How To Promote Yourself With Squidoo

A recent gig creating lenses for a client reminded me of how useful Squidoo can be for self promotion. I have to be honest: although I have eight lenses, I don’t promote them very much so I don’t get the full Squidoo promotional juice. In spite of that, at least two clients have come to me as a result of finding one of my lenses.

One good reason to use Squidoo is that you can get a web page to promote yourself without the hassle of getting hosting. Although I always advocate buying a domain name and creating a blog or website, Squidoo can be a good starting point for getting the word out about your writing services. The service is based on the premise that everyone is an expert in something and you are sharing your expertise with the world. Promoting yourself with Squidoo can be done in a few simple steps. All you need to start is to get an account and write your bio.

Step 1: Write The Content

This will change depending on whether you are creating a biographical or an informational lens. If you plan to provide information, write an article on a specialist area that you want to promote. Fill it with details that will be useful to readers, because if they like it, they will help with the promotion.

Step 2: Create A Lens

This is simple. Once you sign up for an account, you are invited to create a lens. You need to give it a title and add appropriate keywords (you can edit those later) To help you, Squidoo also provides a few templates to get you started or you can go freestyle (which is my favorite option). You can add different sections to your lens for including text and photos, RSS feeds, affiliate products from Amazon, Ebay, Cafepress and more. There are dozens of things you can add to your Squidoo lens.

Once you have decided what to add, preview the order of the modules, rearrange them (this will make sense when you’re doing it) and click save. You will have a page with several boxes to add content. The top box allows you to add an introduction and photo, a table of contents and links to related lenses. Once you have more than one lens, you can cross link them in this box.

Step 3: Add The Content

Your next step is to put your article in the boxes. I usually put each paragraph (or couple of paragraphs) in a new box with a subheading. This makes it into a good web article. You can use HTML in the boxes for links and bulleted lists. A good tip is to save each box when you have finished with it and to click ’save this draft’ at the end of the page to keep your changes. Don’t worry; it won’t be live till you publish.

Once you’ve done that, you can add a few more items. I always add some Amazon books and my blog’s feed, but you may have other products to promote. Once you’re done, preview the lens, and publish.

Step 4: Promote

When you have the lens, promote it in all the usual channels (see my Promotion Is Free series for ideas) as well as within Squidoo itself. Look for active groups on Squidoo and join them. The members will visit your lens and may favorite it, giving the lens more prominence. Email your friends and let them know you have a lens. The more traffic your lens gets, the higher your lens rank and the more prominent it will be. You will also make money from the products you promote in Squidoo – and you won’t even need an affiliate ID.

Step 5: Repeat

The more lenses you have, the more promotional juice you get. People with dozens of lenses make money from them and also attract attention from clients. You can too – and all you need to invest is your time.

Over to you, now. I know a couple of regular readers use Squidoo all the time, so if you have tips to add, please feel free to do so in the comments. I’d love to know how you have used Squidoo for promotion.

(Want me to create a lens for you? Here are several I created for Julie-Ann Amos)

You might also enjoy:

1. The Many Uses for your Squidoo Lens
2. If You Squidoo, I Want You
3. Business Promotion On Squidoo

Tagged as: promotion, squidoo, writing