February 2, 2012

Social Networking on Squidoo

squidoo

Squidoo is a remarkable resource for Internet marketers.  It’s what’s considered a web 2.0 site that allows users to create “lenses,” which are individual pages situated on the Squidoo.com domain that promote a specific topic.

You may be wondering what’s so great about that, when thousands of other sites allow you to do the same thing.  But Squidoo is unique.  Not only do they make it incredibly easy to create a web page, ripe with graphics, content, and interactivity, but they allow – and even encourage you – to use the page to make money (very different from the marketing ban you face on MySpace).

A few other web 2.0 sites allow a minimal amount of marketing to take place, such as HubPages. But they’re far stricter about the number of outgoing links you can have, and they have other rules, which make it harder to use the site for your own personal profiting potential.

Squidoo is actually far more conducive to making real money than any other site that has come into popularity in recent years.  This is the biggest reason Squidoo has risen to fame so rapidly and why Tiffany Dow penned the eBook Social Networking on Squidoo, which was endorsed by an endless supply of guru marketers thanks to its step-by-step instructions on how to market the right way on Squidoo.

Squidoo has finally created a site that can be used for commercial purposes in addition to being a valued consumer resource and wealth of free information. Thousands of smart marketers have flooded to the site to take advantage of the free tools available to them.

Of course, with the influx of honest marketers, a wave of spammers came to try to take over.  This caused Squidoo to temporarily experience a sharp decline in the search engine rankings of its pages at Google, and a sharp drop in traffic to boot – known as Google’s Squidoo Slap.

Squidoo was quick to take action, removing some of the tools (such as iFrames) that made it easy for spammers to abuse the system.  They also banned four major spam topics from the site.  This was frustrating to a lot of honest marketers, but it made it harder for spammers to abuse the site.

They also instituted some policies with regards to quality of lenses, requiring a more substantial amount of content to be published before the lens would show up in searches on the Squidoo site itself.  This also helped deter spammers who would put up a lens with just a paragraph or two of keyword-rich spam text and then a bunch of outbound links.

Squidoo can be used in many ways. You can promote services, products, or affiliate items through your lens. You can have multiple accounts and on each free account, you can have an endless supply of lenses.

You can cross-promote your lenses. Build one master topic lens, and then branch out to build a number of more targeted lenses.  Squidoo helps anyone be an expert on any subject, and Google love to Squidoo is once again rampant, helping lenses acquire page 1 rankings in the SERPs for many competitive keywords and phrases.

People who sell on eBay also love to promote their eBay stores or auctions through Squidoo, using built in eBay modules (building blocks) that Squidoo offers.  Some modules give the lensmaster a share of co-op earnings through AdSense and some module profits. But you can also use text and image links to funnel traffic directly through to your own domain.

Incoming search terms for the article:

  • squidoo (4)
  • social networking on squidoo (1)
  • social networking on squidoo review (1)
  • squidoo internet marketing (1)

The Wonderful World of Web 2.0

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a term that’s often misused.  Some people use the term to refer to a particular style of graphics design, but that’s not what web 2.0 is really about.  Web 2.0 is all about user-generated content.

This means the visitors to your site generate the majority of the content on the site, as opposed to the site owner or writers creating the content.  A perfect example of web 2.0 is Squidoo.  Squidoo is a social network, which is a type of web 2.0 site.

Although the site does post some of its own content, such as the lensmaster tip blog, the vast majority of the site was built by individuals creating their own pages within the site.  When a user signs up to the site, they’re allowed to position themselves as experts on anything from A-Z (they even have a separate section for R and X rated pages that are kept from the general G-rated public).

They create a unique page on the Squidoo domain, with all sorts of information about their niche topic.  They can create or join groups and post in the SquidU forum to communicate with others in the community.

One of the oldest types of web 2.0 sites is the forum.  Forums are almost as old as the Internet itself, and they were one of the first types of web 2.0 concepts.  Other very old web 2.0 predecessors were guestbooks, free-for-all link sites, and classified ad sites.

These days, web 2.0 sites are more complex.  Rather than simply posting messages on a forum, users can typically generate their own profiles, create their own custom pages, and have more involvement in creating the site and its content.

There are many different types of web 2.0 sites.  MySpace and Facebook are two well-known social networking sites.  Blogger is a very popular blog platform, which allows people to develop a type of online diary or journal.

Twitter is somewhat like a blog, only users post very small snippets of content in each post.  Social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Digg allow users to post their favorite links, and allow other people to vote on those links.

Squidoo and HubPages are two sites that let people create pages of information about specific subjects, a bit like a one-page website about a particular topic, similar to Wikipedia.  The basic function of web 2.0 sites is to allow users to post their own content to the site.

