Squidoo: Do it. It's free marketing.

[Greekgeek]

Hi, folks. My handle is Greekgeek and I'm a Squidoo addict.
(Hi, Greekgeek.)

Squidoo is an odd amalgam of MySpace and Wikipedia, allowing experts and obsessive compulsives on various topics to compile pages called "lenses" about those topics, providing both original content and hand-picked links to relevant content found elsewhere. There's various customizable modules for embedding YouTube videos, Flickr galleries, Amazon book listings, eBay listings, Google blog and news feeds, and a ton of other things found around the web.

At the moment there's no PrintFection module (hey, code gurus, Squidoo has a "module developer" forum in its community forums), but you can write your own text and include images in Text Modules, which take simple HTML. Edit: You can include links to other web pages, e.g. your product pages.

Squidoo pages can be simply for information or entertainment -- see my Volcanoes Are Hot Stuff (http://www.squidoo.com/volcanoes) science geeking lens, and my Student Bloopers (http://www.squidoo.com/studentbloopers) as two examples. OR -- and Squidoo encourages this -- Squidoo pages can promote your online business.

Oddly enough, by including links to books on Amazon or other links related to your keywords and search terms, you help bump your Squidoo page up the Google Search ladder because Google thinks, "Aha, this page has a lot of info on X and Y." So even when promoting your own products, see if you can work in a few affiliate links.

Squidoo pages make money, although not huge gobs. You get a commission for purchases through your affiliate modules. E.G. if someone buys a bunch of Amazon books after clicking on one of your Amazon links, you get a few bucks. Also, you receive a portion of Google Adsense revenue. After 3 months I'm taking in about $40/month.

Interested? Here (http://www.squidoo.com/what) is a helpful page for getting started, which a fellow named Glen wrote. He's got a lot of handy how-to pages which I used to learn the ins and outs of Squidoo. Here's my own Squidoo tips (http://www.squidoo.com/squidtips), largely concerned with how to attract traffic. Here's the Totally Awesome Tees (http://www.squidoo.com/groups/tshirts) group which you can add your lenses to in order to get more links and visitors. You can also browse that group (http://www.squidoo.com/groups/tshirts/lenses) to see how other T-shirt shopkeepers are using Squidoo to promote their products.

Shameless plug: If you click on "Make your own page" while viewing someone else's lens, that person gets $5 if/when you earn your first $15. So if you find you want to try Squidoo, please consider clicking the link on my Squidoo Tips page, the green link in the lefthand column.

Or not. I honestly want to see Squidoo grow and prosper, and be filled with good content and original art rather than a whole lot of viagra ads. (They're doing their best to weed out spam, but...well...every bit helps.)

[gp1628]

Excellent post. And your SquidTips has excellent info. I will bookmark that for referral.

People, be sure to note the frequent use of the word "content" in the squidtips. Please do not try to streamline squidoo for marketing and ratings ONLY. Squidoo has harsh policies about anything they consider spam, and they are growing to a size where they no longer just delete a site. They make rule changes which can have affects beyond just your site. (sorry, you know me and the subject of blogs/lens/myspace that looks like a full page ad in a magazine)

Ive been there since their first year. I highly recommend it as a great alternative to a blog if your blog takes the flavor of something like "info on a subject near and dear to me" (which can include your shop). They have made it very easy to group together many sources on a single theme of your choice.

One thing Ive brought up before on the subject of blogs, which applies here also. If each of your shirts has a "story" to its creation, then publish those online. You will achieve a page full of "description" and tons of "keywords" which searches might use to lead people to your shirt. Especially useful for an outlet of frustration when your family is tired and no longer interested in hearing your tales of how you came up with the idea, how you feel it applies to you personally, the trials and tribulations you had coming up with the right designs and fonts and colors, or long lists of who you feel might enjoy such a shirt. Oh yeah, and funny stories of the reactions you picture it getting when certain people are seen wearing it. Those stories are good material for blogs, squidoo lens, newsletters, or even an occassional post on forums which match your theme. They are a wonderful psychological release (and accidentally good advertising :) )

Yeah I know. Yet another example of me not having an example to show you of my own advice. I keep thinking about it since I have a story of "how it applies to me" for most of my shirts which I (personally at least) feel would inspire some people to try their own. One day maybe when my to-d0 list gets shorter.

Gandalf Parker
--
What am I doing here?
Have you ever heard "those who can, do; and those who cant, teach"?
Well I dont do either one. But Im a real good pitch man.

[Greekgeek]

Content, content, yessss, precious.

If you've got a theme around your T-shirts, some subject or passion, then you have something to TALK about!

For example, instead of creating a Squidoo lens telling people I'm selling fan t-shirts celebrating a particular baseball player,* I created a lens about him, and included this ad (http://www.squidoo.com/russellmartin#module2942026) featuring my baseball t-shirt design.

Make a web page on something you're passionate about, and people will read it. They're far more likely to read that than an advertisement.



*His full name doesn't appear on the shirt, because you can't sell products using somebody else's name. But his fans know who "My Favorite Martin" is. ;)

[gp1628]

Besides which... google loves such sites more than ad sites or shops. They want to be the "answer content" search engine which is why forums and blogs get higher ratings. Anything with frequestly changing text.

[Xeon]

But there's one thing I don't understand: even if you've created an ocean of Squidoo pages with tons of info, how are folks even gonna know they exist?
I mean, the average man on the street, if they wanna know about something quick, they would visit wikipedia, not squidoo!

Do we have to do marketing for our Squidoo pages?
But I thought Squidoo is supposed to help market our shop / website, not to present us with another marketing problem.

Please advise! :)
Xeon.

[gp1628]

Squidoo is becoming known as a place to find experts on subjects that usually dont claim to have experts. It is gaining a following. Thats abit different than using google or wikipedia to get answers or a definition. And squidoo does market itself pretty well. True, its on the list of "upcoming" sites. But thats a good reason to get in now.

What will make it work, is if more of the "blogger" type who tend to do more than just chatting away randomly and have more instructional things to say get involved with Squidoo. What will kill it, is if it gets filled with "I put in my search word and ended up with just marketing ads junk"


There are a number of upcoming sites with great new ideas that can be tied into shops. One is YouTube (keywords: video clips, short movie directing, animation, funny commercials)

Another one that I particularly like is SecondLife. (keywords: RPG, SIMs, graphic programs, virtual life)