If I’ve been asked once, I’ve been asked a thousand times – “Jennifer, How do you make money on Google?”. When I first started making money online, no one really paid much attention to what I was doing (or they thought it was a scam…or it wouldn’t work…etc, etc), but now that things are really kickin’ for me and we have enjoyed a serious positive life-style change, suddenly people want to know what I do, how it works, and how they can make money on Google, too. So, I decided it is time for this post to explain the basics of how I make money on Google for free.

Table Of Contents

Below are “quick links” to the info on this page about how to make money on Google:

2 Main Ways to Make Money On Google

There are two main ways to make money on Google. One is free, the other is not.

If you’ve ever done a search on Google you may have noticed two main parts to page that is returned to you after you click “search”. Let’s take a look at that page so I can show you what you’re looking at.

As I noted in the above picture of a Google search for the phrase make money online, there are two main/basic parts of a Google search result page (also called the Google SERPs which stands for Search Engine Result Pages).

The Left Side

The listings that are returned on the left side are the free side of a Google search result page. These web pages (not webSITES, but web PAGES) are returned in an order based on how relevant Google thinks they are to a search that is requested.

The process of making your web page more relevant to a search in Googles “eyes” is called Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short). The basics of SEO are fairly simple and straight-forward to learn and to implement.

Keep in mind that Google is an algorithm….a computer program…that runs on a patented formula to rank pages in order of relevance based on what Google thinks a web page is about. Your job when you optimize a page is to help Google understand what your web page is about so Google can rank you well in the search engine result pages.

If you consider the fact that about 80% (or more) of the world uses Google to find things online, you can bet that being in the top 5 places on the free side (also called the “organic listings”) of Google can bring good traffic to your web page. It has been reported that a web page with a #1 listing in a Google search result will get 40% of the clicks for that specific search.

Based on that, it is pretty amazing to think that 80% or more of the WORLD that is looking for a certain something in Google will click that #1 listing – and if it’s YOUR web page there….well, that’s a really, really good thing =)

The Right Side

The Right Side of a Google search result is paid advertising. These are advertisers who deliberately create ads that will only show up when a certain phrase is searched for on Google. These ads are charged each time they are clicked. How much they are charged can range from 5 cents all the way to $10 -$15 or even more. The amount is decided based on the competition of the phrase being searched for (that phrase is also called a “keyword” or a “keyword phrase”).

This type of advertising on Google is called PPC (or Pay Per Click) and Google’s program for this is called AdWords. PPC is a whole ‘nother can of worms that I am not going to get into today.

What I want to talk about is how to make money on Google for FREE.

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How To Make Money On Google For Free – The Basic Concept

Here is the short version of how this all works – or at least as short as I can make it…lol.

The majority of people who make money on Google for free are doing something called “affiliate marketing”. Affiliate marketing is similar to a “real job” in the sales industry where you are paid a commission when you sell something for a company.

Being an “affiliate” for an online company like Amazon.com is completely free to do. There are HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS of companies that will allow you to be an affiliate for them for absolutely no cost.

Once you sign up to become an affiliate with a company online, you will be given special links that you put on your web page. These links are coded so that is someone clicks those links, the users activity is tracked and if a sale is made, the commission goes to you.

Commission amounts can be anywhere from 4% of the purchase price all the way to 75% or more (the higher commissions are usually for things like ebooks – digital products). People buy all kinds of things online – and each year their online spending increases. Believe it or not, I have actually sold gas grills, furniture, and other things online as an affiliate.

In order to be an affiliate and make money on Google for free, you will need to use sites that allow you to make free web pages. There are many sites like that out there on the internet. Just always make sure that the site you want to use allows “affiliate links” so you don’t break any terms of service.

So that’s the short of it – you make a free web page, put your free affiliate link on it along with some great content (a good article….not a sales pitch), then – repeat and make another.

The concept is simple, but people tend to really complicate it.

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What You MUST Have To Make Money On Google For Free

Want to know what you MUST have in order to make money on Google for free? Ready?

Yup, that’s it….and for most of us, we already have those two things so why not make them work for YOU?

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How I Started Making Money On Google For Free

When I started trying to make money online I was pretty much broke. I had no money to invest into making my own web sites or to pay for PPC advertising so I had to find a way to use all free resources to bring money in.

I ended up using a site called Squidoo (squidoo.com). This site allows you to make a free web page (or hundreds of free web pages) on just about any topic you’d like. Now, they do have rules so be SURE to read their terms of service before making a page to be certain that you aren’t going to break one of their rules.

Squidoo calls their free web pages a “lens”. Think like the lens on a camera….how it will focus in on one very specific topic. That’s how a Squidoo lens web page works best, too. A Squidoo page will do best when it is about one very specific topic or product. For example, a lens will do best when it is about purple rhinestone dog collars as opposed to dog collars or dog products or worse… about dogs in general.

When I started out, I would make a free page (a lens) about a specific product or topic and put my free affiliate links on it. When people came to my lens, clicked my links, and then made a purchase, I made a commission. I made a LOT of these free web pages on all sorts of topics.

Here is an example of a basic Squidoo lens (web page) that I have – go ahead and click here to see it (it will open in a new window) It is about Vizio TV’s. The links on that page are my affiliate links. When someone comes to that page, clicks thru via my links, and buys something, I make a commission.

Go ahead, take a good long look at it. It’s doesn’t LOOK difficult, does it? That’s because it’s not.

Keep in mind that ONE free web page will most likely not make you rich overnight. However, a bunch of free web pages mixed with some time can make a very definite positive impact on your income.

If you like having extra money, this is a great FREE way to make money on Google from the comfort of your home when YOU have time to work on it. Plus, once the web pages are up and in Google, those pages will work FOR you even when you are not working. That whole “make money while you sleep” thing is very real IF you work it.

I have a free guide that walks you through the process of making a web page on Squidoo that has helped a lot of people get started. If you’d like to read it, you can get my free Squidoo guide here (just click – it will open in a new tab/window so you don’t lose your place here).

Over time, my free web pages on Squidoo were making me some nice extra money so I decided to amp up my efforts and turn it into a full-time income. It was the best decision I ever made.

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What To Watch Out For

As I’ve just explained, making money on Google can be totally free. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some “make money on Google” sites out there that want to charge you for their information. While not all of these sites and systems are bad, there are definitely some “bad apples” out there so be careful.

Before you pay for any “make money on Google” type program, be sure you know WHAT you are getting, how much you will be charged, and how OFTEN you will be charged. I’ve heard of some horrible situations from my readers where they signed up for some program and were getting charged ridiculous amounts each month – and had to go thru hell and high water to get the charges to stop. Naturally, those details were somewhere at the bottom of the site in very small, and very light, print….so be sure to read.

As with all things, if it sounds too good to be true…. well, just trust your instinct. Or, join an online marketing forum and ask others their opinion and feedback. Trust me, if there is negative, they’ll tell you =)

I know what I am showing now about making money on Google might just sound too good to be true, but at least it’s free to try it and find out for yourself.

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Where To Learn More About Making Money On Google

As I said, I started out the free way doing what I teach in my free Squidoo guide. Once I got that rolling, I wanted to learn how to make really great free web pages that did better in Google….and better for ME. That’s when I really kicked it in to learn how to better my efforts and started plowing thru the internet for little tips and advice. I slowly worked out a system that works awesome for me. My readers here at PotPieGirl.com wanted to know how I was doing it – they actually TOLD me to get it all in an ebook and sell it – so I did. That process is now a series of 5 ebooks that is called One Week Marketing.

Now, if you are TOTALLY new to all this, don’t go buying One Week Marketing yet – it will totally confuse you. Get your basics first with my free Squidoo guide….see if it’s something you’d like to continue doing and do better….THEN think about One Week Marketing.

After getting my One Week Marketing Action Plan working for me, I wanted to learn more about all the ways to make money online so I joined an affiliate marketing training site called Wealthy Affiliate University. It was also a great decision for me and really helped me accelerate my success online.

Wealthy Affiliate can teach all about free ways to make money online, PPC, making your own web sites, creating your own products, and so on and so on. They also have all the tools you need to get each type of technique rolling.

The best part tho, to me, is the forum. Whenever you have a question, you just post in their private forum and there are hundreds or more people in there who can answer you.

That forum has been a “sanity-saver” for me many, many times!

There are also tons of member-shared tutorials in WA. I have many tutorials in there that I only share with other Wealthy Affiliate members. For example, that example Vizio TV lens I showed you earlier (click here in case you didn’t see it ) – I have a complete step-by-step tutorial inside Wealthy Affiliate that shows exactly how I made it. It’s in the training resources section and it’s titled “Fast Action Quick Start” (not to brag, but it’s currently the #1 rated tutorial. Ok, I guess that WAS bragging….lol!)

It’s funny to me now, but a year and a half ago when I was trying to decide if I should join Wealthy Affiliate or not, it was a really tough decision. Everything they have is included for a whopping $39.99 a month – that’s just a little over $1 a day! Now, I can’t believe I hesitated for even a second – it was the best decision I’ve made to help me turn my part-time online income into a real live full-time online business that I run from the comfort of my own home (and many times in the comfort of my own pajamas too! lol).

I have met the two owners of Wealthy Affiliate, Kyle and Carson, face-to-face. They are the real deal. That entire community is founded on their solid integrity and principles. They both started with nothing like I did, and now are very successful internet marketers. They could charge SO much more for all they offer, but they want to keep the rate in reach for everyone. Wealthy Affiliate is changing peoples lives – I see it in there every single day.

I recommend keeping Wealthy Affiliate in your mind as you move along with making money on Google – or just click here to learn more about their community, training, supports, and tools. They also offer a free guide that is definitely worth the read.

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Summing Up

Ok, that’s my “quick” overview of how to make money on Google for free. Well, maybe not so quick- it’s about 2500 words or so – but I felt it was important to explain the basics of what I do the very best that I can (and hopefully not confuse the heck out of anyone).

I’ve been doing this for over 3 years now – and I LOVE it! I started out not knowing much more about the internet than the basic skills that are needed to send an email – things most people know these days. However, by sticking with it, taking action every day, and working hard, I have managed to turn this into an income that I have never made before in any “real job”.

Best part of all – *I* am my own boss.

I decide when I hang with the kids or my hubby, when we go on vacation (which we do a LOT more of these days), and when I work. It’s also kinda cool having a business you can run from anywhere you have internet connection – the beach, your couch….anywhere. There is no more stress and struggle over bills, or holidays, and as a former broke single mom I can tell you that I won’t go back to living that stressful broke life ever again – not ever.

Now, don’t misunderstand me, this all did not happen overnight, but this is something that over time, will snowball and potentially become the best income YOU ever made, too.

I wish I could promise that, but we all know I can’t. The biggest determining factor in your success is YOU. You are starting your own business and just like in the real world – you only get out of it what YOU put into it.

If you have any questions, please ask here in the comments section. While I tend to be extremely busy these days, I do the best I can to balance my time and help as many as I possibly can.

Best of luck to you!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

How To Make Money On Google

Anyone seen the new snippet links in the Google search results? Some folks call them jump to links – I’ve also seen them called section links – but regardless, they are quite cool and make your Google listing stand out by offering the searcher another link to exactly what they are looking for on that one web page. While you can get snippet links to show in Google for any web page, they are really easy to get in Google with a Squidoo lens.

What Are Snippet Links?

When I first noticed these links showing up in the Google search results, I called them “jump to” links because, well, because that’s what they SAY in the Google results – but when you hold your mouse over them, it seems Google is identifying them as “section links”. However, Leslie Rohde calls them snippet links so I’m gonna go with that (what? do you think I’m gonna argue with Leslie Rohde? Do I look stupid? Ok, don’t answer that).

In short, these snippet links make another link inside the description area of your web page listing in the Google search results. These snippet links link to a specific part on THAT same page/lens. Don’t confuse these with Site Links which link to OTHER pages on your site. These snippet links are deep links to content on the same web page.

Google Announces Snippet Links

Google announced these snippet links on September 25, 2009 –

We just announced a couple of new features on the Official Google Blog that enable users to get to the information they want faster. Both features provide additional links in the result block, which allow users to jump directly to parts of a larger page. This is useful when a user has a specific interest in mind that is almost entirely covered in a single section of a page. Now they can navigate directly to the relevant section instead of scrolling through the page looking for their information.

We generate these deep links completely algorithmically, based on page structure, so they could be displayed for any site (and of course money isn’t involved in any way, so you can’t pay to get these links). There are a few things you can do to increase the chances that they might appear on your pages. First, ensure that long, multi-topic pages on your site are well-structured and broken into distinct logical sections. Second, ensure that each section has an associated anchor with a descriptive name (i.e., not just “Section 2.1″), and that your page includes a “table of contents” which links to the individual anchors. The new in-snippet links only appear for relevant queries, so you won’t see it on the results all the time — only when we think that a link to a section would be highly useful for a particular query.

Posted by Raj Krishnan, Snippets Team

Thanks, Google – these snippet links work wonders for my Squidoo lenses =)

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What Does a Snippet Link Look Like?

Since I tend to always use my worm farming lens for my case studies, I figured I’d use it again here.

This is what my Squidoo lens description looked like in Google BEFORE the snippet link:

And this is how it looks now WITH my snippet link:

See that link the red arrow points to? That is a snippet link (or a ‘jump to‘ link…. or a ‘section link‘). That link in the Google results description links to a certain section on my lens.

And it’s been really good for business =)

Just a note before you go rushing off to see if your lens has snippet links in Google. When I am signed in to my Google account, these snippet links do NOT show for me so if you’re not seeing them, make sure you are signed OUT of Google. And just for the record, you should never be signed into Google when you are doing ranking checks or anything. That ol’ personalized search can really skew your results.

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How To Get Snippet Links For Your Squidoo Lens

Good news! If you are familiar with making Squidoo lenses at all, you should be able to make these snippet links show for your lens. It’s not hard to do tho you might have to tinker with it to get these snippet links be as effective as they can for you.

Google Snippet Links Instructions

The Short Directions

Here’s my short instructions for getting snippet links:

1. Use the Table of Contents option in your intro module – NOT the individual Table of Contents module(see image below). Why? I believe it is because the links in the intro module table of contents are do-follow while the links in the Table of Contents module are NO-follow. (however, to note: I also tried making straight html links actually IN my intro module content that linked to individual modules on my lens and I couldn’t seem to get it to work – I’ll keep trying tho). Regardless, Google seems to love that “Contents at a Glance” area of a lens.

2. Get Google to re-cache your lens.

Yeah… that’s really all there is to it. Google is using the the titles of your modules that are included in the intro module Table of Contents (ie, “Contents at a Glance”) to show as snippet links in the search results.

But…. truth is…there is more to it in order for them to be EFFECTIVE (oh, and actually SHOW in Google).

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Optimizing Your Squidoo Lens for Snippet Links in Google

Here’s what I did to make these snippet links more effective for me (oh, and yes, to get them to actually SHOW in the Google search results…lol).

I took a long look at my Squidoo lens traffic stats – specifically, the most popular terms my lens was found with in Google. Why? Because if I am getting good traffic for these terms already, why not up the stakes and get MORE traffic for it? People are already searching for those phrases… I am already ranking for those phrases…. so why not make my lens description in Google even more attractive and clickable to get MORE traffic for those phrases?

So, I pulled up my top organic search terms for my lens for as far back as Squidoo gives me stats for (or for as long as YOU have stats for) and came up with this list:

And then I made those exact phrases my Module titles on my lens:

And now that Google has re-cached my lens ( or recrawled….reindexed…respidered….same difference kinda sorta), I get cool little snippet links like this whenever someone searches for that specific keyword phrase:

So, do you think someone who was looking for worm farm plans and then saw that snippet link with exactly what they were looking for as the text of the link would be happy with the search results? Above all, do you think they would click it?

