Squidoo Affiliate Marketing: use images to grab attention

You can brighten up your lenses with video, graphics
and photos.

These attract people's attention and often encourages them
to linger longer on your Squidoo lens.

For example, you can use instructional videos from YouTube
to assist your visitors to get across a topic area. I have
provided videos on how to take digital photos on the
following lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/sellyourdigitalphotos/

I have purchased a number of graphics packages
to add graphics to my lenses as well. These often
serve the purpose of breaking up the text modules
and making the lens easier to read.

My latest purchase is the following package
which gives you editable, web-specific highlighter
graphics for under $7:
http://www.webcreations.squidoomarketingstrategies.com

The one-time offer which is marginally dearer gives
you the capacity to create your own buttons and logos
using a simple point and click technology.

Graphics were never my strong point so I am so grateful to
these developers that have not only given me access to a
wide range of Web 2.0 graphics but also an easy facility
to create my own:
http://www.webcreations.squidoomarketingstrategies.com

Graphics packages can be quite expensive, but these are
very reasonably priced and attractive to boot.

Squidoo Affiliate Marketing: build your list

Squidoo is great for building your list.

While Squidoo Lensmasters can no longer use iframes
in their lenses, there are other ways to capture leads.

Create a lead capture Squidoo module

At the moment I am using a lead capture module which
has the cover of my ebook as the eye-catching image.

Here's the module where I offer a free subscription
to my 7 day email course plus weekly follow-up with
tips, hints and Squidoo marketing strategies:
Lead Capture Module

I have added 300 people to my mailing list in the last
6 months using this method.

I hope to get a signficant boost to my list building
during November when I offer my Squidoo Marketing
Strategies ebook free at the Work at Home Giveaway
commencing at 12PM EST on 9 November:
http://www.117workathomegifts.com/index.php?id=354

One of the list building secrets with Squidoo is to
build multiple focused Squidoo lenses so that you are
attracting a wide variety of people with different interests.
For example, I have built Squidoo lenses around my
interest in the inner game of tennis, affiliate marketing,
poetry, boutique hotels, online learning, digital storytelling,
Eva Cassidy, Clickbank and Facebook:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/ronpass

You need a reliable autoresponder for your list

It is vitally important to have a reliable autoresponder and
a meaningful follow-up email series. Some of the people
who join my email course purchase my book,
Squidoo Marketing Strategies. They all join my regular
list and receive weekly broadcasts about Squidoo marketing,
tools and tips.

I am using Aweber.com as my autoresponder and found it
very reliable, with an excellent delivery rate and superb
service. I have used the online chat facility a number of
times to solve a problem and the issues were handled very
professionally by knowledgable staff.

I have previously used four different autoresponders
and experienced problems of downtime, broadcast
failures and even loss of my mailing list of 1,500 people
because of poor backup facilites. I decided eventually
that if I was going to build an online business I needed
a professional autoresponder as my busines backbone.

I have really appreciated the quality of Aweber:
http://www.aweber.com/?219129

So the steps to build your list with Squidoo are:

1. create a lead capture module on Squidoo lenses
2. provide an email course or gift to attract prospects
3. use a reliable autoresponder like Aweber
4. provide regular email broadcasts to your list

You may have to have different lists for your various
Squidoo lenses. I am lucky that all my subscribers
at the moment are interested in Squidoo affiliate
marketing so I can have a common list.

However, I am in the process of writing a free ebook on
on the inner game of tennis which I will link to a series
of emails created by one of the relevant affiliate
merchants. So I will build another list just for that
Squidoo lens and readers. Here's my Squidoo lens
on the inner game of tennis:
http://www.squidoo.com/theinnergameoftennis/

************************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster
and provides free resources for Squidoo affiliate marketing
on his Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Ron is the author of the ebook: Squidoo Marketing Strategies





Technorati Tags: Squidoo affiliate marketing, list building, Squidoo marketing strategies, Aweber.com review, Squidoo Marketing Strategies e-Book, affiliate marketing, Squidoo tips, Aweber.com, autoresponder

Google Blog Slap: Squidoo to the rescue

Google recently did a re-rank of web sites and particularly
blogs.

Many of the world's best blogs dropped in Google page ranking
(PR) e.g. from PR7 to PR5 or PR5 to PR3.

This action by Google has been the subject of heated debate
on blogs across the globe.

