them here (quick and easy), plus it gives the lens a backlink and traffic.
Gail Lee Martin - My Mom: Features my lenses about my mom and her other web pages relating to her memoir.
Moss Garden: Future lens topic - just gathering inspiration at this point.
My Web Pages: Pins of my Squidoo lenses.

Add Your PINTEREST Profile Link Here

For Squidoo Lensmasters Only

If you see a lensmaster whose lenses you admire, you can go to their Pinterest boards and click FOLLOW on the ones that interest you.

Pinterest Tips for Squidoo Lensmasters

Pinterest & Squidoo Make a Great Team

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Getting Started on Pinterest

Are You Using Pinterest Yet?

Thanks for voting! Now invite your friends to vote.

Video Tutorials for Using Pinterest

Pinning a Squidoo Lens to Pinterest

Use Pinterest is to spot trends or to collect ideas for a new lens.

Other Pinterest Tips

Tips from Fellow Lensmasters

Overloaded?

Have You Seen Results from Using Pinterest?

Thanks for voting! Now invite your friends to vote.

Examples of Using Pinterest Pin Boards

My Latest Pins on Pinterest

Share Your Opinion on Pinterest?

Love It or Don't Quite Get It

I love it because...

Suze05 says:

JohnGreenstone says:

newbizmau says:

Sarata says:

AlishaV says:

What's the big deal? Here's my opinion...

MaxReily says:

Joie says:

JackieSonia says:

athena2011 says:

MiddleSister says:

Squidoo Lenses on How Pinterest Works

Want an Invitation to Pinterest?

A Sampling of Virginia Allain's Pin Boards on Pinterest

Topics I'm Pinning

Add Your PINTEREST Profile Link Here

For Squidoo Lensmasters Only

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