Web 2.0 sites can be leveraged for marketing purposes if used correctly.  The key is to immerse yourself in the community and become known as a real person rather than a nameless marketer hoping to cash in on their pooled traffic generation.

Incoming search terms for the article:

  • web 2 0 (31)
  • design web 2 0 (4)
  • web 2 0 graphics (2)
  • user generated content web 2 0 (1)
  • web 2 (1)
  • web 2 0 o que é (1)
  • web 2 0 site (1)
  • web social (1)
  • world web and internet forums (1)

Tips for a Successful Website – Put Your Best Foot Forward

a successful websiteIf you’re looking to start an online business, then the first step is to create a dynamic and engaging website for your clients to come to. You want to wow them with your site. If potential customers visit your site and are underwhelmed, they will begin to think that they’ll be underwhelmed by your product or service as well. Appearances matter, and this is particularly true when it comes to internet marketing. If you want to run a successful internet business, then this will all begin with a successful website for your company. Here are a few tips to making it an accurate reflection of the quality of your product.

Look and feel are important. The Web 2.0 revolution is in full swing and has profoundly affected internet marketing. People are beginning to expect a Flash video greeting when they visit a website, and a dynamic, user-friendly menu to follow it. What they don’t want to be greeted with is a giant block of unbroken text. You want your customer to get to know you and your product, but don’t do it by forcing information on them that they never asked for. Instead, make your homepage a hub with visually pleasing links to all this information. Include links to an “About Us” page. When they click that link, then they’re seeking more information about your company; you’re not ramming it down their throats.

Another great internet marketing strategy is to host a blog on your website. People like to read blogs, and if they’re already interested in your industry, then they might find it entertaining to read posts about your business. Try to include funny or compelling stories whenever you can. The two things that always draw people in are humor and pathos. And make sure to create an RSS feed so that people can subscribe to your blog and get all of the updates.

The final tip for a successful website is this: if at all possible, incorporate e-commerce in your website. There’s nothing more frustrating for a customer than to research your product, read all about your company and your product on your website, and then discover that they need to call you or visit your physical location in order to place an order. Set up a PayPal account and give customers the option to buy right then and there. A great internet marketing tip is to grab ‘em while you’ve got ‘em.

Incoming search terms for the article:

  • tips for a successful website (2)
  • tips on what to put on a website (2)
  • how to put tip on webpage (1)
  • what to put at foot of website (1)
  • what to include in a sucessful website (1)
  • what to add to a homepage tips (1)
  • What are tips on what to put on a website (1)
  • top tips for a successful website (1)
  • tips what to put in website (1)
  • tips to put in a website (1)
  • tips on what to put in a website (1)
  • marketing about us page plr (1)
  • inurl:Website EcommerceTop Commentators (1)
  • internet\s best foot forward (1)
  • how to put website IPs on (1)
  • what to put on a website tips (1)

The Future of Internet Marketing – Advertising Goes Web 2.0

web 2.0Ever since the internet marketing phenomenon broke onto the scene, everyone’s wanted a piece of the action. Major companies invest millions of dollars in online advertising campaigns. Politicians have websites and blogs that they update daily. Freelance writers have never had an easier time finding work. The key to the future of marketing online lies in the most recent web phenomenon that the internet has seen: Web 2.0. We’re getting to a point where traditional marketing strategies like simply opening a website and paying for banner ads on other popular websites is becoming cliché. The internet is diving headfirst into the Web 2.0 movement, and marketing is right there with it.

Web 2.0 is the concept of creating web applications that facilitate interaction, information sharing, and collaboration on the web. The focus of Web 2.0 is community: allowing users to come together to dialog and interact in a forum that allows them to share common ideas and receive feedback from other users. This is actually good news for internet marketing because this means that businesses only need to set up and maintain the community and the users will take care of the rest. Such a strategy will generate positive buzz about the business.

The advent of social networking has forever changed the concept of internet marketing. Websites like Facebook and Twitter allow users to become fans of certain businesses or websites. This exponentially increases the potential for a company to launch a viral ad campaign. In the past, an advertiser could only put out an advertisement and hope that they’d paid to show it in enough venues to get the exposure they wanted. Now, they can stop worrying about the breadth of their coverage and spend more time on the quality of what they’re putting out there. The more interesting their ad concept, the more likely it is to go viral, thanks to their network of fans or followers.

Web 2.0 has forever changed the focus of internet marketing. Social networking is the direction in which advertising is headed. The focus can no longer simply be on producing an interesting ad campaign, although this certainly helps. Since all users are connected to other users, it now matters what these users think of the advertiser’s product, so it’s more important than ever before to manufacture a quality product. If you do, positive buzz will spread naturally. If you don’t, then negative buzz may be your downfall.