The interesting fact is that many of the blogs have had their
page rank restored. In some cases this was because they were
not in fact using paid links at this point in time.

The story so far

Here's a tracking of the story:

Darren Rowse, Problogger.com (PR7), wrote about it when
it first happened. He identified the fact that Google was
penalising "authority sites" for using paid (sponsored)
advertising links:

Problogger dropped to Page Rank 4
(Problogger drops from PR 6/7 to PR4)

Google Page Rank Pendulum Swings Again
(Problogger back to PR7)

A blogger reports that paid links are now worth more
(many bloggers have stopped using paid links
but there are still people willing to pay ...and pay
even more)

Andy Beard has shown the progression in ranking
after the third round. This great list gives you the
top blogs (so why not comment on them!). Check it out
here:
http://andybeard.eu/2007/10/pagerank-update-2.html

What has this got to do with Squidoo?

Well Squidoo seems to be going from strength
to strength while all these changes are going on.

Here's the Google ranking of three
of my lenses (at least at the time of writing):

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies - PR5

http://www.squidoo.com/digital-storytelling - PR4

http://www.squidoo.com/onlinelearningresources - PR4

Google PR5 is a ranking usually reserved for authority sites...
and often takes years of blogging to achieve. The Squidoo
Marketing Strategies lens was started in March this year!

So I suggest you get to it and build an authority Squidoo site
(with no paid links!!!) ...and then build multiple affiliate
marketing sites each dedicated to one product or service...and
cross-link the lot.

If you want to check out the Google page rank for your
Squidoo lens you can do so here:
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/future-pagerank/

****************************************************************
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

I have just listened to Yaro Starak's Blog Profits Blueprint
on my iPod as I walked. Wow - this is great free stuff from
one of the Top ten bloggers in Australia (and a Brisbanite to
boot!). It really does give you the blueprint to make
money from a blog - step by step. Yaro should know - he
earns $5000 per month from blogging. This is a great
resource and you will not find a better resource on
blogging any where (even in the two $47 ebooks on the
topic that I have purchased).

Click here to download the Blog Profits Blueprint

************************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
provides free resources for Squidoo affiliate marketing
on his Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Ron is the author of the ebook:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies


Technorati Tags: Squidoo affiliate marketing, Squidoo, Squidoo marketing strategies, Google page rank, Squidoo Marketing Strategies e-Book, affiliate marketing, Squidoo tips, lensrank, traffic

Squidoo Affiliate Marketing: Post, Publish, Ping

I recently received the following question from a subscriber:
"How do I get more consistent traffic without having to do
specific actions each and every day (pinging, bookmarking, etc)?"

The short answer is you need to do those daily tasks
- post, publish and ping.

Here's the long answer.

The amount of traffic you will get is a function of a number

of things:

• Level of interest in your keyword(s) and/or topic area
• Number of searches conducted for your keyword(s)
• The level of competition
• The value of your site to the reader
• The frequency with which you update

(Re competition: the keyword "internet marketing" brings

up 53 Million results on Google and is controlled by

long standing marketers, some of guru status).

The Law of Attraction works in this arena too.

Repeat visits will come if you offer free and substantial,

expertise relevant to the viewer's goals. They will not

return if your site does not offer value.

I have learnt this through my blog and my main lens.

I get enquiries everday from all over the world and offers
to promote other people's products.

People are starting to refer other people to my blog, my

lenses and my articles. Others are creating links on their

lenses and blogs to my lens/blog. Two top marketers

recently mentioned my blog/lens in their own newsletter/

blog. Still others are seeking me out on FaceBook.

So if you are offering something of value that is timely

and needed by a target market, they will eventually

come to you. But they have to know that you exist.

Both Google (and other search engines) and Squidoo

will naturally give priority to sites that are regularly

updated.

One of my Squidoo lenses had a bug in it

recently preventing me from editing it, and in four

days it dropped from 270 overall to 737!

However, it has now reached no 8 position on Google

(out of 400,000+ results) - by daily updating and

pinging (lens first published on 17/9/07).

The gurus tell us that the marketing power now lies

with the quality authority sites (Wikipedia is but one

major example). One of the top marketers refers to

these authority people as "Top Dogs" - in her words,

those who offer substantial, free expert advice on a

topic.

Jack Humphrey, who I referred to in a recent post
actually claims to have coined the term

"authority site" - he certainly pushes it and his site

is a great example of an authority site.

