10 Ways to Promote Your Business On Squidoo

Number One: Make a Lens About Your Business

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

Describe 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.

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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.

If 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.

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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.

This 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??

SquidZipper 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 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!

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.

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