Thank you.

I opened my inbox and there is a comment. For some reason it hadn’t published yet (probably so I could easily put it here!) I hope this person doesn’t mind me sharing the comment and I’m going to give a little bit of advice on what could be done differently to help her improve her ranking in the search engines, get traffic and get more sales. Since this is her actual comment I don’t think she’ll mind me sharing with the class ~ since she was gonna anyway.

10 Things She Could Do Differently

1 Let’s start with the comment itself. If you’re going to share your niche/product you might as well get a quality link out of it! She could have used the name/url fields in the comment area to create a clickable link to her lens. She could have also used html within the comment to create a clickable link using her keywords as the anchor text.

2 Speaking of keywords. I’m assuming the keyword you are targeting is the one you’ve used in the url. The keyword “delonghi esam3300 esclusivo magnifica super-automatic espresso coffee machine” has NO search volume. This is the exact point I was trying to get across in the how to find product name keywords post.  You don’t want to use the whole product name as given on Amazon if it doesn’t have search volume. There are plenty of related keywords for this product that would have served your search engine optimization better.

3You’ve got the related pages still showing (the box in the sidebar that talks about other delonghi lenses) you want to take that out. You want people to click YOUR links, not onto someone elses lenses. (This is true for product lenses ~ there are times the related pages is useful and I would leave it on, but not for this purpose.)

4You have no title in your intro module. It’s one of the most important places Google will look to figure out what your lens is about. This is called on page SEO. It’s what Google looks at to see if it wants to pick YOUR lens to be a source of information on the first page of the search results when someone puts that keyword in as a query. You’ve GOT to tell Google exactly what the page is about, and that’s easiest done by using your keyword in your module titles.

5Don’t ask for marriage on your first date. The first piece of content you have is the best place to buy your product. It’s best to provide some information/content before you go in for the sale. At least a little bit. This is where it’s good to talk about features this product offers. It’s a $750 coffee pot. What makes it worth me spending that much instead of $25 on a Mr. Coffee machine?

6 You’ve got the price showing on your buy now area. If I’ve heard some cool stuff about this coffee maker, say on TV or in a magazine. You can BET they didn’t tell me how much this sucker costs. I see that at the very top of your lens, before I know why this thing is so very good I’m like “oh hell no” click. Bye. I’m gone.  Talk about how much they are saving instead of how much they’ll be spending. They will at least click through to amazon to get the price. They still may say “oh hell no” to this $750 coffee pot, but Amazon may have a “you might also like this” pointing to a $200 coffee pot which is more in their price range, they buy ~ you still get credit for the sale. GET THEM TO AMAZON.

7 You’ve got most of the elements of the lens here ~ but no content. Your video is there, but it’s just there ~ you don’t say anything about what they’re going to see, or learn or why they would even want to click the watch button. You’ve got to take them by the hand, and talk to them ~ like you would talk to a good friend. Would you send this video to a friend for them to watch without any reason why they should watch it?

8 You’re not using your keywords in your lens titles.  It’s very important to use the keyword you are targeting in your lens module titles. This is one of the big ways Google learns what your lens is about and decides it’s a great resource for someone who wants to learn more about this coffee maker.

Check this post on the 6 things you should be doing to get google love.

9 The content you do have sounds like it was copied directly from Amazon.com.  It’s really important to write these the way you would talk to a friend.

I happen to have a lens on a similar delonghi coffee maker ~ let’s see the differences between our features module content ~ just to compare. We can of course talk about this element of content writing in the comment section:

Here’s yours:

Here’s mine:

Two key points to get from this is

1. Speak conversationally, people want to feel like they are getting a real recommendation from a real person.

2. Don’t give them everything ~ you want them to click through to get more information.

10 Your lens is really pretty ~ you’ve added some additional elements that make it look nice.  Here’s the thing. You don’t want people to stay on your lens. You want them to click through.  I wonder how much time you spent on the testimonial graphic, and finding the other pretty graphic pieces you’ve added?  I wonder if that is time best spent?

While the testimonial thing is nice to look at ~ it’s kind of difficult to read and there is no place where you’ve encouraged them to read any more of the 56 testimonials for this machine.  I can’t stress enough how much reading testimonials will push a “maybe” into a “yes”. Use them ~ and use them to get people to the sales page.

11 Lacking a strong call to action ~ whether it’s a visual call to action with the orange box or the big arrow module at the end. You want to have a strong call to action ~ click her to get this.  Click here to save over $500.  Click here to get free shipping.  It’s nice to have one toward the top of the lens, and again at the end. I see the spotlight modules not really as a call to action, but as a great place to features something really cool about the product.

10 Things I like about this:

1 You’ve taken action.  All the little stuff can be tweaked and fixed and this lens can do fine.

2 You’ve chosen a great product ~ good price point, lots of good reviews.

3 You’ve started your blog ~ I love the theme by the way.

4 You’ve used the table of contents ~ there are some new advantages to this. (better if you have kw in the module titles)

5 You’ve used your tags well.

6 You’ve used video to really let them get a taste of what this machine can do.

7 You’ve used the subtitles quite well to further explain what you’re going to talk about.

8 You used your product keyword/link right at the beginning of the intro module.

9 The content in your intro module is good.

10 You’ve taken action ~ oh did I say that one already? It’s the most important one and deserves to be said twice. It’s the key to this. The first few can be rough, figuring out all the intricacies of SEO can be tough, but the more you do it the better you get and the easier the process gets. But you have to take action for that to happen!

10 Things you can do now!

Is this lens a total loss? OH HELL NO!! This lens is far from a loss.  Here are some basic steps you can take to tweak this lens and have it in tip top shape in no time.

1 Identify a better keyword. One that has plenty of search volume and minimal competition.

2 Use the new keyword in your module titles, and within the content of your lens and the other on page seo stuff that’s necessary.

