10 Ways to Promote Your Business On Squidoo

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Looking For New Ways to Promote Your Business Online?

Whether your business is small enough to run from a corner of your bedroom or a large brick and mortar operation, you probably know that a "build it and they will come" approach is not the best way to promote your business, online or off.

Enter Squidoo.

Squidoo is a wonderful medium to use to advertise, promote, and help grow your business. Read on for 10 ways you can utilize Squidoo to promote your business online.

Click to see this "Open Sign in Window" photographic print at Allposters.com

Why Should You Promote Your Business On Squidoo?


Simply put, Squidoo can help people find you online.

Number One: Make a Lens About Your Business 

Let people know who they're dealing with and why they should deal with you.

Customer Service posterDescribe your business. Explain what you sell or what services you provide. Give some background about how you got started and how long you've been in business.

Include any pertinent information that people need to know in order to find you and do business with you, such as the link to your website and your blog, as well as
your contact information.

Describe your return policy or other policies.

Make the lens friendly and chatty, but keep it professional. DON'T make a mediocre lens. Nobody wants to deal with a mediocre business person. (I don't, do you?)

Help your future customers feel comfortable with you. Assure them that they'll be happy doing business with you. Make them want to do business with you!

Brenda, aka "Treasures-by-Brenda" on eBay, accomplishes all of these things in the lens featured below. Study it as an example then apply these principles to your own lens.

Click to buy this Customer Service Top 10 laminated poster at allposters.com

Number Two: Make a Lens to Show Off Your Products 

A sales lens on Squidoo is a must for any online retail business and works great for brick and mortar businesses, too.

Nesting Dolls Sold in a Gift ShopIf you sell on eBay, it's very simple to use eBay modules to showcase your current auctions. There's a module as well to help you display items you're selling on Etsy.

Try the Amazon Spotlight module to feature an item that you sell there. Or use the Amazon plexo module to feature several.

Have a Zazzle store? The "Thank You Cards for Your Teacher & Coach" lens featured below showcases many of lensmaster bdkz's (Bonnie's) products that she has for sale in her Zazzle gallery. Notice the way Bonnie showcases individual items, which makes for a very attractive, appealing lens.

Click here to buy this "Nesting Dolls are Sold in a Gift Shop" poster from allposters.com

Number Three: Establish Yourself as an Expert In Your Field 

Do this by making a lens about your product line or your business niche.

Do you have a specialty or niche? Make a lens about it. Give a general overview of your product, field, or service. Then link that lens to your business lens, the one you created above. Have a subspecialty or sub-niche? Make another lens!

Brenda (treasures-by-brenda) sells blu-ray videos. She has made multiple lenses about blu-ray, including the one featured below. Her credibility as an expert has become very well-established in this particular niche.

Number Four: Make a Lens About Yourself 

People want to know the people behind the business.

World's Best Boss MugThis is especially helpful if you're a "one-man show" or have a business such as eBay. Kathy's (aka awelldressedbullet) "Pictures From Home" lens, featured below, is a great example of injecting personality into your business atmosphere.

If you're into social networking with your clients or customers, use the DandyID module on your lenses to point to your social networking sites.

Be sure to update your profile page to include links to external sites about your business, including your Facebook or Myspace page, your Twitter ID, your blog link, and more. Squidoo allows multiple external links that show on your lensmaster page.

Photo courtesy Kumar Appaiah via creative commons

Number Five: Make a How-To Lens Related to Your Business 

Sell glassware? Make a lens about how to clean, display, or identify glassware.

Be creative. You know your business and your products better than I do. What "how-to" subject can you think of that your customers would appreciate?

Lensmaster kiwisoutback made a lens explaining how to set up a Paypal account. Great idea for someone who accepts Paypal payments.

Number Six: Make a SquidZipper Lens 

A what??

Mr ZipSquidZipper is a co-brand lens style on Squidoo. Oftentimes people search online for a particular type of business in their own zip code. This is especially useful for businesses that have a brick and mortar or in-person presence and helps make it easy for people find you. Do you do consignment sales? People are looking for you. Make it easy for them to find you.

