There’s been a lot of people downloading the Squidoo Christmas Cash Blueprint today. Some of you have had questions ~ that you’ve asked, and I’m sure some of you have questions that you haven’t asked.
I’d love to be able to answer as many of your questions as I can. It would be best for me if I could answer them on this blog so everyone can benefit from the answer ~ because, believe me, if you have a question I’m sure there are plenty of others with the same question.
So… what’s your biggest question about Squidoo, building lenses, the Blueprint, or anything else related to making money with Squidoo?
Leave your questions in the comment section and I’ll go through and answer them, and if the answer’s too long for a comment I’ll go ahead and do a whole blog post for it. 
Remember, if you’re having trouble I’m always here to help, whether you need 30 minutes to ask a few questions or a month of phone calls and email questions.
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Hi Jackie! I know I’m a little late to this post, but I do have a question. I downloaded your Squidoo Christmas Cash blueprint a few weeks ago, have written 4 lenses so far, and am considering starting a blog to get links and help drive traffic to my lenses. I’d like this blog to focus on kitchen-related gifts because that’s where I’m headed with the lenses. My question is, how do you determine a good niche? How do you know if it’s too saturated or competitive?
Thanks!
Christina Walker@Calphalon Tri-Ply Stainless Steel Cookware´s last [type] ..Calphalon Tri-Ply Stainless Steel 13-piece Cookware Set updated Thu Dec 8 2011 10:56 pm EST
Congrats on taking action Christina! That’s awesome. I’m not sure there’s a great niche left that isn’t competitive these days.
The kitchen related niche is an evergreen niche ~ where people will always be looking for kitchen stuff ~ however, there’s always new kitchen related items coming into the marketplace… this gives you the ability to keep your ear to the ground and get content out about new products. Also ~ it’s also not JUST about the niche… it’s about you. If you have a love for all things kitchen, and you’re willing to share your enthusiasm with your readers ~ and connect with other kitchen stuff lovers (I am one as well!) on social media platforms ~ maybe do videos etc… you can make it work. Creating a community and driving them to your own list is the best way to ensure long term stability in any niche these days. Once you’ve got people who want to be updated on kitchen stuff ~ it doesn’t matter how competitive the market is, you can email them directly.
Hope that helps. Hey you should also connect with me on FB ~ have a new page and group related to family/food/fitness ~ should probably be a good match for you. (page) http://www.facebook.com/pages/Family-Food-and-Fitness/228073360595158 (group ~ still in infancy stage!) http://www.facebook.com/groups/102771503173636/
Question? I am trying to integrate my squidoo acct. with Google analytics. Is this possible?
Thanks
Heather McGlaughlin´s last [type] ..Microphone Cake
Heather, the two do not integrate… Squidoo has its own analytics ~ check the stats tab under any given lens in your dashboard.
What I do not understands is why anyone goes to a squidoo lens. I know about
Amazon and if I wan to buy a product I just go there and look it up for myselp and make
a purch=ase.
Why would I go thru a squid lens?
I just go right to Amazon as well, but a LOT of people don’t… I was just talking to someone last night who was looking to buy a flip and did a bing search for the flip. When I mentioned just going to amazon she sounded a little surprised and told me she hadn’t thought of that. So if your lens came up at the top of the bing search, and you’d written a helpful and informative lens that helped them make the decision you’d probably make that sale.
Hi Jackie,
First off, I just want to tell you how much I love your fantastic Blueprint! Right now, I’m trying to decide on a cut-off price for amazon.com products to feature in my Christmas lenses and I have some questions.
For higher priced items (anything over, say, $200-300), do you ever worry about amazon.com’s short cookie duration of 24 hours? I know that when I am shopping online for some higher priced item, I take a fair amount of time (at least several days) to think things over before I finalize my purchase, and my guess is that many other people probably think much the same way, especially in this crummy economy.
What I worry about is that on the higher priced items, people will click on my links (from my Christmas lenses) to amazon.com but not add the item to their shopping cart within the first 24 hours. Perhaps they might bookmark the product webpage on amazon.com and come back later. Then, by the time they do decide to add the item to their shopping cart and finalize their purchase, the amazon.com cookie on their computer will have expired and I won’t get properly credited.
It seems to me that there is a trade-off between promoting lower-priced products and getting lower commissions, but having a higher immediate conversion rate and losing fewer prospective buyers due to cookies expiring, and promoting higher priced products but getting few or no commissions, not necessarily because the products are bad and don’t convert on amazon.com, but because the prospective buyers did not finalize their purchase before the 24 hour cookie expiration period because of hesitating over the higher prices.
Do you think there is such a trade-off, and if so, do you have a cut-off price above which you generally do not exceed on amazon.com products because of the 24-hour cookie?
Sorry this is so long. I hope I have worded my question clearly. Please tell me what you think.
