How to Find Products for Squidoo Christmas Cash
Sep 29
In the Squidoo Christmas Cash Blueprint I suggested you use Amazon as your product provider. That’s all fine and good but dang, Amazon is a BIG place! How do you find products that are just what we’re looking for in this situation?
Here’s some suggestions:
1. Don’t complicate things, and stop thinking about it so hard. Just go to Amazon and pick a category from one of the options under “shop all categories“.
2. Pick a subcategory once you pick something. Don’t think about it, just click. The more you overanalyze this the longer it will take, and the more you will psych yourself out. There are great products in any/every category.
Here’s an example I went to clothing/shoes/jewelry. I picked jewelry when given the options. Once I picked jewelry I’m given TONS of options as well. However, what I like to do is scroll down and choose to shop by price. 
Now depending on how comfortable you feel you can choose products priced as high as over $10k in the jewelry department.
You’ll find the shop by price option in every department, you may have to get one more level specific in some categories. Like if you pick exercise and fitness you’ll have to pick one more option before you get the shop by price option, so choose bikes, or treadmills, or whatever, then look on the left hand side about half way down the page and you’ll see the shop by price option.
That’s a pretty handy trick.
3. Depending on the department you can shop by seller or designer. There are going to be well known designers that are going to be high priced items ~ now some of them may be pretty competitive, but it’s worth looking at.
4. Shop by reviews. Amazon reviews are a very handy thing for internet marketers (you). They give you great ideas for content, they give you reviews, and they give you social proof, which is very important. You want to make sure whatever product you choose, no matter how expensive or inexpensive has at least a few GOOD reviews. When I say good I mean at least 4 star rating. The more reviews the BETTER!! This gives you a great chance to use all that great information provided from actual product users. You can even choose to search by stars given if you want.
That’s how I filter and find my products for Squidoo Christmas Cash lenses.
Let’s recap:
1. Don’t complicate things, just pick a category.
2. Shop by price (left hand sidebar)
3. Choose products with plenty of good reviews (either sidebar or under the products)
Those three things should help you quickly and easily narrow down your choices to start checking for the search volume and competition. Once you’ve found something that fits ~ go with it!! Don’t worry about it, don’t over think it, just grab it and take action.
If you have more questions about picking a product please just leave them in the comment section ~ I’ll do my best to answer them.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3a9211f6-615a-407f-93b4-eb96abe6f246)
Are you ready to take Undaunted Action? But don't know where to start?
If you're ready to take action, join us in the safety of a friendly caring community. Join us in the K.I.S.S. Club! Your business will never be the same!
No related posts.
Great video on how to find stuff. Shortens my search.
KISS
Follow me @nuc99705 on Twitter!
No I’m referring to the articles link at the top of this page right under the word strategy in the title. http://www.internetmarketingformommies.com/articles
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie,
When you say ‘articles page’, are you referring to Amazon’s product description?
G.
I wouldn’t worry about it.
Those are pretty competitive product areas ~ have you made sure you’ve chosen good keywords? Check out the articles page (top right of the navigation bar at the top of the page) and read through the keyword research posts.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi, Jackie.
A lady in my google talk list refer me to your Squidoo Christmas Cash blueprint. I wish I found yours sooner.
I am going to set up 15 lenses (something that I haven’t done before). I had some lenses once, but I took it down since it was one of the Squidon’t product. 10 of the lenses have to do with digital cameras (5 different ones) and photoprinters (5 different ones).
When I look through Amazon description on products, I notice that lots of products like electronics are only shipped within US. I’m aware that majority of potential online shoppers live in the US or North America. Now, how about someone that stumble or visit my Squidoo lenses from outside US? I am thinking of providing an alternative link for those people. How should I do that or do you think it’s appropriate or doable? Should I care or just stick with Amazon?
G.
Thanks reading this page has refreshed my mind.
If you can get the exact url of your keywords go for it.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie,
I am on to new products now, have come across a couple that meet the criteria, only difference is there are other lenses that are similar, NOT EXACT, Squidoo still says You are the first to…..etc, want to build a lens? But there are other lenses listed that are related and one has my keyword in the title, but it is longtailed. Maybe the others just have the KW, I don’t know.
Should I still continue with this product?
