I Use Squidoo To Fine Tune My Creative Business Style
Squidoo is a huge playground where I hone my business style with each new idea I try.
An Online Business Multi Tool
The advice given on the usual business and marketing blogs has never worked for me because as an arist I concentrate heavily on creativity, and not so much on business-y things. I use Squidoo's instant modules to test new ideas about earning money with my art and creativity.
An Online Business Multi Tool
The advice given on the usual business and marketing blogs has never worked for me because as an arist I concentrate heavily on creativity, and not so much on business-y things. I use Squidoo's instant modules to test new ideas about earning money with my art and creativity.
Table Of Contents
- Use Squidoo To Find A Style that Attracts Visitors
- Sorry Kimberly and Seth
- Business Self Discovery
- Business Building Tools
- Eclectic Del.icio.us Reflecting Pond
- Helpful Squidoo Lenses
- Even Artists Must Know SEO
- SEO Bookmarks At Del.icio.us
- SquidooCool Blog
- Business Blogs For Artists and Creatives
- My Personal Business Strategy
- Guestbook
- Link List
Use Squidoo To Find A Style that Attracts Visitors
Here's What I've Learned About Creating Content That Attracts Visitors
A Hard LessonThis was a hard lesson for me to learn because it seems egoistical, but people want to know about how I personally relate to to my topics, and I'm the only expert on that. So, if your lens gets very few or no visitors, rethink your topic and concentrate on "unique" and "personal."
For example, the topic "art" is incredibly competitive, "watercolor painting" is a smaller sub-niche of art, but "how you create your watercolor paintings" is a small and unique topic that no one else can write about. And that's what people are looking for.
Content My Visitors Want
I try to create a good mix of content for the search engines to crawl because that makes it more likely the lens will come up when the topic is searched for. To see what words people use to search for my subjects, I use Google Insights For Search.
As soon as one of my lenses does have a few visitors, I open the dashboard and look under the tab labeled "Traffic," and the "Traffic Sources" tab to see what keywords those visitors used to find the lens. A lot of times these phrases inspire new content ideas that I know at least a few people are looking for. Here's how I make the most of it.
Click the small + after the keywords to add the phrase to the lens' keyword list and then dedicate a new module to the idea.
The trick is to let the visitors inspire you to create more for them, and not to generate content just to attract more visitors. I can tell the difference between inspired creativity and a desperate grab for money, and so can they.
People (And Search Engine) Friendly Writing
When I try too hard, my writing sounds like a used car salesperson who's not too sure of herself, so I try to relax and write as I naturally speak. But with better grammar. :)
As a bonus, search engines like natural sounding text too, but those keywords have to be in the right places. Here's what works best for me.
Put the keyword or phrase in the title of the content module.
Refer to it in the subtitle using related words.
And naturally mention it again in the first few lines of the article.
I'm More Comfortable With Visual Expression Than Writing
I spend a lot of time working in graphics programs creating images for my lenses. Working visually makes my creativity flow and that's when ideas for topics and content come to me, so I've learned to put my visual sense to work for my lens visitors in a couple other ways too.
I format the written content so that it's easy to read and as pleasant to look at as possible.
And I use file names with the keywords for the topic in them. That helps search engines direct people to my content. For example: topic-keyword.jpg instead of image42b.jpg.
Sorry Kimberly and Seth
Here's my Creative Artsy Type Take On Business Organization
Recently SquidooKimberly mentioned a post by Seth Godin about taking control of the inflow and outflow of our work.
When I began online bizzing, I thought I'd love to be organized enough to plan my future, and wouldn't it be a joy to watch my projects grow at a predictable rate, but I can't do that. My mind just doesn't work that way.
When an idea comes to me, there is no beginning or end to it. I jump right in the middle and figure out everything else from there. After the project starts to come together, I can finally see where it fits into the larger scheme of things.
I stay in the moment with each project and I'm willing to wait and see where it leads, and that takes a lot of self trust. It requires you to let go of control and just ride the waves of your business sense as it unfolds under you. And it works for me, thanks to Squidoo. ;)
So, Cowabunga to all my fellow bizzy Dudes and Dudettes! (I know you're out there.) And keep your boards waxed.
When I began online bizzing, I thought I'd love to be organized enough to plan my future, and wouldn't it be a joy to watch my projects grow at a predictable rate, but I can't do that. My mind just doesn't work that way.
When an idea comes to me, there is no beginning or end to it. I jump right in the middle and figure out everything else from there. After the project starts to come together, I can finally see where it fits into the larger scheme of things.
I stay in the moment with each project and I'm willing to wait and see where it leads, and that takes a lot of self trust. It requires you to let go of control and just ride the waves of your business sense as it unfolds under you. And it works for me, thanks to Squidoo. ;)
So, Cowabunga to all my fellow bizzy Dudes and Dudettes! (I know you're out there.) And keep your boards waxed.
Zen Garden Of Business Delights
Business Self Discovery
Looking within to find your art / money sweet spot.
- Heart of Business
- When you want to make a difference, but need to make a profit. The free book is worth signing up for the weekly newsletter.
- How to be happy in business - Venn Diagram
- I'm not sure what this site is about, but I love this bubble graph.