3 Tweak the features content ~ make it a little more conversational. Think girlfriend over coffee kind of chat.

4 Add at least one  call to action. It’s best to include 2. One toward the beginning and one at the end. You can use the visual call to action and then the “big arrow” module for the bottom works well.

5 Make sure you link back to amazon encouraging them to look at more features and more reviews.

6 Try to make your links to the product WITHIN the content you’ve got, not right at the top of the module. That’s both for Google and for  your reader.

7 Add a little more content around your non text modules ~ reason why to watch the video or what they’re going to see etc.

8 Add a guest book!!! It’s like a wrap up area, where you can say thanks and ask for input about the product.

9 Turn off the related lenses. (it’s in the intro module, there’s a tab you click and then click the off button)

10 Start linking to the lens using the new keyword as your anchor text in the link.

I’d love to see the newly modified lens ~ please feel free to share it if you want.

The top half of this lens is very similar to what I do when I do lens reviews. Of course a personal lens review is more in depth, and I give suggestions to help solve issues as well, and it’s specific to your lens, topic and keywords. If you think this might benefit you,  you can order a lens review by clicking here.  The 2 for the price of 1 deal is still on.

Related posts:

1. Jane Deere: Community Blog Review
2. Free Blog Review/Critique

The second part of that answer is getting organized. My little organizational system (which YES! I’m going to share with you today) cuts tons of time off creating a lens. I’m not very organized around the house, but when it comes to work, I love to build little cheat sheets, and templates that help keep me together. I only have a few quiet hours a day to get this all done!!

1. Identify all the html code you’re going to need for your lenses.

For the lenses I do I usually need 3 pieces of code.

1. my affiliate product link.

2. the code to make the boxes for the reviews

3. the code to make the visual call to action.

Hunting down code doesn’t take very long ~ but when you have to keep doing it over and over again, it really adds time to any project. Especially if you have to go hunting down the website to find the code each time. I don’t do that anymore.

I have now created a text document. (I just go to my screen with the icons (desktop) and right click my mouse and choose “new” then text document and it opens a new one ~ then I save it right on my desktop to get to it quickly and easily.

Now I just use this one doc for all my product based lenses. I have the html for the reviews and CTA at the top and I just add in each new product affiliate link as I go. I now only have to open one document ~ it just stays open but minimized at the bottom of my screen and I have all the code I need ~ no more hunting around.

To help you out ~ I’ve put together the code I use in my text doc  here. It has the review box code and the CTA code in it.  You will have to copy/paste it into your own text document, but it’s all there in one place.

2. Determine which modules you’re going to use in your lens.

I figured out which modules I’m going to use, and I made a list in alphabetical order, that way I can go to the all modules area of the “add modules” section and just grab what I need very quickly from the right letter area.

Here’s my list:

1 big arrow module
1 Guestbook module
1 Poll module
1 RSS share your blog module
2 text modules
1 The most important thing module
1 Youtube module

Once I have added them all in I go to the sidebar and rearrange them in the order I want them in.

Intro ~ but it’s already there and you don’t see it in the sidebar.
text
the most important thing
poll
text
youtube
big arrow
RSS module
guest book (sometimes I switch those last two around)

Now listen ~ just because this is the order I do my lenses in, and the modules I use doesn’t mean you have to do it just as I do, the point here is to create a system. Once you have  a system you can begin moving through the steps quite quickly without always having to think “umm… what do I do now.” You have a system, you know exactly what to do next.

(also ~ not ALL of my lenses follow this template ~ but it is my affiliate product based template)

3. Start at the top ~ don’t make it complicated.

Intro module: I just want to let people know the product I’m going to be talking about. The fact it will make a great Christmas gift, and the fact people will be really happy to get it as a gift.

This does not take research, this does not take a lot of time and effort. Really ~ it’s 3 or 4 sentences. Just make it up.  You can certainly imagine why someone might be happy to get whatever it is you are promoting as a gift right?? You can think about what kind of person on your gift list might like the product you’re promoting. Right? Don’t make this complicated ~ it’s a few sentences, made up by you.

Click the discovery tool tab and turn it off. I do not want other lenses very related to mine coming up on these product pages. I leave the discovery tool on if I have more than one lens on a related topic, then I can put my own lenses in as well and that makes it worth it to me ~ especially now that they have moved it over to the sidebar.

First text module: This is where I usually talk about different features of the product. DON’T just copy the bullet point list of features off amazon ~ seriously. I do this a couple ways ~ sometimes I ask a question and then answer it. Sometimes I just point out features of the product. Again ~ this is NOT complicated. The best place to get this information is in the PRODUCT REVIEWS. They will tell you exactly what ROCKS about this product. Read them ~ but don’t spend all day.

When I do the question type feature area I like to bold the questions. You can do this by adding <b>before your question and </b> after ~ that will make just that sentence bold. (it’s not working here because I’m in text editor to be able to show you the actual code) So for the Ironman lens I might have done something like this:

How much weight can it hold? The Ironman Gravity 4000 is made of a tubular steel frame. It can hold up to 350 pounds, so it’s great for even larger people.

This information was in the product info area ~ but I’ve made it unique content by making it conversational and in my own words. If I am a big person with a back issue I will probably be asking that questions so it speaks directly to the reader/purchaser.

I do 3 or 4 of these type questions and then link back to the product telling them they can find more features there.

The most important thing: This is where I put my visual call to action. I like to have it near the top of the lens because it really gets people’s attention and calls them to action. You’ll find this can be a great way to get people to click. If you put this all the way at the bottom of your lens you’ll risk it not having the power it has up near the top. But make sure you have some content before it, you dont’ want to yell take action at the VERY beginning.