I do. The traffic to my lens is up…. especially for those specific phrases. Now granted, I’ve only been testing this for about a week and have tweaked and made all kinds of changes to see what works best, so this is not a guarantee your traffic will be up or that it will make an ounce of difference at all….. but, I am seeing improvements. I won’t be able to ever know for sure the impact these snippet links have on my lens traffic once this post goes live since people will be going to Google and searching my phrases and going to my lens and all that fun stuff (and yup, I’ll probably end up having even MORE competition in this market, too) – so naturally I’ve got other lenses out there quietly testing for me so I can get some sort of stats on this.

I’d love to know if it works for YOU tho =)

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Snippet Link Tips

First off, these snippet links need to be keyword specific. If my module title was “Tip #1″ and then my module sub title was “worm farm plans” – it probably won’t work.

Make your module titles short and keyword specific – then “dress it up” with the module sub title. It seems shorter module titles work best, but I’ve managed to get some long snippet links to show if I forced it.

Naturally, I had to FORCE that one to show by searching Google for that exact phrase as it shows on the lens – and who the heck is gonna search for THAT? lol! But, my point is, if you have a longer keyword phrase, don’t be afraid to use it.

Snippets Aren’t Showing

Now, I imagine some of you have already rushed off to Google to see your snippet links since you know you’ve been using the table of contents option in your intro modules…. and when you searched – Surprise! You ain’t got no snippets!

Why?

Remember – this is NEW with Google. If your lens has not been cached by Google recently, then your snippets will NOT show in Google (remember to be signed OUT of Google, too, when you check).

You need Google to recrawl your lens. To check when Google last cached your lens, search for your lens in Google, find your listing, and then click “cache” under your listing. Google will give you the date they were last there. If Google was just there (like in the last day or 2), and your snippets still aren’t showing, try tweaking your module titles a bit. Also, make sure you are searching Google for your exact keyword specific module title (don’t go searching for “My Story” or something vague like that – it won’t work. Besides, why would your module title be so vague anyway?)

If the snippets still won’t show, be patient. Google does what Google wants so that is the best explanation I can give.

How To Get Google to Recrawl Your Lens

A simple way to do this that seems to work more than it doesn’t work is to go to your lens, make your module title changes, republish, and then go straight to SquidUtils.com. Sign in, go to your advanced dashboard, and click “ping” next to the lens you just changed. You cannot ping if you have not edited your lens (you’ll get an error message)…and please, don’t go pinging more than once a day. If you have any problems or questions about SquidUtils.com, check with TheFluffanutta (the site owner) – he’s a really smart guy and tons of help.

How To Get Butt Ugly Snippet Links For Your Lens

Yes, I said “butt ugly”…..lol C’mon, what would YOU call this snippet link and description?

Isn’t that butt ugly? I told ya so!

If you have a module that is pulling data from another source (ie, an RSS module, a product feed module, an Amazon module, etc), you had BETTER be SURE you enter some relevant text into the module description area. In this case, I have an eBay module there and had left the module description area empty – therefor, it was a really, really butt ugly snippet link =)

Ok, that’s all there is to getting snippet links in Google search results for a Squidoo lens. Just please keep in mind, these snippet links do not happen overnight in Google…it might take some time.

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Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Google Snippet Links For Squidoo

Since the announcement of the change to eBay affiliate payout structure this past August 19th, there has been a LOT of craziness surrounding the eBay Partner Network (eBay’s in-house affiliate program). One of the main changes was the new guideline that retracted affiliates option to put their eBay affiliate links on web pages they do not own. In other words, sites like HubPages and Squidoo that were once famous for being a strong authority sites to expose your links are now a “no go”. It seemed as if eBay was going to work something out with Squidoo tho since Squidoo is such a strong affiliate for eBay. However, this has not happened…leaving many Squidoo lensmasters out to dry.

The Squidoo eBay Earnings Module

When the eBay Partner Network made it so we could no longer use our own eBay affiliate links on a Squidoo lens, we lensmasters breathed a sigh of relief to find that at least we could still use Squidoo’s eBay modules. These eBay modules allow us to promote eBay items as an affiliate under Squidoo’s eBay affiliate account. When our lens earned something via eBay’s affiliate program, those earnings would be tagged to our lens and then Squidoo generously split those commissions with us.

Since eBay has gone to this new Quality Click Pricing payout structure that pays affiliate based on “quality clicks” as opposed to commission per sale or per sign up, it seems there is some break down in communication from eBay to Squidoo as to how the new payout structure will be tracked and paid to Squidoo, so Squidoo could then in turn pay the respective lensmaster.

In short – all those eBay modules on Squidoo are earning nothing for anyone but for eBay.

From what I understand, Squidoo is not being paid because no one from eBay will take the time to work out an agreement and a process for tracking the clicks from each lens that hosts eBay earning modules.

Considering eBay announced this new Quality Click Pricing structure on August 19th, and it’s now the beginning of November, am I crazy to think that eBay could care less about Squidoo and the traffic they bring to the eBay site?

If it was me, and I had an affiliate with the earnings power of Squidoo, I do believe I’d be paying a bit more attention to the situation and trying to come to some sort of plan for the future – even if it’s just to say, “Sorry, Squidoo, we can’t do it – we don’t know how to track these earnings for you”.

But THEN what would happen? Yup, lensmasters (like me) would be dumping those eBay modules off their lenses like crazy and switching to Amazon (who, by the way, is still more than happy to have the traffic and sales from Squidoo).

What Squidoo Has To Say About eBay

Last we lensmasters heard officially from Squidoo HQ regarding eBay earning modules was on October 8th:

With eBay’s recent announcement of their Quality Click Pricing plan come some good questions from lensmasters who love (and profit from) our eBay module, and a good dose of patience while we wait for some fixes from eBay.

The short of it is that eBay is changing the way they pay partners, even big and trusted ones like Squidoo. And as they implement some of their changes, other things break. That explains why you’re not seeing the daily eBay stats for your lenses right now, and we’re confident eBay will fix it for us very soon.

Once we know more from eBay about how their QCP plan will work for us, we’ll share it with you right away!

However, that was almost a month ago. Meanwhile, some great lensmasters who relied on their nice income from Squidoo eBay modules are now earning exactly $0.00. I have a funny feeling that Squidoo.com is missing that revenue, too!

From my perspective and from all I have read, this is NOT Squidoo’s fault. They can’t do anything about this without eBay – who apparently is not communicating with Squidoo on this matter.

Poor Gil, the lone ranger programmer from Squidoo (I still have NO clue when he sleeps – or IF he sleeps) has said in the SquidU forum:

On 10-19-2009

I promise that we’ll post an update as soon as we hear back from eBay. We’ve done everything we can to escalate the issue.

and on 10-20-2009

Yes we were aware of the quality click pricing change before it happened and attempted to make pre-emptive adjustments, but with no data or reporting tools how do you propose we do that?

I know you just WANT THIS FIXED (i do too!) but it’s not so simple. There isn’t an obvious solution other than pooling eBay revenue. Now I don’t like that option and I’m sure you probably don’t either, so that’s why we’re hoping eBay provides new tools for us soon.

Just hang in there and we’ll keep pushing together. OK?

Poor guy, he’s catching a bunch of slack about all this when there is absolutely nothing he can do without eBay’s participation.

Yes, Squidoo HQ could keep us more up-to-date on this matter, but what is there to say other than “Still No News From eBay”?

In the meantime, eBay gets the traffic, eBay gets the commissions (and saves paying for the clicks) – Squidoo gets nothing and our lensmasters get nothing.

Will Lensmasters Get “Back Pay” From eBay?

All this brings about the next logical question – When/IF eBay gets their super affiliate Squidoo all squared away and operational again, what about the lost earnings from when we were NON-operational? Will Squidoo and it’s lensmasters get paid for those clicks?

Who knows?

Its scary to think that a mega-company like eBay who has known for Lord only knows HOW long that they would be changing the payout structure to affiliates didn’t factor in and proactively prepare for their Super Affiliates like Squidoo.com. If it’s taken all this time to even begin to try and figure out how to track Squidoo’s eBay affiliate activity from that day forward, how in the world can we feel confident that eBay will ALSO figure out how to track activity that already happened?

Sad thing is, we lensmasters can SEE all the clickouts from our lenses to the eBay site. And now, with this new Quality Click Pricing, each click is worth money. It’s no longer sales-based… we are supposed to be paid by the click.

Yes, we can SEE that we are losing money…. just great, huh?

When I think of just the lensmasters that had Halloween-based lenses that promoted relevant eBay products, and all the money that the lensmasters lost during that time (but eBay still earned), it makes me sad for those folks.

And now… here comes Christmas… so now what?

Should We Dump All Our Ebay Modules?

Another good question is if should we dump all our eBay modules and replace them with Amazon earning modules? Hey, while it might not be the best solution, at least Amazon pays Squidoo. With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, I’d rather promote a company that will pay Squidoo than promote one that won’t even work with us.

But here’s the thing…..

Once upon a time, wayyyyyy back in 2007, I was an eBay affiliate thru Commission Junction. All was good. Then, in Spring 2008, eBay announced that they were going to a new in-house affiliate program (ePN) and that we’d all have to reapply AND change out ALLLLLLL our eBay affiliate links to fit the new Partner Network links.

That was NO FUN – but we did it.

Then, in August 2009, eBay announces this new Quality Click Pricing structure (that is vague at best). Along with that announcement comes the new terms which prohibit eBay affiliates from using their own affiliate link on web properties that they do not own. That meant, in a nutshell, get alllllllllllllll your eBay links OFF Squidoo, and Blogger….. and no more eBay earnings on HubPages.

So off we all go AGAIN…. changing or removing our own personal eBay affiliate links from Squidoo (or at least the ones we can remember are out there. Many lensmasters, like myself, have been working on Squidoo since 2007…and that is a LOT of lenses and eBay affiliate links out there).

Again, NO FUN – but I, like the others, did it and changed our Squidoo eBay links to reflect Squidoo’s affiliate account so we would be within the terms of service of ePN…oh, and so we would get paid.

Now I’m not some super affiliate for eBay. I send a couple thousand clicks their way each month….a couple hundred bucks in earnings…nothing to get excited about. But at Squidoo, we have lensmasters who were (operative word: WERE) making really good money via their eBay modules.

Now they are making nothing. POOF, gone. While I am a little frustrated, I can only imagine how frustrated the bigger eBay earners are…. and how it hurts to have that income source just disappear. I feel for them…. big time.

What’s The Squidoo/eBay Solution?

I have no idea what the solution is here. EBay’s new payout structure is based on “quality clicks” per campaign.

Confused? Trust me, you are NOT the only one.

October was my first month being paid out under this new structure and I think I’m slowly “getting it”. eBay wants it’s affiliates to click eBay ads that are exactly what the consumer is looking for so that they take an on-site action (ie, make a bid, buy it now, sign up for eBay, etc) right away. I managed to get my per click payout up to .31 for a few days last month – but I also had days when I made .04 per click.

As I said before, this new per click pricing structure is vague at best – but that is a story for another day. Or, just travel the eBay affiliates forum and you’ll see how confusing it is for everyone.

Regardless, I am not a programmer (and if I was, I’d break the internet, no doubt), so I don’t know the technical side of all this and how to solve it. I know what my eBay affiliate reports look like now and I wonder why each lensmaster can’t be it’s own ePN “campaign” – however I barely know my ABC’s from PHP =)

But, I am a person who knows that there are fellow Squidoo lensmasters that have worked really hard, played by all the rules, and they aren’t getting credit for clicks they have earned. There are real people out there that are not being credited for income they have earned – and that is a real problem in my book.

I’m not even worried about my own clicks. Heck, I might not even HAVE an account any more after this post goes live…. eBay might give me the axe!

I’d like to know that eBay is on top of this. That this situation is pressing for eBay and they are putting their heads together with Squidoo to work this out for the affiliates that have worked so hard for them both. They deserve it.

Above all, I’d love for poor Gil to be able to have an answer – even a SOLUTION – so we can move past this and get back to our holiday marketing for eBay.

If anyone knows anything I don’t, or I’ve mis-stated something, please let me know.

*** EDIT – INFO UPDATE ***

Thank you to TheFluffanutta for bringing an important Squidoo HQ announcement to my attention regarding the situation with eBay. Since info is always all over the place, it’s easy to miss updates, but in this particular case I am bopping myself in the head. This announcement was found in the Official SquidTeam Announcements thread – yeah, like totally where I shoulda looked in the first place. Duh, Jen!

This information comes from Megan Casey in this SquidU thread. To be sure that everyone reads it, I will copy/paste it here (hope that’s ok, Megan).

Gil already addressed this in this thread about eBay reporting, and I posted about it on the SquidBlog too. But I want to be extra clear since we’ve been hearing from lensmasters with some incorrect assumptions.

Here’s everything we know:

Beginning October 1, 2009 eBay has switched from paying out a commission based on sales to a commission based on “quality clicks” (their own system, not ours). We requested in advance of this change that eBay provide detailed reports to us, so that we can direct those quality click commissions directly to the lensmasters who generated them. We still have not gotten those reports. If eBay cannot provide this level of detail, Squidoo will distribute eBay earnings based on a pool system in much the same way we do with Adsense and Infolinks earnings.

So to put it another way:

* Yes, you will still make money from the eBay module.
* No, it’s not true that “you won’t get paid for your eBay sales.”
* But yes, it IS true that we’re not getting _any_ reporting from eBay right now, so the eBay stats on your royalty pages aren’t updating properly.
* No, we’re not sure if eBay will allow us to continue paying “directly attributable” royalties, sale by sale, directly to the lens and the person who generated them. It might be that we have to pool all eBay earnings and figure out a system to disburse royalties to participating lensmasters.
* No, this eBay reporting problem has nothing to do with the quality of Squidoo lenses or our community, and Squidoo is not being singled out by eBay. This has everything to do with eBay trying to roll out a new payment system in an unfortunately unclear fashion.

I understand that a lot of lensmasters are worried about eBay’s new payout structure, and concerned that we don’t have answers yet. We are too. But we’re pushing on this every day with them, and as soon as we know specific answers, we will share them with you.

Thanks for your forbearance.

So, the issue is a reporting communication break-down between ePN and Squidoo BUT earnings to the Squidoo site as a whole are still be recording. Only thing left to figure out is whether these earnings will be paid out via a “pool” earnings like AdSense is, or if they will be paid to the respective lensmaster.

I’ll let you know what I find out.

As for HubPages

Seems I was wrong there, too (thank you, Cat). Apparently you CAN use your personal eBay affiliate links on HubPages. I’ve been collecting info and tips for doing this and will have a follow up post up shortly.

Thanks all!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Dear Mr eBay, Please Call Squidoo

I was checking the stats and rankings of a few of my Squidoo lenses tonight and found one I wanted to do some work on. As I was about to make changes I thought, “Wow, this would make an awesome search engine optimization tutorial post for my blog!”. So, I took a few extra hours (on something that would have taken me all of 5 minutes to do) to take screen shots and walk through all the steps I take to get to the actions I take to make my Squidoo lens rank better in Google. Grab a cup of coffee because you are about to take a long trip inside the brain of PotPieGirl (be afraid…be very, very afraid…lol)

I Want My Squidoo Lens to Rank Better in Google

Tonight I found a lens of mine that needed some love. It’s not a money-maker, but it ranks well, gets decent traffic so I figured let’s see what I can do with it to make it rank better, get more traffic, and maybe see if I can’t turn it into a money-maker (which probably will NOT happen now that I am about to spill everything here on my blog…sigh).

I have this lens about worm composting. I made it in February of 2008 and hadn’t touched it since April of 2008 (yes, I have not “freshened” the lens in almost 17 MONTHS).

This is why I am always all about telling my One Week Marketing followers to get their lenses out there and simmering.  Once a lens ages and gains some Page Rank of it’s own, it has real power and it becomes a resource that you can leverage.

Sooooo…how has this lens been doing in all this time being left alone?

Let’s take a look at the traffic stats for the last 30 days:

Not too shabby, huh?

BUT, it can be better.

Next stop is to see how my lens is already ranking (I use a little online tool for this that I will link to – as well as other tools shown – at the end of this post)

Not too bad.  I know there are more keyword phrases I can work for now that the lens is older and more established.

