Get Found!
Playing hide-and-seek with your kids is fun. Playing hide-and-seek with your lenses is not! “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to everything, especially things on the web. With billions of websites out there, it takes more to stand out from the crowd. Squidoo already has the credibilty, the traffic, and a gangbusters community to give you a head start, but the rest is up to you.
What can you do to get found?
1. Get Tagged
2. Connect with Communities
3. Make your (Book) Mark!
4. A Quick Quirks Update
5. Look, JaZilla!
Besides getting found when people come looking for you and your specific topic, you also want to get found when people are simply windowshopping. No room for wallflowers here; this is a place to show ‘em what you’ve got!
Kimberly Dawn Wells
SquidU Review Editor
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1. Get Tagged
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Through Squidoo and SquidU, lensmasters within our community find each other easily. But what about the rest of the universe? Ah, for that we thank, among many things, the power of tags.
Remember when you went to summer camp, and your mom wrote your name on your shirt tags in marker, so you wouldn’t get your tees mixed up with someone else’s? Well, that’s basically what an online tag does. It’s your chance to identify you and your topic, so people know where you are. On Squidoo, tags are the keywords you use to describe your lens, and are picked up by search engines to match a curious browser with the right results.
Not sure how to tag your lens? First make a list of words you think are relevant to your lens. If your lens is about green cars with wings and great gas mileages, such keywords might include “green,” “green car,” “cars with wings,” and “gas mileage.” Then highlight or star each word or phrase you actually have in the text on your lens. These tags are good to go. You’ve used them in the main body of your lens, and they are most definitely relevant.
Have leftovers? Get creative. Use the title of your lens as a tag. Your name. Don’t forget that everyone searches for information in their own special way. Some people might look for “green cars” or “cars that are green.” They might look for “organizing tips” or “organizing help.” Try tags that accommodate quirky phrases and popular misspellings.
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2. Connect with Communities
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Nowadays, nearly everyone is on at least one of the social networking sites: LinkedIn, MySpace, Ryze, Facebook, Orkut, community forums, etc. But are you using these sites to their full potential?
When you’re part of a community, you can tell the active members. They’re easy to spot. You know what they do, what they stand for, where to learn more about whatever they’re interested in, and they’re always ready to tell you more. Are you ready to become that kind of person?
* Use your profile
Don’t let your profile sit blank and boring. Jazz it up. Links, images, and descriptions as appropriate will all clue your visitors in to what you’re up to.
* Post blogs, bulletins, memos, etc.
Use the tools you’re given. Post short announcements, updates, stories, or how happy you are to have made an extra $20 from your Xbox lens. These get noticed.
* Use a signature file
In your email, and in forums, AND in comments, use a short, unobtrusive signature. Even just your name hyperlinked to your “about me” lens can be ultra effective.
* Start discussions
Chat about your main lens topics, or about lensmaking in general. It’s sure to create a buzz.
* Help others
Those who help others are regarded as the most successful of us all, and everyone wants to be associated with successful people. By offering assistance to your community, you’ll put yourself in a great position for positive PR.
Use every opportunity you have to connect with new groups of people. The impact can be greater than you might ever imagine.
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3. Make your (Book) Mark!
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StumbleUpon and Reddit and Furl, oh my! And del.icio.us and Digg…what do all these have in common? They’re bookmarking and news-marking sites that can boost your traffic.
Sites like these work when users submit their favorite website links to a public profile. Other curious members peek around, click on links, and are introduced to sites they otherwise never would have found, and this could include your lens!
Many of the sites work based on a tagging system. This allows users to search for sites they are interested in, such as “recipes,” “football,” or “baby clothes.” You can use the same tagging techniques taught above for most of these sites.
Every day, hundreds of thousands of people are looking all over these sites for something new, something hot, something hip. Your lens might be just what they are looking for!
Give them a try!
http://www.stumbleupon.com
http://del.icio.us
http://www.reddit.com
http://www.furl.com
http://www.digg.com
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4. A Quick Quirks Update
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Gil, the only (is that possible!) programmer at Squidoo, has been busy, busy, busy updating services and making sure your lenses are well oiled. Learn more about what he and the rest of the SquidTeam have been up to at the SquidU Forums:
Dashboard and Guestbook Upgrades: http://squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3947
RSS and eBay Module Bug Fixes: http://squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3940
Star ratings and Group Bug Fixes: http://squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3699
And stay tuned for a whole new look and feel to your lensmaster dashboard! Hooray!!
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5. Look, JaZilla!
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JaZilla is here, with proven methods for creating monster traffic.
Official news and updates from the Squidoo Team
Connect with SquidooHQ
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