Monday, August 24, 2009

Why I love squidoo

I know, this is just about the least original title for a squidoo blogpost. But while I'm at it, I might as well confess... I AM addicted.

I love that squidoo is a community place where new squids sometimes start out sharing their favorite lenses... like JOAN did.

I love that it's such a successful online place that it's considered normal to create a blog (like this one) for squidoo purposes only. Check out: Squidutils about how tags are important again... and The question of the weeks by growwear. This week: What would make you a better lensmaster? Great question, and all her questions are like that. The added bonus is links to your lenses, website or lensography (depending on Mimi's mood I think) for the best answer.

I also love the challenges - giant squid summer school, rocket moms and now the teams that are helping new squids (and old squids) reach their goals.

Then the culture of helping each other out is great. The squidoo answer deck is only a selection of all the great help lenses out there or course. Would this blog be complete without bragging a bit about my own efforts at helping the squidoo community?

Friday, August 21, 2009

Getting your lens found in google

Two of my most popular squidoo help lenses are devoted to how to get your lens found in google. The first I made was about that subject specifically, but in order to be really successful one has to start with something else: keyword research.

If you want to make a lens that is successful economically and gets found by google, you need to think about keywords BEFORE you make your lens. This is called 'keyword research'.

I did a blogpost about keyword research on my squidtop blog: analyzing a weight loss lens.

If you've set that up right the next step is promotion. You want your lens found in google, so some people submit their lens to google, yahoo etc. This is a waste of time.

The basis for Search Engine Optimization is getting links (good links) to your lenses. There are all kinds of ways to do that. Within squidoo it makes sense to submit to groups in your niche. But that is also potentially a trap. So I thought I'd give some advice about what to look out for when submitting your lens to a squidoo group. I also did a post analyzing link building for that same weight loss lens I talked about earlier.

One more thing: when it comes to search engine optimization I still see a lot of advice relating to tags. Tag pages however DO NOT COUNT towards your lenses backlink profile. What tags ARE good for was explored here.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Get Lost In Your Own Sites?

I have had such varied interests and have done so many sites in the last couple of years that I had to have some way for me to keep up with me. So, I did a blog site just to keep up with me. I found myself forgetting about blogs or other writings I had started and for some reason never followed up on. It was not a lack of interest, but a lack of organization. How can you keep a site up if you forget you even developed it?

So, I finally decided to do a site specifically to keep up with my internet writings. I started actually searching my records for all the sites I had previously done. As of tonight I am probably still missing some, but will add them as I remember them or come across them in my lists of ID’s and passwords. In the future, it will be easier for me as I will have all my links organized in one place. .

For you “Squidooers”, you probably have a lensography and that serves a good practical purpose for you and for your “friends”. However, if you get to the point I have gotten to in a few short years, you will probably have to organize the rest of your sites in a similar fashion.

On the site I just developed for me [LamarRoss.Com ] I have used a Wordpress blog format, developed pages to categorize my squidoo links, and made various other categories of links to organize links to my blogs, ezinearticles, etc. This is the site where I will attempt to keep a running tabulation of all my internet blogs, sites, affiliate links, etc. as they are developed.

If my followers, friends, and casual passersby learn from these “parts” that the “whole” of me is greater than the parts, so much the better, but the site was done primarily to organize me. I, like most everyone in life, have now and have had throughout my life many varying interests. These interests are reflected in the links on this site.

Some of my sites have been for fun. Some of my sites have been for money. But all of my sites are an expression of me and my interests. That will never change.

I will make occasional posting on items related to my many interests and attempt to keep on this site a listing of links to all my internet ventures, adventures, and misadventures. Only time will tell which of these sites reflect the ventures and which the misadventures. But, I promise you that I will always be having fun.

Check out my site. Maybe it will be something you will decide to do for you.