Squidoo Lens Tutorial: The Last few Modules
Oct 04
So we’ve reviewed the intro module, the first few modules, as well as reviews and a video. Now we’re going to finish up with the last few modules I usually use in my lenses.
The last few modules I use are:
the big arrow module for a big call to action at the end
RSS module
Guestbook module
The Big Arrow Module:
I use this for a big call to action near the bottom of my lens. If people have not clicked out on any of my text links thus far I want one last place that really calls them to click. I’ve already done a whole tutorial on how to make the big arrow module work. So you can check that one out. Just know it’s pretty important to have a call to action near the end of your lens.
RSS Module:
I like to add an RSS module after my call to action. If for some reason they haven’t been interested enough to click out yet maybe something in my RSS feed will grab their interest and they will at least click through to another page that is MINE. There are more opportunities on my blog for them to click a product link or find something else they may like to buy.
So what the heck is RSS??
RSS is a nice feature that blogs have. It stands for really simple syndication. Which just means it’s an easy way for people to read your blog (via an RSS reader) as well as an easy way to spread your blog posts wherever you want them. This can be RSS directories, and when it comes to Squidoo an RSS module.
Where’s the RSS module?
Click the “all modules” button at the top of the page (in edit mode) and you’ll see a bunch of options. One, under “web stuff” column is RSS. Click the green plus sign next to it and it will move to the box. Once you see it there, just click “done adding” and the module will magically appear at the BOTTOM of your lens. 
You can drag and drop it wherever you want but just know it will be at the bottom to begin with.
Where do I find my RSS feed?
Your RSS feed will be on your blog (remember I talked about starting a Christmas Blog?) When you go to your blog. You will need to look for a little orange square. This is your RSS feed button.
If you are using firefox you will see it in the address bar. Just click the orange button.
What shows up in the address bar when you click the orange button is the RSS feed address. This is what you need to stick in your rss module at Squidoo.
IF you are in Internet Explorer (why???) It will look like this:
You will get the same thing when you click the orange box in IE. An address in your address bar that is for your RSS feed.
Copy the RSS address (highlight, right click, copy)
Go to Squidoo and you will enter that address in the RSS module:
I personally like to show 5 items, I like a description there, it gives a little more information for them to get interested in. I have squidoo check my feed once a day (this will pull in new content as I put it up) It’s up to you if you want the html displayed or not. I usually do it, so I’m not sure why it’s no here??
Once you have all your info filled in click the save button and you should see the last 5 posts from your blog.
Guestbook Module:
This is the final module I generally use. The guestbook module. It gives people a place to ask questions, and interact with you and other users. (your lens also can NOT get an angel blessing if it doesn’t have a guestbook, so you might as well add one)
Add your title to your module. I try to ask a question here related to the product or the type of product I’m discussing in my lens.
Then add a description ~ again I ask a questions related to the product. Have you used? Do you plan to buy? Had experience with? and then link to the product using my product name/keyword for the lens.
If you are going to use the guest book I suggest NOT leaving the default comment in the description area. Just make give people something they can answer or talk about in that area.
Other options in the guestbook module.
All of these are personal choices, there’s no right or wrong here, but here’s what I choose:
Once you’ve filled in your choices click save and you are done with modules!! There’s still a few things to think about before you hit the publish button.
Fill in your bio area ~ something related to what you’re talking about. Whether it’s finding great gifts/deals or something specifically related to your product.
Add some tags. You probably saw other keywords in the Google adwords tool that had some search volume (different variations on your product name??) add those. Don’t go overboard. As people start coming to your lenses you will see what kw they are using to find them and you can add those as you go.
Decide if you are going to give some of your earnings to charity. I alway give 10% of my on Squidoo earnings to charity. There are tons of charities you can choose from, I’m sure something you support will be available. It may only be pennies, but pennies add up!!
That’s about it! When you get all that filled in go ahead and click the PUBLISH button!! (top right hand corner)
WOO HOO you’ve done it!!
Now that you’re done with your lens there are more things you need to do to help google find and rank your lens on the first page. We’ll be going over those things next. Go ahead and get your lens done, and click the publish button!!
