Most of what I've done for the past few years online has been related to Squidoo, a free and easy platform that lets ordinary people write about things they are interested in and get a share of the advertising profits.
The popularity of the platform has increased so dramatically over the past couple of years, however, that it's becoming more and more difficult to keep a page on Squidoo in the top earning rank.
Although there are well over 4 million pages on Squidoo now, only the top 400K (as determined by an internal algorithm known as Lens Rank) are shown to Google bot. What this has meant to the average writer then, is that chasing the Lens Rank dollar is less and less a good return on time invested.
I've been struggling with this concept myself for the past year. As the competition for top tier payouts (which have zoomed to as much as $65 at times) has become more cut throat and less about the collaboration and community that attracted me in the first place, it has taken more time and energy to maintain my pages even as I've watched them fall in Lens Rank.
As an example, I have a page on Squidoo about the last three drive through trees in America that has been a top tier page for over a year, but which has recently started to slip in Lens Rank despite increased backlinking efforts, and frequent updating. It's not that the quality of the page has diminished, but that so many other pages are being created by so many talented people that my return on time invested has made it no longer cost effective to focus on this one page. Even the popular "no arms no legs no worries" Nick Vujicic page, which gets a goodly amount of traffic hasn't been in tier one for a long time.
As easy and fun as Squidoo started out, I can't honestly tell people that they have a ghost's chance in hell of climbing up into the top 2K to earn that $40 or $50. The people who occupy those spots have a lot of time invested in Squidoo, and without exception they have huge networks and backlinks and other online businesses, and/or traffic that boggles the mind. One thing about Squidoo that remains extremely attractive is that it's an easy interface with which to build sales pages for affiliate income.
However, even that has a learning curve, especially if you are new to online marketing and building web pages. There are many free resources to help you learn, however, and you can find some of them on my page discussing Books about How To Use Squidoo.
Ordinarily I would not say to ever buy info about Squidoo, given how much free info there is on Squidoo itself, but recently I've been using things I've learned from two successful internet marketing gals who make use of Squidoo to sell products from amazon and other affiliate programs, and I liked these two enough to promote them myself as an affiliate. (That means if you buy either of these books, I may receive a commission - because of how one is set up, I might not.)
The first one is by Erica Stone, known as Sojourn on Squidoo. It's called Niche Blaster, and it is a crash course in how to set up a series of Squidoo pages, interlink them, and do some basic promotion. Even if you live in a state that doesn't let you be an affiliate for amazon, Erica provides a way for you to take advantage of Squidoo's association with Amazon, and share half the commissions.
This is a good deal, because half of Squidoo's share is more than you'd make as a fledgling associate on your own account, and the interface with Squidoo is amazingly easy to use.
As of this writing, the cost of acquiring Erica Stone's Niche Blaster Strategy Guide is only $19, so it's very affordable. I earned back my cost of niche blaster from one single lens I built on a rather obscure product, a Dr Who Tardis Cookie Jar. I'd have done even better with that lens except the cookie jar sold out before Christmas, and didn't come back into stock until late January.
The second eBook I have recently acquired and learned some new things from was written by another Squidoo lensmaster (which is what we call content creators and curators on squidoo) who has been in business for herself online for several years, so came into squidoo already knowing a LOT about internet marketing. She titled her book "Squidoo Shortcut to Money: How to Make Lenses that Google Finds and Loves Within Hours" and is now selling it on the Clickbank platform for $12.95.
This, as she is quick to point out on her sales page and in the book itself, is NOT a "how to squidoo" book. This is for people who have already mastered how to build lenses on squidoo but are not making any sales money or not enough.
It's a very easy read, and has already made a difference to me in how I look for products and how I promote my pages. I can highly recommend this one, too. Lisa has a money back guarantee, although I can't imagine anybody reading it and failing to derive more than the $12.95 cost of admission from the fast track to getting it right she offers.
So I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Squidoo just yet, but I am seriously not chasing lens rank any longer, and I am focusing almost exclusively on the techniques I've learned from Erica and Lisa. Thanks to the knowledge I gained from those two eBooks, I am finally making enough on Amazon to start getting a monthly check. (Although now I may switch to paypal for convenience.)