Poll module: I like to have a poll module in my lens because it takes off some of the “sales edge” and it also helps people get involved with you and the lens. The more involved they get the more likely they are to click through. You can do a poll about the “must have feature” people look for when buying your product, who this product would be best for on their list, etc etc ~ again ~ you’re just making this up. Use your imagination. I used to make clickable links in the poll module ~ I don’t do that much anymore, but you still can if you want. If there’s one feature that really stands out for the product in the poll I may link that one answer to the product page, but no more than 1 anymore.

2nd Text module: This is where I do reviews. I will grab the code for 3 boxes out of my text document. I will paste it into my lens after a paragraph talking about why reviews are great to read when you making a buying decision. Then I go to amazon and find 3 reviews that I like. I usually try to go to a later page of the reviews so people don’t see the same ones when they come to amazon from my site. This is why it’s great to choose a product with many many reviews.

I then highlight the “your text goes here” in the code and then paste in the review. You can get fancy and add a little something at the beginning of the review ~ like the title of the review at amazon or the person’s name. You can use the <b></b> inside the area you’re putting the text to make the beginning sentence bold if you want.

Youtube: Here I like to add a video ~ a video that reviews my product, or is directly relevant to helping my reader make a decision about buying the product. If there is a website in the description I usually go to the edit area and take it out. For some reason it doesn’t always “stick” so I have to do it a couple times for it to work. Just one of those things.  I don’t worry about addresses in the video themselves, or them saying a website address ~ it’s much easier to click a link on the page you’re on than it is to open a new window and put in a whole new address that you have to remember.Key here is relevancy. It MUST be relevant.

Big arrow: This is my last call to action. If they’ve made it this far I want to have something seriously encouraging them to click out to my sales page.  Big arrow does a nice job of that.

RSS module: This is a last ditch effort to get them to click through to one of MY pages instead of on a google ad or another ad on Squidoo  that doesn’t make me any money.

Guestbook: This is one more place to get your keywords in the title, get some conversation going on your lens, and one last place to put a link to your product page. If you don’t have a guestbook you can’t get an angel blessing. I’m not sure how big a deal that is, but I’ve gotten a few and my rank goes up a bit. It’s worth it to just add the guestbook.

Don’t leave the default text in your guestbook. Talk to them about their decision ~ did they decide to buy the product? Are they giving it as a gift? If so, come back and tell us how much the person liked it, or what their response was or something ~ you want to create a relationship with your reader ~ engage them.

4. Final touches.

Fill in your bio area ~ make it specific to each product, and have a link to the product in your bio area. It doesn’t have to be complicated. My favorite thing about the holidays is finding just the right gift for everyone on my list. the yada yada would make a perfect gift for the “whomever” on my list this year.

Make sure you have an image of your choosing in your bio area and not the default squid.

Add tags to your lenses ~ you dont’ have to research these, but if you noticed when you were doing kw research some related keywords that are relevant to your lens write them down and throw them in as tags. Otherwise just look through your lens and write down related words. Use smaller versions of your product name ~ so I used these for the Ironman lens:

Don’t spend a bunch of time on this ~ use commons sense. You shop, what might you look for if you were looking for this product?

If you save your payout settings in your main profile area you don’t have to worry about that on each lens and it saves time there as well.

That’s pretty much it. Click publish and then “view lens” and check it out. Go through all your links, hover over them and make sure your Amazon url shows up at the bottom of the page ~ if it doesn’t the link’s not working and you need to go back in and fix it so it does.

The keys to getting faster at this is pretty simple.

1. Have a system.

2. Stop making it so complicated. There’s no need for tons of research or anything. If you’ve chosen a product with some reviews and good product description you’ve got everything you need right there. Just use it to get your ideas flowing.

3. Loosen up and have a little fun ~ you’re really just making this up and you can’t do it wrong. You CAN do this!! Believe it and you will be surprised how quickly you prove yourself right.

As always if you have questions feel free to ask them in the comment section. I’ll do my best to answer them.

Have an awesome day and keep taking ACTION!!!

No related posts.

Almost 2 years ago now an email or something came through that made me think I needed to buy Micro Niche Finder. I don’t remember exactly what it was but hell, back then it didn’t take much to get me to buy anything. I bought it, and I tried to use it, and I remember thinking something along the lines of “Hell this thing doesn’t work, man, one more thing I wasted my money on. Why am I so frickin’ gullible?” I turned it off and never really looked at it again.

My husband built me a new computer not too long ago and luckily I was smart enough to move it to the new machine. I mean I DID pay for it!!

Well a couple days ago I got an email from some Guru who’s been around forever, and he told me against his better judgement he was going to recommend I take a read of a stupidly long thread at the Warrior Forum. He warned me if I started reading I might be up all night, it was that long, and that interesting.

Well, it was getting late, and I know how I am so I didn’t start reading it until the next morning.  I have to say I really try to stay away from the Warrior forum because I am still susceptible to STS “shiny thing syndrome” and I’m trying really hard to stay focused on one internet marketing strategy, but I went ahead and started reading the thread.

To my utter amazement this guy is doing almost EXACTLY what I’m doing ~ he’s just doing it on his own sites, and monetizing with adsense. That’s all fine and good and it definitely got my post Christmas juices thinking… but… what was so cool is HOW he is finding his niches. Yes, he’s even doing product niches.

He’s using micro niche finder. That crazy little keyword research tool that’s been collecting virtual dust on my computer for a couple years now.

I thought if he’s doing it (and making it sound REALLY easy) maybe I should go and just check it out. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? I waste a couple hours and then get back to work, right?

Well that is NOT what happened.

Within a few minutes I had found about 40 kick ass keywords in about 5 or 6 different niches.  My head was spinning and I was starting to suffer the effects of STS.  I reigned myself in and started thinking ~ how can I use this for what I’m already doing.

