Promoting Squidoo Lenses with CommentLuv

If a blog is not CommentLuv enabled, and the comment policy does not specifically state that you cannot leave a "deep link" as your website, meaning you could only leave squidoo.com instead of squidoo.com/promoting-squidoo-lenses-with-commentluv, then you can build links back to your lens by including the URL in the website field of the form.

Get better keywords as anchor text for your articles.

Since some sites only allow you to use your real name and not keywords in the name field, your articles' anchor text will be your name. CommentLuv will link your articles using their titles or specific keyword phrases via Default links.

Some blogs automatically approve comments from the same commenter assuming they use the same name, email, and website URL.

So if if you visit the same site often, instead of having your comments go to moderation everytime you comment with a different article URL, you can use the same profile URL as your website and any of your latest 10 articles in the CommentLuv link.

The following step-by-step detailed tutorial will cover how to:

• Register at The ComLuv Network


• If you are already registered at ComLuv, add an Additional URL


• Setup your Squidoo account with ComLuv


• Find CommentLuv enabled blogs


• Start commenting

Are you ready to learn how to promote your Squidoo lenses using CommentLuv? Let's get started!

Click on the registration link at the top of the ComLuv.

Enter your desired username, email, agree to the TOS, and select Just a username, please. Check your email for a confirmation email. When you click on the link to activate, you will get your password to login.

Once you've logged in, you will see a link to fill out your profile - simply click the Edit Profile and enter a Twitter username (if you have one), your username which you've already chosen, and a short bio.

If you already have a ComLuv account associated to another site, you can add an additional URL for 6 credits per year. Credits can be purchased or earned.

Earning Credits

To earn credits, simply do one of the following:

• Refer people to the ComLuv site. Having the most amount of unique clicks in a given month and you will earn 5 credits.


• Introduce the most new members to ComLuv in a given month and you will earn 10 credits.


• Write a tutorial on ComLuv on a CommentLuv enabled site. Depending on the detail of your tutorial, you will earn 1 to 20 credits.

To refer people to ComLuv, you will need an affiliate URL. Your affiliate URL will be in your member dashboard. Simply login or, if you're logged in, visit Your Profile

Scroll down to the Affiliate Settings and change Enable Affiliate Links to Yes please as well as enter your PayPal address (members who sign up under you and buy credits will earn you commission).

After you enable your Affiliate Link, you will see it under Affiliate Details. Above that, in the Advanced Settings, you can enter a URL that you will send referrals from. This is only applicable if you own your own domain - if you are referring people from your articles, profile, or other sites, you will need to use your referral link.

Buying Credits

To buy credits, simply click on Buy more. This will take you to a page where you can buy credits in quantities of 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100 credits for $1 USD per credit via PayPal.

Now that you've registered, you can enter your main URL by clicking on Edit Site on your Member profile. Or if you are adding an additional URL, under the Member menu, select Additional URLs.

Site Name

Your Site Name should be something descriptive, such as your name on HubPages. It will be the anchor text that links to your HubPages profile.

Site URL

Your Site URL will be your Squidoo profile URL. To find your Squidoo member profile URL, simply login to your account and click your image in your dashboard. It will look like this:

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/kikolani

Feed URL

Unlike other article sites such as HubPages and EzineArticles which automatically give you a RSS feed for your articles, in Squidoo, you must export your feed URL using a SquidUtils.

To create your lensmaster feed, simply go to Squidoo Lensmaster RSS Feeds and enter your lensmaster name and click Login. On the next screen, you will see a list of various RSS feeds for your activities. To get the feed you need for ComLuv, right click and copy link location on the first RSS feed link for Squidoo groups and lenses. It should look like this:

http://www.squidoo.com/xml/syndicate_lensmaster/kikolani

Number of Posts to Return

You can enter 10 which will allow you to select your latest 10 lenses. If there are no other fields, simply submit and you're all set.