You’re going to lose some people… but if you’re targeting really specific keywords you’re going to get them at the END of the buying cycle when they’ve already done all the thinking and decding and they’re just googling for the best price or place to buy.
I think it’s smart to have some low priced items for sale, and some high priced items for sale.
Hi Jackie
How are you?
I’ve been following your blog recently and to be honest, your blog is amazing! You’re offering so much useful information here. I’ve learned a lot about Squidoo and Affiliate marketing. But today I have some questions that need advices from you.
They’re about the affiliate program of Amazon.
The first question is about the registration phase. It looks like they want a bunch of information from me. I mean the “Your Website Profile” section. You know, I’m an affiliate, and I own many domain names but none of them are being hosted. I just simply redirect them to my affiliate links. What confuses me is Amazon requires my site’s information. I don’t have any “real” website (hope I made my point clearly), how can I provide them such information? Things like “what your website is about?” and “what is the URL of the website you will send traffic to Amazon?”, etc.
Another question is about the commission percentage. I believe I heard someone says that it’s 4% or 8% but I don’t remember. Could you please let me know? I used to work with Clickbank so I’m a little inexperienced with “physical” seller like Amazon LOL!
That’s all for today. And thanks again for providing us so much useful content. Best wishes for you and Hanna!
Duy.
to be approved for Amazon you do need a website. It can be as simple as a couple posts set up on a free blogger blog, but you’ve got to have something to show them. Also if you’re just redirecting urls to point to Amazon you might want to read through their TOS, to make sure that’s going to work. I also think it might be difficult to get good conversion doing that with physical products just because there isn’t a huge sales page to sell them… you really have to do more “pre selling” for physical products before they hit the amazon page.
Amazon commission starts at 4% and then goes up depending on how much you sell. When you jump to the next level everything you’ve sold from the beginning of the month jumps up to the new level as well.
Dear Jackie,
I have purchased your famous Christmas Cash Blueprint videos and found them very, very valuable and much more “doable” by any newbie.
Thanks a lot for such a wonderful product. But, I now have questions about the “product” to be promoted thru Squidoo. My IMPORTANT Questions are given under.
a) Some people say that, “Don’t attempt for Big Money items like LCD, HDTVs/ Computers etc., in your beginning as they are highly competitive, because many giant sites are promoting such items.”
Is there any point in it? I don’t think so. Because, as per your Christmas Cash videos, I already searched for Top selling items in Amazon and found many tv’s with big price. And if we search for Google for competition it gives a total page rank of 25 or less.
Can I select any top brand hdtv as product to promote in order to get “Big” commission? Pleaaaase Advice!!!
b) Is it necessary to write articles? I hate writing and also no money to get them written (being a Bum Marketer). What is the Best Alternative? Please help…………….
wish I’d seen this comment before I saw your email.
Well, I’ll just paste my reply from the email I sent you so everyone can see the answer:
I’m very glad you enjoyed the videos. You are welcome to ask any questions in the comments section of any of the videos.
To answer your questions:
It doesn’t matter what product you choose as long as you can make the numbers work. If you can find a product that has good search volume and low competition it doesn’t matter if it’s a TV or a kids toy. It’s not about the product ~ it’s about the numbers.
Article writing. You don’t have to write articles. I hate writing articles, and never end up doing it. There are plenty of other ways to get traffic and build links to your lens. Check the “getting traffic” tab on http://www.squidoochristmascash.com for me ideas ~ as well sa the top section of the articles page on my internet marketing blog ~ http://www.internetmarketingformommies.com/articles You’ll get more ideas there.
Lately the “posterous network” has been my “go to” method. That’s outlined in two posts on the squidoo christmas cash site. Hope that helps.
Jackie
I am a registered affiliate to dr al sears.com they sent me my code. where do I put it when i have written something about his PACE program
Do paste the whole thing such as webber etc or just the numbder they have given me. I am an extra NEW NEW BE and 80 years young and want to earn some extra income on my ‘puter. love your stuff so far.
Bram
not sure exactly what you’re doing so I can’t really tell you where to put the code. Since I don’t know what the code they gave you looks like I can’t really tell you how to use it. Every affiliate program does the code a little differently, and how you add it depends on what they give you.
Jackie,
How many articles do you suggest we submit to e-zine when promoting one product?
Thanks,
Deb
Deb Van´s last [type] ..Discover Online Piano Lessons updated Tue Aug 31 2010 10-00 am CDT
I’d start with one and the rest of the basic linking and see how that does. IF you need more links you can do more articles if you wish.
Just got your e-mail about posting questions here after I posted a question on another blog. So I guess I’ll post here also.
Do you recommend PR<30 and <30,000 pages with the keywords we are using?