Upon examining this, I see that I rank #1 for how to start a worm farm, but I am about #4 for how to make a worm farm.  I wonder which phrase is better… Could changing one word make a big difference in search volume?

Let’s hop on over to the Google keyword tool and see:

Well dang!  Changing just one word in that phrase could mean four times more traffic if I rank #1 for it!

I’ve read in a few places that a #1 ranking in Google means that you could count on about 40% of the search traffic, but for me, it never works out that way.  Seems 20% of the exact search volume is more like it for my lenses and other web pages so I stick with that number when I am “guess-timating” potential Google traffic.

In fact, 20% is about right for this lens, too.  Google indicates about 480 searches per month and 20% of that would be about 96 visits per month from that keyword at #1 in Google.  My actual Squidoo lens stats for the last 30 days say:

Yup, that’s about right.  I rank #1 in Google for that phrase and got 98 visits in the last month for that search phrase.

Based on that, if I could increase that Google ranking for how to make a worm farm to #1, I could guess-timate that I could potentially get 20% of THAT search volume which would be about 320 visits a month.  To me, this is worth looking in to!  A nice boost in traffic would be sweet!

I also decided that it was time to work this lens for a bigger and more competitive keyword search phrase. It’s well-established, sits on an authority site so why not? After poking around a bit, I came up with worm composting.

8100 searches a month… Yup, that’s what I’m talking about!  I’d like 20% of that search volume, too!

BUT – How Hard Will It Be To Rank?

This is the BIG question.  It is cool to pick keyword phrases you’d like to rank #1 for, but how hard will it be to get there?

This is where experience comes in for internet marketers to help us identify when something is “do-able” or not…and how much work it will take to achieve that ranking.  We stop looking as much at the results for a keyword phrase in quotes and look more at the sites we want to out-rank.  This comes with time, experience, and some good tools.

Starting out searching Google in quotes for the phrase competition is a great way to learn and to see yourself rank a web page.  If you find keyword phrases that have less than 10,000 competing web pages in quotes, odds are good that you will be able to rank your web page IF you target that one keyword phrase and learn to optimize properly.

This is not a part of your learning that you rush through.  When you’re new and you try to optimize one web page for lots of keyword phrases out of the gate, odds are good that your web page will rank for nothing worth talking about…and you won’t see results…and you’ll give up.

Start at the beginning and learn to do it properly.  Then, the sky is the limit!

The great thing about using Squidoo is that most of the work for on-page optimization is done for you… and the part you need to know I am about to share with you here in this case study.

Now, what I am about to show you might totally boggle your mind if you are new to all this.  For some of you, it could very well be an “A-Ha” moment where you can really see how rankings happen.  Now, if it boggles your mind and you don’t “get it”, that’s ok!  Really, it is perfectly ok.  No one is expected to ‘get it’ at first.  This is what learning is for  =)  Just keep all this in the back of your mind and then one day you will say, “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…. I get it!”

Google Rankings and SEO Analysis of a Web Page

So, I wanted to know how hard it would be for me to get my lens to rank #1 for how to make a worm farm.  I used another tool I have to check out what it going in in the query space in Google.

Take a look at what I found out (you can click the image to see it bigger if you want to):

Highlighted in green you can see my worm farm lens.  What I am looking for are opportunities to optimize my web page for this keyword phrase and do it better than those above me.  Things that have a green check mean yes, that page has that – a red x means no, that page does not have that.

Now, one of the cool things about a Squidoo web page is that the Squidoo.com site is already listed in the DMoz directory and the Yahoo directory.  How much this really affects ranking, no one knows for sure – but this is a factor that most SEO analysis programs will look at.

Also, there are a LOT of back links to the Squidoo.com site, so all I really need to work on are links to MY page on the Squidoo site.  Remember, web pages are ranked individually in Google based on their own strength.  What site the page sits on has it’s benefits tho – especially when the web page is new.

What I am seeing from this analysis is that I need my keyword phrase in my title, my H1 tag, and in my description.  Then, all that is left is building links TO my lens with my target keyword phrase in the anchor text (the clickable words in a link).

My lens already has a nice Page Rank 4 – which is because I built links to my lens and have links to my lens on the Squidoo site…and let it “simmer”.  Based on the Page Rank of the web pages that currently rank higher than I do, Page Rank is not a problem for me here.

Main thing I am looking at is Back Links to the web page of the ones that rank above me.  Can I beat that?  Without going too in-depth into back link analysis, the answer for me is yes, I can beat that.

What About My “Bigger” Keyword Phrase?

Then, I took a look at my bigger and higher volume keyword phrase that I’d like to start targeting.  How tough will THIS be  (especially since I don’t rank in the top 20 in Google at this time)?

Let’s take a look:

Hmmm… this one will be tougher. I did take a look at the back links for the web page that is currently #1 and there aren’t many (maybe one or two) links to the site with the anchor text of worm composting. I also noticed that a lot of links show because they have a few sidebar links on blogs. This means that every page of the blog links to the site and will show like a lot of links.

So, based on that, and on the potential rise in traffic, and based on my sheer stubbornness and my love of a challenge, I’ll give it a try.

Optimizing Your Web Page For Better Google Rankings.

We talked about what I need to do ON my lens to help with the on-page ranking factors.  I need my targeted keyword phrase in the title, the H1 tag, and in the description.

Squidoo makes this VERY easy.

This is how my lens looked before I made any changes to it:

The title you give your lens is also used as the H1 tag for the lens as well as what is put in the tag for your lens.

If you right click on a lens, then choose “view source” you can see the code that Google reads.

The < title > tag is here and is taken from the title I give my lens:

And then the title I give my lens is used again in the code as an H1 tag:

The description is taken from the first sentence or two that I add into my lens intro module:

…and just for fun, the keywords are entered into the lens code from the tags I choose:

All of this comes together to make my listing in Google:

So, a good title, a good opening sentence or two in your intro module, and some good tags can really, really, reallllllllllly help the Google ranking of your lens when it is mixed with good back links TO your lens.

My Lens After Making Changes For Google Rankings

So, I went in and changed my lens up.  I got my two targeted keyword phrases in the title, in the intro module and in the tags.  I also used a modified version of the keyword in an anchor text link.  I think that Google puts a little more weight on words it finds as a link on a web page so I do this on my web pages.

Here is how my lens looks now with the changes:

So, wonder how that made the SEO analysis of my web page look now that I made these changes?

Take a look:

Green checks, all the way across – perfect!

Next, I will take a little bit of time making some links TO my lens with links like how to make a worm farm and worm composting.

Now What?

After that, I leave it alone. Google will need to “read” the changes on my lens and they will need to find the new back links. It takes time for all this to happen and for it all to work together so I let it simmer and work on something else.

If this was a One Week Marketing campaign, I would print out my Mind Map and write the one keyword that each part is individually targeting and be sure to link TO that page with that keyword I wrote down for it or for that phrase with a modifier.

For example, I am now targeting worm composting, so I would make links to my lens with phrases like -

worm composting for beginners

worm composting for profit

learn about worm composting

etc, etc…

As you can see, the phrase I am targeting is still exactly in order in all of those phrases, but I added words to it so Google doesn’t find ALL the same anchor text for ALL my links. Make sense?

People ask me all the time what is the best way to keep track of your One Week Marketing campaigns. For me, it is by simply printing out a Mind Map for each one and writing my campaign details on it. Log ins, keywords for each web page, urls… the whole thing. You can keep track of your rankings over time on the back.

With the help from the tools I used here, you can also print out some reports to keep with your Mind Map so you have everything together. When it comes time to take your One Week Marketing campaign to the next level (ie, start using more than free sites to make money online), you can simply pull out your file and know where everything is when you get ready to make a niche website.

Get Better Google Rankings For Any Web Page

There you have it – inside my little pea brain. What I’ve shown here will work with any web page – not just a Squidoo lens. Thing is, Squidoo makes it easy for this to work, but once you ‘get it’ you will be able to apply this to getting any web page to rank higher in Google.

Tools I Used

I used the Google Keyword Tool. I always switch it to show me the “exact” search volume. I feel this is more accurate that the default “broad” results.

I used this software for the SEO Analysis. This software is really cool and does lots of great stuff – and, it’s FREE. Now, the paid upgrade is awesome and enables you to do so much more, but you don’t have to pay for anything to have the basics of this multi-purpose SEO tool.

I used this tool to see what my web page ALREADY ranks for. To me, this is one of the best tools I have. Being able to enter a url of a web page I own and see all the phrases my page ranks for is so great. And, for reverse engineering a niche or a web page that is ranking higher than you, being able to enter THEIR url and see what THEY rank for is absolutely PRICELESS. Here is an example report you can look at to see all this program can show you.

If you’ve never used Squidoo or have tried, but got too confused to actually make a web page there, you can click here and get my Free Squidoo 101 Guide – I’ll walk you through it =)

If you have used Squidoo and are wanting to take your earnings to the next level, take a look at my One Week Marketing Action plan here.

Hope this info sheds some light on how you can improve the Google ranking of your Squidoo lens or web pages. Guess this post coulda been an ebook because it is SO long and SO in-depth, but hey, why not put it here on PotPieGirl.com so everyone can see it and learn from it?

Any questions? Post them here in the comments area please. I’ll be out of town this weekend, but will try and answer and moderate comments as soon as I can.

If you liked this post or found it useful, please feel free to “tweet” about it or link to it. It would be greatly appreciated!

Have a great day!

(edited to add: You can click here to read the results of this Google Ranking Case Study )

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Squidoo Lens Google Ranking Case Study

Apparently there was some confusion about my last post regarding boycotting Squidoo. First off, my apologies if the points I was trying to make were unclear. It also seems from the comments that folks wanted to know if *I* thought we should boycott Squidoo….and I didn’t flat out give my answer. While I thought I was clear, it seems I was clear as mud… so let’s try this one more time.

Should We Boycott Squidoo?

I mainly was asking this question to all of YOU. I really wanted to know if YOU planned to boycott using the Squidoo site. I already know what *I* think…hahaha!

However, you, my readers, must not know what I think. According to this thread I just found in the Squidoo forum, I must have been VERY unclear now, and in years past, when I talk about Squidoo.

And that is MY bad.

So, based on that, I will ask MYSELF what I think about boycotting Squidoo (yes, I am talking to myself…and answering myself…again).

“PotPieGirl, do you plan to boycott Squidoo?”

“PotPieGirl, Do you think that other online marketers should boycott Squidoo?”

“PotPieGirl, do you think other marketers should still use Squidoo if it does NOT fit with their current online marketing plans or topics?”

If anyone thinks *I* plan to boycott Squidoo, they’ve lost their mind (and I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course).

Did you know there are over 700 sites out there that will allow you to make a free blog? There are over 460 free article directory sites and there is no telling how many free forums and social bookmarking sites and social networking sites there are – all allowing us to get our content online and found for free. Oh, and video sharing sites, and podcast sites…. and review sites, and RSS sites, and document and software sharing sites, and Press Release sites…. and on and on and on…all allowing us each to have a voice online for FREE.

I don’t plan to boycott a single one of them. If they don’t fit in with what I need, I simply won’t use them.

Free sites are designed to be authority-getters, link-getters, and traffic-getters. They are not designed to be MONEY-getters. However, in my opinion, Squidoo has made itself one of the rare sites online that will allow it to also be a money-getting site. Squidoo shares their revenue with you and allows affiliate links. That’s rare.

Squidoo has allowed affiliate links since Day 1 (and they still do). Squidoo allows you to use THEIR affiliate links via their earnings modules (like the eBay module or the Amazon module) and split the commission with you.

Squidoo knows folks sell stuff on their lenses 

In fact, recently Megan Casey (Editor-in-Chief for Squidoo) made a post on the Squidoo blog about a new, more interactive module/feature they are planning to add to Squidoo.  Creating things on your lens that promotes people to participate can make your lens more “sticky” – ie, people stay on your lens, read, and click when you want them to.

In Megans post she said,

When they can answer that, they’re more likely to dive in and participate as well, or at least get stickier and stay on your lens a little longer (until you tell them to leave, by recommending some action for them to take, like buying a book or visiting a blog).

Squidoo knows we make lenses to get reader interaction AND to get readers to sites WE recommend….and yes, to make money.

That makes Squidoo unique from most of the other free sites, doesn’t it? And, in my opinion, Squidoo is the perfect place to learn how to start affiliate marketing, testing markets, and getting some online income coming IN.

Once you have your own sites, Squidoo is the perfect place to also build a brand, promote your area of expertise or your business or your eBay store or your charity or your own product…

BUT…

You have to play by the rules.

If what you want to talk about is not allowed on the Squidoo site, then I would feel safe to say that Squidoo may not be the right site for you. However, that is a choice YOU would have to make for yourself. What *I* am doing may not apply to what you are doing.

Ok, now the big question…

“PotPieGirl, are you just saying this because One Week Marketing is another Squidoo guide?”

First off, One Week Marketing is not “just another Squidoo guide”… it is a beginners internet marketing guide, it is an internet marketing exposure guide, it is an action plan that focuses on using free sites and free methods to begin to make money online OR to gain exposure for your current online projects, your business, or your service OR both.

OWM was created by me to help ME clear the massive confusion I was experiencing while trying to make sense of internet marketing. It took me quite some time to break thru the brick wall of jumbled confusion, but once I did, it was all soooooo much easier for me.

It just so happens that Squidoo is a site that I focus on in One Week Marketing, but not ONLY Squidoo…and OWM does not have to be implemented on Squidoo. It works pretty dog-gone well on lots of free sites.

The main thing about One Week Marketing that I think either people miss (or haven’t read it to find out) is what is REALLY learned following the action plan.

Let’s do a brief over-view:

- Learn how to find a market
- Learn how to pick 5 or so relevant, low-competition keywords in that market
- Learn how to create a web page for each of those long-tail keywords
- Learn how to link those pages together for maximum exposure
- Learn how to get those web pages indexed by Google and other search engines
- Learn how to get traffic to those web pages

Wait a minute, doesn’t that sound like building a small niche website?

Why, yes it does

The beauty of One Week Marketing is that while many think they are only learning Squidoo marketing, they are in fact actually learning about online marketing…. oh, and using free methods.

What makes me feel really good is what *I* personally discovered when I started using the OWM Action Plan for my own online marketing. One day (in November 2007 to be exact), I realized it was time to reinvest some of my earnings from free methods and start to make my own sites.

When it came time to make my first niche site, I realized I already knew about picking the topic/niche… I already knew how to pick the keywords… I already knew how and why to link my pages together…I already knew how to get it indexed…. I already knew how to get traffic to it.

All I had to learn was how to use WordPress to build those niche blogs (which I teach for free at 6StepNicheSites.com ). The rest is very much the same.

It was quite the defining moment for me when I realized I already knew the basics for niche marketing online – and I haven’t looked back since.

After almost a year of One Week Marketing being available, I know that others….many others… have had that defining moment, too. They have gone on to twist and turn the OWM Action Plan into their own secret recipe – used it on all kinds of sites – added all kinds of sites – but they have had their defining moment and ran with it.

That feels AWESOME.

Internet marketing has flat out changed my life. No, not just my bank account, but my LIFE. I started with nothing – maybe less than nothing – and with the help of free sites like Squidoo, with pure grit and relentless determination, and with VERY little sleep, I turned that nothing into a nice heap of something and I’m still working it every, single day.

And now I know that with the help of 5 pdf guides from me, others are doing the same thing – taking nothing and turning into a whole heap of something. They didn’t let policy changes, or nay-sayers, or Google changes, or any of that get in their way.

They just keep moving forward. I am so proud of each and every one of you!

However, fact remains – and it’s in my face every, single day, that the majority of folks just don’t “get it” – or haven’t “gotten it” yet. Sadly, many quit any form of internet marketing long before they even give their brain a chance to experience their defining moment.

And that… well, that breaks my heart.

To summarize…

No, I am not boycotting Squidoo. No, I do not think other new online marketers should boycott Squidoo, either. However, it is a choice that you make for yourself.