It was then that the big ole foghorn went off, and I started thinking about all the emails I get from you guys!

This would be awesome for all the people who are:

1. Having trouble finding good keywords
2. Having trouble finding “buying” keywords
3. Having trouble getting seo for firefox, or seonuke to work
4. Having trouble understanding the whole “page rank” element.
5. Are super busy and don’t have a ton of time to look for niches

and so much more…

Here’s why that hit me.

1. Micro Niche Finder provides all of the information I have you looking for by hand, without having to look it all up.

2. It tells you the level of competition in numbers ~ but also with a big GREEN button, a YELLOW button or a RED button depending on the level of difficulty you will have getting this keyword to rank in the search engine. It’s called SOC.

3. If you click on the SOC after it gives you a number (the lower the better ~ I’m looking for keywords with a SOC of under 20) it will also give you the number of allintitle, allinachor, and allurl numbers. (Which I have to say I don’t really look at even though they are there. It’s all added up and given to me in the SOC number, so I don’t waste a lot of time looking at the extras.)

3. Search volume is right there. You can see right there what the level of search volume your keywords have ~ it’s pulled from Google, and the default on MicroNicheFinder is set to exact.

4. You can also get exact phrase count. This is the number you would get if you went to google and put your word in the search box “in quotes”. Again I don’t really look much at this number because it’s really the top 10 sites I have to worry about beating and that’s what the SOC tells me.

5. You can also see the approximate amount of the adsense spent for the first position. While this is not important to use right now on squidoo ~ believe me it’s going to be part of the post Christmas tutorials, to start building another stream of income from the work we’re doing now.

6. There’s a number called “OCI” it’s the level of “commercial intent” in other words, how likely is someone to BUY something if they are typing in this keyword. I’m looking for keywords with above 95%.

All good stuff ~ but here’s the kicker. The keywords are soooo easy to find. I really couldn’t even believe it myself. Last night I looked around my house and then just started putting things in to see what would come up. I focused on products ~ things that could be bought ~ so I would have a product to put with the keyword.I started putting in everything I saw in my kitchen. cups, dishes, spice rack, bakers rack, drain rack, dishwasher, microwave, anything I could see that I bought I was putting it in to see what I could find. Some of the keywords I found were specific brand names and some were pretty specific types of things ~ which if the numbers are right will work with the blueprint just fine!

You can even put in a brand name and then the product ~ I tried ironman inversion table, and UP POPPED the ironman keyword I used for the sample lens. PLUS there were a TON more ironman keywords that were also great buying keywords that I hadn’t thought of or seen.

If you’re doing OWM campaigns ~ and NO Christmas Cash is not OWM ~ I’m just saying, it would be super easy to find 6 or 8 very related keywords for a whole campaign with this software. In fact, I’ve got a few saved to work on when I’m done with Christmas stuff.

Oh yeah ~ the software also allows you to save keywords you want to keep track of. You set up a folder, and then put a check next to them, and click save checked. Then they are always there when you’re ready to start working on them. This is huge for me, you don’t even have an idea how many composition notebooks I have on and around my desk with niche ideas and keywords in them. I of course can never find what I’m looking for when I go back to get started, lol, but this should help solve the problem.

So ~ if you think this might help you get moving forward, by getting past some of the the hurdles your facing here’s my link to grab the product. Buy Micro Niche Finder. Yes, it’s my affiliate link and I will make a commission if you buy from me, and I will also be willing to help you figure out how to use it too.

If you decide to buy you will also find you get 5 free videos that show you 5 different ways you can make money using the Micro Niche Finder. One of those ways is with Squidoo ~ so that’s kind of cool.

** Please hear this!! DO NOT buy this software if you can’t afford it. Everything I’ve taught you still absolutely works.  This software may make it a little bit faster, but it’s not necessary to make money this holiday season with the blueprint.

I just reread this post and wow I sound, something, I’m not sure if it’s salesy or just excited, but yesterday on my Unique Article wizard post I got accused of working for or being married to UAW ~ which I’m not I just get really excited when I find something that works. I guess it goes back to all the times I was “duped” into buying something that wasn’t what I needed or things that just didn’t work, that I get really excited now when I find things that do. So take it how you take it ~ get it if you think it will help you, don’t if you don’t think it will or you can’t afford it, and we’ll keep taking action and moving forward!!

No related posts.

What is indexing?

Indexing is something Google and the other search engines do. They send out their little “spiders” to check for new content and new sites all over the web. When they find something new they will determine if they want to add it to the list of all the sites on the internet. If they choose to do this they have “indexed” your site.

How do I know If my site has been indexed?

You can check to see if your lens has been indexed (or any site for that matter) by putting the url of your site in the google search box surrounded by quotes. This way it will look specifically for that exact site. Sometimes it helps to leave off the http: and the www, so for the ironman lens I would just put “squidoo.com/ironman-gravity-4000-inversion-table” in the search box at Google.

As you can see this lens has indeed been indexed by Google.

Why do I need to know if my site’s been indexed?

It’s good to know if you’re site’s been indexed, because unless it has been you can’t get any search engine traffic. Now if your site hasn’t been indexed, you can still get traffic from Ezinearticles.com, your blog posts, or any other place you’ve used to build links to your lens. That’s why putting up an article at EZA is good to do right away because it can fill in traffic until you get indexed and start getting search traffic.

What if my site is NOT indexed? What can I do?

If your site has not been indexed yet, think about how long it has been since you published the lens.  Indexing does not happen immediately. It can take a day or two, but it can also take a couple weeks ~ it all depends on Google. So DO NOT freak out if your site is not indexed.

You also want to think about your link building strategy. Have you put content elsewhere online with anchor text links back to your lens? This is the BEST way to help Google find your lens. If you haven’t done this it can take much much longer for Google to find and index your lens. It is crucial that you do this.

