Lens Promotion
Now that you have a lens, you want to let people know about it. Getting people to read your lens is harder than writing it! But there are many ways to promote your lens, make it more popular in search engines, and make it a success.
In this lens I'll explore some of the popular ideas I've seen mentioned here on Squidoo, and will add quite a few other promotion ideas that I haven't seen other lensmasters mention.
Long Term Research
If you find the links in this lens helpful, please bookmark it and come back often.
What you'll find here:
- Long Term Research
- Search Engine Optimization
- Tags . . . And Keyword Use, In General
- Keyword Wisdom
- Backlink Building
- Learn More About SEO
- Networking in Squidoo Communities
- For more discussion of Squidoo message board forums, check out this lens:
- Start A Squidoo Blog
- Lensmastery by Linda
- Professional Blogging
- Squidoo Lenses About Blogging
- Start a FREE Website With Links to Your Squidoo Lenses
- Social Bookmarking Sites
- Articles/Sites/Lenses to help you understand social bookmarking sites
- Social Media Marketing
- Web 2.0 Sites
- Market Your Lens Via Web 2.0 Sites
- Friend Feed
- Squidoo Lenses to Help You With Web 2.0 Sites
- RSS Feeds Provide Automatic Backlinks
- More Great Lenses About SEO
- Articles and sites that can help you create and promote your Squidoo lens
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies, Second Edition (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 10/11/2008)
Tags . . . And Keyword Use, In General
...why they are important, and how to choose them.
When people use the search box to find lenses on topics they want to know about, the tags you use determine whether or not your lens will appear in search results. So make sure the tags accurately describe your lens so that the people who want your information can find you.
This is something you can work on and tweak each time you update your lens. Try to update at least once weekly. Believe me, this WORKS. I have brought sites up from many pages down in the Google search results, to page one, just by updating often and adjusting my keyword usage to reach for the best results.
To get ideas for tags and keywords to use in your Squidoo lens, go to the Google Keyword Tool. Use these keywords to attract visitors from search engine traffic.
Get a book on SEO - Search Engine Optimization, such as the one I recommended above. It will give you comprehensive information on bringing search engine traffic to your Squidoo lens.
At SquidUtils there's an important article on How To Pick Your Primary Tags. You will need this information to submit your lenses to the SquidUtils Squidoo Directory.
Keyword Wisdom
For more discussion of using keywords on Squidoo, read these:-
Squidoo Traffic Tricks: (how to get more visitors and a better search engine ranking for your Squidoo lens)
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Do you have some lenses that don't get as many visitors as they deserve? Would you like to learn how to get more people reading your lenses? Wanna know how to make people come back to your lenses again and again? Would you like to rank higher in G...
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The Tao of Keywords
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The Tao Te Ching contains the rational basis for human activities, so it provides outstanding guidance for keyword selection and search engine optimization.
Backlink Building
I've tried writing personal emails to people owning sites with related content, asking them to exchange links. Sometimes this works. I've also received plenty of requests for links. My number one reason for turning link requests down is the problem of unrelated content. For example, on my blog about starting a web design business I received a request from someone with a spammy-looking commercial site about wrist watches. Why would I want that link on my webdesign blog? The answer was no. If it had been from a fellow webdesigner with a site having information on webdesign business practices, I would have jumped at the opportunity to exchange links.
You can also use a myriad of bookmarking and web 2.0 community sites to place links to your work all over the web. This will require a lot of effort from you, but the results can be powerful.
Below, I list many sites that can be used for backlink building. It will take me months to find and review sites, so I'm going to go ahead and publish this page now, and add to the lists often. I know that if you go the extra mile to promote your lenses on the sites I recommend, you'll find your sites will do better in search engines, and more people will learn about and visit your lenses.
Learn More About SEO
For more discussion of SEO and backlink building, check out this outstanding lens:-
SEO for squidoo - getting found in google: search engine optimization
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SEO - search engine optimization - has many different facets. This lens goes over the main ones - especially how they effect making successful lenses on squidoo.
Networking in Squidoo Communities
...get to know other lensmasters.
Make your name one to remember.
Lensroll, Squidom and Squidxx are Squidoo bookmarking and networking sites. You can add your lens links to the sites and people can vote on them.