Carole
@Lenny,
My guess is you have not chosen “text only” as the option for your link. If you have chosen the image/text it will be in iframe and squidoo does not accept iframes. You will need to make it a text only link.
Once you make this switch you should be able to highlight copy and paste and the text link will show up.
Jackie
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Aloha Jackie
Thank you for the “Squidoo Christmas Cash”- I’ve been following it step by step. I have a question about the Amazon Product Link.
I’m at the product link page “Customize and Get HTML “, in step #3:
3. Get HTML Code For This Product Link
Highlight and copy the HTML below, then paste it into the code for your Web site.
What does “paste it into the code” mean?
I tried highlight, copy and paste the HTML into the Text Module of my Squidoo lense and nothing shows up.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Lenny
Thank you Jackie! I would have spent hours looking for that information…you are such a sweetheart to help out us newbies…I truly appreciate it!
@Kim It’s actually a text module and I used html to make the boxes. You can find the html code for the boxes on this html lens at Squidoo ~ one of my FAVORITE lenses. Use it all the time, lots of great html.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie,
I have a quick question regarding the “Review” boxes that you have on the ironman-gravity-4000-inversion-table Squidoo lens that you created. How do you create those boxes? I’m sure there is a widget in Squidoo to do those, but I can’t seem to find it!
Thanks so much…your tips and advice are very helpful!
Kim
Hi Jackie,
Thanks for the keep it simple breather and the videotutorials.
g2_tex
OK! Glad you guys enjoyed the video!! and glad it helped!
Here’s the lens I put together on the kw I found during the video.
Ironman Gravity 4000 Inversion Table
If you have questions about how/what I did in this lens just ask and maybe I can put something together to explain it.
@Keith ~ I figured you meant short lol.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Sorry, that was supposed to be a shOrt video,never seen a shirt video before…
Jackie: Your video just came in – watched that – EXCELLENT! Nothing like a shirt video to sort out 20 questions in nothing flat! Many thanks.
Jackie – Love your Squidoo Christmas Cash Product!! I also received the 5 minute video today about you choosing a product on Amazon in less than 5 minutes….. Fantastic. Please don’t wait too long to put the videos together to show us how to do a lens and get it all set up.
My problem hasn’t been finding the products…… it’s what do I do then? The whole Squidoo Lens setup, backlinks, etc…. has me just stumped. I really need the quick video “kick in the butt” to get me moving. Thanks again!!
It sounds to me like you are operating under the K.I.S.S. principle…always a good thing. Some of us newbies seem to have a hard time grasping this, and I am painfully new!
The principle I have…now just need the practice.
Thank you so much for all this, I hope it turns out to be worth more than its’ weight in gold!
Nice technique. Since most people are spending too much of their time browsing for a great item that can offer better commission, they can absolutely save time with this method. What I like most about this technique is the easy way to select for an item within a particular price range. It would be very useful if I’m targeting a commission earning per item.
Ok, take a deep breath.
You’re looking at a LOT of extra variables, and they really aren’t necessary.
If you can’t find search volume for the product you’ve selected, then look for another one ~ there’s plenty of products out there, and not all of them will have enough search volume.
In the Toshiba example I was checking to see what the difference was between broad and exact ~ they were the same number so I just took the image shot while it was in exact ~ I just use broad search when I’m doing my research.
I use the Seo for Firefox extension to find the PR of the sites. Once downloaded and installed it will show a bunch of information underneath each listing, the first piece of info is the PR of the site.
There are a million things you can look at, figure out, decide upon, use to figure out ~ whatever you’re looking for in internet marketing. Every guru in the world tells you a different way to find search volume, competition etc ~ so you end up trying to make sure you’re doing it right (that’s the collective you, me included) by doing EVERYTHING everyone you’ve ever gotten an email from has told you to do.
QUIT.
Just make it simple. This is down and dirty, quantity based deciding for this plan.
1. Choose a product.
2. check search volume for something relatively specific to the product
(again we’re talking the difference between “digital camera” and powershot sd1000) (just an example because it’s sitting in front of me).
3. Check competition by looking at the PR of the sites on the first page of the search results.
4. IF the average PR is 3 or below check for other lenses on your exact keyword.
5. No other lenses ~ start building your lens.
I didn’t mention ~ % who buy, I didn’t mention adword ads, I didn’t mention all that because it’s not necessary.
