Ah yes, the perennial question for those trying to earn a buck over at Squidoo is: What can I do to make more money at Squidoo?
My reply? I dunno. Or at least, I'm not going to tell you
everything I plan to do to get money from my Squidoo webpages, but I will tell you what my goals are as far as gaining a greater share of the wealth and what I'm planning to do to reach those goals.
This is something of a game ~ how can I get more visitors; how can I get more sales. As I've said before, there are two basic ways to earn money at Squidoo:
- Getting more lenses ranked, and ranked higher
- Getting more sales
Basically, I want all my lenses to earn their keep. I've put a lot of work into many different lenses and they haven't generate the return I expected, so I guess it is time to re-assess. I think my goals are on the modest side, and I don't think that publishing
the perfect lens will suddenly set me on the road to riches. What
each of my webpages need to do is provide some sort of a return. In addition to the fun factor.
Currently, I have 45-50 webpages at Squidoo with a high enough rank to earn something each month ~ the problem is, of course, that unless they are in the higher tiers they just do not generate to spend time worrying about their rank. I am appreciative of anything Squidoo sends my way based on rankings alone (thanks Seth and co!), but what we all should be concentrating on is the
sales part of the equation. As far as ranking goes, that should be considered as a
bonus for doing good work.
How Do I Increase My Earnings From Squidoo Rankings?
Not that I plan on turning a blind eye to the rankings. One goal I have set for myself is to increase the number of lenses I have in at least the 3rd tier to (drumroll...)
200 lenses. That means, adjusting, rewriting, reviewing, adding and subtracting content, doing more from a marketing angle ~ basically make my webpages the best possible, by attracting more visitors, favorable ratings, and (the make money online grail) more links to my lenses. I'll have to start flexing my marketing muscles and get the word out about Squidoo being a great place to do business (yes it is!), and that my lenses are where people will want to visit to find the information they are searching for.
Yes, that is a lot of work, but I do believe that it can be done. My monthly goal from just the rankings is to earn $50 each and every month which if I have 200 webpages in at least the 3rd tier would be around $20. I do have several in the 2nd tier and I have some that are flirting with the top tier, so one of my resolutions for 2010 is to get some more lenses back into the top tier. Hard to do, and very hard to maintain. Earning $50 a month will be nice, but it will not get me to where I want to be with Squidoo. That's where the second part of the plan kicks in.
How Do I Increase Sales At Squidoo?
As far as sales go,
more is my goal. Pretty basic huh? One thing I want to state is that although increasing the volume of sales is one of my stated goals, there is no way I will allow my work to become too spammy. Some may say that they are already kinda spammy after looking at my webpages, but on a personal level I definitely try to shy away from stuff about selling a "system" or "buy my ebook" and all that. I have zero interest in writing about those things that do not spark my interest and hopefully, the interest of my visitors.
What I plan on doing is to increase the number of lenses I have with products and content that people are looking for to purchase and read about. I don't think that having a webpage primarily geared towards sales is neccessarily a bad thing ~ more sales are what is needed at this time to get the economy purring along again, and I'm going to do what I can to keep the gears rolling.
There is an
infinite number of topics, niches, and ideas, that I think lend themselves to excellent lenses at Squidoo and I am in the middle of a building boom as far as new pages go. I've had what I believe are several ideas for hot lenses and these ideas just keep popping up.
Checking on Squidoo shows they are not covered by others and if an idea seems to be taken, I usually drop it or it morphs into something else. Basically what I want to do is publish content that visitors will find highly interesting and that gets searched out and lends itself to sales of related products.
What Are Your Goals For The Coming Year?
At the start of 2010 I find myself renewed, reinvigorated and eager to get a fresh start. Maybe that's just due to calendar turning, but for some unknown reason, my motivation to do better at Squidoo (and elsewhere with my online marketing efforts) is increasing by leaps and bounds.
I've had some success at Squidoo and I'm looking forward to doing even better personally and seeing what new efforts other lensmasters bring to the table in this coming year. I hope you catch this same enthusiasm and lets compare notes as we head towards a brighter future.
