I had my first really harsh comment on my top-performing lens today. I feel famous!

This critic exclaimed that my lens was "bullsh*t" and that I should just TELL how I get free traffic to my lenses. Oddly, that same poster doesn't have a guestbook on either of his/her two lenses. Imagine that.

Based on that, this post is dedicated to you, MrKrabs.

As simply, and as briefly, as I can - I will tell how I go about my lensmaking and traffic generation.


1. RESEARCH FIRST.

Before I create a lens, I research my keywords, the market, and the potential market.


2. I LEARNED How to create a lens.

No, I don't mean the just basic concept of it, I also mean I went the extra mile and researched within Squidoo - looked at well-performing lenses - listened to what others said - and yes, to reduce my learning curve, I got information that has to be purchased.

3. Ping It

First thing I do is "ping" my lens. This process sends a message to the search engines to let them know your lens is there, or that there is new content to index. I use pingoat.com

4. I use social bookmarking.

Social traffic is wonderful - and free. Its nice to get visitors to your lens before Google gets a chance to crawl it and index it. Onlywire.com is an excellent service allowing you to post to 19 social sites that all have a PR 5 or better in one post.

5. I join groups

I choose groups that are relevant to the topic of my lens.


6. I interact within the Squidoo community.

And, MrKrabs, I do it politely and respectfully. If I don't have anything nice to say, I say nothing. After all, Squidoo IS a social site - and it is one that is full of wonderful people. most likely, if you take the time to visit someones lens, they will stop by and see you, too. At least, that is how I do it. And yes, MrKrabs, I stopped by your two lenses today, but there was no guestbook. If you're gonna have a page on a social site, you might want to consider offering an opportunity for social interaction ON your page. Just for the record, I was NOT going to leave a nasty note. I was actually going to invite you to email me if I could help you as you learned.

7. I help others when asked.

I am more than happy to offer any suggestions I can think of to help anyone improve on their lens and appreciate genuine feedback on mine.

8. I participate in forums.

I try to contribute as much as I can, and I let people know what I do. I offer my help.


9. I learned how to create valuable links TO my lenses.


10. I constantly update and tweak my lenses


11. I learned how to use other free methods to promote my lenses.



Thats about the gist of it. I could expand on each one into a full-blown ebook each - which I did in Squidoo Profit System.

If there are ANY questions about ANY of these steps, please feel free to ask.

Thank you, MrKrabs.