My very first set of Niche Blaster Lenses were done incorrectly in that I chose a product which is not visually appealing because the coffee bags all look the same. However, even done wrong, my Coffee Bean Direct Whole Bean Coffee Niche Blaster Lenses sell coffee.
So I wouldn't suggest anybody buy these eBooks right out of the gate - you really need to know your way around Squidoo first, but after a couple of weeks and a few practice lenses, if you are wanting to seriously pursue an affiliate income on the Squidoo platform, you can save yourself a LOT of time and shorten your learning curve by months (or in my case, years) by investing in these two resources.
Buy Niche Blaster Here and Buy Squidoo Shortcut to Money: How to Make Lenses that Google Finds and Loves Within Hours here. I do not think you will regret either purchase.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Webinar Success Formulas - Can You See Them?
Last week I attended a week long training that I'd found advertised on a popular internet marketing forum. It wasn't a 40 hr week training, but 5 one hour webinars that went over a process that turned out to be a bit less than I was expecting.
Amazingly enough, I learned more from observing how the campaign was set up and promoted than by the actual content, but that's been par for the course for me for quite some time now. Apparently I know enough to make a ton of money if I'd just toss my ethics aside and start charging people for my advice. But I digress ... and isn't it fun? **smile**
The session is over, but there was a surprise bonus webinar presented today, which I attended. I almost didn't listen in when I saw that the speaker is one that's been in the cross hairs over at the Salty Droid's blog. Then curiosity got the better of me, and I listened in for most of the hour.
What I noticed was that the presenter was very practiced and used many proven sales techniques. Sometimes I notice how much like a skillful magician a marketer can be, in the set up and the misdirection. This was one of those times.
The speaker used stories to engage the audience, and also made excessive use of asking the audience no-brainer questions that have only YES or HELL YES as an appropriate answer. That's the same sort of set up as a skillful magician might use in his patter while misdirecting the audience's attention elsewhere.
Since the webinar was faceless, he had people type in the answers, and of course since we couldn't know how many people were actually on the call, they had to say often that the answers were coming in so fast that they couldn't read them. That could be true, but it could just as easily be untrue and only used to increase the illusion of popularity. I have no way of knowing.
The first 30 to 40 minutes were spent on one purpose: establishing authority. I have to say, that was one of the LONGEST segments I'd ever experienced in that portion of this formula. He started by telling a story about his first experience online, and made himself sound as hapless as possible.
Then he moved right in to how it turned out to be so easy to make money online that all he had to do was put up a website and go on a trip and come home to $18K in his bank account.
He talked a lot about "the good old days" of internet marketing when money was so easy before Google (and the FTC, although he didn't mention his run in with them) changed the landscape for marketers.
Then he started talking about having a conversation with a VP of a well known and popular site through which most marketers sell their wares. He goes on to mention a well known internet marketing forum, again setting himself up as an authority by association, and then talks about some of the bad products that people made a ton of money off of, and how one company in particular used their angry customers to set up backlinks by suggesting that they go air the gripe on a then popular web 2.0 site.
(I had to laugh about then, because I truly wondered if the reason he knew that was because he had something to do with it, but I don't know for sure. )
Then he moved into creating the image in his listeners' minds of him as being one of the "good guys" by talking about how internet marketing got such a bad rep because so many people were into "fooling the customer", and then established himself as knowing what Google Panda was all about by telling his audience that Google is all about making the web safe for web surfing grandmas.
Now all this took over half of the time set aside for this webinar. Then the meat of the webinar was about 10 minutes, and it was basically that some of the top websites that have been purchased by big media for a big chunk of change recently are sites that curate content.
At this point, I wondered if he was going to mention Squidoo, but he did not, much to my relief. So he's setting up his audience for the sales pitch and I can feel it coming.
During that first 45 minutes he's done his best to establish these beliefs in the minds of his listeners:
a) he started out just as clueless as you feel right now, and
b) if he can make big money with a blog so can you, and
c) he's a big fish because of who he rubs elbows with and
d) he has an inside view of what Google is all about and
e) he's one of the "good guys" you can trust.