While RSS feeds directories are great, I definitely recommend you have some other places you can link from as well ~ for instance a blog, or hubpages, or wetpaint, Google knol, somewhere that is well known to google where you can use anchor text links to your site.

*** If you have put links up on your blog please take a moment and make sure your blog is indexed. If your blog is not indexed yet, those links aren’t going to do you much good. Don’t worry they will work just fine when you’re blog is indexed, but for right now you need to put links somewhere you know Google goes looking for new content, and if you’re blog isn’t indexed, it’s not one of them (yet). ***

So if your lens isn’t indexed after a few weeks go ahead and put up a few more links to it. It will happen, don’t worry.

How often should I check if my lens is indexed?

Ahh… here’s where I get to give my little lecture about obsessing about indexing. (as she steps up onto her soapbox) If you have built links to your lens Google will find and will index your site. Trust me. Whether it takes 24 hours or 24 days, it will happen.   I will tell you what I do. I do not check to see if my sites are indexed. I trust that the process works, and I know that they will get indexed at some point. I keep building more lenses.

This is where you have to decide what your “money making activities” are.  Rest assured I can almost guarantee you that checking to see if your site is indexed is NOT one of them. If you can stay focused on doing the activities that are going to make you money you will do much better in the long run.

AND yes!! I know how good it feels the first few times you build something and Google comes and puts in the index. Cherish that feeling, Celebrate that feeling, and then get back to the things that will make you money. What are those things?

1. Building more lenses
2. Writing more blog posts
3. Promoting (building links to) your lenses

Hey ~ did you notice I did NOT say “keyword research”? While it is a necessary part of the process it is NOT a money making activity all on its own. It must be done together with actually building a lens/website to make it a money making activity. If you spend ages and ages doing research, all you have is a nice long list ~ it’s not until you turn that list into something that you have the ability to make money from it.

RANT over ~ sorry ~ a little off topic there.

If I’m indexed why don’t I see my site on the first page of Google?

These are two totally different things. Being indexed does NOT (necessarily) mean you going to rank well for your keywords. I mean the index of sites is GINORMOUS, and of course, everyone can’t be on page 1. Yes, check to see where you are listed in the index ~ go to Google and put the keywords you based your lens on in the search box and see if you can find your site. I’m not aware of any super tools to do this for you that are accurate. Just look over the first couple pages and see if you can see your lens.

If you can ~ cool. Make note of what position is it in, and then watch it over time to see if it comes up. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, build some more links to it. Remember, it takes Google time to find the links you put out there so just because you’ve done some linking doesn’t mean Google knows it’s there, give it time.

If you can’t find your lens ~ that’s ok too. It takes time. Don’t panic!! Think about how long it has been since you finished and published your lens. If you only recently published your lens then you can’t expect it to show up on the first page of Google. Give it some time ~ how much time? It depends, there’s no real definitive answer because Google does what Google wants, and that’s just one more thing we have no control over. If after a couple weeks or so you still don’t see it, build some more links to it, that’s the only way you’re going to push it up the ranking, building links. At this point if you still aren’t seeing your lens show up it might be time to take a little extra effort and use some of the link building with article marketing techniques we’ve discussed in previous posts.

All in all don’t fret too much about this ~ you’ll know when you’re site is indexed and ranking because you’ll start seeing traffic numbers on your dashboard at Squidoo, and THAT is what’s really important.

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The big piece of this puzzle is quantity. The point of this process is to get a LOT of articles out so you have a lot of links pointing to your site. In the past this was done by just mass posting the same article to as many article directories as you could find. The problem with this strategy is of course, the Big G caught on. They no longer count all those links and many article directories carry little weight, so your links are pretty much worthless. The other problem with this method is you are sending out hundreds (thousands) of links with the exact same anchor text for your links, and sites are being penalized for this, so it’s actually counter productive.

The better way of doing this is by spinning articles or creating unique articles and anchor text and getting them out to as many sites as you can find. This gives you unique content and varied anchor text, but the you still have the same problem of the article directories aren’t weighted that heavily and it can take FOREVER to manually submit to all these sites.

The best way to do this type of article marketing is to get involved in a network where not only are your articles distributed to article directories, but people within the network have blogs where your content is posted. This gives you unique IP addresses, real blogs being posted to regularly. This is really the best way to go. It gets even better if the network you belong to is able to spin your articles and automate the submissions.

I’ve been testing out a variety of these services and networks over the last year and have found some to be great and some to be not so great. Here are two of the ones I like.

Unique Article Wizard

This is a service that will create unique articles for you and will send them out to many article directories as well as many blogs in the network.

Pros:

• You send unique articles and varied anchor text for all of your articles
• Your articles go out to blogs in addition to the article directories
• You can grab unique versions of your articles to use elsewhere (including EZA)

Cons:

• There is a bit of a learning curve to using the system
• It’s a monthly fee
• You can only put links in the resource box

1 Way Links:

This network is made up of blogs only. It is  set up to build links back to your sites from varied IP addresses, and the owner has done some great things to help those sites build PR so your links are worth more.

Pros:

• Your articles are actually blog posts and they only go out to blogs
• You have the ability to spin your posts and your anchor text for unique content and varied anchor text
• It’s really simple ~ basically the same as posting a blog post
• It works fast ~ you can see results very quickly
• You can have 3 links within the body of your post, you don’t have to do a resource box

Cons:

• You have to have a self hosted wordpress site you can donate to the network.
• You have to spin your own articles if you want them to be unique
• It’s a monthly fee

Both of these services do about the same thing ~ I recommend them both. Which one is right for you depends on your strengths.

On one hand with UAW you can get unlimited unique versions of the articles you submit, which is great because you can use them wherever you need content to build links. However, you do have to do MORE up front writing with that system.