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It worked perfectly. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Will that only put the new picture on that lens?
do not delete your lens.
You can upload a new picture by clicking the title my photo. It will open up a space to add a new image for that lens. Just browse your computer and then click upload. 
Good luck.
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Hi Jackie,
I’ve basically completed my first lens following your blueprint (I have a few others for a Clickbank product). Now, of all places, I’m stuck at the Bio picture.
I have one picture and Bio for the other lenses, but they are so unrelated that I want a different Bio and picture for this type of lens. The Bio seems to have worked (I used customize), but when I try to put in the new picture, I get told I have to change it in my Profile. Should I delete the lens and redo it with a different email account (become a member of Squidoo under another account) or is there a way to have a different Bio and picture for separate lenses?
Thanks Jackie – that big arrow module slapped me around all afternoon till I came to you for help.
add a guestbook module ~ that’s its whole purpose.
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Is there a way to set my lens where people who visit can leave comments? I do not know if you would recommend this anyway
I fixed It. Published
I have added content to the blog, for the four lenses that I have build but it is still in draft status. I also provided a link to my lens but my lenses have not been published yet.
have you added content to that blog? If yes ~ refresh the module and see what happens ~ if not ~ that’s why. It pulls the content from the blog into your lens.
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I added the address to the lens. Now it says no items were found
go to your actual blog ~ not the edit area. Go to view blog, and then click the orange box. In this post ~ right under “where do I find my RSS feed” it says
“Your RSS feed will be on your blog (remember I talked about starting a Christmas Blog?) When you go to your blog. You will need to look for a little orange square. This is your RSS feed button.”
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you have to go to your blog not the dashboard. You’re trying to get the RSS feed for your blog ~ not the rss feed for your dashboard (there isn’t one and it wouldn’t be very useful)
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The url in the box is http://www.blogger.com/home I do not think this is the one.
And I am doing this from my dashboard.
that’s the right page ~ you’re not worried about subscribing, just grab the url out of the address bar. copy it so you can paste it in the module.
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Yes, I get something that says Subscribe with live bookmark. Name: dancerodies blogs
Folder: Bookmarks Toolbar then I have to subscribe or cancel. The folder has a drop down menu I can
then choose bookmark menu, unsorted bookmarks, or choose
well it should change ~ it will show the RSS address instead of just the plain address. when you click the orange box does a drop down box appear and offer you two or more options? You should choose the RSS option ~ then it will show you the rss address in the box. Let me know if that fixes it.
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When I go to my blog (using firefox) I click on the orange box (as instructed) in the address bar. Before I click the orange box, there is an address already in the address bar. After I click the orange box, nothing changes in the address bar. Am I just supposed to use my blog address to past in squidoo?
Odie ~
You’re going to have to be more specific ~ I have no idea what you’re talking about.
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The same address that shows up in the address bar is the same one that shows up when I click the orange box.
Hi Jackie,
Great instructions for Building a Lens at Squidoo but now
I’m stuck on Step 3 of Building a Lens at Squidoo.
The Poll module where you use a html code to make the answers in the poll clickable.
Do I need to get get response(like purchase it) or can I copy and paste?
Thanks
Betty
Jackie
I just want to thank you for the Christmas guide. I am a member of WA but was very confused about getting started, and your blueprint was the one that got me going. Anyway, I have only set up one lens on Squidoo, but following the guide about keywords and all, I am very happy to tell you that it’s already on page 1 of Google Search when the keywords are entered and it’s at #6 today!
I haven’t made a sale yet but the result is motivating me to tweak the pages and set up more lenses. Will let you know how it goes, but thanks for getting me actually DOING.
I personally probably wouldn’t do a lens like that ~ just because I have a lot of luck using specific products people are looking for. I also think best wii games is still not a buying kw. they are looking for options/ideas for which games to buy, they are still doing research ~ then when you get down to “resident evil 4 for wii” they are looking to buy that specific game.
They probably do make some money ~ but I bet they could make more by doing each product separately.
So to answer your question I don’t really have a formula for those types of lenses because I don’t do them.