Thomas C. started a new forum for Squidoo lensmasters to promote their lenses and Cafe Press sites: Rocking the Squid.
Squid Top is a community blogging site for Squidoo lensmasters. More about that in a minute.
Squidoo link directories - make sure all your lenses are listed on these sites: SquidUtils Directory, Isle of Squid, and Squoogle.
For more discussion of Squidoo message board forums, check out this lens:
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Squidoo Message Board Forums
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You have to do it. You have to let people know about your lenses - but HOW? One of the best ways is to network with other Squidoo lensmasters on Squidoo message board forums. There you'll meet lots of other lensmasters who have been where you are now...
Start A Squidoo Blog
To create backlinks for your lenses and perhaps raise some visitor awareness of what you're doing on Squidoo, start a Squidoo blog to feature information about each of your lenses.
Next, you can add the RSS feed for each blog to some of your lenses. Yet another way to generate traffic to your Squidoo lenses.
I've created three Squidoo blogs so far. On WordPress.Com I created 200 Lenses - to track my progress in my goal of creating 200 Squidoo lenses. Also on Blogger.Com I created a similar blog: All My Lenses - that's where I'm keeping track of my statistics and promotional efforts.
My third Squidoo blog is at SquidTop: Lensmastery by Linda. At that blog I write short articles intended to inspire and help other lensmasters.
These free sites provide rich linking opportunities. You can either wait for someone else to recognize your lenses' worth and start linking to them, or you can start building backlink blogs to promote them yourself.
Squid Top is a blogging community just for Squidoo lensmasters. I highly recommend you start a blog there.
Following is a list of sites where you can build free blogs on which you can post as many of your lens links as you have time and energy for.
WordPress.Com
I love WordPress blogs; they are fun to use. I hav more...5 points
Blogger.Com
This is probably the most popular blogging site fo more...3 points
Live Journal
Very popular blogging and networking site that giv more...1 point
Journal Space
This is another blogging and networking site where more...0 points
Blogster - Blogging Community
Blogster is a virtual community built and inhabite more...0 points
Create a Blog - FREE Blogs at Thoughts.com
Create a Free Blog and online journal site at Thou more...0 points
Lensmastery by Linda
... this is my Squidoo blog at SquidTop.Com
My focus in this blog is to publish short articles that will inspire and help other lensmasters.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byProfessional Blogging
ProBlogger: Secrets Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 10/11/2008)
Squidoo Lenses About Blogging
...improve your blogging skills...
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Blogging Tips
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I've been blogging since 2001. I've studied the experts extensively and have lots of information and links to share with you. Bloggers - this is a PERK... I'm putting a LINK PLEXO near the bottom of this lens. Feel FREE to post your blog links! All...
Start a FREE Website With Links to Your Squidoo Lenses
Just like with blogging, you can start static websites that link back to your Squidoo lenses. As an example, I just started one at Celebration of Life (Google Pages). It was very easy to make and if you know nothing about web design this is perfect for you.
I just started this list and will add to it as I explore sites where you can build free websites.
Google Pages
You can get a free site at Google Pages - and thes more...0 points
Freewebs.com
Make a website in minutes with simple tools for in more...0 points
Social Bookmarking Sites
When you participate in a social bookmarking community, take advantage of any social interaction available, such as the groups on StumbleUpon.
When using any of these sites it is helpful to know if they give good backlinks, or if they are useful only for promotion. You can know by looking at the source code for each page where your links appear. To look at the source code, right-click on a page, then choose "view page source" if you're using Firefox, or "view source" if you're an Internet Explorer user.
If you see your link in the source code and it has this tag: rel="nofollow" - then the search engines will not count it as a backlink.
Another thing some sites do is to cloak the links with a secondary URL, and of course this too will not count as a backlink.
To see that dynamic in action, check out a MySpace profile page. There you'll see that links are cloaked. Now compare with the MySpace blog, where links posted have perfect backlinks. If you use MySpace for promoting your lenses, put links to your lenses in the blog, not on the profile page.
Check all these sites for the quality of backlinks, and then place your links where they'll do the most good.
I will be testing each site and will post my findings along with each link. This research will take a while, and will be ongoing for months to come.