- The Enneagram in Business
- The nine Enneagram type's business styles. Don't know your Enneagram type? Take the test here too.
Business Building Tools
Ideas in creation mode can go in any direction, so breath, center, and read a lot.
- 20 Color Combination Tools for Designers | Spyre Studios
- Being able to select the right colors is key in designing an effective and intriguing design, whether for the web or for print.
- Seller's Choice: Merchants Rate Ecommerce Marketplaces
- Online sellers to rate 15 ecommerce marketplaces.
- 13 Tactics to Make Social Media Work Harder
- Learn how to leverage social media effectively.
- Small sounds, big deals: How do number sounds influence consumers? (1/26/2010)
- Hmmm. Perhaps a marketing benefit here?
- Creative Organizing
- Creative organizing tips and ideas
- Wholehearted Living - Get Everything Done
- Use feelings as a guide in all things.
- 'Zen' bats hit their target by not aiming at it
- New research shows Egyptian fruit bats find a target by NOT aiming their guiding sonar directly at it. Instead, they alternately point the sound beam to either side of the target. There has to be a business lesson in this somewhere.
- 50 Fantastic Free eBooks to Enhance Your Online Business | Change your thoughts
- Some great books here. Some stinkers too. But, hey, they're all free!
- Online Business and Monetization Models Mind Map
- Online Business and Monetization Models Mind Map
- CreateSpace: Self-Publish and Distribute Your Books, Video and Music On-Demand
- CreateSpace provides free tools to help you self-publish and distribute your books, DVDs, CDs, video downloads and MP3s on-demand on Amazon.com and other channels. (An Amazon site.)
- Jane's Pick of the Day: Learning Tools Directory 2010
- Document and presentation, blogging, audio, video, communication, and instructional tools are just a few of the categories here.
- The Author 2.0 Model Explained - by Joanna Penn | The Creative Penn
- The diagram of the model and a video explaining how the model works for authors to build their online platform.
Creative Online Business Models
These people are using their talent to successfuly make and sell unique products from their websites.
- 2010: Creating My Goddess Year Workbook Planner | Goddess Guidebook | Discover the creative, joyful, wise Goddess in You.
- Example of an amazingly creative website with ebook pdfs for sale. Simple, fun, to the point, and successful.
- Multiple Steams of Income Series - Getting Started
- Clever use of Etsy to sell a pdf ebook to the crafters who use the site.
- ArtZenCoaching.com ebooks and kits
- Good example of ebooks and mp3s for sale.
Eclectic Del.icio.us Reflecting Pond
These links come up when no word in entered into this widget.
Looking at these ever changing bookmarks is like gazing into still water. Sometimes there's something reflected back to you. Sometimes there isn't.
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Helpful Squidoo Lenses
For your Squidooing Pleasure
- Squidoo : Lensmaster Page
- Squidoo How To's
- Squidaholic
- Squidoo how to for addicts.
- Squidoo Page Break Module
- How to use it.
- Create CSS Backgrounds with Images
- If you haven't worked with html and css very much, this may be hard to follow. There are some good tricks here that are worth learning though.
- The 9 Free Things Every Site (or Lens!) Should Do
- Rule #1: If you have a site or Squidoo lens, you want more traffic. Rule #2: You don't have enough money to buy as much traffic as you need. Rule #3: You've already made your site/lens as compelling as you know how to. So, what now? Read on for the (free) details.
Even Artists Must Know SEO
All you need is a little Google love.
- SEO Blogger - Firefox Add-on
- Allows you to check for popular keywords in your browser window. Especially handy when blogging.
- SEO Keywords | Search Engine Optimization
- Wordtracker well written SEO articles. Some are basic and some are more advanced.
- How to optimize your Squidoo tags and get more traffic on your lens
- Good tags on Squidoo will give you more traffic, a better ranking and perhaps more sales too!.
- SEO and Photography Websites: Seeing what Google Sees - A Picture's Worth | PhotoShelter
- A Pictures Worth: Links and link text make a difference in how you optimize your photography website for search engines. But how do we know if Google has indexed any of our pages?
- Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Google's SEO Starter Guide
- Straight from the horse's mouth.
SEO Bookmarks At Del.icio.us
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SquidooCool Blog
Business Blogs For Artists and Creatives
IttyBiz
The Happiness Project
Men With Pens
Art Biz Blog
A List Apart
Zen Habits
Write To Done
Seth's Blog
My Personal Business Strategy
Don't Panic
Navigate with the currents instead of fighting against them.
I worked for a long time to find an online business model that felt right. As usual though, I didn't find it by searching for it. It developed naturally over time when I wasn't looking. My intuition lead me quite efficiently to my own style on my art website while I was feverishly trying to find it elsewhere.
Now I try not to lust after what everyone else is doing, concentrate on what naturally comes from me instead, and trust that is enough. I still experiment with different business models, but the heart of it, the presentation style, always comes from my center.
Here They Are!
All my Squidoo lenses.
Link List
by crosinski
My name is Carol Rosinski and I'm an artist. I'm also 100% INFP. I share
this personality type, that is both a blessing and a curse, with only
about 1%...
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