Jackie
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I was using inversion tables as an example, because you’ve used it here. But I get your point.
To be more specific, how about a lens for “best wii games” – would you still not do a lens like that? I see a lot of lenses like this and I know at least a few of them make $$. I would think that even a more general lens like this could create some cash at Christmas.
That was my question – if you were to create a lens like that, what would your “formula” be, if it differed from the one you’ve offered.
Not necessarily ~ but I probably wouldn’t create such a general lens.
Here’s why:
1. inversion tables is not a buying word. It’s a “researching” word. People searching on inversion tables are not yet looking to buy they are still investigating. (generally)
2. When you give people multiple options they get overwhelmed and buy nothing
This is what I’ve gleaned over the last 5 or 6 years doing this ~ I’ve had much better luck focusing on a specific something people want to buy/fix/solve.
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Hi Jackie!
I’ve noticed throughout this tutorial that you’re building a single product lens – a very specific topic. Do you use the same module formula for less specific topics as well?
Say for instance you were building a lens on inversion tables in general, highlighting several different models – would you use the same module formula?
Hi Jackie, thanks you have taught me quite a few new things. I’m not so good on the tech side, when I started this 2 years ago, I hardly knew where to switch the computer on! I wasted one years on a bad idea and then I started working with lenses etc. Problem is, I cannot really buy anything as I have no money and it is going VERY slow for me to pick up a tip here and another there. But, I’m getting there, my clickbank account is not ALL blanks any more!
I hope I can boost my Amazon account with this as the little I made Christmas last year has not even been paid yet as I have not even reached the $100! Hopefully with your help I’ll at least get a payment this year. Amazon does not do electronic payments to South Africa and from a $100 check I still have to pay R100 bank charges, but every little bit helps!
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On your dashboard of lenses when you hover over a lens title you will see some links below it. One of them is stats. If you click on that it will show you your traffic numbers, as well as the keywords people have used to find your lens. If you do not currently have the keyword in your tags there will be a green plus sign next to it. You can click that and the keyword will go on your lens in the tag section ~ you do have to go and republish the lens for them to show up.
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You said above, “As people start coming to your lenses you will see what kw they are using to find them and you can add those as you go.”
Can you elaborate? How do you know the keywords they’re using?
Angie
no problem Kelly, glad I could help.
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Thanks so much for these tutorials. They’ve been a huge help for me – my biggest problem is that I’m so new to Squidoo, i really had no idea what modules would work best for this. It’s really awesome of you to be so willing to share all this information!
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Steve asked a question over on the Ironman lens ~ that is a live lens so I’d rather have questions related to marketing on the blog instead of the lens (hey if I can make some sales from a tutorial lens let’s do it right??)
So here’s Steve’s question and my answers:
Hello,
I have been following your information on the Christmas ideas and I do find them quite interesting. I have a question for you. I see above that you have several other items that you linked to this lens. Disney bike, etc but when I go and check out those phrases in google, I don’t find your lenses anywhere on the first couple pages. With that in mind, how is this going to do any good. You are on the second page for the inversion table, but not for any of the other items you have lenses for. Please help me understand this. Seems like a waste if you are not ranking for those brand name terms (which is supposed to be easier).
Thanks, confused
Steve
Here’s my answers:
Hey Steve,
Fair questions ~ do you realize I did the inversion table lens on FRIDAY ~ and it’s already on page 2?
Is that not proof that it works? I have not even gotten to the backlinking piece of the puzzle for this lens yet.
Some of the lenses in my RSS feed are very new ~ some are not even mine (I like to help people out sometimes, and I can’t control what promotion they do for their pages) Sometimes you live and learn and realize years ago you picked kw badly. Lots of things going on. It doesn’t take much to find a few products and TRY it. Time is ticking, you can keep finding possible problems or you can get started and take advantage of Christmas shopping. The choice is up to you.
And then because I always remember something after I hit the publish button lol:
I also like to fill in my blog with things that are great gift ideas ~ and I don’t always do lenses for them ~ and I don’t necessarily promote all those items as well. It’s not all or nothing ~ but nothing happens if you don’t get started.
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