This featured lens by lensmaster KimGiancaterino explains exactly how to make a SquidZipper lens and includes links to multiple examples.

This "Mr. Zip" picture used courtesy roadsidepictures via creative commons

Number Seven: Make a Lens Featuring Your Blog 

You do have a blog for your business, don't you?

Squidoo's rss module enables you to Include feed directly from the blog on your lens, updated automatically. But don't stop there! Reproduce some of your most popular posts on the lens, rewrite them, or write a special "exclusive" just for the lens, something special for readers who come to Squidoo to learn about you.

Robin's (lensmaster rms) "Cabaret Squidoo" lens, featured below, highlights every blog post featured on her very popular Cabaret Squidoo blog. The links between the two help traffic as well as give her readers twice the chance of finding her online.

Number Eight: Make a Survey Lens 

Find out what your customers are thinking by asking them!

Use poll modules to find out what people like best, given several choices. Use a duel module to prevent two points of view and ask people to choose a side and present their points of view.


Picture courtesy hfabulous via creative commons

Number Nine: Don't Want to Make a Squidoo Lens? We have two suggestions. 

Purchase ad space on a lens or hire someone to make a lens for you.

Lensmaster Stargazer00 was very happy when a businessman recently spotted her lens, "Cars of Our Baby Boomer Youth" (featured below) and offered to purchase space on that lens for an ad. If you don't feel that you need an entire lens but just an ad, explore Squidoo for a lens with a subject compatible with your business, make sure you feel comfortable with the quality of work that lensmaster does, then make contact and see if you can work out a deal.

If you'd like to have a lens for your business but don't want to build it yourself, consider hiring someone to build it for you. Check their credentials first and make sure you understand what the lensmaster would require from you and what would be included on your new lens. One top lensmaster on Squidoo who has built dozens of lenses for others is ThomasC. For details, check out his website, SquidBuilders.com. Be sure to tell him Susan52 sent you!

Number Ten: Make a Top 10 Lens About Your Business 

People love lists.

What are the top 10 best things about your business? The top 10 reasons to shop with you? Your top 10 bargains? The top 10 fashion trends people will find in your store?

Use your imagination and come up with your very own Top 10 Whatever. Sort of like I did on this lens!


Photo courtesy draml via creative commons

Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking 

by Andy Sernovitz, forward by Seth Godin, afterward by Guy Kawasaki

Now, these guys know a thing or two about marketing and promoting a business.

Of course Squidoo is only a part of your business promotion plan. The marketing strategies laid out in this short but powerful read can be used by businesses of all shapes and sizes. Click on the book to see the full description, read the rave reviews, and to order.

Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, Revised Edition

Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 12/01/2009)Buy Now

"Learn the five essential steps that make word of mouth work and everything you need to get started using them. Understand the real purpose of blogs, communities, viral email, evangelists, and buzz--when to use them and how simple it is to make them work."

Learn Business Marketing from the Best 

Words of advice: Read Seth's blog. And his books.

Seth Godin's Blog
Seth Godin is an author, a master of marketing, and the founder of Squidoo. His blog is one of the most popular in the world, and that's for a reason. Seth's book, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, teaches how to make a business stand out from the crowd. Seth's other books are must-reads as well for the serious internet marketer or in-person business owner.

New to Squidoo? 

It's easier to get started than you might think.

These featured lenses are great to read and study if you're just starting out.

Do you have any business promotion tips to add? Please share them with us here! 

Or just leave a note to say hello.

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For more ideas and tips about how to use Squidoo to promote your business, visit this featured lens. 

About the Author 

Lensmaster Susan52 has been a member since April 15 2007, has rated 3,164 lenses, favorited 643, and has created 165 lenses from scratch. Susan D donates their royalties to Soldiers Angels. This member's top-ranked page is "Cancer Warrior". See all my lenses

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