Just Make Money Online

How To Make Money Online with Squidoo

by Shai Coggins on May 24th, 2007

The first time I heard of Squidoo*, I only looked at it as a source of interesting information. I didn’t realise that there are different ways to make money from it. How? Well, here are 5 ways —

• Be a content provider. Or rather, a ‘lensmaster’ as they are referred to in the world of Squidoo, as each page created by an individual is called a ‘lens’. This is the primary function of Squidoo: allowing everyone to be experts in their specialty areas. And, the great thing about it is that there’s no one way to create a page or lens. As a lensmaster, you are entitled to earn royalties from your lenses. Basically, when you create a page and Squidoo runs ads on them, you get a cut of the revenues whenever a reader/visitor clicks on an ad on your lens.

• Sell and promote your own products. If you have an eBay store or Cafepress shop, then creating a Squidoo lens is one way for you to get new buyers. You just create a lens that is related to the theme of your online store, use the built-in functions of adding eBay and/or CafePress items, choose items that you wish to promote - then publish and share your lens.

• Sell affiliate products. There are two ways you can make use of affiliate selling on Squidoo. One is with the use of their built-in affiliate tools (just choose the products to add to your lens and you get a cut off the commission that Squidoo will receive). The other is by linking to your own affiliate products on your lenses. In the built-in affiliate tools, you can choose from various well-known brands like Amazon, eBay, Netflix, CafePress, and iTunes.

• Drive traffic to your blog or website. When you create a lens about your blog or website, or a topic that can be used as a spin-off from your blog or site, then you just might find yourself with a flurry of new visitors, that may just turn in to readers, subscribers, and/or buyers of whatever it is you’re selling. Although I haven’t seen this myself just yet, apparently, search engine giant Google loves Squidoo. So, it might just help with your PR rankings too!

• Promote Squidoo through their affiliate programme. All you need to do is create your own account and get your referral link. If someone signs up through your affiliate link and then his or her lens earns its first $15, both you and your friend will each get $5 in to your account. This is great because it really encourages promotion and community. I mean, for example, if you sign up with Squidoo using my referral link, then you and I both stand a chance in making money when you reach your first $15 earnings. But, if you don’t sign up with a referral, then both you and the person who told you about Squidoo don’t get to make that extra $5.

When it comes to payment, Paypal is the payment system of choice. And, you can set your minimum payout from $1 to $1,000,000 (Who on earth will do that seriously, though? ;-)). You can also choose to receive your royalty payments either as 100% cash, 100% charity of your choice, or a mixture of cash and charity.

Anyway, when I played around with creating sample Squidoo Lenses, here are the first couple that I came up with:

• Funky, Fabulous Women’s Boots
• Things You May (or May Not) Want to Know About Shai Coggins

And then I decided to create a lens for Just Make Money Online.

So, if you want to know more about making money from Squidoo, you can check out several resources available online. Some are free, and some are for a fee. One that I paid for and read is the Squidoo Profits Guide*. It’s an interesting read and does offer a few good suggestions on maximising Squidoo’s revenue potential. Even though I do have reservations on some of the tips offered by the author, I still found it useful. In fact, there are a few tips there that’s useful even if you don’t wish to use Squidoo as a way to make money online. Besides, it was only $7, so it didn’t really break the bank.

Other than that eBook, I also highly recommend the free ebooks offered by Squidoo called Everyone’s an Expert and Flipping the Funnel. Both by Seth Godin, bestselling author and founder of Squidoo. They’re both great reads, even though they’re not necessarily ebooks that tell you how to make money with Squidoo.

Some Make Money Online Lenses on Squidoo

• How to Run a Successful CafePress Shop (and make lots of money!)
• How To Promote Your Ebay Store With Squidoo
• Make Money Online from Home
• How To Make a Living on Squidoo

*affiliate

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POSTED IN: Affiliate Programs, General: Making Money Stuff, Web Content