If you download his Authority Black Book, you gain

access to his special traffic blog and another service

he calls, Authority Site Center :
http://www.contentdesk.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Through the Authority Site Center he will create a
Wordpress blog for you and a header and host your site.
He uses special software to make your site a traffic generator.
Plus you get access to a mastermind group. All this for
around $97 a month.

I mention this mainly to make a point!

Despite doing all this (using software he developed at a

cost of $1Million), he insists that you post daily...and that

is how you become an authority and develop an

authority site. His software automates the pinging,

submission to social bookmarking sites, RSS feeds, etc.

As you know by now, if you want to post daily, you

have to learn a hell of a lot pretty fast.

So even the very top people with the most sophisticated

traffic generating software in the world insist on daily

updating.

The top bloggers post four or five times daily - that's how

they dominate the search engines and their niches.

You can also buy traffic but it won't be as targeted as

organic search engine or Squidoo traffic (unless you

use something like adwords - at considerable expense).

However, if you do not update daily you can

drop in ranking in both Google and Squidoo.

So the moral of the story is - Post, Publish, Ping...
on a daily basis.

If you find this a challenge, check out my Squidoo marketing
lens for ideas on what to add to your lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies/

****************************************************************
PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

Submitting your latest blog post to the various Web 2.0
news sites is a powerful method to generate immediate
targeted traffic to your blog or lens. This generates
high-quality traffic and links and builds your authority
status getting you into search engines faster and ranking higher.

The downside - it takes a lot of time to cut and paste your post
title, keywords and description into each site. Here's a way to
save time and get instant traffic - autosubmit to Web 2.0
news sites:
http://www.web2submitter.squidoomarketingstrategies.com

************************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
provides free resources for Squidoo affiliate marketing
on his Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Ron is the author of the ebook:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies


Technorati Tags: Squidoo affiliate marketing, Squidoo, Squidoo marketing strategies, web 2.0 traffic, Squidoo Marketing Strategies e-Book, affiliate marketing, Squidoo tips, lensrank, traffic

Squidoo Affiliate Marketing - Article Writing (2)

The Bum Marketing strategy suggests that you use
articles to target specific keywords that have
high monthly searches but low competition.

I have been using MicroNicheFinder daily to
identify such keywords for my articles, lens tags
and the URLs for my new lenses. This tool
is absolutely invaluable:
MicroNicheFinder for Article Writing and Lens Creation

I have previously reviewed MicroNicheFinder here.

Enough of this rave...but I so rarely come across a
tool that is so useful and opens up so many new avenues.

Through MicroNicheFinder I established that Squidoo
Affiliate Marketing was a keyword that had a good
number of searches but low competition, so I decided
to target it in my articles.

I already had multiple listings on the first page of Google
for the keywords squidoo marketing strategies
and squidoo marketing.

One of the secrets of article writing is to ensure
that your targeted keyword appears as the first term
in your article title (you also want it in your article
summary and spread throughout your article).

The title is critical - it's what Google looks at first!
The keyword does, however, need to be repeated as
indicated above to convince Google that the article is
really about the title topic.

It may take a bit of mental gymnastics to get your
keyword in the title but believe me it's worth it.

Here's proof - these two articles were written to target
the keyword Squidoo Affiliate Marketing
and submitted on 4 October to Ezinearticles.com:

Squidoo Affiliate Marketing - Use Squidoo to Leverage
Your Writing

Squidoo Affiliate Marketing - Get Multiple Listings
on the First Page of Google Results

Today (20 October) these articles hold nos. 3 & 4 positions
on Google search results for the term Squidoo Affiliate
Marketing.

In my next post on this topic I will talk about how
to use the resource box to reinforce your keyword rich
title.

************************************************

Product of the Week - Authority Black Book

All I can say is WOW! This free, 64 page e-book
by Web 2.0 expert, Jack Humphrey, is something special.
It gives you the complete list of Web 2.0 resources you
need to generate a steady stream of qualified traffic.
Jack discusses blogging, RSS marketing, social bookmarking
sites, social media sites, video marketing and provides the
Big List of Web 2.0 Resources (with hotlinks). Well, Jack
should know - he gets 5,000 visitors per day to one of
his sites (and 850,000 page views in a month). Get your
copy of the Authority Black Book:

CLICK HERE

************************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
provides free resources for Squidoo affiliate marketing
on his Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Ron is the author of the ebook:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies


Technorati Tags: Squidoo affiliate marketing, Squidoo, Squidoo marketing strategies, article writing, Squidoo Marketing Strategies e-Book, affiliate marketing, Squidoo tips, MicroNicheFinder, traffic

Squidoo Affiliate Marketing - article writing (1)

Article writing is one of the most effective strategies for
gaining traffic for your affiliate marketing Squidoo lens.