At 1 way links you only have to write 1 article, and use some spinning for unique versions ~ but you don’t get any other unique copies you can use elsewhere.

I would go with 1 Way Links if you are familiar with hosting your own wordpress site, and don’t mind spinning your own articles or paying someone to do it for you.

What works faster?

In my experience the 1 way links network works quicker than UAW in terms of moving you up the search engine ranking because of the links you gained via the network.

So all in all it really depends on what you want or need:

If you need extra content to help build links elsewhere ~ go with UAW.

If you just need to get links fast and have hosting and an open domain name you can give up to the network, I’d go with 1 way links.

If you’d like to take a look at either or both of these programs here are the links.

Unique Article Wizard

1 Way Links

Understand this level of linking will probably NOT be necessary for your Christmas Cash product lenses, just because the competition level is so low, but if you find you’re not ranking with the basic link building you might want to try these services.

If you are doing niche sites or tackling more competitive keywords, these services can be priceless. I have used both of these services, and they both work well. Be advised if you buy through either of these links I will earn a little bit of money ~ which is what keeps all this great content coming your way.

Related posts:

1. Holiday Sales Are All About Backlinks

Purpose: Get Fast Traffic

Ezinearticles.com

Ezinearticles.com is an article directory. They allow people to post articles to their directory, and in turn other people can come and read the articles, but they can also use the articles for their own purposes ~ blog posts, newsletters, emails etc (as long as the article and the resource box are left intact)

One of the ways to use EZA (ezinearticles.com) is to get quick traffic to a new site, and that’s how we’re going to use it at this point in time. It is pretty simple, and only takes a few steps.

EZA doesn’t accept product reccomendation articles so how do I write an article for my product?

It’s a good question ~ we’re driving traffic to a lens about a specific product so how do you write an article if you can’t write about the product?

1. Determine the benefits of the product.

ex. the Ironman lens ~ one of the benefits of inversion tables is it can relieve back pain.
ex 2. a coffe pot lens ~ save money not buying coffee

2. Identify 2 or 3 other things that also have the same benefit.

ex. chiropractic care and kinesiology can also help back pain.
ex 2. carpooling, packing your lunch,

3. Create an article about 3 things that have that benefit.

ex. 3 Ways to Manage Back Pain Without Drugs
ex 2. 3 Ways to Save Money in a Bad Economy

Now I will talk about chiropractic care, kinesiology, and then inversion therapy, or for a coffee pot lens I could talk about the three ways I mentioned to save money.

But what about my product???

In my resource box I am going to talk a bit about inversion therapy and if they choose to try it they should get the  ironman gravity 4000 inversion table. (of course the keywords will be linked to my lens)

For the second example I would talk about if you decide to nix your starbucks addiction and start making your coffee at home using the “coffee pot product name” you won’t even notice the difference, except in your wallet.

Sidenote:

A resource box is a small paragraph at the bottom of your article. There is some skill in writing a good resource box but if you remember a few key things you’ll be ok.

1. It’s not about you.  Don’t write so and so has been doing this for 500 years and they’ve written 698 books on the subject etc etc etc. (people don’t care)

2. It’s all about the reader ~ how can you solve their problem? If people believe they are going to solve their problem by clicking your link ~ they will.

Now back to our previous programming…

Using EZA in this way is all about getting traffic to your lenses ~ if you have an interesting article and a  resource box that makes them think you will solve their problem you are likely to get some traffic.

You DO want to make sure you use your kw as the anchor text for your link in your resource box. You might also add the url of your lens at the end of your resource box as well. You do this because some unscrupulous bloggers may strip the code out of your resource box, and when they do your anchor text link will be gone, but at least if you have the lens url you will have some way for google and people to still find your lens.

Your Article Title:

For this purpose just write an interesting title for your articles. Yes, there are times when you want to include your keyword in the title of your article ~ however, it’s going to be difficult if not impossible with these product lenses to do that. Just write an interesting title about the benefit ~ it will draw attention from people who could benefit from using your product.

Here’s some examples:

3 Ways to Treat Back Pain without Medication

How to Manage Back Pain without Drugs

3 Simple Ways to Treat Back Pain without Medication

Writing the article:

These articles don’t have to be novels ~ you can go as low as 250 words, but usually 300 words is a good amount for an article. So for this article I would write a brief introductory paragraph. My second paragraph would be about how chiropractic can help alleviate back pain. My third paragraph would be about kinesiology and how it can help with back pain. My 4th paragraph would be about inversion therapy alleviating back pain. My last paragraph is going to be my resource box, but I’m also going to use it as a closing paragraph and a call to action. 5 paragraphs is really all you need, and each paragraph only needs 2 or 3 sentences.

(I will link to the article I write for this once it is live at EZA  ~ s o you can see an example article. I’m NOT linking to the article from my lens)

If you don’t know anything about your product ~ or the benefits of it do a little reading. I’m sure there are other people who have talked about the benefits ofy our product ~ go ahead and do a search in EZA for your product or your benefit. I’m sure you’ll find something to give you some ideas. I know this goes without saying, but DON’T just reword someone else’s article ~ that’s a HUGE no no ~ and it’s wrong. Chances are EZA will catch the similarity and they won’t publish your article anyway. It’s fine to get ideas from other articles, but write your own unique article.

Well again this turned into a novel and I’ve only covered one way of using article marketing ~ I guess I’ll do another post to cover the second, and sometimes more beneficial way of using article marketing.

If you have any questions about how to make this work at EZA just ask in the comments section and I’ll do what I can. This is a big topic ~ and there are people who spend their entire internet marketing career talking about only article marketing, so remember how you do article marketing is a lot about your purpose too.

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Anchor text

Yep, anchor text. This is the key ingredient to making your links work for you. So let’s get to it.

What is anchor text?