Then the groundwork for why his product is so good was about 10 minutes, and the pitch itself was about 15 minutes, with 3 choices starting at $197 and going up to $2K, and then they started in with all the bonuses and the high values and that's when I "walked out" so to speak.
I may sit through it again tomorrow just to flesh out my notes better - some of it moved too fast for me to catch it all.
So here's my challenge to you: the next time you find yourself in a webinar, try to find the pieces of how it has been crafted.
Notice not just the content, but the way the information is crafted (assuming there IS information, sometimes that part is so small it's hard to catch as it zooms by).
Look for the warm introduction - where the marketer you know introduces the marketer you don't know.
Look for how the new marketer establishes himself (or herself) as an authority.
Watch for the five beliefs listed above - notice if there are any more being assiduously inserted into your unconscious.
Look for what I call "practice calls to action" - where the marketer asks you a questions that can only be answered with yes, and count how many of those get used.
You can play this mental game not only on webinars, but you can also watch a few infomercials and see if you can find the parts to the puzzle. There's a big reason infomercials all seem to look and feel and sound alike - they all follow the same "pattern" ... because it works. If it didn't work, they wouldn't still be making them.
Now, all that said, there ARE some good products and people out there. Not every internet marketer is selling snake oil. BUT ... remember that MOST of what you can buy online you can get for free in your local library if you are willing to do some studying.
Amazingly enough, I learned more from observing how the campaign was set up and promoted than by the actual content, but that's been par for the course for me for quite some time now. Apparently I know enough to make a ton of money if I'd just toss my ethics aside and start charging people for my advice. But I digress ... and isn't it fun? **smile**
The session is over, but there was a surprise bonus webinar presented today, which I attended. I almost didn't listen in when I saw that the speaker is one that's been in the cross hairs over at the Salty Droid's blog. Then curiosity got the better of me, and I listened in for most of the hour.
What I noticed was that the presenter was very practiced and used many proven sales techniques. Sometimes I notice how much like a skillful magician a marketer can be, in the set up and the misdirection. This was one of those times.
The speaker used stories to engage the audience, and also made excessive use of asking the audience no-brainer questions that have only YES or HELL YES as an appropriate answer. That's the same sort of set up as a skillful magician might use in his patter while misdirecting the audience's attention elsewhere.
Since the webinar was faceless, he had people type in the answers, and of course since we couldn't know how many people were actually on the call, they had to say often that the answers were coming in so fast that they couldn't read them. That could be true, but it could just as easily be untrue and only used to increase the illusion of popularity. I have no way of knowing.
The first 30 to 40 minutes were spent on one purpose: establishing authority. I have to say, that was one of the LONGEST segments I'd ever experienced in that portion of this formula. He started by telling a story about his first experience online, and made himself sound as hapless as possible.
Then he moved right in to how it turned out to be so easy to make money online that all he had to do was put up a website and go on a trip and come home to $18K in his bank account.
He talked a lot about "the good old days" of internet marketing when money was so easy before Google (and the FTC, although he didn't mention his run in with them) changed the landscape for marketers.
Then he started talking about having a conversation with a VP of a well known and popular site through which most marketers sell their wares. He goes on to mention a well known internet marketing forum, again setting himself up as an authority by association, and then talks about some of the bad products that people made a ton of money off of, and how one company in particular used their angry customers to set up backlinks by suggesting that they go air the gripe on a then popular web 2.0 site.
(I had to laugh about then, because I truly wondered if the reason he knew that was because he had something to do with it, but I don't know for sure. )
Then he moved into creating the image in his listeners' minds of him as being one of the "good guys" by talking about how internet marketing got such a bad rep because so many people were into "fooling the customer", and then established himself as knowing what Google Panda was all about by telling his audience that Google is all about making the web safe for web surfing grandmas.
Now all this took over half of the time set aside for this webinar. Then the meat of the webinar was about 10 minutes, and it was basically that some of the top websites that have been purchased by big media for a big chunk of change recently are sites that curate content.