Articles bring targeted traffic to your site almost instantly
if you use the top article directories for submission of
your article.

Squidoo enables you to leverage your article writing through
the use of the link and/or RSS feed modules.

If you submit a number of articles to an article directory
such as Ezinearticles.com, you can use the RSS feed on your
Squidoo lens so that whenever you publish an article, your
Squidoo lens is updated.

In an article I published yesterday I show how you can
use Squidoo to leverage your writing:
http://www.squidooleverage.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

If you need further motivation, here's some great reasons to
write articles:

1. your article, with its resource box links, can appear
on the first page of Google results for your
chosen keyword.
(The article I wrote and submitted to Ezinearticles.com on
Friday is number 3 on Google search results for my targeted
keyword today, Sunday.)

2. if you submit to high ranking article directories you
create valuable backlinks to your lens and/or blog.
Ezinearticles.com, for example, has a Google ranking of 6.
(A confirmatory story - when I edited out my blog links
from my articles on Ezinearticles.com, my blog dropped
from a Google ranking of 4 to 3!)

3. article writing and submission is an effective form of
viral marketing
(My 17 articles on Ezinearticles.com have attracted
7,667 views and been accessed by 328 ezine publishers
who,in turn, have shared them with their subscribers.)

4. article writing builds your internet profile
and establishes your expertise in an area.

5. article writing brings you targeted visitors because
visitors find your article through direct search
(another form of what Seth calls "permission marketing")

6. you get to access visitors you would not otherwise
reach
(one of my articles has even been translated into Spanish
and Greek would you believe!)

7. article writing gets easier the more you do it and
there are benefits for writing more.
(Ezinearticles.com, for example, gives you priority
reviewing and greater exposure once you have submitted
and published 10 articles. My article written on Friday
was accepted the next day and listed in Google results
the following day.)

8. you can get continual traffic to your Squidoo
lens for many years from writing and
submitting one article.

There are few internet marketing methods, paid or free,
that will give you a better return on your time than
article writing and submission.

************************************************
Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
provides free resources for Squidoo affiliate marketing
on his Squidoo lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Ron is the author of the ebook:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies


Technorati Tags: Squidoo affiliate marketing, Squidoo, Squidoo marketing strategies, article writing, Squidoo Marketing Strategies e-Book, affiliate marketing, Squidoo tips, lensrank, traffic

Build your ranking with internal links

Squidoo Marketing Strategies: Internal Linking

Google and Squidoo value internal linking
because it indicates the integrity of your
site.

Many spam sites are just full of external
links with no substance. Internal linking can
act as a signal that you personally have
something to say and that your website is
worth visiting in its own right.

Another application of internal linking is
to create a menu or contents list for your
Squidoo lens or website.

My lens on Squidoo marketing has grown so
large (over 35 modules) that I have had to
create a menu:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies Menu

How do you create internal links on Squidoo?

The secret to creating links to modules in your
lenses is to create a hyperlink with this basic url
structure:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensname/#modulexxxxxxx

Here's an example of such a hyperlink:
Step by step affiliate marketing

and the url:
http://www.squidoo.com/howdoaffiliateprogramswork/#module3899480

Two points to note here:

* you can find the Module Number
by hovering your cursor over the "up" or "down"
arrow near the module title when in edit mode.

* the anchor text you use for the hyperlink
should be a keyword that is different to the name
of your lens (as Google will have noted your lens
name in the url in the hyperlink).


**********************************************

Ron Passfield is a Top 100 Squidoo Lensmaster and
recently created his own SquidWho lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/ron-passfield

Ron is the author of the ebook:
Squidoo Marketing Strategies

******************************************
Technorati Tags: internal linking, Squidoo, Squidoo marketing strategies, tips for Squidoo newbies, Squidoo Marketing Strategies e-Book, affiliate marketing, Squidoo tips, lensrank, traffic