So, let me ask the question I really wanted to hear the answer to from everyone…

Do YOU think YOU should boycott Squidoo?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Should We Boycott Squidoo? (Part 2)

This is something I rarely do, but after reflecting on it for a bit, I think it’s the right thing for me to do. There has been a lot of strong conversation about Squidoo inside the Wealthy Affiliate forum. Lots of frustration…lots of opinions. Today, I replied to one of these threads and typed way more than I intended to (hey, brevity is not my specialty…lol!).  I usually keep my “insider info” locked inside the Wealthy Affiliate community, but after reading what I posted, I think it is the right thing for me to share my thoughts on Squidoo with everyone and invite your feedback.

Is It Time To Boycott Squidoo?

Here is a copy of the post I just made inside Wealthy Affiliate. Needless to say, I want to share MY thoughts…not the thoughts of others so any indication of another WA member will be removed.

=========== Begin Post ================

Wow, {removed}… that just sucks! I’m so sorry for all that mess…musta been very frustrating.

This industry (as is common with just about any industry) requires us each to roll with the punches. Those that bounce back, last longest.

What’s most frustrating for most marketers now is that Squidoo has always been a welcoming and easy place to get started with affiliate marketing for free. As much as people don’t want to believe it now, it still is.

Bottom line is, it’s a site you/we do not own. When you’re using someone else’s site to make money online, you have to play by their rules….whatever the rules of the day are.

Do you HAVE to use free sites? NO, you do NOT. However, for many (myself included) these free sites were my way to get my foot in the door, get some money coming IN with very little going OUT, and help propel me towards making my own sites from both the experience and the income.

I want to point out something that was said in a reply email to {removed}:

Their reply….
Hi {removed}, thanks for making those changes. We’re still seeing you’ve linked to http://www.xxxxxxx.com/Wealthy-Affiliate-Review.html and Wealthy Affiliate information, which is on our list of spambait topics, and a topic we rarely see great lenses on.

Now, I don’t work for Squidoo and I don’t have insider info, but I think the part I highlighted in red speaks volumes.

Do you know how many pages in the Google index are on the Squidoo.com site and are directly about Wealthy Affiliate?

over fourteen THOUSAND!

So, for fun, let’s see how many pages Google has that are on EzineArticles directly about Wealthy Affiliate:

Over twenty-four THOUSAND!!!

So… wait….

Why is it ok to talk about Wealthy Affiliate on “big dog” EzineArticles, but Squidoo doesn’t want it?

Have they gotten too big for their britches?

Well, first off, as I said before, it’s their site, they can do what they want…but we already know that.

Let’s talk the business side of it.

Yes, Squidoo and EzineArticles are both a business – created to generate PROFIT. These sites, and all the others like it, were not created out of the kindness of the owners heart to allow marketers to make free pages to make the marketers money. They were designed and are run to make the owners money.

So let’s look at these two sites….

EzineArticle:

How does EA primarily make money? AdSense ads that are placed on the page where your article is. They don’t share that… they keep it 100% In short, THEY make money off of your content. In exchange for your content, they allow you a link from the site and maybe some click-thru traffic TO your site.

Squidoo:

Yes, Adsense ads income (that is split with the lens creators) and they also rely heavily on other advertisers who CHOOSE to place their advertising on the Squidoo site. If a potential advertiser doesn’t like what they see on the Squidoo site, they will not be willing to advertise on the site.

Ok, so this still doesn’t explain why Squidoo DOES NOT want any more content on WA or the other “no-no” topics, but EA is still fine with it.

Let’s look at some other differences:

Squidoo:

Allows affiliate links in content. Each new lens (new Squidoo web page) is published and live instantly. Marketers have the freedom to draw as much attention to THEIR offer and as much attention AWAY from Squidoo’s offers as they want.

EzineArticles:

NO affiliate links – period (other than top level redirects). Nothing is published instantly (except maybe premium/paid memberships? Not sure). All content is reviewed by a HUMAN reviewer before going live on site. You have no choice how the page is formatted and all formatting is designed to place ALL focus on EzineArticles offers.

Marketers LOVE Squidoo…and that’s awesome because they should. However, I don’t think many people realize the depth of the problem Squidoo is now facing because of their previous policies.

Their real problem is not the genuine lensmaster who tries to the best of their ability to make a decent lens that happens to be on a “no no” topic.

Their real problem really isn’t the lazy affiliate who just likes to copy/paste their content in a few lenses, either.

There are marketers out there, especially in the black hat segment, that think of all kinds of ways to massively spam the Squidoo site – to extents that you wouldn’t even believe.

Unfortunately, Squidoo has been wide open to this for some time. Think about it, an instant publishing option that allows affiliate links on a high authority domain? That is a goldmine for black-hatters. They call sites like Squidoo and HubPages parasite sites because they can leech on to them and suck the life out of them for their own benefit with no regard at all to the site owners or the long-term viability of the site.

Squidoo has a mess to clean up and it will be those that stick with it that are in for a crazy ride. In order for Squidoo to continue to thrive, they need profit…. they need advertisers.

Now, let me ask each of you something….

If you owned Squidoo.com, what would YOU do?

If you want the honest truth from me, I’d probably say I would institute a ‘no straight affiliate link’ policy but grandfather the ones in that are already on site and are on approved topics. I would allow top-level redirects and limit the out-bound links to the same domain (as Squidoo has already done).

Would any of you open up YOUR site to everyone in the world who wants to advertise there? Would you allow them to put any content they want AND affiliate links?

Really think about this.

You see, I have a few sites that I own…that I took lots of time to build up so they rank and get indexed well…and I opened them up to my OWM’rs. Yes, I have Adsense on them, but I can promise you that the $30 or so I earn a month is not worth what is being done to my sites. Two of the sites have already crashed once and I took the time to re-create them. I really DO want to give new marketers a chance to get going by opening up my resources to them, but believe it or not, there are folks that flat out take advantage of my good nature and abuse the sites with no regard to what happens to them.

If the sites crash again, or get all “spammed up” again, I am closing them off or making them ‘approval only’. Even my good nature has its limitations =)

Based on my experience with my own sites, I can’t BEGIN to imagine what Squidoo is going thru. Even tho EzineArticles may be a pain in the butt-ola, I can totally see why they do what they do. I can also understand why Squidoo is doing this… whether I personally like it or not.

This is business… it’s not personal.

Once upon a time I did a lot of writing for a site called Associated Content. AC would allow you to submit your unique 500+ word article to them and they would then (hopefully) make an offer to you to buy that article to put on their site.

These offers where anywhere from $3 – $10… not much, but I was new and I was doing everything and anything I could to get money coming IN.

Many times, a “no thank you” reply would come from AC with the reason being that they already had plenty of content on that topic.

It took me about 2 days to figure out “the secret” to getting AC to want and PAY FOR my content.

If I thought of a topic, I would search the associatedcontent.com site and see how much content they ALREADY had on that topic/keyword. If they already had a lot, I didn’t write on that keyword. If they had none, I wrote and submitted an article for it.

Worked pretty well.

Why? Because I was giving AC what they wanted… Exposure in a specific keyword query space that they DID not already have Google exposure for.

Now, applying that thought process to Squidoo… do you really think Squidoo.com wants another page that targets the phrase “wealthy affiliate” or “wealthy affiliate scam”? Really? And trust me, there are LOTS of phrases – especially product names or ‘product name scam’ – that are OVERLY covered on Squidoo.com.

They don’t necessarily want the ‘garden snail’ lenses as much as they want UNIQUE content on UNIQUE keywords and topics.

And why would YOU, the marketer, want to put yet another page on the Squidoo site that targets ‘product name’ or ‘product name scam’? With thousands of pages already in Google from Squidoo.com, why put yourself in such a saturated query space with no hope of being found?

I’m sorry this is long…. and I also apologize if this sounds like a rant (it’s totally not). My thinking is that if I am given an opportunity to broaden the thinking of even ONE new marketer, then it is worth my time to say something.

Also, there are hundreds and hundreds of other free sites that you can use. Thing is, no matter what free site you use, you will always be at the mercy of their rules and their finger on the delete button.

Even if you are not directly responsible for rule changes or loss of your content, I can PROMISE you that there are plenty of marketers that will cause you to lose your content based on their own actions on the site ruining it for others.

When you are new and have very little money to invest into all this, these free sites are a golden opportunity to get going and start cash flowing IN to you…. but you gotta be unique….and you must play by the rules – all there is to it.

ALWAYS plan to reinvest your earnings into having your OWN site so you can then move to having your free pages support YOUR site as opposed to making the free pages your ‘home base’.

Free sites, in my opinion and my experience, are the perfect way to fund your new online business and then to promote and expose your online business – but they are not designed to BE your long-term online business.

I know better than most that we all have to start somewhere. Don’t be afraid or intimidated by new policies – they are not designed to keep the good guys out.

Ok, I hush now. My fingers are tired…lol

All the best,

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

========= End Post ===========

So, there you have it…my thoughts (current value = $2.95  lol!)

What I REALLY want to hear tho, is YOUR thoughts.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Should We Boycott Squidoo?

Time for another amazing video from PotPieGirl!  I get a lot of questions about how to add an eBay RSS feed to a Squidoo lens that has YOUR eBay (ePN) affiliate link embedded in it. Many of us are eBay affiliates and would prefer to use our own eBay affiliate link on our Squidoo lenses.  These RSS feeds are really attractive to your lens readers because they get to SEE what is currently available as far as the product they are looking for. Adding your own eBay RSS feed is super easy to do!  Instead of TELLING you how to add the eBay RSS feed, why not just SHOW you?

Adding an eBay Affiliate RSS Feed to a Squidoo Lens

Author Edit – August 2009

Do not use this technique on your Squidoo lens or any website that you do not own. Ebay Partner Network has changed their policies to reflect that no affiliate traffic can come from websites NOT owned by the affiliate.
End Author Edit

First off, in order to do this, you need to be an eBay affiliate.  The eBay affiliate program is called the eBay Partner Network and you can sign up here – https://publisher.ebaypartnernetwork.com.  You can go to that url and learn all about the eBay affiliate program for your location, their payment details, and all that good stuff.  They pay me monthly via PayPal and it’s one of my favorite affiliate programs.

Here’s my short and sweet video walking you through the steps to create an eBay affiliate RSS feed and get it on your Squidoo lens:

Easy, peasy – Right?

You can use the RSS feed generator at ePN to refine your search in MANY ways.  You can isolate your feed to only show one seller, only products that offer free shipping, and on and on and on.  eBay makes it very easy for you to give the reader exactly what they are looking for.

Feel free to play around with it and get comfortable with the feed generator.  It’s cool stuff…. great for the readers and can add a little more money in your pocket each month, too.

Other News

Lately I have been hard at work on a project that has been a true labor of love.  About two and half years ago, my kids cousin, Jonathan, was killed in a car accident.  Not only was Jonathan family, he was also one of my son’s closest friends.

The word “tragedy” does not even give this event justice on any level.

Jonathan is survived by his mom and dad (Kim and Bruce), his brother, Richard, and sister, Maggie.  Folks, this family is what Richard calls “a miracle family” – and I couldn’t agree more.

I met up with Bruce, Kim, and Richard at my son’s wedding in May.  They are so awesome!  Bruce, Kim, and I got to talking and they told me about a foundation they were creating in Jonathan’s memory.

They are offering scholarships thru the Jonathan Cox Memorial Scholarship program that awards kids free money for college NOT based on grades, or academic achievement, or sports, or community involvement.  The scholarships are awarded based on a simple 500-word essay about “What My Faith and Family Means To Me”.

Not only that, but this family is also reaching out to other families and businesses that would like to create their own scholarship for a loved one or for a cause.  It’s tough to figure out how to start your own scholarship fund – and there is a ton of red tape and paperwork involved.  Bruce and Kim want to ease that burden for others and get their desired scholarship out there and running for them.  Those wanting to start a scholarship will be able to do so on their own terms with their own criteria…with whatever name they want to give it.

As I listened to Bruce tell me what they were doing, it was all I could do to NOT jump up and down and BEG to be a part of it.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to beg, and they gave me the honor of creating the website for the Foundation.

Thank you Bruce, Kim, Richard, and Maggie!

They keep thanking ME, but I’m here to tell you… I am honored to be a part of something so great.

I’d like to introduce you to the Faith and Family Legacy Foundation – http://www.faithandfamilylegacy.org .  I hope you take a look around, read the family’s story here, and read their mission… and if you feel so inclined, send them a donation and become a Faith and Family Legacy Foundation sponsor.

Above all – if you know a family or a business or organization that would like to start their own scholarship in memory of a loved one (or for ANY reason), please send them to the Faith and Family Legacy site.  Bruce and Kim will help them and turn their dream of a scholarship fund into a reality.

Thank you for allowing me to speak about this.  I have hundreds of websites, but this site, BY FAR, was the hardest to create – but it means more to me than everything I do online combined (and then some).

They are amazing people and I hope that they can help an amazing family in your life.

Newsletter Coming

That’s right, another edition of  “Straight Talk with PotPieGirl” will be coming out soon.  It’s a good one, too!  If you’re on any of my lists (here, at 6StepNicheSites.com, or at OneWeekMarketing.com) you will be receiving the newsletter by email.  If you’re not, you better get signed up so you don’t miss out!

I love doing these newsletters… I can just ramble endlessly about whatever is on my mind and share any cool finds I’ve come across, too.  The newsletter should be out in the next couple of days… hopefully sooner.

You can read past issues of my newsletter by clicking these links:

Straight Talk With PotPieGirl – Issue #1

Straight Talk with PotPieGirl – Issue #2

Ok, that’s all from me today.  I hope the video helped you out and you can now easily get your eBay affiliate feeds on your Squidoo lenses.

Have a great day!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

How To Add an Ebay Affiliate Feed To a Lens (Video)

Pretty sure that most of us Squidoo users have noticed a bunch of new advertising on the Squidoo.com site lately.  Seems the most annoying ad to most lensmasters is the big banner ad at the top of our lenses. Good news is that Squidoo is just testing these ads to see how they do.  Bad news is, some lensmasters just can’t stand them.  If you are one of the Squidoo lensmasters that wants to to get some ads OFF your lens, keep reading and follow my step-by-step directions (with pictures).

What’s With The New Advertising On Squidoo?

Recently, Squidoo HQ  announced that they are trying different advertising formats and ad sources to increase revenue on the site.  This experimentation is only supposed to last a few weeks.  We’ve always had AdSense on our lenses, and now there are “GlamAds” (the image ads currently at the top and in the side bar of your lens) and InfoLink ads (text ads on a lens in green text).

There is not a way to remove the Google AdSense ads from your site, but there is a way to opt out from the InfoLink ads and some of the GlamAds and not have them show on your lens.

BUT – you have to donate your lens earnings to charity in order to do it.

Now, these are the earnings that Squidoo would normally pay you each month (not any other revenue you earn from your own affiliate links), so for many, many lenses, we’re not talking a lot of money per lens.  And, you can opt to remove these ads on a lens-by-lens basis (as opposed to making this decision for ALL your lenses).

I figured I would try and see how all this works.  Besides, donating more to charity sure can’t hurt my karma rating, now can it?  =)

Removing Ads From a Squidoo Lens

First off, let’s make sure we are clear on what happens here….  When you opt to do this, your lens earnings go to the charity of your choice.  Also, you cannot remove ALL the ads from your lens.  Right now it seems to remove the big banner ad at the top and ONE of the GlamAds in the sidebar – not ALL ads.

So, in essence that means you are opting for LESS outside advertising on your lens – not removing it completely.

Steps To Reduce Ads On Your Lens

First, open your lens to edit it.

Now,Scroll down the right-hand sidebar down towards the bottom.  Click “Royalty Settings” and then choose which charity you want your lens earnings to go to.

Now, click “apply”.

Next, scroll up a little to the “Lens Setting” tab and open that.