Anchor text is the word or phrase of a link that you click on. Anchor text also lets the Big G know what the site you are linking to is about ~ so let them know.

Here’s an example of a not so great link:

click here for more information:
www.squidoo.com/ironman-gravity-4000-inversion-table

Here’s another version of a not so great link:

Click here to learn more.

Yeah they are both clickable links ~ and people will be able to get to your site by clicking it, but you’re not building a quality link there.

Here’s a quality link.

Check out this website for more information about the Ironman Gravity 4000 Inversion Table

You see the difference? This is a crucial piece of the puzzle and I want to make sure you all understand this because you will be using these kind of links in all the upcoming linking we will be doing.

You want ALL of your links to be your keyword ~ not click here, or the url.

Now that I’ve said that I have to contradict myself a little,  because Internet marketing is so straight forward and easy.

It is also good to VARY your anchor text some. So you might use Ironman Gravity 4000 inversion table for some links. You might use learn about ironman gravity 4000 inversion table today as another link.You might even use ironman gravity 4000 for a link or two, you might use ironman gravity inversion table for another link.

Don’t freak out about this, just realize it’s ok to add the words/phrase that comes before or after your keywords in your anchor text.  If you go through the Ironman lens you’ll see that I’ve altered the anchor text in a few places ~you don’t really need to do this in your lens because those links are pointing to amazon, but I wanted to show you how it can work. Because when you start building backlinks that point to YOUR LENS you want to change up the text a little bit once in a while that leads back to your lens. (this is especially important if you are using a service/software to send out articles for your links.)

How do I Make an Anchor Text Link?

You’re going to use a bit of code for this. I went over this  when talking about getting html from Amazon, and the same applies here. You’re going to use the same bit of code for all your links.

Here’s your code that you want to use.

<a href=”http://yoururlhere.com”>your keywords here</a>

Now let’s break it down into bite sized pieces:

“http://yoururlhere.com” (and yes you need the quotes in the code)

This is going to be your lens url ~ where people are going to go when they click the link.

your keywords here

This is where you are going to type the words or phrase that is your keyword. (the one you found during your research)

So for the ironman lens this is what it will look like in code:

<a href=”http://www.squidoo.com/ironman-gravity-4000-inversion-table”>Ironman Gravity 4000 Inversion Table”>

Now when all is said and done it will look like this:

Ironman Gravity 4000 Inversion Table

OK ~ I hope that’s clear how to do that.

Now in most places you won’t have to use code ~ if you’re on a blog, the free ad sites and now a lot of other places you’ll be able to use the text editor to create your links. Which is much easier.

How to  create a link in a text editor:

Type the words you want to be your text in the link.

Highlight the text by left clicking and dragging the cursor over the words you want to highlight.

Once your words are highlighted you want to find the little anchor icon in the editor above.

When you click the icon a new small box will open. It will ask you for the url of the site you want to link to.

Fill in the link url ~ making sure to have the http:// part included.

Then choose to open in a new window. This will leave the site they are on open, but will open a new window for the lens they are going to.

Click insert, and you now have a keyword anchor text clickable link.

Now that we’ve covered how to make a keyword anchor text link, please remember to use them as you go about creating links back to your site.

Next we’re going to cover some more ways to create backlinks to your site. If you have html or linking questions please leave them in the comments.

** Please subscribe to the RSS feed so you can get the newest posts immediately. I’m trying to answer questions you all have in posts, this way the answers are available for everyone, so if you have questions check the posts. Thanks!

Here’s a link to all the Squidoo Lens Tutorials, you should be able to find a lot of your questions are answered there.  Did you catch that anchor text clickable link there?

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1. Backlinking Basics

What this does not mean.

When your site is indexed it does NOT mean that you will see your site on the first page of google when you put in your product/keyword. Nope, that’s the second step of the plan. So let’s start first with just letting Google know it’s there, it’s live and it’s a great resource for people.

How do I let Google Know my lens is out there?

Do I just drop them a note? Nope.

You drop them a link, otherwise known as a backlink.

What is a backlink?

A backlink is just a link from on site that points to your lens (or website). There are a LOT of ways to create backlinks. If you would like to know more then read this lens about how to create backlinks

Today, though, we’re going to do a couple simple things to let google know your lens is “alive”. We’ll keep moving on through other backlinking options as we go.

RSS Feed:

Every lens you create has an RSS feed. The primary function of this feed is to allow people to be notified when you update your lens. We’re going to use it in a little it different way. We’re going to use it to notify some people this lens exists.

We’ve talked in other posts about how to find your RSS feed ~ but again here are the steps.

1. Go to your lens (live, not in edit mode) look for the orange button.

2. Click the orange RSS button, that will bring up the rss address for your lens.

3. Right click and copy the address ~ to be pasted somewhere shortly.

Where do I use this RSS feed?

There are a lot of places you can submit your RSS feed. You want to find RSS directories ~ these are websites that catalogue RSS feeds so people who are looking for specific information can find a whole site/page about that. When you submit your RSS feed to these directories  your submission will link back to your site, thus creating a backlink.

Where do I find these RSS directories?

Finding RSS directories is not difficult. You can google “rss directories” and you will get some directories, as well as blog posts that will list quite a few all on one page.

To get you started here’s a couple of my favorite RSS directory resources.

55 Active RSS Directories

RSS Directories by Page Rank

A couple things before you get started on this project ~ and it is a bit of a project, but one WELL worth the time and effort it takes.

1. These list were not made by me. The internet is an ever changing world, and links do not always stay live, working whatever. If you find links in the posts don’t work ~ don’t sweat it. Just go to the next one. Really.

2. While it’s great to submit your lens RSS feed it’s much more efficient, if you are doing your lenses all in the same account ~ like you’ve set up a holiday related squidoo account and all your gift lenses are in this one account ~ to submit your lensmaster RSS feed.

