How To Make Money With Squidoo and eBay

Many lens masters join Squidoo to showcase their own sales on eBay. This is a great idea not only because it is another way to get traffic to your items for sale, but also because squidoo offers a great opportunity to establish your credibility and personality online.

Buyers on the internet want to know more about you, how trustworthy are you, how long have you been in business, are you an expert? Do other people trust you?

Squidoo allows you to show your potential buyers more about you and your products. Turn people into friends and friends into customers.

You don't have to have your own listings on eBay to use the eBay module on squidoo. Its use extends far beyond that by allowing you to highlight any item listed on eBay.

How can you use the eBay module to make money on Squidoo?

Say you are a big fan of the Indiana Jones movies and want to create a lens about your favorite adventure hero. You can use the eBay module to find any item which is listed on eBay which you think that your lens visitors would be interested in buying.

If someone purchases an item from eBay you will earn a royalty for yourself or for charity.

Before I show you how to set up an eBay module and make the very best of it I wanted to tell you my own route to Squidoo via eBay.



I am not an eBay Seller.

I am an eBay buyer.

But eBay makes me money.

What is my eBay story?

I wanted to start to find my way around eBay, improve my website,and make a million dollars working from home. I needed a how to get rich on the internet eBook. Sound familiar?

How did I pick the eBook? I have absolutely no idea. At the time I had no clue how to work my way around the internet maze and I just hit the buy button. It cost me $1.97.

Was it a good book? I can only remember one thing about it. It had a link to a forum and people there were talking about Squidoo. If I hadn't bought that book and gone to that forum perhaps I would not have found Squidoo. So it was an excellent book.

I signed up to Squidoo. I thought I might write a couple of lenses and perhaps get a couple of useful links to my vacation home website and promote my Disney World guide.

Now it is almost a year and over 100 lenses later. I have done way more than promote the book and get some links.

I am proud to be a Giant Squid.

I have built a home based business. One that allows me to do something that I enjoy, write about things that I am passionate about, and teach others how to do the same.

I have learned more this year than I have in a long time.

Without buying that book on eBay I may not be here on Squidoo.

Would I ever buy or recommend a get rich quick eBook now? No.

Would I suggest learning your craft whatever that may be and trying to be the very best that you can. Yes.

Now I make money via eBay by promoting eBay products on Squidoo.

So if you are here for the first time, or thinking about whether this is right for you just take the step and make a lens? You never know where the road will lead......

Always visit eBay first to see what products are on offer. This helps with your keywords, but more importantly it makes you focus on what you are really going to be recommending on your lens. Remember, think about what visitors to your lens will actually be looking for.

Here is a quick guide to how to use the eBay module on squidoo.

Go to your dashboard and select the lens that you want to add an eBay module to.

In edit mode at the top of the page click on 'Add module'.

You will then be taken to the Module Picker. Just click on the tab which is marked 'sell stuff' and you will then see the eBay module.

Select the module and it will be added to your lens to edit.

There are a number of different ways you can use it and the one you pick is going to depend on the products you are targeting and the overall effect you want on your lens.

This is what the module will look like in edit mode on your lens.



As you will see you have a number of options.

The first choice that you need to make is will you let eBay pick, will you go to eBay yourself and pick specific items, or do you want to showcase a particular store.

This is a great option for showcasing eBay items when you just want to find a product and do not have a particular seller or completely specific item in mind. For instance you may have a lens about Indiana Jones toys. All you want to do it quickly put some products on your lens. This is what just using 'Indiana Jones toys' as keywords would look like.

I have also selected the module to display 5 items, with no minimum amount of bids,from all categories, ending at any time, listed at any price.

This is not very specific and the eBay module shown below illustrates the mixture of items you get.

This is why your initial research on eBay is very important. You will learn learn the keywords which you need to use to highlight the products that you need. This is an extreme example but don't just enter the keyword 'Indiana Jones' if you want eBay to find 'Indiana Jones Kenner 1982 action figure'.

The Indiana Jones toys eBay module which follows shows exactly the results that you will get if you input the details that I have shown on the screen shot above.

The people who visit your lens want to look at products which are relevant. So if your lens is about Seth Godin they probably don't want to look at Indiana Jones toys.

So focus on what they may actually want to buy.

Use keywords in your eBay module title, your subtitle and your description. Don't overdo it but these elements of the eBay module are there to be used so don't waste them. They will help in getting you noticed in the search engines.

You may want to limit the amount of products that eBay picks for you. This can help with the look of the lens and the focus of your visitor. Having too many products can be confusing.

So here is what the module would look like if you are just showcasing one item.

As with other squidoo modules you need to play around with the eBay module to see exactly what it does.

Sometimes it can be difficult to get the keywords right for a product. Go to eBay and see how the listings are described so that you start to get a feel of what search terms you should be including.

You might want to use the time limiting facility to only show auctions ending in the next 6 hours or the same day. Or limit your selection to high priced items.

There is a lot of flexibility in the 'let eBay pick' module facility so just take a bit of time and learn how it works best on your lenses.

You can also use the 'Let Me Pick' feature by going to eBay and selecting the eBay item number for the product that you want to feature. Personally I rarely use this feature as the 'Let eBay Pick' works well for me.

Focus on a specific seller



This feature is often used by lensmasters who are also sellers on eBay. It is a very easy way to quickly feature their own eBay sales.

Anyone can use it to feature their favorite seller. The refining tools of keywords,category, price and when the action ends are still there for you.

Remember that if you are offering products from a specific eBay seller then you are recommending those items to buyers. Would you suggest that a friend bought from that buyer? If the answer is no then move on to a different seller.

Squidoo and eBay are good friends. One can function perfectly well without the other. But they realize that there are benefits for both in meeting up and enjoying each others company.

You can be a friend of either without knowing the other. But if you can be a mutual friend of squidoo and eBay then you will find that it benefits you too.

So just so that I can put more eBay modules in this lens I thought of some famous friends who are very successful in their own right but who function very well together too.

And I have focused by carrying on my Indiana Jones theme.