Don’t over-complicate ~ just get the basics and go.
Jackie
PS. It might help to grab a 30 minute coaching session and we could walk through the whole process together.
http://www.SquidooChristmasCash.com
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Maybe I’m thick in the head, but I’m having a difficult time trying to reference your Christmas Blueprint and comments here about selecting a product.
1. went to amazon & found product, high cost + good % discount, 4.5 stars with 122 reviews, 76% buy the item
2. google keyword for full title, like your example in CCash Bprint, gives not enough data, tried shorter version still no joy. Finally I’m off with other shorter keywords of model number screen size to get any traffic using the keyword tool.
3. When I enter the full tail keyword in google search box i get 1 of 6700 results plus a full series of adword ads at the top of the page and down the right side. several sites like amazon,biz rate, etc on 1st page.
so u say check the page rank of the 1st page – is that every site on the 1st page? how do u check page rank?
also, in ccash, for your toshiba example, it shows a simple 3 keyword list with brackets for an exact match without ever mentioning the use of brackets.
so i’m mired in details, confused, frustrated and ready to just abandon the idea getting a “simple” project like this going.
Good point Sue ~ not so much money to spend at Christmas but money made because of Christmas.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Jackie, thanks again for this awesome information.
I do hope though that people understand the payout structure of Amazon.
To say this is money is for Christmas Cash might be misleading.
If they make sales in October, payout won’t be until the end of December.
November sales won’t pay out until January 2110, and December sales won’t payout
until February 2110.
But that doesn’t bother me, cause my Christmas shopping is done, and this will only give me start up money for spring travel.
Kudos to you.
Hi Everlie,
Not all of the products are going to have that because there may not be other people or a percentage of people who have bought that as well.
Don’t worry about all that, just pick something that people are searching for, check the competition of your product keyword and write your lens. The more complicated you make it the less you are going to get done. Christmas is coming SOON. Shopping will be starting any day, and you won’t make any money if you are fussing with detail after detail trying to get it perfect. It will never be perfect, but it’s better to put it up and make money than keep fussing for perfection.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
@ Kelly
I can’t find that blurb you mention. None of the products I’ve looked at had it. Only customers who bought this also bought that, or who viewed this also viewed that . . .
Thanks for the great response!
Hi jackie,
Just wanted to give you a 3 week update…
Last week I made $45…
So that is $65+85+45=$195 in 3 weeks using Christmas Cash program.
Last week my first sites bounced in the Serps and some disappeared for a few days. I have a second wave of lenses that I have done that I will be using to scale up what you have taught me. I started with 10 that have made me the money for the first three weeks. I now have over 100. I will update you next week, and again, thanks so much.
Mac.
@Juls you can use the banners (although banner ads don’t usually convert as well as good content and links within it) you can’t use the widgets because they are done with iframes and squidoo doesn’t accept iframes.
You could use them on your christmas blog.
Yes, to get higher than a 4% commission (sharing with squidoo) you need to use your own links created via the associates program.
Not sure about endless.com I haven’t used it before I’ll have to check it out.
Jackie
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Oops! I don’t know why my hubby’s picture just showed up or how to change it to mine–such a newbie, sigh!
Juls
Hi Jackie–thanks for the great report! I hope these aren’t dumb questions, but I was wondering–can we use the Amazon widget or banners from Amazon (both in the Amazon Associates program) on our Squidoo lens? That would help us get the higher commissions, right? Otherwise, if I am understanding this correctly, the links you referred to (use your own links) would be the links using our Amazon associates tracking ID directly to the product on Amazon from our lens, right? And what about the “Endless.com” site–can we also use items from there on our Squidoo lens–I see the comm is 15%…
Thanks for your help!
Juls
@Robin and others concerned about PR of Amazon sites coming up:
I just received an email from Jonothan Leger this morning ~ you may or may not be familiar with him. He is a master of ranking websites in Google. His email was talking about doing something else, but this one point was relevant to what we are doing.
“2. Make sure the top 10 currently ranking sites are mostly inner pages from big sites like Amazon.com or EzineArticles.com etc.
If most of the top 10 pages are inner pages with few links to them, then the pages are being ranked based on the site authority rather than the page itself. That means it’s pretty easy to rank for those terms.”