I chose to keep my lens “maxed” (note: there is no “min” setting anymore.  By keeping your lens set to “max” you will still be able to choose from the cool themes Squidoo recently set up for lens masters to use.)

I then chose and clicked to opt out of the Info Link text link ads (I’ve never been a fan of that type of contextual advertising personally, but that’s just me).

Then, I clicked to opt out of the display banner ads (GlamAds).

Then, I clicked apply… saved my lens and then re-published it.

Now, when I chose to opt out of the banner ads, it made it sound as if ALL banner ads would be gone.  Reality is that two were removed (the top one and one in the side bar) but one rectangle GlamAd in the sidebar still remained.

I recently changed the settings on one of my lenses – you can visit my Low Cost Web Hosting lens and see how it looks.

All in all, pretty easy and painless…More focus on my lens content and I do like the thought of giving more to charity – so it’s a win/win in my book.

Give it a try and see if you like it better.  This is totally a personal choice  =)

Happy 4th of July!

To all my US friends, I wish you each a very happy Independence Day!  Let the cook-outs and fireworks begin!

My husband and I spent all day yesterday at Turner Field in Atlanta.  My hubby is a market/division manager with a retail company here in the Atlanta area. He and his co-workers were invited to participate on field for the the pre-game 4th of July show…and my goodness, what a show it was!

They were in charge of unveiling and holding a HUGE US flag that was shaped like the continental United States.  I’m tellin ya, it was HUGE…It took over 150 employees from my hubby’s market to hold it up!

I don’t know how well you can see it, but I took this picture with my cell phone.  Unfortunately, the United Stated is upside-down because I was at the top of the Chop Shop to get good pictures (and to wave like a goober at my hubby when he walked on field because he could see me there….lol).

My hubby was helping to hold Southern California – can you see him?  hahahaha!

They held the flag during the National Anthem and it was truly a site to see.  I do believe ol’ PotPieDude got some TV exposure, too!

All in all, it was a great day.  We had to be there by 1 pm (the game didn’t start until 7:15 pm) so they could practice walking out with the flag, unveiling it, and getting it set right on the field.

While they were practicing, I was sitting in the empty stadium watching, and Braves pitcher Derrick Lowe came in the bleachers off the field right next to me!  You see, HE saw ME sitting there and thought, “Oh my!  That is PotPieGirl!” and couldn’t wait to meet me and get my autograph.

Ok, that is a total lie.  Well, the part about Derrick getting into the bleachers right next to me is true, but he was just coming in the bleachers to run the stadium to warm up (tho he didn’t play.  I don’t get that.. run when you don’t HAVE to?  lol!)

I did get to say hi and he responded, but I’ll be totally honest and say I had no clue who he was.  My hubby told me later because he saw Derrick get in the bleachers right near me and HE thought Derrick was coming to talk to me, too…lol!

I also got to spend some time watching the pitchers warm up while the stadium was still empty.  Here is a picture of what I watched – the man in the chair in none other than Bobby Cox, the coach of the Atlanta Braves.  To me, he is amazing.  Players for the Braves come and go, but Bobby, well he IS the Braves to me.

I’m pretty sure the pitcher in there is Tim Hudson – but don’t quote me on that.

I know the picture isn’t the greatest, but like I said, it was with my cell phone – but that totally IS Bobby Cox sitting in that chair!

He looked up and saw me and said, “WOW!  There’s PotPieGirl!  Someone get her autograph!”

Ok, that’s another lie… but he DID look up at me (probably because I was the only one standing there watching…hahaha!)

It was a great game, too.  Atlanta played the Philidelphia Phillies.  Atlanta ended up winning 5-2 for the first home sweep of the Phillies in  four years (that’s a link to a recap of the game since sports reporting is totally not my thing).  It came down to the 8th inning before the Braves took over the scoreboard – then a few quick outs in the 9th clinched the game.

There was lots of cheering and “tomahawk-chopping” going on!  Gotta love it when the home team wins!

Here is a picture of me and my hubby that I took.

My “self-portrait” skills leave a lot to be desired.  Somehow, my hubby managed to squeeze in the picture.  If he didn’t duck a little, I woulda chopped his head off!

I took this just as the game was ending and right before the awesome fireworks they had at Turner Field last night. Please keep in mind that I said we had both been there since 1pm – and by end of game, it was every bit of 10 pm…and it was a very HOT day!  So its totally NOT the best photo of either of us…but we had a great time and that’s all that matters.

Anyway… just a little glimpse into my little world.  Maybe it’ll shed some light on things we do when I’m NOT online (which isn’t very often).  I’m super glad my hubby invited me to tag along.  We always have a great time together and it was an experience I won’t ever forget.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!  And please, let’s not forget all our troops that aren’t home to celebrate with us.  We get to celebrate BECAUSE of them and all those that have served before them.

Be Safe!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

How To Get The Ads Off Your Squidoo Lens

Since the announcement of the impending policy changes at Squidoo.com, I have read a LOT of varying opinions and feedback.  I’ve also been “accused” of looking at these policy changes thru rose-colored glasses in an attempt to remain friends with Squidoo, or because I have some deep vested interest in others loving Squidoo, or something to that effect.  While this annoys me to some degree, I felt that in the spirit of transparency, I should talk about that.  I should also say straight out whether I think it’s time for affiliate marketers to leave Squidoo or not.  So, let’s talk…

Am I Protecting Myself?

Let me start this off with a little story…

Once upon a time, this unknown PotPie chick started looking at her computer as a way to bring some money into her household.  Problem was, she didn’t HAVE any money to get started.  This presented a real problem – or at least she thought it did.

After poking around and learning all she could, she found herself making free web pages on a site that welcomed people just like her.  In fact, they paid people to make their web pages there AND they allowed folks to make more money by having affiliate links on those pages.

She started to make some money.

She also spent a TON of time checking out other sites that were supposed to be similar and learning about SEO and getting online content FOUND.  She worked herself into a tizzy.  If her eyes were open, she was working and learning until she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer.

In her travels, she found lots of other free-to-use sites, but none compared to the site she used mainly.  That site was Squidoo.com.

She then spent a lot of time learning how to make her Squidoo pages even more effective…and it was really working for her.  Over some time, she managed to get enough money coming in to be able to get to the real heart of internet marketing – and she started making her own sites, and building her own lists, and creating her own products.

Without Squidoo, she wouldn’t be sitting here typing this story to you.

I can understand why some folks might doubt my intentions. Heck, I am a marketer, right?  So that means that my concerns must be all about ME?

Wrong.  Very, very wrong.

I know, as sure as I am sitting here, that there are many, many other folks who are right where I was back in February 2007 – lost, dazed, confused, broke….and wanting desperately to make a change in their lives.

I’m not talking to those that already have their own sites, and lists, and products… I’m talking mainly right now to those that do NOT have those things – but they really want to get there… somehow.

I understand that burning desire to find a way to make something out of nothing – and better yet, I know it is totally possible.

And yes, I still completely believe that Squidoo will still help others get there.

The Reality Of These Policy Changes

See, here’s the thing… I do not own Squidoo.  But if I did, I would totally be making some changes, too.  I’ve seen the stats, I’ve been all over the site and have seen the problem pages, and I know full-well how hard advertisers are to come by in this economy.

Why would any advertiser invest in a site that was so full of unwanted content?

Something has to be done – and I think this is a very good move by the Squidoo staff.

Do I Like It?

Let’s make this clear, too….   I have a BUNCH of content on Squidoo that has got to be moved cause it will get zapped.  Whether it’s content that Squidoo wants on its site or not, it IS content I have worked on and *I* want it.  So, no, I am so totally not excited about having to do this right now.

Who really wants to spend their time moving content from one place to another?  I know I sure don’t….lol!

I’ve got two client websites I need to be working on.  I finally got my help desk at AskPotPieGirl.com up and running and want to get Carissa (my daughter-in-law) fully trained on that.  I have an offline/online local business project I’ve been working on and I only have 25 of the 50+ sites done so far.

Above all, I have a ton of One Week Marketers that I want to help through these policy changes.

I don’t have time to complain about these policy changes.

Fair, not fair, right, wrong…whatever…it doesn’t matter.  It is THEIR site and they make the rules.  I either follow the new rules or lose my content.

What I Am DOING About The Policy Changes

I am protecting my content, that’s what I am doing.  I am checking all options that I can find that are quick and feasible to move my content to NOW in case it gets zapped later.  That way, if my lenses DO get locked, I can simply delete them because I will know my lens content is somewhere else.

Any solutions that I find that I will be using MYSELF, I will pass along to my One Week Marketers so they can use them, too.  Not everyone has their own websites – or is even ready to make their own sites.  But, if they are ready, I have 6StepNicheSites.com always available for free to help walk them thru the process.

I’ve already tried out 2 different free-to-use sites with my lens content that needs to be moved and so far, it’s been pretty easy to do.  I could just move my lens content to my own sites and be done with it, but how will that help others and offer them options for their lenses?  Yes, I would LOVE if all my readers all had their own sites, but that just isn’t the case – and I sure want to help them NOW and help them continue forward to where they DO have their own sites.

These policy changes are not the end of the world – unless you LET them be.

Should Affiliate Marketers Leave Squidoo?

No way.  Squidoo is an affiliate marketer.  Think about it – all those earnings modules (amazon, ebay, etc) are all embedded with Squidoo’s affiliate links.  While they split that revenue with the lensmaster, that revenue is very important to Squidoo.

So are affiliate marketers.  Yes, it’s really cool to have these awesome lenses on the site that are truly works of art.  At times, I am in total awe of the great stuff I randomly find on the site.

But that’s just it – I find it randomly – not thru Google.  Marketers know how to get their content found and Squidoo does need folks that know how to do that.  That is equally important to attracting advertisers, and Page Rank, and Alexa rank and alllllll those things that come into play.

Squidoo simply wants….no, they need the affiliate marketers to stop marketing on certain topics – not stop marketing all together.  They also need less “CLICK HERE” sales page type lenses, and more thoughtful content that Google loves and brings long-term organic traffic.

In short, Squidoo doesn’t want to be a billboard anymore – and they can’t continue to be used that way.

I don’t feel I am looking at these policy changes, or responding to these policy changes, thru rose-colored glasses at all.  If One Week Marketing was no longer effective, I can promise that I would yank it off the market in a heartbeat and give it a complete make-over.

But it IS still effective – and here’s the kicker – it’s not all about Squidoo, either.  The Action Plan works for all sites.  In fact, it is really teaching you the set-up for your OWN sites so when you get to that point, it will be second nature for you and will make total sense.

And in my humble little opinion, I think Squidoo will do well with folks that know how to get their lenses found via Google and make lenses that promote page views and depth within the site.  We just have to follow their rules and be careful of what topics we write about.

Eggs and Baskets

Yes, it’s been said all over the internet in relation to these Squidoo changes that people shouldn’t have all their eggs in one basket.  I agree – BUT, when you’re new and trying to get started, you are working your tail off to have your first basket so you can have more baskets to choose from down the line.

I get that!  Heck, I’ve BEEN there.

So if you voice your concerns online about these policy changes and someone responds/reprimands you about having all your eggs in one basket – just smile and let it go.  This is not the time to complain or worry.  This IS the time to protect the content you have that might be effected by these policy changes and put it in another basket.

And then… you WILL have another basket…and all your eggs won’t be in just one 

When you lack resources, you have to learn to be resourceFUL.

Are You a One Week Marketer?

As I said, I’ve been busy testing some other free-to-use sites to move my own lens content to in preparation for the impending policy changes.  I will be sharing the things I’m doing with my One Week Marketers.  I don’t know when I will send this out, tho.  I really wish I had more time to test things, but I know time is of the essence right now and I want the OWM’rs that have content that might be effected to have some options and hear how I am handling it.

I’ll try and get this out to y’all as soon as I can, but I imagine it will take me thru the weekend so please hang tight  =)

I apologize if any of this post was a little over the top compared to my usual stuff.  I just get aggravated when people think or imply that I am just another self-serving guru.

Thank you to everyone who left feedback in the comments area on the policy change post here at PotPieGirl.com – I really appreciate your thoughts!

Ok, back to work for me!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Should Affiliate Marketers Leave Squidoo?

Squidoo recently announced site-wide policy changes that will be put into effect in mid-July. These changes sure have cause a good bit of uproar and discussion among the internet marketing community so I figured it was important that I come out of my vacation for a bit to gather some facts, bust some rumors, and basically share my two cents. Let’s talk about the newly announced Squidoo policy changes, see whether they will effect YOUR lenses, and talk about things we can do to protect our content now.

Squidoo and You – What Will Happen To Your Lenses?

I’ve talked openly about my thoughts with other Wealthy Affiliate members, but haven’t spoken publicly here on my blog until now. First off, Wealthy Affiliate is private – my blog is not private. It is all too easy to stick my foot in my mouth without having all the facts and I was not about to risk doing that here on PotPieGirl.com. In Wealthy Affiliate, they will forgive me if I have to take something back as I am trying to interpret these policy changes.  I don’t know if the rest of the world would be as forgiving if I screw something up.

There is no real graceful way to remove your foot from your mouth online…lol!

The first thing I want to say about the impending policy changes on Squidoo is that I support them 100%. Now, please hear me clearly – I am not happy about others losing content they have worked hard on, but I AM in favor of Squidoo taking proactive steps to clean up the site.

I also do not envy the Squidoo staff even one little bit. No matter how much work you or I have to do in order to have our lenses comply with these new policies, it will be NOTHING compared to what the small Squidoo staff will have to deal with. I foresee a lot of chaos and overtime in the near future for them. They already are an over-worked staff and I can only imagine how working thru these policy changes will effect their work load until all the dust settles.

I can see policing these changes as a very big job. Squidoo HQ – Bless your hearts..and thank you for making the effort to make the Squidoo site better for all of us – even if it means MORE work for you.

Because, you see, that IS what is happening – Squidoo is being all shined up to be better than ever.

It’s Fine If You Don’t Agree With Me

I know there are many, many folks that do not agree with my view on all this – and that’s ok. I hope that those that do not agree will hear me out. I welcome all comments on this topic here as long as they are not hateful or personally attacking. I don’t play that way, and won’t allow it here on PotPieGirl.com (that’s MY policy)

The most important thing of all is that there is NO reason to panic over these policy changes. There is very little that is MAJOR and Squidoo has given us all plenty of time to correct our lenses that may be effected – or to even move our lens content somewhere else if it is on a topic that Squidoo no longer allows.

In case you have not read the official policy change lens from Megan Casey (Editor-in-Chief at Squidoo) please take a moment to do so now. That way, we are all on the same page about these changes.  The lens will open in a new tab/window so you can follow along here if you’d like.

Squidoo Policy Changes – Official Lens Announcement

It is bound to be chaotic as these changes take place.  It is bound to take even more time for a review of your content in case your lens gets locked.

Because of this, I’d like to also say this:

Help Squidoo Help YOU!

If we all take our frustrated energy and work together to clean up our own lenses to make the site better, I think we will all be better able to reap the rewards of our combined efforts.

Squidoo Is No Longer Allowing Affiliate Marketing?

This is rumor #1 that is driving me crazy. No where, in anything official I have read from Squidoo does it state that affiliate marketers or affiliate links will no longer be allowed.

Who the heck started that rumor, anyway?  Never mind, I don’t want to know….lol

While Squidoo is trying to make it harder for those that create those massive “Click Here!!!” lenses that are copy/paste jobs from sales pages a little harder to create, they are not trying to end the ability to market and make money from your lenses.

How to Help Squidoo Help You -

Don’t make these kinds of crappy, copy/paste sales page lenses (yes, it’s as easy as that).  If you want to be objective about your own content, take a long look at your lens.  If you take out all the links on your lens, does it really provide useful content for the reader?

Would YOU read it?

No More X-Rated Lenses

This one is true – and I’m all for it.  No, I don’t have any business issues with this market, I just don’t think it is in Squidoo’s best interest to allow these topics on the site.

In fact, if you are thinking about making a lens that has to do with poker, pills, or porn – you might want to think twice.  Your lens will get locked and you will have wasted your time.