StumbleUpon
Is StumbleUpon blocking Squidoo sites? I stumbled more...4 points
del.icio.us
Links tagged 'nofollow' so the search engines will more...2 points
Articles/Sites/Lenses to help you understand social bookmarking sites
- Need Social Media Success? Don't Start With Digg
- Warning: Digg seems to have outgrown itself. This article explains how and why.
- The correct way to use Twitter
- There are many ways to use Twitter.
- Social Bookmarking in Plain English
- Social bookmarking is a system of sharing Internet bookmarks with other Internet users. There are many websites that allow you to share your favorite web pages and network with other users.Our aim at Social Bookmarking in Plain English is to explain the concept in straight forward terms...
Social Media Marketing
A Step-by-Step Guide to Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0 Optimization
Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 10/11/2008)
From Gaping Void
Web 2.0 Sites
I'm going to separate Web 2.0 sites from Social Bookmarking sites. Social Bookmarking is a form of community link sharing, whereas Web 2.0 sites in this list include what we call "social media" and "web communities".
Read the notes I've written on each site. I've done the research to find out whether or not these sites are good for creating backlinks to your lenses, blogs, and articles.
Hover Spot
Excellent backlinks on the profile page. No cloaking of links like you'll see on Bebo and MySpace profiles.1 point
Bebo
Not good for backlinking, but still you can establish a presence and post your links. Perhaps someone you connect with there will check out your links...0 points
My Space
You can get good backlinks by putting your lens links in your MySpace BLOG. The profile pages cloak links so backlinks aren't possible.0 points
Useless! So far as I can see, all links are cloaked or tagged 'nofollow'. I'll keep researching this.0 points
Ryze business networking
This is a professional networking site. You can add your Squidoo links to your profile for good backlinks.0 points
Market Your Lens Via Web 2.0 Sites
Plug Your Business! Marketing on MySpace, YouTube, blogs and podcasts and other Web 2.0 social networks
Amazon Price: $17.05 (as of 10/11/2008)
Friend Feed
I'm so enthusiastic about FriendFeed that I've created a lens to show you how to use it for full potential.-
How To Use Friend Feed
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Friend Feed is a Web 2.0 feed amalgamation site that allows you and others to comment on your online activities. There's an easy registration. You log on, add as many feeds as you'd like, then connect with your friends. Be sure to come back to make...
Squidoo Lenses to Help You With Web 2.0 Sites
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Add Your Profile - Make New Friends
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Social Bookmarking; Web 2.0; Squidoo - All great new ways to promote your content. Squidoo Lensmasters love to promote their lenses with these sites. Use this site to Add Your Profile address and find other lensmasters profiles on the respective book...
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How To MySpace
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MySpace is not just for musicians and teenagers. Learn how to use MySpace for business or social networking at any age. Want to know how to use MySpace? Want to learn how to do something in particular on MySpace? Find MyS...
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Top Blogs Following Web 2.0
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We spend a lot of time at Viget Labs keeping an eye on new site launches. People often ask what blogs we follow to keep up, so we put together our list of top 10 blogs following Web 2.0 (in no particular order) in this post on the Four Lab...
RSS Feeds Provide Automatic Backlinks
You can use the RSS feed for your lenses to get backlinks on other sites. For more information, read the lenses featured below.-
How To Get Deep Links with RSS Feeds
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There are a number of online syndication services that will display an RSS feed as a web page. These will typically contain deep-links to pages on to the originating website, which is a valuable source of backlinks. I originally wrote about this...
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Understanding RSS
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For something as simple and important as RSS, it's incredibly misunderstood. In this very non-technical lens, I'm going to try to show you what you need to know to start using it.
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Seven Of The Best Uses For RSS Feeds
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RSS Feeds can be found everywhere. When you see a feed icon on a web page, it means these pages serve their content in syndicated format. Feed icons, or text links, can be found on Blogs, Squidoo Lenses, Social Bookmarking Sites and Social Networking...
More Great Lenses About SEO
For more discussion of SEO on Squidoo, check out this outstanding lens:-
Do Squidoo: A much requested guide to creating a successful Squidoo lens
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Are you seeking information on how to use Squidoo effectively? Excellent, because this lens is made just for you! Find the answers to: - How do I do ...? - Why won't ... work? - How can I ...? - Why do you ...? - Where is the ...? Finally d...
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How To Get One-Way Backlinks
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When you have just created new website, you will want to attract people to visit it. One of the most important tasks for any webmaster is to build up the number of links to the site from other websites. This can be done manually via reciprocal link e...