I hope this alleviates your concerns and helps you get started.
All is well, take action.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hey Terry,
I see you are having a hard time finding the firefox SEO. Look at the right bottom corner of your firefox windows, on the task bar you will see the SEO word grayed out just click on it to activate it, then click on it again and it deactivates.
Hope this helps!
Hi Jackie,
Today I put into practice the principles preached on your report and it really works, it is so easy to do that is scary!!
Let’s see how it goes with the referrals and the sales now!
You really delivered a lot of value with this report. Really, is one of those things that you end up asking yourself how didn’t I come up with that idea? but the fact that you came up with it and shared it has even more value.
Thanks a lot!!
I don’t have a problem finding good items on Amazon, but when I check the competition in Google, either Amazon or the manufacturer, or both, have the first three or four search results on the page. They also have high page ranks like 4′s or 5′s. How do you work around this one?
You don’t HAVE to join amazon associates. You can use the Amazon modules provided via Squidoo, however, it gives you MUCH more flexibility and ability to make MORE commissions is you join the associates program.
Jackie
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Frank, really helpful suggestions, I often get a bit lost when confronted with so many options when shopping. I’m sure the next shopping experience is bound to be more successful. Being hesitant can waste so much time. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks =)
Do I have to join the Amazon associates?
@Frank
Hey Frank, great to see you here! let me know if you have questions.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
@kelly
Yes that is true and a good point, however ~ make sure all these additional elements are not taking up too much time. Christmas shopping is closing in, you want to pick and put it up in a brief amount of time. All these little elements can really slow you down. It’s a numbers game, and if you spend tons of time picking/choosing/perfecting every little bit you won’t have the quantity that will make this work over the top!
@terry you have to turn it on, and then actually do a google search for your keywords for anything to show up. The on button is at the bottom left hand corner of your screen you should see SEO down there, click it then search.
@yorkylad I don’t think many people actually realize that their products are coming from somewhere other than amazon, and I think the other vendors get credibility just from being found on Amazon. I wouldn’t worry about it, and you get the same commission whether it’s from amazon or a 3rd party provider.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
cool kelly.. thanks for sharing.. i really excited and just publish a few lens promoting amazon stuff
Most products are sold by Amazon themselves while some appear to be sold via 3rd party suppliers. Does this make any difference when selecting products to promote?
Just curious as most people will trust a big name like Amazon but some buyers might be ‘iffy’ buying from little unknown retailers/suppliers albeit through Amazon’s site.
My first year on Squidoo and getting sales but really want to do more with Xmas coming and appreciate your insight.
Thanks Jackie – you truly provide great value. I love the fact that you take the time to interact here in the comments – certainly don’t see that a lot these days.
I’m excited about doing SCC Lenses! I’ll be starting in a couple of days and I’m sure I’ll have a few questions along the way.
Again, thank you!
Frank
Follow me @FrankDickinson on Twitter!
OK I downloaded firefox seo , why can’t I see it anyplace when I open up firefox?
Any ideas?
Terry
OH! And something else – Amazon is really helpful about showing buying statistics – on the product page, they have a blurb that says something like ’48% of people that have viewed this page bought this product’. So, that’s nearly 5 out 10 people that checked out the page actually bought it.
So, playing with averages, if you can pick products that have higher averages like that, it means that you’ll ‘probably’ get more sales from that people you send there.
Follow me @fnnkybutt on Twitter!
@Kelly,
Good point ~ and sometimes not having many in stock can really push people to purchase. Having a lens on a product that ends up popular but out of stock can sometimes be a good thing ~ you can then be the place they can actually find it. You can check ebay, or other places that may carry it and put those links in your lenses.
But yes, making sure it’s this years product is probably a good idea. Thanks for the tip!
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Something else to check is how many there are in stock. I did my whole lens up, got it posted on my blog – my first item! I was so excited! – and then noticed on the Amazon.com page that there were only 2 in stock. And later learned it was last years model, so there probably won’t be more.
Just something to keep an eye out for.
Follow me @fnnkybutt on Twitter!
This is great, really shortened my research time in Amazon.
thanks
oh yeah ~ that makes a huge difference.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
That is my mistake I was looking on My associate account.
So you start on the amazon.com page NO wonder I was lost.
Thanks