How To Help Squidoo Help YOU –

If you are thinking about making a lens on a topic that is not allowed on Squidoo – don’t do it.  You will seriously be wasting your time.  If you already HAVE a lens on a topic that is now not allowed on Squidoo,save your lens content and put it somewhere else online then delete your lens.  Or, make a copy of your lens and then wait to see if your lens gets locked.  Either way, if you feel your content is good, save it so you can use it somewhere else.

What About Weight Loss Lenses?

This is a tough one to interpret right now.  While it seems that the over-all topic of weight loss is still ok, what is sold and linked to ON those lenses could be a huge problem.

Did you know that as of this writing, Google has 4,260 lenses in their index about Acai?  I mean, c’mon… how many pages of the same info does one site need on that topic?

Or, how about diet pills?

Sheesh…would YOU want all that on YOUR site? I know I sure wouldn’t.

It’s these kinds of topics and products that get flooded with marketers trying to take a short cut as if Squidoo was some sort of trick that I think Squidoo is trying to get rid of.

Are there some good lenses on these topics? Well I’m sure there are, but unfortunately, the bad massively out-weighs the good – and the bad has ruined it for the good.

How To Help Squidoo Help YOU -

For now, my best advice is to just avoid the weight loss topic for a lens.  It is just not clear to me what might be ok in Squidoo’s eyes and I don’t want anyone to spend time making content that they might lose.

Only Nine Links On a Lens?

This one is partly true.  Yes, there will be a limit of nine links max on a lens as of mid-July- but that is links to the SAME DOMAIN…. NOT nine links total.

Personally, I think it should be a max of nine links to the same web page.  I can’t think of a single reason why ANY lens should have any more than nine links to the same exact web page on it.  However, I CAN see instances where more than nine links to a domain could be necessary.

My Squidoo Help Lens has a TON of links to the same domain – to PotPieGirl.com – BUT, they are all deep links to individual Squidoo help posts here on my blog.  It’s a big ol’ lens that has a ton of info on it…. and a ton of links to the same domain.

Now, because that PotPieGirl Squidoo account was awarded Giant Squid status in September of 2007, that out-bound link limit does not apply to that lens.  However, it WILL apply to my other Squidoo accounts.

How To Help Squidoo Help YOU -

Look, if you have more than nine links on one little lens and each link goes to the same exact web page, you are being overly-promotional and you know it.  I don’t care if you use domain forwarding, link masking, or any other form of link cloaking – if you click the text link and the same page loads in the readers browser more than nine times, you need to change it.

‘Nuff said

This Is Another “Squidoo Slap”!

No, it’s not.  Like many other long-time Squidoo lensmasters, we lived thru a true “slap” – and this is not it.  A “slap” is something that Google does TO Squidoo.  Google hasn’t done a thing.  Squidoo is making these policy changes on their own.

During the real “Squidoo Slap” in mid 2007, Google started hating on Squidoo since there were so many lenses that would frame in other web pages (for example, the listing in Google said the lens was about basket weaving, but when you opened the lens, the lensmaster had used an <iframe> to frame in a porn site.  This is trickery and Google wants no part of a site that does that to readers.

Squidoo did a lot to clean up after that slap and Squidoo became a really powerful site that is loved by Google as a result.  Squidoo wants to KEEP that Google love – hence the reason for these impending policy changes.

How To Help Squidoo Help YOU -

Gather your information about the Squidoo policy changes carefully.  In short, don’t believe everything you read – find out for yourself THEN make your own informed decision.  I feel strongly that those that play by the rules and stick with Squidoo thru these changes will be very pleased with the results.

My Questions About The Squidoo Policy Changes

As I’ve mulled over the official info from Squidoo and tried to interpret it the best I can, I found myself with some recurring questions.

1. WHO will be locking lenses that violate the new Squidoo policies?

I know this question might seem silly, but I am curious.  I know a lot of lenses will be locked once the lensmaster tries to re-publish, but what about the lenses that get locked via a visual review?

I’m not a conspiracy theory type of person, but let’s look at this way… If I am playing in a golf tournament, I shouldn’t be on the rules committee.  If I am in a beauty contest (cough cough), I shouldn’t be a judge, too.

2. WHO will be performing the hand-reviews?

With all the policy changes and talk of asking to have domains white-listed and alllllllll that stuff, there will be a ton more hand-review requests.  It is already stated to allow 30 days for a hand-review now.  In order for Squidoo to keep up, WHO will be doing these hand-reviews?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am so appreciative of anyone that volunteers their time to work on managing the Squidoo site.  These are an awesome group of folks that make Squidoo that much better than a lot of other sites.  But peer-review in the situation of hand-reviewing a lens, or locking a lens may not be the best idea (if that is what is going to happen).

Just like the bad marketers ruined some good topics on Squidoo for the rest of us, isn’t it possible that one “bad apple” in the volunteer hand-review team with self-serving motives could cause some bad damage?  For some folks, just having a lens locked and out of reach can be financially rough for the lensmaster.  I’d hate to risk that being done to a lensmaster on purpose.- or to even be perceived that way.

Sorry for saying it out loud, but I think it needs to be said in the spirit of transparency and good-faith.  A lot of people spend a lot of time working to put good content on the Squidoo site…

3.  If Squidoo aims to be less of a target by “not wanted” marketers, why does SquidAholic.com exist?

Sure, for the ethical lensmasters, SquidAholic is a nifty tool.  But, for the not-so-eithical marketer, it is a tool that shows which lenses are doing the best, the back links, the traffic each day, and a lot of other things that could be used for purposes that do NOT help the Squidoo site.

As much as I personally would hate to see the tool go, I know that just having Squidaholic out there for public view and analysis opens the Squidoo site up to more of the type of lenses they do not want.

4. Why isn’t there a dynamic list of new lenses on the Squidoo.com homepage?

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with the Squidoo policy changes, but it is something I’ve always wanted to know.

Google finds new articles at EzineArticles.com so quickly, and I think it’s because of the homepage links to the newly published content.  Why doesn’t Squidoo do this, too?  Seems to me that this would be awesome for Google and other search engines to find new content on the site, wouldn’t it?

Anyway…. back on topic….

My Final Thoughts About The Policy Changes

Ok, they probably aren’t my FINAL thoughts since I have a funny feeling we will be talking about this more here at PotPieGirl.com.  But, let’s sum up this initial post for now.

We are all accountable for our own content.  You know a crappy lens when you see one.  Now, I don’t mean a lens that has content you don’t like or isn’t written the best, but instead, one of those lenses that screams “CLICK HERE!” at you and offers no real value to the reader on it’s own.

Don’t be that kind of marketer.

It’s a funny thing about online content that is helpful.  If you really relax and learn how to give to the reader, and learn how to get that content found, things work out A-OK.

– If you take out all the links on your lens, do YOU think that your lens still helps someone?  I’m not asking if you think it’s pretty…do you feel your content helps others?  Are you sharing with your readers….or just trying to take?

– Do YOU feel your lens content makes the Squidoo site better?  Or, are you just throwing some content on the site in hopes that it will do well because it is on a high-authority site?

– Are you checking in Google BEFORE you make a lens?  Seriously, when you think of a topic, are you going to Google any searching the already indexed lenses that are already on that topic or keyword?

Simply go to Google and type in:

site:squidoo.com your keyword/your product/your topic/etc

If there are already hundreds or thousands of lenses on that keyword or topic, don’t do it.  Trust me, you will feel like you are repeatedly beating your head against a brick wall trying to get that one lens to rank and do well for you.  Don’t make all this harder than it has to be  =)

First off, you shouldn’t be working so unbelievably hard to get your content to rank on a site that you do not own.  Secondly, it is better for you and for Squidoo if you find the openings in the long-tail keywords where there is NOT already a ton of lenses (as long as it is an ok topic on Squidoo).

Work really hard on YOUR sites where YOU make the rules.  Relying on sites you do not own comes with risks.  These site owners have no obligation to give you a head start on policy changes the way Squidoo so graciously did.

If you do NOT already have your own sites, it’s ok!  Trust me, it is MORE than ok to start out on Squidoo – it’s how *I* got started!  Free-to-use sites like Squidoo offer an amazing opportunity for ANYONE to make some money online.  When you’re new, getting some money to finally start coming IN is a huge battle – and sites like Squidoo allow you to do it for FREE.

If it wasn’t for Squidoo and my One Week Marketing Action Plan, I’m not sure I would’ve made it to where I am today…and I really like where I am today.  Oh, and just for the record, One Week Marketing does not only apply to Squidoo – it can be used on any free site where affiliate marketing is allowed (it’s just that Squidoo happens to be the most welcoming and effective site that I have found).

All this said, it all comes down to the same “rules” as when we were kids.  If you don’t like the rules in one sandbox, get your toys and move on to another sandbox – or….. make your OWN sandbox  =)

I’m going to stop rambling on this topic and allow y’all to share your own thoughts and concerns.  I really appreciate the feedback and insight here and in our thread on the Wealthy Affiliate forum…. thank you!!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Squidoo Policy Changes

One of the most common questions I get about Squidoo is how to add a picture that is a link on a  lens.  Adding images to Squidoo lenses is really important – people love pictures, and pictures can add so much more dimension to your online content.  Also, being able to make that image a link to your website or make it an affiliate link to a product can be very effective for your Squidoo marketing efforts.  So, let’s walk thru the steps to take to get a clickable picture link on your lens.

How To Add a Picture Link To a Lens

Since the PotPieGirl house is a little chaotic as we prepare for our trip to see Mickey Mouse, I invited Bryan Kraemer from GetStartedMarketing.com over to do a guest post for us.  Bryan is one of my long-time readers.  He and I agree on most things… except college football.  Bless his heart, he is a Kentucky fan (gasp!)

Above all, Bryan has had great success following my One Week Marketing Action Plan.  In fact, he recently started helping others with their own One Week Marketing campaigns, too.

He is a great teacher and a really great guy (aside from that Kentucky thing…lol).

So, let’s welcome Bryan to PotPieGirl.com and enjoy his step by step tutorial for adding images and clickable images to a Squidoo lens.

*******************************

Adding Images and Clickable Images For Squidoo

Hello PotPieGirl readers, this is Bryan from GetStartedMarketing.com and I am extremely excited to get the opportunity to be a guest blogger here on PotPieGirl.com. I have been working online part time for a few years now, quietly building my niche marketing/ OneWeekMarketing campaigns one at a time.

I still hold down a “day job” (for now!) but have been working hard using these bum marketing methods to build a steady online paycheck in the evenings and on weekends. I am married to a wonderful wife (who puts up with my late nights on the computer) and we live in the northern section of Kentucky, near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Like many (or most!) of you, finding a way to pay some bills, increase the savings account, and one day “fire the boss” is my motivation in working online. I have been fortunate to know and learn from great people online for several years now, and I can tell you, the methods from One Week Marketing DO work, and work quite well IF you stick with it and work work work. The rewards are tremendous.

Today I want to share with you something that comes up frequently when I am talking to fellow online marketers, and it is one of the key components that I teach those who are in my coaching program to use One Week Marketing & other bum marketing methods to make money online. That topic is “How to Add a Clickable Image to Your Squidoo Lens.”

A Tutorial on Adding A Clickable Image To Your Squidoo Lens

Adding images is an important part of any lens. Readers love images and they can play a huge role in drawing that emotional response we want to create as online marketers. Adding images that a reader can click on and be taken to an affiliate landing page is even better!

So, pencils sharp – lets get started!

Did you know you are not limited to the images that you directly upload to your lens modules? You can actually insert a picture anywhere on a lens if you know the right html code.

The only catch is you need to host these images somewhere other than Squidoo. There are a few places to host images that are free to use.

I use PhotoBucket.com – it’s free and super easy to use and is what I recommend.

Step 1: Open a PhotoBucket.com Account & Get Your Image on PhotoBucket: Say you want to make your clickable image an ebook cover for a program you are promoting. The easiest thing to do is to upload the ebook cover right from the affiliates page of the website to your PhotoBucket account.

Simply Right Click on the Image you want to save from the affiliate website or photo directory page (make sure it is not copyrighted!), select “Properties” and copy the URL from the properties box:

Right Click – Properties

Highlight and “copy” that URL circled red

Paste that URL where it tells you too on your PhotoBucket page.

Hit Upload Button, and Save. Step one complete!

Step 2: Open up Squidoo and go to your lens in Edit mode. Open your Text Module edit screen and copy/paste the following code into your text Squidoo module:

<a href=”http://www.yourwebsite.com“><img src=”http://www.yoursite.com/yourpicture.jpg“></a>

Step 3: Replace the “http://www.yourwebsite.com” with the URL of where you want the visitor to go when they click the image. For most of us, this will be our affiliate hoplink. For PotPieGirls One Week Marketing, the code looks like this:

<a href=”http://YourID.potpiegirl.hop.clickbank.net“> (Where YourID = Your ClickBank ID).

NOTE: Sometimes you will need to delete and re-type the “quotation” marks after you copy/paste to your lens. Some copy/paste will make them act weird, and by simply deleting and retyping the “quotes” it fixes the issue.

Step 4: Replace the “http://www.yoursite.com/yourpicture.jpg” with the location of your image on your PhotoBucket account.

PhotoBucket makes finding this information SUPER easy. It is right here on your screen where you image is stored:

Copy and paste that url from the IMG Code Line – excluding the [IMG] at the beginning and end of that code.

Note: You may need to delete and retype the quotes when you paste to your lens, just like before. Its weird, I know.

Your final code will look something like this:

<a href=”http://YourID.potpiegirl.hop.clickbank.net“><img src=”http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv211/YOURID/21bFNi1qljL_SL160_.jpg” ></a>

THATS IT!

Save your module, and you now have clickable images in your Squidoo lens! Pretty cool stuff, and a super easy way to add more power to your lenses and One Week Marketing campaigns. You can also add other pieces of custom code to give your image a title, or to align it right, center, or left on your lens.

Important: Make sure you test your image to make sure it works correctly before promoting it!

About GetStartedMarketing.com

I briefly mentioned earlier that I have started offering coaching as well as custom lens creation for anyone who wants to learn more details how to build a lens, get it to rank in Google, get clicks, and if things go right, some sales. I decided to spend my limited time providing help to others because I have had so many wonderful people, such as PotPieGirl, take their time to help me get going.

I invite you to visit my site, GetStartedMarketing.com to read about how I worked with a new internet marketer named David, and before we even got to Day 5 of a OWM campaign, he had his first ever sale! It is a really inspiring story.

Get the details on his experience with me, and check out my offer for coaching or custom campaign creation just for you by visiting here:

GetStartedMarketing.com

A big thank you to Jennifer, and all the great readers here at PotPieGirl.com!

To Our Success,

Bryan

GetStartedMarketing.com

**************************************

Thank you, Bryan!

If you need help with your One Week Marketing campaigns or just want some Squidoo lenses made for you, I encourage you to check out Bryan’s services here.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

How To Add a Clickable Image To a Squidoo Lens

RedGage is a new social bookmarking type service with a twist.  Apparently, when you bookmark your own online content at RedGage, you get paid for views of that bookmark.  Make any sense?  Confused me, too, so I thought I’d check it out.  Within my first 42 minutes of submitting a link book mark to my “How To Sell An eBook With PayPal” post yesterday, I made $5.80 on RedGage.  It appears I got some sort of bonus from the site owners or editors or something (not too sure yet), but it definitely got my interest and made me take a look closer at this RedGage site.  Here’s what I’ve learned…

What Is RedGage?

From what I’ve read (see the current Google search results for RedGage here), RedGage has been in development for the last 18 months and has just been opened to the public.  RedGage has various advertisements on their site and they share that ad revenue with their users.  There is a certain amount RedGage will pay it’s user per 1,000 views of a bookmark of your own shared content.   The amount per 1,000 views  is dynamic based on their earnings from what I can gather.

For my bookmark to my blog post, I simply linked to it via their upload tool, gave it a title, some tags, and a description – then I got to choose a thumbnail image and submitted it.