At this point, I wondered if he was going to mention Squidoo, but he did not, much to my relief. So he's setting up his audience for the sales pitch and I can feel it coming.
During that first 45 minutes he's done his best to establish these beliefs in the minds of his listeners:
a) he started out just as clueless as you feel right now, and
b) if he can make big money with a blog so can you, and
c) he's a big fish because of who he rubs elbows with and
d) he has an inside view of what Google is all about and
e) he's one of the "good guys" you can trust.
Then the groundwork for why his product is so good was about 10 minutes, and the pitch itself was about 15 minutes, with 3 choices starting at $197 and going up to $2K, and then they started in with all the bonuses and the high values and that's when I "walked out" so to speak.
I may sit through it again tomorrow just to flesh out my notes better - some of it moved too fast for me to catch it all.
So here's my challenge to you: the next time you find yourself in a webinar, try to find the pieces of how it has been crafted.
Notice not just the content, but the way the information is crafted (assuming there IS information, sometimes that part is so small it's hard to catch as it zooms by).
Look for the warm introduction - where the marketer you know introduces the marketer you don't know.
Look for how the new marketer establishes himself (or herself) as an authority.
Watch for the five beliefs listed above - notice if there are any more being assiduously inserted into your unconscious.
Look for what I call "practice calls to action" - where the marketer asks you a questions that can only be answered with yes, and count how many of those get used.
You can play this mental game not only on webinars, but you can also watch a few infomercials and see if you can find the parts to the puzzle. There's a big reason infomercials all seem to look and feel and sound alike - they all follow the same "pattern" ... because it works. If it didn't work, they wouldn't still be making them.
Now, all that said, there ARE some good products and people out there. Not every internet marketer is selling snake oil. BUT ... remember that MOST of what you can buy online you can get for free in your local library if you are willing to do some studying.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Detour To Adventure
Contrary to popular belief, the Crescent City Gal did not become road kill on the information super highway. I simply took an off ramp to go explore and have an adventure. (Translation, I started a new blog and ignored this one for awhile.)
Squidoo remains my favorite place to write and with affiliate sales included is still the most lucrative of all my online adventures. Squidoo remains free to join, and free to build on. There are several ways to earn money with Squidoo.
However, I've recently started writing on Webnuggetz.com and am finding that to be extremely promising. (Click on my Webnuggetz profile tab above to check it out.) An interesting aspect of Webnuggetz.com is that you keep all of your own adsense revenue and affiliate sales. That's unusual for a web 2.0 site.
Webnuggetz.com is built on a WordPress Platform, and behind the scenes are several powerful tools that writers can use including inbound writer, which helps you ramp up your keywords for Google juice. It seems to do a good job, as some folks have gotten sales within a couple of days after posting a "nuggz" as we fondly refer to the individual posts. I have seen an increase in adsense earning since I started posting there, so it's very high on my list of places to play.
Pinterest is the newest toy I've been having fun with. I've started pinning lots of cool things, and today I experimented with pinning things directly from Amazon.com - because there's been talk of Pinterest skimming affiliate links, but not touching regular links ... so I made up a new tracking ID and will be posting a few things and watching the clicks to test it. You can see the first pin below.
Amazon Bestselling Books
I've also been exploring the world of Linkshare, an affiliate management program. Joined it because a friend is having such excellent results using links to Walmart.com ... although I haven't used it as I thought I would. They have some good deals, but I just can't wrap my mind around how to use it effectively. This is an example of the kinds of links they provide. Looks pretty good, I think.
I've been accepted as an affiliate for Buy.com via Linkshare, so now I will be figuring out how to use that in my overall action plan. Their Deal of the Day looks promising. You can see it below.
Some of my other adventures have included selling fudge and working in a huge fullfillment center, visiting an amazingly huge trade show last year, selling at a spanish flea market, and living through the hottest summer on record while surrounded by the worst fires in Texas history. I was rather glad to wave goodbye to 2011, and am looking forward to some traveling in 2012.
Squidoo remains my favorite place to write and with affiliate sales included is still the most lucrative of all my online adventures. Squidoo remains free to join, and free to build on. There are several ways to earn money with Squidoo.