This will automatically submit each new lens you create automatically with no further work on your part. (I like tht part). It’s the main function of an RSS feed ~ to notify of new content. So when you add new content to your lensmaster account each directory you have submitted your lensmaster RSS feed to will automatically be updated.

Where’s my lensmaster RSS feed?

Get your lensmaster RSS feed at Squidutils. It’s a great site with lots of cool squidoo tools. Now don’t get distracted over there ~ just get your lensmaster feed.

It’s quite simple ~

1. Just put your lensmaster id in the box, and click login.

2. Once you’re logged in you can click the link for your lensmaster RSS feed and it will show up.

3. Copy it to your clipboard (right click/ copy) so you can submit it later.

Here’s what you will see when you click to get the RSS feed. (Of course yours will have your name in it, not mine)

Now all you have to do is take this lensmaster RSS feed url and submit it to the sites you found in your google search, or the links to blog posts posted above. This can be slightly mind numbing ~ but it’s part of the job.

When you go to the RSS directory sites you will want to look around for a link that says “submit a site” “add a site” “submit a url” or something to that effect.  Once you find the link, just click it, there will be a space for your lensmaster RSS feed url ~ it may also ask for the actual site url, it may ask for your email address ~ all of that is to be expected. Just fill in the information it asks for and click submit.

The second thing you can do to let google know your lens is alive:

This one is very simple. What I find however, is the more simple something is the less effectively it works. But it’s worth doing simply because it’s so quick.

Ping your lens.

You can also do this from Squidutils. You will see a link that says “ping your lens”. When you click it a new box will open. You will be asked to enter the url of the lens you want to ping.  Enter the url of your lens.

Then click ping. Like I said, it’s really easy.

There’s one trick to it though ~ you have to have recently updated your lens ~ so before you go to ping, just go in and add a tag, or something quick and easy, and then hit the publish button. Then go and ping.

That’s it for today. If you have problems with specific RSS directories or submitting your lenses just ask in the comments section!

Related posts:

1. Holiday Sales Are All About Backlinks

How to get code from Amazon:

1. You must be in the associate program in Amazon to be able to get code. (You must be an affiliate)

2. Go to the product page you wish to link to.

3. Along the top of the page you will see a grey bar.  On the bar is a link to “link to this page”.

4.Click that link and a new box will open.

5. Go to squidoo and open the module you want your link in. (click edit at the top of the module)

6. Right click your mouse and choose paste. Your code will be inserted into your module.

No matter where you’re linking you will be using the same html code. Amazon provides the html for you, other places you may need to write it yourself. It’s very simple.

Here’s the code you will need to use:

You simply replace yoururl.com with your actual affiliate link ~ or whatever link you want people to go to.

Then change the your keywords here to the actual words you want someone to click on. There are other pieces of code you can add to this, but this is the basic code you need to create a clickable link.

If you have html questions feel free to ask them here ~ but please subscribe to the RSS feed and read the comments on old posts and new content that is coming out ~ you may find your questions has already been asked and answered ~ then you won’t have to wait for me to answer it again.

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I wasn’t accepted to the Amazon Associates Program.

If you have applied and were not accepted by Amazon into the associates program don’t worry. The reason I’m hearing the most is you don’t have a website. That’s easily taken care of. You can start a blog on blogger, add some content to the blog and then reapply.

A blog definitely counts as a website, just make sure you have 5 or 10 posts on it before you submit your application.

Can I still make money if I’m not an amazon affiliate?

Absolutely. I keep hearing “I’m gonna have to split my money with Squidoo though”. Guess what? 4% commission is better than NO commission. Really, I’m not saying that to be harsh, but it is really easy to let excuses get in your way. It’s really easy to say “oh a 4% commission isn’t enough to make it worth it” well I’ve got news for you ~ it certainly can be. If you haven’t checked out this post on the amazon commission question I suggest you take a look.

The truth is Christmas shopping will begin in earnest in a couple weeks. You can keep finding reasons why things won’t work, or problems with how it ALL works and do nothing or you can get going, accept what you’ve got to work with and make  it work FOR you!!

Ok ~ my lecture for the day is over, but it really is the BIGGEST obstacle I see in newbie internet marketers ~ themselves.

So today we’re going to talk about making money with Amazon when you’re not an affiliate.

Amazon provides 6 different modules to help you create an Amazon income.

Here’s a quick video showing you the modules and how to get to them and add them to your lens. I’ll go over my 2 favorites in more detail, but feel free to look at the others and see what you think or how you might use them.

So you’ve probably guessed already my two favorite Squidoo amazon modules are the Amazon spotlight and the Amazon search modules. Let’s take a look at how these two work in more detail.

Amazon spotlight module:

This module lets you call attention to one particular product on amazon. This is particularly good for what we are doing. This module can actually be a great visual call to action. So if you can’t link directly to amazon I highly recommend you grab this module and put it somewhere in the middle of your lens as a call to action.

For this module you can fill in the title and description ~ I usually leave the description blank. When it asks a little further down why is this product worth spotlighting I like to use a review of the product there ~ you can get it from Amazon or you if you’ve used the product write your own.

If you do a search via the find products link you will get a bunch of options. When you find the product you’re looking for just click the add this product button and it will automatically go to your lens. (just like the video module)

When you save your module you will find there is a great picture of your product. There is also the text you added to recommend why people should get the product. You can also mention how much they can save on the product by buying today at Amazon within the review area or in the description.

In the module you can also click the display options. This will let you turn on/off anything you don’t want showing. I much prefer to show how much savings there can be instead of showing the actual price of the product so I turne off the price.

With a nice review and a mention of how much savings they can expect this can be a great call to action if you can’t link directly to Amazon.

This is getting pretty long so I will write another post for the Amazon Search Module. Which is a fun one too!

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