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GreekGeek's Squidoo Tips: How to Get Your Lens Found
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So, you want to learn how to build good Squidoo lenses (or any kind of webpage) and attract lots of visitors! Here's ten quick steps to help bring web traffic your way. Credentials: I came here with zero web marketing experience, but my first lens was...
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Submit URL: Squidoo Lens Promotion
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On this page, you'll find some links to places you can submit your Squidoo lenses to so that you can get more web traffic to your lens. Google is usually the main source of traffic to my lenses, but to rank well in Google takes other websites linkin...
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Best Squidoo Tips plus Squiddy!
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Squidoo's easy, but some things can be maddenly hard to find. Save time, it's all here for you. How to install Squidoo buttons on your blog, links to all the best how-to on Squidoo that there is. And show your Squidoo-love! I've sought out the best...
Articles and sites that can help you create and promote your Squidoo lens
- bdkz's: Best Squidoo How-To Directory Ever
- I'm Lensmaster bdkz and I have been creating lenses on Squidoo Since Feb. 2007.
- 101 ways to get more traffic
- Post from Squid-U.
- How To Find Lenses and Groups on Squidoo
- Searching for Squidoo lenses on a search engine can be a real pain sometimes, as the results are very often filled with non-content pages like tags. Finding the best groups for your lens to join can also be very tricky.Here I provide two custom searches (by Google) that are optimised to only return
- SEO Dictionary
- SEO Dictionary offers brief and clear descriptions of all relevant technical terms in the field of Search Engine Marketing & Optimization.
- The Squidoo Answer Deck Headquarters
- Lots of links to information about how to create better lenses.
- How to Promote Your Lenses Without Being Labeled a Spammer | Squidüber
- Quality triumphs over outrageous sales tricks.
- Relationships and Online Social Networks: The Value of Sites Like Twitter and Plurk
- Why are some friendships short and fleeting while others may last for an entire lifetime? Apart from personality differences and many other reasons,
- The Lensmaster Lounge / stumbleupon, del.icio.us, rollyo, YouTube, Flickr, etc.
- Lens promotion ideas at Squid-U.
- 20 Hard Core SEO Tips
- For those of you loyal readers who wish I would just take a break from the theoretical musings, here is the type of list of SEO tips I rarely give out.
- Search Engine Optimization Tutorials - at Spider-Food.net
- Forums and Tutorials: search engine optimization - SEO
- How I Went From A 50,000 Rank To Under 2000 In 3 Days
- In early July 2008 I had taken a brand new lens and brought it from a 50,000 rank to under 2000 in 3 days(It is now a week and a half later and it is ranked 802 of all of Squidoo). I've learned many lessons from many sources mostly on the Squidoo site itself! I've learned a valuable lesson from a ve
Thanks for reading this lens...
I'm really glad you came by. If you rated my lens, I thank you for that. I've enjoyed, even loved, working on SEO issues for years now, and am grateful for an opportunity to share my understanding of the SEO process with others.
Click here to add this lens to your favorites.
If you're not a member of Squidoo yet, please join.
Squidoo Traffic - How To Promote Your Squidoo Lens is now included on the The Isle of Squid where you can leave a review of this lens.
Your Feedback is WELCOME!
I'd love it if you would leave a line or two letting me know what you thought of this lens.
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bennettpr
great lens. favourite 5 stars :) wel done Posted October 06, 2008 |
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vbright105
VERY helpful material, thanks! I am giving it 5*, favoriting, and you can bet I'll be back. I use squid top too! Posted October 04, 2008 |
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conflictuniverse
nice lens, i like it Posted October 01, 2008 |
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Webcodes
Linda, this is great information that I will be coming back often to read. I did not know that tags had such a great influence on rankings. 5* and favorited it. btw..Thank you for visiting my lens as well. Posted October 01, 2008 |
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MarcoG
Invaluable advice - although I have got some hits from my facebook...maybe they've decloaked it??? Posted September 11, 2008 |
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of_different_sorts
Thanks for the useful information! Posted September 08, 2008 |
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Cajean
A super informative lens & I'll try to check everything out. I did a Lensroll.com after reading up & trying to understand it all. 5* & my faves. Posted September 01, 2008 |
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