Thanks Jackie,
Deb
Deb Van´s last [type] ..Discover Online Piano Lessons updated Tue Aug 31 2010 10-00 am CDT
Hi Jackie,
I saw an email that showed a Squidoo lens you had done,Where would I find it again?I looked in the kiss forum,and through emails you sent,but cannot seem to find it.I am still working on my Christmas blueprint and would like to see yours as an example.
Have a great day
Phyllis
Hi Phyllis,
If you go to my “accountability thread” in the forum you’ll see a bunch of the lenses I’ve done since starting the 52 week project.
Look under squidoo/52 week project ~ you’ll see my thread there.
Hi Jackie,
I’ve been following you and christmas cash blueprint for awhile, but first time posting a comment. I have located a good product on amazon for my christmas cash lens, but I have a question regarding quantity. When I visit the Amazon sales page, there really are not many of these products that are new. Many are used, it’s a specific type of golf club, there are different models I am looking at, but if there is one available that is new, the quantity is only 1 or 2 of them in stock.
Do you have any suggestions or guidelines regarding picking products that amazon has a lot in stock on? Or is that something I should not worry about.
Best Regards,
Carol
Hi Carol,
Welcome! Does it mention they will be getting more in stock? If it doesn’t say they are getting more in stock I probably wouldn’t do it. You don’t want to spend all your time putting your lens up and then not have anything for them to buy when they get to Amazon.
Have you seen this post over at the squidoo blog? http://www.squidoochristmascash.com/startingresearch/ might be helpful in finding products to promote.
Hi Jackie,
Thank you for getting back so quickly. Actually, upon a closer look it says, ships from and sold by the golf warehouse. I’m not sure if this is worth it or not. But the stats are great I think, maybe you could shed some light. Micro Niche Finder stats for my product are: 6,600 searches per month, SOC 16, OCI 93%, Exact Phrase Count 14,000 and MOB 1. Based on that, and product availability do you think I should try this anyway, or scrap it.
Thanks Again,
Carol
third party vendors are fine. You still get paid for those items, just make sure they have enough in stock to make it worth your while.
Hi Jackie,
i am working on your blueprint,and my question is regarding the pictures to use with Squidoo.I think I saw an email regarding this from you,but I cannot seem to find it now.
Where can I get pictures for free to use for the products,or can I just use a picture, of the product by itself from Amazon?
How do I put the picture there?
Thanks for doing this,and other peoples questions are already helping.
Phyllis
You can use the images from Amazon. Save them to your computer (right click save as) and then in the module you can use the browse image function (usually at the bottom of the edit area) and then find the image you saved, pick it and it will upload to squidoo. Make sure you click save.
Hi Jackie!
I’ve been systematically plugging away at your Christmas Cash blueprint (found a few excellent products on Amazon, created a blogger blog yesterday, registering for an Amazon Assoc account this morning – more comm $!)and I have a question. In a large nutshell, would you explain the benefit of using the Squidoo lenses over Blogger blogs? Or is there even one? I understand that the premise of your blueprint revolves around Squidoo, utlizing Blogger, but was curious if there was a specific advantage(s) using Squidoo over Blogger. Reason why I ask, just reflecting back at the commission split with Squidoo with regards to any sales or ad activity, also it seems Blogger blogs are less “busy”, other stuff going on around the Squidoo mods and content on any particular lens. Wasn’t sure if Squidoo was better at ranking for keywords via SEO over Blogger, or some other reasons. Just a ‘newbie’ thought that occured to me when I was setting stuff up. As noted before, love your blueprint, look forward each day to ‘taking action’ – I’ve found so many excellent products and keywords with so little competition! Just hurdling the ‘learning curve’! As always – Thanks in advance for your time!!
Just different strategies. You could do either one really. You could use a blogger blog and use Squidoo as the support site. It doesn’t matter really. You don’t split the commission for Amazon sales if you use your link instead of the modules. (which is what I do). Just the ad revenue.
The big thing is to be CLEAR about what you’re doing. If you’re using Squidoo as your money pages ~ then use blogger as your support (link building) site. If you decide to use Blogger as your money page then make sure you’re using Squidoo in a supportive role (linking back to the blog)
There is a million ways to do internet marketing. It’s just a matter of what you decide to do.
Thanks, Jackie! Appreciate the time feedback.
Hi
Somewhere on your site i saw a page where you offered various telephone and email support packages at very attractive prices.
For some reason I cant find that page again today ! it might have been on another of yur sites?
regards
Steve Wyman
Steve@Coffee Grinders´s last [type] ..Caffe Volte
Hey Steve ~
That is because I am no longer offering one on one consultations.
I am doing all my mentoring through the KISS Club now.
http://internetmarketingformommies.com/kiss-club
Hi Jackie,
That explain why i could nto find it i thought i was going mad
I’ll send you an email directly
regards
Steve@Coffee Grinders´s last [type] ..Caffe Volte