Site Description

Enter the description for your Squidoo account. Include what you like to write about, how long you have been writing, or even your Squidoo bio information.

Site Category

Next, select a site category - this can be the category that most closely fits your article writing theme.

Keywords

Finally, enter up to 6 keywords that fit your Squidoo lenses!

You can always change these details later if you so choose, with exception to your main site URL. If later on, you no longer wish to have your Squidoo account on ComLuv, you can always delete that site and add a new one as your main URL. If you want to add additional sites (blogs, article marketing sites, etc.) you can skip down to the directions under Add an additional URL.

Now that your account is all set, you will be ready to find some CommentLuv enabled blogs to comment on. There are many ways to find CommentLuv enabled blogs, including:

Lists

CommentLuv Enabled Dofollow Blogs - This directory lists CommentLuv enabled blogs that are also dofollow. Dofollow simply means that the nofollow link has been removed, giving your link extra "link juice" in terms of passing anchor text, site authority, etc.

Search

Use the CommentLuv Search Engine - This can be found on the right hand side of the menu bar of the ComLuv site. Google Custom Search Results will bring back the latest posts on the keyword query you serach on CommentLuv enabled blogs.

You can also use your favorite search engine. Simply search for a keyword and CommentLuv.

Now that you've found a CommentLuv enabled blog with a post you want to comment on, simply scroll down to the comments form. Comment forms will vary in appearance due to coding customizations. Typical CommentLuv enabled blog forms look like:

Enter your name, your email address (not shown in comments), and enter your profile URL as the website. The CommentLuv checkbox should change from the image or text to a dropdown list your latest 10 posts on your registered site. If you have additional URLs registered, your latest 10 posts for each registered site will show up in the dropdown.

Simply select the post you want to leave with your comment.

For the best results (including increased traffic to your lens), make a great comment. The better your comment, the more likely people will want to check out your site as an authority on a particular subject. Also, try to select a lens that will be appealing to anyone who is reading the post you are commenting on. This will make it more likely that others will also be interested in your lens, making them more likely to click on it.

As you notice, in the dropdown, your latest posts are limited to 10 and are linked using the title of their lens as anchor text. If you are interested in linking to older articles or newer ones using a specific set of keywords, you can do so by adding Default Links to your ComLuv profile.

Anchor text, simply put, is the words that your link is associated with. So if you wanted your page to rank in search engines for "make money blogging" you would want your link to be associated with that text. (To learn more about anchor text selection and keyword research, see this informative article about anchor text.)

Default links are 4 credits per year each. To purchase or earn credits, see #2 under Additional URLs.

To submit your Default links, choose the anchor text you want to use for the article. For example, after doing some research on Google Adwords Keyword Tool, I chose to use the keyword phrase "Make Money Blogging" for an article I wrote reviewing a program that teaches you how to make money blogging (which also includes a section on article marketing).

Next, you will submit the Link URL to your lens. In the dropdown, you will see the root URL for Squidoo. In the next box, fill in the rest of the URL for the article (from promoting-squidoo-lenses-with-commentluv) and Submit. The next screen will ask you to confirm your URL and anchor text is correct - you can click on the link to test it out. Then Confirm. Your Default Link will show up at the bottom of your CommentLuv dropdown when posting comments.

The one issue you might run into when commenting is that the site cannot pull your feed. Sometimes the systme just glitches and it happens. It can be easily rectified by visiting the Unban URL form and enter the URL. It's only happened to me twice in almost a year of using CommentLuv enabled blogs, so it won't likely happen to you very often.

In this lens, you have learned the benefits of blog commenting on CommentLuv enabled blogs, and how to setup your ComLuv account to get your latest 10 Squidoo lenses to show up every time you comment, as well as how to optimize your lenses' anchor text even better with default links and short keyword phrases. So why not go out and get started promoting your Squidoo with ComLuv today!

If you have any questions or concerns, please add them to the comments below or contact me directly through my website. If you are already using this method of promotion, add your experiences here as well.