It shows on the RedGage site as only what I submitted in my upload with a link to my original content.  Google appears to crawl and index these little RedGage bookmarks and it appears the links are NOT no-follow links (which is super nice).

This is how my RedGage link for my sell eBooks with PayPal bookmark looks:

It was super easy to do and it appears to be a quality bookmark and maybe a quality back link, too (still checking in to this).

As you can see from that image, I somehow got a nice little $5.80 bonus for sumthin’….lol. Have no idea why, but thanks, RedGage!  I also received some nice feedback from within the RedGage community which I really appreciate (thanks y’all!).

What Can You Submit To RedGage?

First off, from what I’ve read, you can only submit your OWN content to RedGage.  To me, this is another nice twist to RedGage being that other sites seem to frown on submitting your own content.

It appears as if you can submit links (like I did with my post), video, images, and blogs.  I’m still trying to figure out how the blog thing works so I can’t comment on that one yet.  All the submitted blogs seem to be formatted the same so I’m not sure if it’s a copy/paste job of your blog post or what.  All I can say is be sure to add a trackback url so you get a link to your original content.

There also seems to be a way to set  RedGage up so your Blogger and Wordpress blogs, as well as your Flickr, FaceBook, and YouTube content get auto-added to RedGage.  I can see this being a nice way for additional exposure of your content so I plan to look into this.

You can also get RedGage to broadcast your content to your FaceBook, Twitter, and FriendFeed accounts – so again, that looks to be a good way to generate additional exposure.

You also get a profile page which Google does pick up (and they do seem to earn Page Rank).  You can link to your sites, and at the time of this writing, the links to your site(s) are NOT no-follow.

Here is my profile page – PotPieGirl on RedGage

How Do You Get Paid By RedGage?

As I said, the earnings per 1,000 views vary – right now it looks like the rate for 1,000 views is $1.07 (USD). This info is found under your “Account” tab once you are logged in.  So, at a little over a buck earned for every 1,000 views, I don’t see anyone getting rich doing this, but to me, it’s still a neat idea.

I don’t know about you, but I’m cool with free money 

Once you hit your first $25, you can request to be paid.  RedGage will then mail you a Visa gift card.  Payments after your original payment are loaded to that gift card (or at least that’s how I understood it).

If I did the math right (and it is HIGHLY possible that I didn’t…lol) – if you receive 43,925 views to all your RedGage content, you would earn enough to buy a copy of One Week Marketing.  So, if you need a free way to earn enough to get your OWN action plan, there ya go  =)

My Initial Thoughts About RedGage

I like the concept of RedGage.  I think their two “twists” of being able to freely submit your own content AND get paid when people look at your submissions is a great idea.

I have a feeling that RedGage will be hit by those that might not have the best interest of RedGage at heart (as commonly happens with sites like these), but being that there is money on the line, I feel that RedGage will be quick to delete accounts of those that are using the site inappropriately.

Also, for those that think, “Wow, I’ll just sit there and click to view my OWN submissions over and over….” – forget it, it won’t work.  ANd if you DO happen to get away with it for a short time, you’ll get banned.  They make this very clear on the site.

I did also submit my Squidoo Help Lens to RedGage and it took fine.  Hopefully, Squidoo users will take advantage of this opportunity to get more exposure for their lenses – but I also hope they don’t ABUSE it.

Since I just signed up for RedGage and started using it a little bit earlier today, it is too soon to give a whole lot of quality feedback.  I do like the concept and I wish the site owners and investors the best of luck.  Hopefully my post today will send them some new folks their way and get some more activity going there.

Signing Up For RedGage

I had one little issue when signing up with RedGage.  I signed up and a little window opened offering to let me sign in and enter my confirmation code.  Instead, I just went to my email and clicked the confirmation link.

BUT – the link didn’t confirm me.  I had to copy the confirmation code they gave me via email and paste it in the box for it to take.  Not a big deal at all – just a heads up in case it happens to you, too.

When you sign up, there is a place to type who referred you – please type PotPieGirl.  I don’t think this has any earnings potential but I do think I can see who is in my network or something.  The only way I can find out is if someone types me in as their referrer…lol.

While they do have a “refer a friend” area where you can email someone an invitation, that is not practical for me.  I’d be there for DAYS entering thousands of email addresses…..lol.  Just a note to the RedGage staff…. a referral link sure would be nice 

Anyway, go here to sign up for RedGage.com, type in potpiegirl as your referrer (please), and then let me know what you think.

Click here for a full “Getting Started” tutorial for RedGage if you’d like more info and/or help.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

RedGage – Money-Making Social BookMarking

Oh yes, this video totally shows how to find low-competition niche keywords for your One Week Marketing campaigns.  Not only that – this technique shows you how to find keywords for your Ezine Articles, Hub Pages, USFreeAds, BlogSpot Blogger blogs, GoArticles, or any other free-to-use website you can think of.  And we’re talking keywords you can actually RANK FOR in Google!!  I know there are as many ways to do keyword research as there are internet marketers, but here is how to find niche keywords PotPieGirl Style!

Keyword Marketing Research for Niche Affiliate Marketing

Throughout the last few blog posts, I’ve been sharing videos with some great pointers for getting your One Week Marketing lenses found in the Google index.  We covered a lot of important aspects of why your lenses won’t rank….why Google won’t keep them indexed (or index them at all)….and why Google won’t even show your lens as a search return.

If you haven’t watched these 3 previous videos here at PotPieGirl.com, do so now.  That way, you’ll have a clue what I’m rambling about today  =)

Intro:  The Basic Structure of Making Money Online For Free

1.  Squidoo Doesn’t Work Anymore (is Squidoo still effective?  Video)

2. Squidoo Keyword Research Video

3.  Web Page Indexing and You Video (Why Your Lens Won’t Rank in Google)

What good is a web page if no one can find it?

Seriously, why even bother making ANY web page if the number 1 source of traffic (Google) won’t send traffic to it?  We are affiliate marketers.  Our job is to create useful content online that recommends a solution to our readers (via our affiliate link, of course).

We don’t SELL – we get found and then we recommend.  However, it doesn’t matter what we recommend as a solution to someone’s problem if we can’t found, right?

Now, we COULD work our tails off dropping links and Twittering our lenses to death in attempt to get SOMEONE to come see it… OR…

We could just create good,quality web page content that Google falls in love with and then sends traffic TO us without any effort on our part.

Passive Traffic.  Passive Earnings.

That’s what I’m talking about!    =)

PotPieGirl’s Secret Keyword Finding Tool

Yes, I have a secret tool I use that helps me easily, and QUICKLY, discover keyword phrases that get my own One Week Marketing campaigns off to a healthy start to a love affair with Google.

I’ve talked about this software a few times, but I don’t push it.  First off, people yell at me when they think I am trying to :::gasp:::: sell something….lol

Secondly, this type of software is only for those that are serious about their affiliate marketing campaigns and ready to invest in their online business.  I totally understand when people aren’t ready to invest whether it’s due to financial constraints or lack of belief – and I am not asking anyone to do anything they are not prepared to do or cannot afford to do (that is my super nice way of asking some people to PLEASE stop yelling at me when I talk about or recommend something that costs money.  Thank you!)

Now, if you are in a place in your affiliate marketing efforts where you’re ready to roll AND you do have the resources to get things that leverage your time and effectiveness, you will love this.

Who Will This Keyword Research Technique Work For?

If you make online content, this software is for you. Especially if you are using free-to-use websites like Squidoo, HubPages, Ezine Articles, USFreeAds (Bum Marketers, are you listening?), GoArticles, Zimbio, Blogger blogs and on and on and on.

For One Week Marketing Action Plan followers, this software is a DREAM tool.  It is the one tool that I would not be without when creating a One Week Marketing campaign.

Just watch and see what only one LITTLE feature of this software can do for you.

Perhaps now you’ll see how I can crank out my campaigns so quickly….(yup, the proverbial cat is now out of the bag…haha!)

Finding Niche Keywords – FAST (the video)

Pretty cool stuff  there, isn’t it?  While keyword research is always part guessing-game, this software gives me even better educated guesses and gets me creating my online content SOOOOOOOO much faster.  And THAT is the part that makes me money.

That video was 5 minutes long.  In it, you saw me pick a VERY high gravity Clickbank product and find a handful of keyword phrases that I can rank for using free-to-use websites like Squidoo.com.

During that video, I went thru over 200 keyword phrases and was able to pick one AND find an available Squidoo url to be able to start making my lens.  All in 5 MINUTES.

Trust me, I remember the days of typing away and searching til my eyes hurt on Google – and I don’t miss it one little bit.

You can try the software I use for FREE for 7 days thru this link – SENukeFree.com.

If you are a One Week Marketing user, take the free 7 days and at least TRY IT.

This software does SO much that goes hand-in-hand with One Week Marketing.

Do You HAVE To Have This Software For One Week Marketing to Work For You?

No, of course not.  I stand by the One Week Marketing Action Plan as-is 125%.

I made a new campaign last night because I came across something I wanted to try.  It was about 3:30 am (yup, I’m a nightowl…lol).  By about 11 am this morning when I checked, everything I did was already in the Google index.  I went straight by the One Week Marketing guide – well, I kinda half-assed it because I was super tired – but even half-assed, it still works like a charm IF you pay attention to the things I’ve been talking about in the previous videos.

Site saturation is VERY important to check BEFORE starting a OWM campaign.  It can make a B-I-G difference in the ultimate success of your free marketing campaigns.

SENukeFree.com cuts down on your research time majorly.  I’m not hard-selling here.  I truly don’t think there is any need to.  Just that quick 5 minute video speaks VOLUMES about the time that you can save and the ultimate potential of your campaigns.

Ok, ’nuff said from me.

I have GOT to do some laundry.  This past week or so has been crazy busy and the laundry is less like a pile and much more like a MOUNTAIN.  In fact, I coulda swore I just saw a golf shirt walk by and put itself in the washing machine!

I wish they made software for laundry!  hahahahahaha!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Finding Niche Keywords FAST – Video

The past couple video posts at PotPieGirl.com have been regarding the effectiveness of Squidoo.com and getting those lenses indexed. I showed how doing a little research before ever making a lens on Squidoo (or a web page on ANY site for that matter) can really help your chances of getting your web page indexed. One of the questions I am getting is, “Why should I care how many OTHER lenses are already targeting my keywords?” Today’s video will show you why you should REALLY care about other web pages on the same site that are already indexed – and they are targeting your keywords.

Google and Web Page Indexing of Squidoo Lenses

Lots of great feedback and questions from the previous video posts – thank you! And a BIG thank you to all who actually liked my very unimpressive graphic and video skills =)

Thank goodness I don’t have to be a hi-tech computer genius to make a living online or else I’d be in a world of trouble!

Alrighty…

Today we are going to talk about WHY you should really care how many other web pages on Squidoo.com are already in the Google index for your keywords. In fact, this is true for all web sites, but it is most important when trying to rank a web page on any free Web 2.0 property that relies on user-generated content to build its site.

Before you watch this video, make sure you’ve watched the other videos in this series so you’ll know what the heck we’re talking about.

1. Squidoo Doesn’t Work Anymore?

2. Squidoo Keyword Research Video

Keyword Research and User-Generated Content Sites

*** The keyword research technique I use that I talk about in this video (the one that gives me the rankings you saw), is the keyword research technique I showed in this blog post – read Keyword Marketing Research (Keyword Research – How I Do It).

*** A bunch of questions about this technique are answered in this post – and the keyword research tools I use can be found in this post (My Top 5 Free Keyword Research Tools)

*** My entire method of researching keywords is shown in great detail in my Keyword Research 101 guide that is available at LuLu.com.

*** Since researching keywords is SO important to the success of online marketing campaigns, there is a special offer to get my Keyword Research 101 Guide at a big discount when you get my One Week Marketing Action Plan.

Wait! What IS a User-Generated Content Site?

A user-generated content site is a website that is built entirely by other people adding their content. Think YouTube, for example. That site is free for others to use and is built entirely from others submitting their videos. Each video submission creates a web page on YouTube.com

Squidoo is a user-generated content site, too. The site is free for us to use and make our own web pages. In exchange, we are building a website that belongs to someone else. HubPages and many other sites are out there that work on this same platform.

Article directories, like EzineArticles.com and AssociatedContent.com, are also user-generated content sites.

While any of the above sites could have thousands and thousands of web pages on a similar (or the same) topic, Google will still only pick one or two pages from these sites to show for a search result. In order for YOUR page on these sites to be shown by Google, you need to check the keyword competition on that site BEFORE making a web page.

Not doing this could very well mean your new web page gets lost in the masses never to receive Google traffic.

- Check the site you are using for keyword competition
- Check Google for keyword competition
- Decide on your keyword(s)
- THEN create your web page

You will find life online to be MUCH easier if you find windows of opportunity instead of walls of resistance.

I’m not saying it is impossible to rank for popular keywords on Squidoo. It IS possible, but it will take a lot more effort and a lot more time. Remember, you are competing against web pages on that site that already have authority with Google, are already indexed in Google, and already have back links to them.

However, if you give Google something new…and something that might be their only choice when returning a page from the Squidoo site, you could see more immediate results.

Note to One Week Marketing Action Plan users: This is REALLY important for you to do before creating your campaign. I have had many emails from folks who are having a hard time with Google and their campaigns. Most of the time, I can do one quick check (the site:squidoo.com check) and see what the problem is.

Now, if you already HAVE a campaign that is in one of these super competitive keyword markets on Squidoo, don’t do something crazy like delete the lenses or something. Instead, be sure to get good back links and be patient.

I’d also like to mention that the best keyword research in the world won’t do a thing if your web page isn’t a good experience for the reader – and it isn’t TARGETED to what the user is looking for.

Web page indexing is all cool and fun, but it still comes down to how your page appeals to the reader who finds you.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this video up and posted. We have had HORRIBLE weather in Atlanta today and I’ve had to stop a few times due to lightning and storms.

Have a great weekend!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Web Page Indexing and You (Video)

Yesterday, I did a quick video about the effectiveness of Squidoo these days since I have been hearing lots of “Squidoo doesn’t work anymore!” comments thru-out my travels on the internet. In that video, I showed a technique I use to get keyword ideas for Squidoo lenses that are original to the Squidoo site (which should help the chance of your lenses being indexed…and STAYING indexed). Now that there are over 1.5 MILLION pages from squidoo.com found within the Google index, it more important than ever to give Google something unique from the Squidoo site. Prepare to be DAZZLED by my incredible video and graphic skills once again…

How To Find Keywords For a New Squidoo Lens

Before we start, if you have NOT watched yesterdays video about the death of Squidoo, please watch it first (or else this video may not make as much sense to you).

First…. I get to ramble about my emergency today….

I meant to post this video earlier today, but I had an emergency. Yes, an EMERGENCY!!!

The TV in my office just stopped working. Blank screen…nothing..nada… a goner.

Now don’t laugh… this is serious (said in my best “mean mom” voice…haha!)

Yes, this IS an emergency…at least THIS week it is. This is Masters Week. If you follow PGA golf at all, you know this is THE week that golfers wait for all year long. No TV in the office meant I either work… or watch The Masters…but I couldn’t do both.

During this one week of the year, golf would totally beat out work , so I knew I had to take immediate action. Ok, golf beats work most of the time anyway…but very rarely golf on TELEVISION =)

Nobody panic! All is right now. I went and got a new flat screen for the office….and now I may NEVER come out….haha!

OK – my rambling is over now…

Let’s talk about keyword for a Squidoo lens.

Better yet, let’s talk about finding keywords that give you a better chance of getting and keeping your lens in the Google index. Squidoo is a BIG site…. 1.5 million pages or more. We have to find a way to get keywords that DON’T bore Google… we need to give Google something unique.

In short, we need to give Google a REASON to index our lenses.

Here is a more in-depth look at one keyword research technique I use before ever making a lens on Squidoo.

Squidoo lenses still work, IF you’re not doing the same ol’ thing that has already been done thousands of times on the squidoo.com site. Not only is this better for the Squidoo site, it will also make your effort of getting indexed and ranked MUCH MUCH easier.

