Promote your Squidoo Lens with Reviews

Reviews are an essential promotional tool; they relate to the consumer what the product is about, how it works, whether it does the job it's intended for and whether they think the product or book is worth buying.

If your product or book does not have a review, it makes it harder to sell and to get the word out. Take my e-book, Hot Blooded as an example:

- It has had no reviews.
- Its traffic is poor and so is the interest in it.
- Without a review, no one is willing to take the risk to purchase the book itself despite being extremely cheap.
- It also shows that the author really doesn't have confidence in her own book as she hasn't made any attempt to publicise the book by requesting reviews.

SquiDirectory - A categorized Squidoo directory featuring an interesting variety of different subjects ranging from arts and literature, shopping, and eco friendly tips, to vehicles for sale, travel, and everything in between.

At present there aren't that many places to get your Squidoo Lens reviewed specifically but these are increasing all the time. It is possible, also, to submit your lens for review at any site or reviewer that takes websites/blogs.

Here are the best on offer:

4 Star Rating Blog - This is my own review blog. At the moment, I don't have a specific method of accepting Squidoo lenses for review so if you would like to be considered for review, please leave a comment in the feedback module at the end of this Lens.

Squidoo Lens Reviews on Ning.com - Sign up for an account and submit your lens for review!

Squidoo Lens Reviews - Giving shout-outs, nods and promotion to remarkable Squidoo lenses. Install the Widget for Squidoo Lens Reviews by visiting here: Reviews of the best content at Squidoo.com

Squidoo Lens of the Day - Submit a lens for consideration here!

The simplest way to set up your own reviewing business, whether you would like to charge or not, would be to set up a blog and/or website and advertise your services.

However, you would need examples of your reviews for clients to read otherwise you'll get very little response. Review as many things as you can; the more varied the better. Aim for a wide variety of subjects, topics, products and media to gain experience.

The more reviews you do, the better the likelihood of attracting potential clients wishing to use your services.

Tip: Apply for reviewer positions at other review sites. Sometimes, all you would need to apply for the job is a passion for reading and good English language and grammatical skills. Many, though, would require to see samples of your reviews and/or references.

In the time spent as a reviewer, I have reviewed, in total, 13 websites/blogs.

As I had no experience with this type of reviewing initially I had to come up with my own way of reviewing these sites.

In general, the reviews were a lot longer than book reviews and had to give a lot more information.

I covered Aesthetics & Accessibility which basically means how the website or blog looks in design and how it functions with regards to loading times, navigation and ease of use.

I've decided not to publish an example of one of my website reviews here because, in all honesty, it probably wouldn't be how I'd review a Lens.

The steps that follow are not necessarily in the correct order and will be continually added to, mainly because reviewing Lenses is a new thing for me :):

1 - The first thing I would do would be to ignore all star ratings, comments and ranking information the Lens had achieved. This would also include any competitions or awards it had won.

As a review is an opinion, this would have no bearing on how I, personally, would see this particular lens.

2 - I would look at the overall presentation of the Lens. How does it look? Does it catch my eye? Does it look pleasing to the eye? Would it put me off staying?

3 - I would take a note of how it loads. Does it load quickly? Are there any additional plugins I need to install in order to view the page correctly? Is any vital information missing, like images not loading, forms not loading correctly? Yes, this could be the fault of my own browser and I would have to take this into account. Very often, I would visit the lens on more than one occasion to see if it happened again.

4 - Can I or do I learn anything from this lens? Is the lens informative and interesting? Does it encourage me to learn more about the subject matter or even the lensmaster themselves? Does it inspire me? Does it help me?

5 - Can I contact the lensmaster? Does he/she welcome or encourage feedback?

These websites will review any website so these resources can be used as an additional list for those seeking a review for their Squidoo Lenses:

Web User magazine

Does not accept review requests at this time.

BlueStagStudio

Offers website reviews at a price but also provides a basic free website review. They will 'highlight the key areas that could be improved to help maximise its efficiency.' Good for business websites.

Free website review by Clarke Website Design

Giving Squids a Helping Hand - Helping to promote poorly ranked Squidoo Lenses.

Lens Review - 'Throughout this lens we will try to shed some light on some of the lenses available on Squidoo, bring it to more light and exchange some ideas to enhance its rank. Enjoy it.'

- Some web marketing forums will have a board for website reviews. Please make sure you're an active member of the forum before you ask though! Some links to forums are here: Marketing Update Community & Webhosting Talk.

I'm a freelance writer and reviewer by trade. I work mainly via the internet though my services and work have been found offline. My passion for Squidoo has grown immensely in the last few weeks as it encourages me to be creative as well as very active as a writer. I have befriended many inspiring lensmasters and have learnt a lot more about SEO and promotion of my own work.

Links to My Book Reviewing Sites:
4 Star Rating Blog - Book reviews & promotion/marketing resources.
Four Star Rating on Myspace.
Literary Critics - Literary Critics is a review group for Readers, Authors and other Reviewers. Feel free to post reviews, published books and reading likes to the group. All genres welcomed including Adult.