No One REALLY Makes Money with Squidoo - or DO They?

Posted In: squidoo .

I get a good bit of email of my Squidoo Profit System users asking for some feedback on their lenses and ideas for improvement. I love it! In my little world, knowledge ain't worth a darn unless it is shared - and I spend as much time sharing as I can.

Since I announced my Squidoo achievement of being awarded Giant Squid status by the Squidoo staff, I have also been blessed to receive so many congratulatory emails from some super people all over the world. I imagine I should be posting one, or all, of those emails. It would be better PR, right?

Instead, I'd like to post an email I received from someone who is frustrated and is having a hard time turning a profit from Squidoo. I feel like this email exchange would be a lot more help to my readers than the fluffy, "Congrats" emails.

Meet Joe. (Yup, thats Joe over there in that picture). Joe is an All American Guy, ex-Marine, family man....making his living online. Just a good guy. Joe gave me permission to post this email exchange between us in hopes that we can help others get over the "I can't Make Money on Squidoo" hump.

Here we go -

Hi,
You know, I have 3 Squidoo lens's. I use to have 5 but I deleted the other 2. Honestly I got tired of updating them daily, optimizing my brains out and frankly, getting no where. I certainly don't blame Squidoo or any one else. It is just very frustrating reading how everyone else is making money doing the very same things I'm doing.
Okay, I'll get off the pity-pot now. I had to get that out. All I want to know is...ALL YOUR SECRETS!!! NO, kidding. I do have a question however and it involves Squidoo and making money. HOW? I honestly have no clue how people are doing it. I'm beginning to think that no one really is making any money, but they tell every one that they are in order to get people to buy from them so that they can actually make money. I know that isn't happening, but it makes my failure more palatable.
I know I may sound like a wet rag in this email, but I really love doing this, I guess I just wish I were better at it or what ever ingredient I'm missing would magically appear. Do you still even remember my question? I don't. LOL. I better end this before you block me from ever emailing you again. Have a great day.

Joe T

I won't interject too much with my rambling here before I post my response to Joe. Only thing I'd like to say is that I don't think Joe is the only one that feels this way. I spent a LOT... A LOT of time on Squidoo. I do NOT have hundreds and hundreds of lenses (I believe my count is at roughly 60 currently).

I DO make money with Squidoo. Both paid to me BY Squidoo and paid to me thru my marketing and promotion efforts that include Squidoo.

I would never offer my advice, nor market a system that I created, if I didn't know what I was talking about. I'm not a big believer in the ol' "Fake it 'til you make it" mentality that is SO common online.

Here is my response to Joe:

Hiya Joe =)

Nah, not gonna block you from emailing me - you'll have to be a LOT meaner than THAT to get me to block you ;)

Before I get into any of this - I'd like to ask you something:

If I don't use your name (unless you want me to), can I use this email on my blog? I don't think you are the only person with these concerns and I'd love to address it.

Now then - on to your questions/concerns/rants (lol)

Making money with Squidoo.

As far as what Squidoo actually pays me each month - well, it ain't much. Each lens is usually worth about an average of $1 per month. I don't really use the Squidoo amazon and ebay modules on many - occassionally I see a sale from the ones I do use - but mainly Squidoo pays me each month from the co-op portion of the earnings from the site as a whole.

Now, if you knew that one lens would average $1 a month - how would you get to having Squidoo pay you $100 a month? Yup - make a LOT of lenses. Link them to each other, keep 'em fresh...and get out there in the Squidoo world and sign guestbooks, etc (oh, and join groups, too). I spent much of May and June doing just that - and it IS a lot of work.

Getting a good lenrank - and KEEPING a good lensrank is work. Squidoo is a tough "popularity" contest.

Now, you want my "secrets", do ya?

Ok- here's one - I don't make my lenses for the Squidoo popularity contest - I make them for the GOOGLE popularity contest. Yes, I have some lenses that I work on and try to keep as close to the top of the Squidoo lensrank as I can. To be honest, I sell a Squidoo guide - if *I* can't get a top 100 lens, how in the world could I show anyone else how to?

The rest of my lenses however, are for Google and the search engines. With good keywording and a lucky topic here and there, Google sends me traffic and it does not matter what my lensrank is. I simply try to keep most of lenses above the 25,000 or so over-all lensrank to get a better payment from Squidoo, but thats about it.

Joe, for this to work you have got to learn how to do keyword research. Do you know how? If you don't know how to pick topics and write content using the words that people are searching with, you just won't get anywhere.

There is a free program/report called Bum Marketing. Have you read it? Yes, it is written for those that market with articles - but in all honesty - that's all Squidoo really is - hyped up article marketing.

You can get that free course here:

http://www.bummarketingmethod.com

So - to make more money with Squidoo...

Mass create
Write good, original content (with good keywording)
Pick topics that have products associated with them that people want.

Want another secret? I haven't talked about this one (yet)

zimbio

Here's a hint - where it says "submit a blog", keep in mind that they consider a Squidoo page a blog.

Any of this help??

~jennifer

There you have it - a tiny piece of my insight regarding Squidoo. Obviously, there is way more to making money with Squidoo than this tiny piece of insight, and I go into all that in my Squidoo Profit System. Thing is, writing online is different that just writing on paper - not only must you provide a high-quality user experience - you also have to be FOUND online.

There is more of this email exchange between Joe and I that I'll save for my next post. I'll offer a great (and free) keyword research tool and go into more depth as to how the use of proper keywords is MEGA important when creating a Squidoo lens... or ANY content online.

While you wait, why not check out Joes lenses on Squidoo? Tell him PotPieGirl sent ya =)