- First is the adshare revenue Squidoo splits with you based on a tier ranking system.
- Second is eBay and Amazon affiliate sales that you split with Squidoo if you use their interface modules and their affiliate program. That's not such a bad deal for you if you're a small time seller, though, because half of their rate is still more than the base of your own affiliate account rating.
- Third is your own affiliate sales that come through the traffic from Squidoo.
However, I've recently started writing on Webnuggetz.com and am finding that to be extremely promising. (Click on my Webnuggetz profile tab above to check it out.) An interesting aspect of Webnuggetz.com is that you keep all of your own adsense revenue and affiliate sales. That's unusual for a web 2.0 site.
Webnuggetz.com is built on a WordPress Platform, and behind the scenes are several powerful tools that writers can use including inbound writer, which helps you ramp up your keywords for Google juice. It seems to do a good job, as some folks have gotten sales within a couple of days after posting a "nuggz" as we fondly refer to the individual posts. I have seen an increase in adsense earning since I started posting there, so it's very high on my list of places to play.
Pinterest is the newest toy I've been having fun with. I've started pinning lots of cool things, and today I experimented with pinning things directly from Amazon.com - because there's been talk of Pinterest skimming affiliate links, but not touching regular links ... so I made up a new tracking ID and will be posting a few things and watching the clicks to test it. You can see the first pin below.
Amazon Bestselling Books
I've also been exploring the world of Linkshare, an affiliate management program. Joined it because a friend is having such excellent results using links to Walmart.com ... although I haven't used it as I thought I would. They have some good deals, but I just can't wrap my mind around how to use it effectively. This is an example of the kinds of links they provide. Looks pretty good, I think.
I've been accepted as an affiliate for Buy.com via Linkshare, so now I will be figuring out how to use that in my overall action plan. Their Deal of the Day looks promising. You can see it below.
Some of my other adventures have included selling fudge and working in a huge fullfillment center, visiting an amazingly huge trade show last year, selling at a spanish flea market, and living through the hottest summer on record while surrounded by the worst fires in Texas history. I was rather glad to wave goodbye to 2011, and am looking forward to some traveling in 2012.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Swallowtails and Posters - An Experiment
This is my Poster Store - it has all the lovely Butterfly Posters that I wanted to include on my Squidoo Lens that documents my encounter with a Black Swallowtail Butterfly. I called it "The Case of the Purloined Parsley." If you love posters or butterflies, check out all the terrific items below!
Friday, April 08, 2011
Crescent City Gal is almost a reality ...
At long last I have begun the process of creating my "personal brand" as the Crescent City Gal. It's been a LONG time in the making, but today marks the day I've finally started getting my stuff together with a clear vision of what I want to achieve.
I have a facebook profile just for Squidoo and IM: CCGAL on Squidoo
I have my Twitter account with the same e-mail now: CCGAL on Twitter
My Squidoo profile, which I pruned down is here: CCGAL on Squidoo
And, of course, I've included Posterous in this mix: CCGAL on Posterous
Best of all ... they all have the same email address AND the same avatar, for brand recognition, which I have been sorely lacking.
My objective as the Crescent City Gal is to highlight people, places, and a few special things I find along the way.
Crescent City is a small town on the Pacific northwestern coast of California. I have several Squidoo lenses about my hometown and things around it, and they have done rather well on Squidoo. In fact, my top lens is about the drive through trees of northern California. Recently, my home town was hit for the 3rd time with a tidal wave, or tsunami, which totally wiped out the harbor.
I've also got quite a few lenses about people who live and work "behind the redwood curtain" as I like to call it.
For example, Richard Martin from Brookings, Oregon (just a few miles north of Crescent City) makes some of the most beautiful pottery I've ever seen. So I have two lenses about his art: Horse Hair Pottery and Agateware.
Crescent City's economy is sluggish at best, so this little town can use all the publicity it can get. I'd like to think that in some small way I can help my hometown a bit. Perhaps I'll eventually be able to teach people "behind the redwood curtain" how to promote their arts and businesses online. Until then, I'll just continue to build lenses and write blog posts and keep learning what works and what doesn't.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