For those of you that have lenses that are having a hard time getting love from Google, have you looked into what kind of competition you have within the Squidoo site?

Does Squidoo Still Work?

Squidoo is still PLENTY effective, BUT – only as effective as the keyword research put into making the lens and the uniqueness of the content. A little research before ever making a lens can go a long, long way.

In fact, this same concept happens on many big sites that have user-generated content. This is not unique to Squidoo.com. I remember doing this same basic concept for my research when writing articles for Associated Content. The articles that had topics/keywords that were NOT already covered on the AC site did much, much better.

Your thoughts?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Squidoo Keyword Research Video

If I had a dime for everytime I’ve read that on the internet… wow, I’d be a VERY rich woman! In the two plus years I’ve been part of the Squidoo community, the claims of “Squidoo is Dead!” have been never-ending. First off, I want to say this… if these reports of the death of Squidoo keep the spammers away, then yeah, move along….Squidoo is a goner. BUT, if YOU are genuinely working on the Squidoo.com site, let’s talk for a minute and maybe I can shed some light on why your lenses aren’t being picked up by Google and/or staying in the Google index. (yup… I’ve got another PotPieGirl video! Fancy graphics and all! haha!)

Perhaps THIS Is Why Your Lens Won’t Rank in Google?

It’s well after 1am for me and I am BEAT…. like, totally worn out. My hands are killing me from typing as I again made the futile attempt to catch up on email. I THOUGHT I was doing pretty well today – that is, until I got to Wealthy Affiliate forum and saw my Private Messages…lol

Just look:

EIGHTY-THREE private messages! Holy Smokes! Even if each message “only” takes two MINUTES to open, read, respond and send – thats, what? 166 minutes…. almost 3 HOURS! Oh boy, do I sure need a clone! I answered a ton today, but if by chance YOUR message or email is still out there, please be patient with me. I am truly honored that so many folks want to have a minute or two of my time…and I do the very, very best I can.

Ok, back on topic….

So…

Is Squidoo Dead?

I made this video tonight (uhhh… this morning) to answer that very question. My hope is that this video will shed some light and spread some insight as to what is happening at Squidoo.com.

I imagine a follow up video will be needed here. The technique I use was skimmed over since I was short on time since I keep all my videos under 5 minutes (time is precious, right? And who wants to listen to ME ramble endlessly? haha!)

Aside from a follow up video…. does THIS video shed any light on what is happening over at Squidoo or to YOUR lenses?

Do YOU think Squidoo is dying… or dead? Or do you think Squidoo is STARVING for some original content for Google to consume?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Squidoo Doesn’t Work Anymore

Made a fun video tonight. Ok, it was fun for ME…lol! I wanted to share my basic outline for making money online using free sites…..and I wanted to share some really cool free stuff with you. WARNING: Be prepared to be totally blown AWAY at my hi-tech, super ninja graphic skills…or not. I’m betting on the “or not” vote – but hey, *I* had fun making it!

The Video the Masses are DYING to See

(or not)

Who knew I was so multi-talented? Just look at the fancy dancy image I created!

(note: I am a naturally “quiet” talker. I TRY to speak up, but you still might need to turn your volume up)

Ok, in the video, I talk about getting some cool free stuff.

Get the free stuff here

This is something you should be working towards. I also know of many of you that are already THERE. Listen to what he has to say =)

(warning: time sensitive. I think it will be gone 4-8-2009 sometime mid afternoon here on the East Coast of the good ol USA)

Also, if you want to read all the details for the free method to making money online that I outlined in this video, all the complete details with questions and answers are in this forum.

Ok, believe it or not… that’s ALL from me!

Have a great day and keep moving forward!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

I Am a Video GENIUS!

For anyone working online in the organic market (the “make money online FREE” market), it is imperative that you understand back links and utilize an effective and an efficient back linking strategy.  I can’t tell you how many emails and forums posts I read with questions about this.  Bottom line is – if you are going to make web pages on the internet, you MUST understand links and how they work… and most importantly, what they mean to Google.

Back Links and Google

Here is a VERY common scenario, whether it is a forum post, an email to me, or anywhere within the internet marketing arena…

“I made a great Squidoo lens.  It’s really good looking….reads nice, too.  I spent a LOT of time making it, but it still won’t rank in Google!!!  What did I do wrong on my web page??”

Did you know that getting a web page to rank well in Google takes about 20% effort ON that page and 80% effort OFF that page?  Yes, you have to get OFF your web page or lens to do things to help your lens rank highly.

So, let’s back up for a minute, ok?

Let’s all STOP being internet marketers for a moment.

You are now a restaurant owner

POOF!  I just waved my magic wand and made you the proud owner of a brank new Italian restaurant ( for the record, I am using an Italian restaurant here because I am hungry and I am SO in the mood for spaghetti and meatballs! Yum!!! ==>>>>)

So, you have your business plan, you hired a contractor to build you the BEST Italian Restaurant EVER.  It is a FABULOUS eatery with all kinds of whistles and bells…. great service…the whole she-bang.

You open the doors on your Grand Opening day and…

No one shows up.  Yup, total ghost town with tumbleweeds blowing by and all…

Well what the heck happened?  You spent all this time making the best restaurant EVER…and no one comes to eat?  How can that be?

Even in the “real world” you have to get OUT of your place of business and go TO the customers….or else they don’t ever know about it.  For our example restaurant, we’d probably put something in the paper, advertise in other local publications, call our friends, put flyers on cars, and maybe even doing a neighborhood mailing, too.  You have to get out there and TELL people about your business or else they will never know it is the best Italian Restaurant EVER – and then tell OTHERS about you.

Now, if you can follow along with my weird way of thinking here….  each ad you placed, every phone call you made, every flyer you put out and each postcard you mailed is like a LINK to your restaurant.  It enabled people to know about you…to FIND you…. and,best yet, to be able to tell OTHERS about you.

I can’t tell you how many SEO clients I have talked with that have spent 10’s of thousands of dollars for someone to build them a FANTASTIC website…..and it’s gets absolutely NO traffic.  These clients think their web developer ripped them off or something when nothing is further from the truth.

Just like you would hire a contractor to build your restaurant, you hire a web designer to build your website.  Neither the contractor nor the web designer is in charge of getting customers for you, right?  Right.

Ok, Now.. Let’s Talk About Google

If you’ve ever read the history of Google (and you SHOULD read this), you will learn some things about the original intention of the (now-called) Google algorithm and it’s patented Page Rank formula.  I want to point out one very important little snippet from that history:

“Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine”

Google is a very fancy, and very complicated, popularity contest.

So, answering why your lens or web page isn’t ranking well in a very simple way…

You don’t rank well because you’re page isn’t popular enough in the eyes of Google.

Ranking Well in Google

If you want your lens or web page or article to rank well in Google, you gotta get some back links.    Here is a simple rule:

1. Think of the keyword phrase you want your lens or page to rank for in Google.

2. Build links TO your lens or page with those words as the anchor text (the words someone clicks to get TO your lens or page).

If we take away everything complicated, it IS as simple as that.  Build a page, put 20% of your effort into that page.  Get OFF your page and go get some back links.

How Many Back Links?

Naturally, the next question is… “How many backlinks do I need?”  Sorry, but there is no ONE answer for that question.  Every single individual search query has a different answer.  As I talked about in Keyword Research – How I Do It, when doing my keyword research I find out who my real competition is.  Then, like I showed about in Did Google Drop Your Lens?, I let you see how I figure out how many back links I will need to rank well for a specific search query (keyword phrase).

I do it like this:

1. Keyword research

2. How Many Links Do I Need?

3.  Make Lens

4. Get Links

5. Move on to next project

Yes, it is that “simple” if you don’t over-complicate it….and if you’re patient.  Very little happens over-night in Google-land.  Set your pages up and let them “simmer” while you work on something else. I can 100% pinky promise you that staring at a lens, staring at Google, or cleaning up your lens over and over will NOT work to make anything happen faster.

I Uncovered The Bigger Problem

Thing is, I say how “simple” this is… and tell you to “go get back links” and many, many of you are still lost.  The basic fundamental understanding of backlinks is missing.  This is absolutely necessary knowledge to cut it in internet marketing – you must understand back links – all the types of them.  You must understand WHY you are doing them and how to do them properly.

Terms like:

1 way links

2 way links

3 way links

Natural Links

Web Directory Links

Link Exchanges

Social Bookmarking Links

Article Directory Links

Blog Network Links

Buying Links

Press Release Links

Link Bait, and

Linking Services

should ALL be part of your vocabulary – and you need to know which are good links… and which are BAD links to have.  You also need to really understand anchor text and deep links and internal links.  I can’t even put words on how important it is that you have this education.

It will carry you a LONG way and make ranking in Google so much more understandable….and easier.

Best Way To Learn About Back Links

I went on a hunt to find the absolute best resource for learning this very important information so I can be assured that all my readers have access to it.  Nope, I can’t make you read it…and I can’t make you learn it, either…haha!

BUT, if you email or contact me asking:

a. Why won’t my lens/web page rank in Google? , or

b. How many back links do I need?

I will simply refer you to this post  =)  So, if you got this post as a response from me, know two things – one, this is the answer to your question, and two – the solution is right here.  Up to you what you do with it.

I found the best link information I could get my hands on – something that takes you from basic understanding all the way through how to do it properly, and you can get it right here in this link building report.

This is knowledge you must have.  I can’t make it anymore clear than that 

No matter WHAT kind of web pages you are putting online – whether it’s Squidoo lenses, blog post, articles, or your own websites, you need to know this in order to succeed with Google.  And, considering Google has what, 85% or so of the online search market, you need Google.

If you’re doing all this as more than a hobby, get the education you need.  I PROMISE you that it will make a world of difference!

Get the link building report here.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Links, Links, Links…

Found a super video that shows a great and easy way to make links for your Squidoo lenses. Also a nifty idea for getting all your content on your lenses to look great. Ever struggled with making your words bold or underlined in HTML? You will love this video!

Making Links on a Squidoo Lens

A special thanks to Travis from Bum Marketing for making AND sharing this video.  He shows a simple way to make links for your lenses….and to make your words bold and in italics or ANY ol’ way you want the text on your Squidoo pages to look.  It’s as simple as type… then copy/paste.

Gotta love ANYTHING that makes all this internet marketing mumbo jumbo easier!

Don’t forget – if you’re never made a Squidoo lens, and want to learn how, you can get a FREE “How to Make a Squidoo Lens” ebook here.  It’s 50+ pages…and yes, I used lots of pictures and screen shots to make it easier to follow along.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Making Links on a Squidoo Lens (Video)

I am officially a published author!  How cool is that?!?  My first “real book”,  Keyword Research 101 – Understanding Keywords and Uncovering the Hidden Gems, is now available online.  I received my own copy in the mail yesterday and I have to tell you, it is a real “rush” to hold in your hands a book you wrote and created.  (Yes, I know I am very strange…lol)!  This keyword research guide got some GREAT feedback so I decided to do something special with it.

Finding Keywords for Your Squidoo Lens

One of the hardest things to grasp (AND one of the hardest things to TEACH) is keyword research.  Know why?  Simply because keyword research is not an exact science.

I know that some folks say, “search with quotes and get the ones with less than __________ results” and fill in the blank with many varying numbers.  I’ve never been comfortable teaching keyword research techniques that stop there.

There is SO much more to it!

This keyword research guide teaches you how to find your real competition – no matter WHAT market you are in.  Having a clear perspective on what you’ll need to do in order to rank for a certain search term is priceless.  I don’t know about you, but when I was learning all this, I spent HOURS looking for some illusive “perfect keyword” – and they don’t exist in the way many teach us to find them.

I am so proud to offer the keyword research guide to the community.  It’s funny, *I* wrote the thing, but when it came in the mail, I found myself opening it up and reading it again.  There is something about books…turning pages…holding it in your hand… I love it!

With all the modesty I can muster, I have to say, It is a REALLY good guide  =)

What Others Are Saying About Keyword Research 101 From PotPieGirl

“Awesome…Awesome…Awesome!”

“Girlfriend,

I wanna to kiss ya and choke ya at the same time! ;o)

Now that the much needed keyword help is here, how am I supposed to get any sleep tonight!? ;o)”

“OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! … it is worth so much than any price you could put on it!    Thank you so much!  This is awesome!  Great job once again!”

“Hey Jen,

Finished reading the keyword research info you just sent out. I cannot tell you what a HUGE help it was!

You cleared it all up! I sit here calmy typing this on the outside but on the inside I’m jumping up and down screaming ”OH! MY GOSH! I can’t believe how drastically my understanding of this changed overnight!”

This was the perfect supplement to “top off” the OWM Action Plan. THANK YOU!”

“Hello Jennifer,
I just wanted to “Thank you” for putting this keyword research guide together for us. It is an excellent addition to the OWM plan. I learned a few new tricks and found out something I should have checked on before creating my lenses. It worked out in the end but it was nice to be sure about it. Thank you! I hope you are feeling better and Thank you again for this guide. It truly rocks!”

“I love your from-the-heart, refreshing, natural approach.  Guess whose email I open first even if I have 137 of them? I enjoy your spirit even more than your great content.

Keep writing, encouraging and teaching. You are a breath of fresh air on a stodgy Internet.”

“PotPieGirl,

Wow!  Great info as usual. You really overdeliver!.  The OWM course was great and set me on the right path I believe, but this really helped me pick up a couple of nuggets I missed.”

“What a guide!!   You did A Great Job!! From the NewBies out here a Great Big Thank You, from all of us! You have been a wonderful person and I hope this will bring more to you for helping people. I have spent a lot of $$ just to get started and could not find what you really need to succeed online. Then I found You. I know that I wouldn’t have a chance if it wasn’t for YOU!! Thank You Again”

“this guide is so full of valuable information…we are just extremely fortunate that you are even offering it.  For that THANK YOU VERY MUCH.”

“Love the keyword guide. Your attention to detail and explanation is so helpful. I’m looking forward to using it in a new project this week”

“FIRST OFF I HAVE TO SAY  OOOHHH MMMYYY GOOODD !!! … Keyword research as I think you know is the most difficult little beast people struggle with – including me of course,  that stops people from successful campaigns online.  I have thrown away hundreds of pages of information and gone down to quite a few less pages thanks to you.  Since my time away from work right now is very limited and I need real information that works, you have made this more understandable to begin making money.

I have been following your guides etc… for a little while now and starting to use your One Week Marketing Guide and other things.  After a little over a year of using the useless crap from people out there who call themselves “Guru’s” and have scammed me out of tons of money – yes tons, I am so glad to have found you and your honest information to help me get started.”

“I just wanted to thank you for releasing the keyword research guide because I am now confident that I will be  able to achieve my dream of making this IM stuff work! I was actually reading over it AGAIN and it hit me that I should drop u a line just to say thanx! I’m very glad that I bought your OWMP because now I don’t feel lonely. I don’t feel like I’m the only one out there having problems. Your ebooks and correspondence have been nothing short of inspiration for me and eventually I will be able to realize my dream of quitting that 2nd job that I told you about! Thanks PPG!”

“Jennifer,

All I can say is thank you, thank you, and thank you.  I just checked my click bank account and found 2 sales AND finally my first check after 1 year at this.  I am speechless.

I hadn’t checked my account in so long because I was tired of all of the zeros I saw everytime I did check it.  And I didn’t want to keep getting disappointed.  Wow!  I can’t believe it and it only helps me to keep believing that my dreams can come true.  I know this happened in large part to all of the teaching you are giving at pot pie girl and definitely you’re OWM product.  You are a great mentor and I appreciate all you have taught me.

That is enough for right now as I have to get back to creating more lenses..  =)   (I know God’s got a special place planned for you because of how generous, inspiring, and thoughtful you have been to all of us marketing newcomers.)”

You can get either a “real copy” of this keyword research guide delivered right to your door, or an immediate download pdf version here:

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fStoreID=2227125

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Ultimate Keyword Research for Squidoo