Yes, I said it… hot dogs. Today we are going to talk about hot dogs – more importantly, how to SELL hot dogs. What in the world do hot dogs have to do with making money online? Well, actually it has a lot to do with it. Sit back and enjoy another trip into the weird mind of PotPieGirl.

Congrats! You’re a Hot Dog Vendor

Well, it’s been decided that YOU are going to sell hot dogs for a living. You got your hot dog cart…you got the buns and the weenies and all the cool stuff that goes with it. Awesome, now you’re ready to rock and roll.

Selling hot dogs should be easy, right? I mean c’mon, EVERYBODY loves hot dogs, don’t they? All you gotta do is put yourself and your hot dog cart where the people are. Easy.

So, you think about a place like downtown New York City. Tons of people there, right? Should be a breeze to sell a ton of weenies each day.

But wait – there’s also tons of OTHER hot dog vendors in New York City, too, aren’t there? You bet there are!

You’re gonna have to compete… get there early, get a good spot, offer something a little different than the rest of the vendors…..whew, you’re gonna have to like WORK.

Sure, there’s tons of people there and sure, you’ll probably sell a few, but you’re gonna work your tail off, jump up and down, and stay on top of things to get that piece of the market. There are also plenty of vendors there already that have been doing this for YEARS. They know what they’re doing… they know their market. In short, they are established and experienced and just might run your little hot dog business into the ground.

So, okayyyyyy….maybe downtown New York City is not the place for us. Maybe we need to take your hot dog cart to a place where there are a lot of people, but not any other hot dog vendors.

That should be easy, right? If you’re the ONLY hot dog vendor, you shouldn’t have to work so hard, ya think?

Yeah, well what if you find a large group of people somewhere every, single day BUT…..they’re vegetarians.

Think you’ll sell any hot dogs even tho you are the ONLY hot dog vendor for miles?

Not thinkin’ so.

We need to rethink this….

Ok, what if you park your hot dog cart right near a construction site that has a large group of workers? Now, that could work! Only problem is, it’s winter….they aren’t working now, but maybe they’ll come back soon….maybe?

Or maybe you could park your hot dog cart right outside your house…whatcha think? People come by now and then…maybe someone will want a hot dog AND be willing to pay you for it as opposed to going in THEIR house and just cooking one….maybe?

Selling Hot Dogs Is Too Hard!!

Sheeesh, this big idea to sell hot dogs suddenly got tricky. Perhaps it’s too hard and you should just quit before you even got started? You can park that hot dog cart in your garage and make your family eat your hot dog supply for the next 5 years….lol.

Not the answer. Quitting before you even tried is how I define “failure”. Let’s get back on this and make YOU a Hot Dog Tycoon!

So you gather your wits and get out there and take a look around. You suddenly drive past a good-sized high school or college that is right next to a park…and there’s no other hot dog vendor around.

Hmmmmmm……

No, you probably won’t see as many hungry people as you would in New York City, but you definitely will see more hot dog eaters than you would with the group of vegetarians…and you won’t have to wait to SEE if someone shows up as opposed to the construction site….but it could work – with a LOT less work on YOUR part.

These folks are hungry AND they eat hot dogs…you are positioned to be found without having to jump up and down and carry on the BE found.

You put yourself where you can be found by people that are looking for what you’re selling.

Hello? Tap, tap….can anyone hear me?

Put your offer where you can be found by people who want/need your product…and where YOU don’t have to work so hard to BE found.

Hot-Diggity!

Making money online is the same way… especially with affiliate marketing. Sure, those high-gravity Clickbank products are cool…and people are obviously buying them – BUT tons of OTHER affiliates are also SELLING them (New York City).

And yup, you can take that high-gravity product and get it found for a totally unrelated keyword…..so what? (think the vegetarian group). They don’t want what you’ve got so why offer it them?

Or… you could work one itty-bitty keyword that is very relevant, but the search volume is super, super low….and then fuss ’cause you aren’t getting massive traffic and results from that one web page (think the construction site). You can’t MAKE people search for a keyword more than they do. You have no control over search volume. You’d need a group of those itty-bitty keyword pages to have an impact on your sales and traffic-levels.

Or maybe….just maybe… you could pick a less-competitive product and have YOUR “cart” be found in a little nook (niche) where you don’t have to work so hard to get there and STAY there….AND, people WANT what you are offering.

You can do the same thing with a high-gravity product, but the odds of finding that little nook where you can be found and stick there are slim. Not IMPOSSIBLE, but slim. The folks you are competing against are not all one-man/one-woman hot dog carts – they are multi-cart owners who have lots of people working for them and deep-pockets to MAKE it work (and KEEP working).

Pick your battles. Use your time wisely.

Sell hot dogs.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Think You Can Sell Hot Dogs?

So, I got a video camera for Christmas. My hubby got me one of those snazzy Flip HD cameras….and it’s awesome! Today I got to use it to catch a totally spontaneous moment at my house. Naturally, if you know me at all, you know it’s not the best video in the world – BUT, it really got me thinking about something that applies to all of us when we work online. Shiny Things.

Oh, Look! A Shiny Thing!

Before I get to this video, let me tell the story behind it.

The day was…. today. Hubby was home, I was cooking in the kitchen (yes, I cook….at least once a year….lol). The sun was coming through our windows at just the right angle to cast a reflection off the face of my hubbys watch. That reflection made this shiny spot on the wall and the ceiling as he moved.

This Shiny Thing drove my cat INSANE!

She started running around, making this chattering sound….and we couldn’t figure out WHAT was wrong with her.

Suddenly, my hubby figured it out – so, we teased her some more with the Shiny Thing making it go all over the room, the ceiling, the walls – and I whipped out my handy-dandy Flip Camera =)

Oh, Look ANOTHER Shiny Thing!

As I am watching this cat of mine freak out over this little reflection of sunshine, I got to thinking about how I was when I first started working online. I was just like Bailey (our cat)…. chattering, running in all directions….. basically trying to catch something that can’t be caught.

Sound familiar? Anyone? A quiet nod will suffice to let me know that I’m not alone here….lol!

Also, am I the ONLY one who has many normal, day-to-day things happen that make you think of internet marketing? I mean, seriously, I can be washing the dishes and start thinking about how simple repetitive tasks get the big job done. That even tho the dishwasher is a VERY cool invention, it still doesn’t load itself so it can then work for ME.

But that’s a story for another day… Let’s get back to Bailey the cat.

I’m Gonna Catch Me One Of Those Shiny Things!

I can’t believe how possessed she was over chasing the shiny things. Her eyes were glazed over – you couldn’t distract her – nothing. All she wanted to do was catch that shiny thing. Even if it meant hurting herself in the process.

Meanwhile, our other cat (actually both cats are my older kids cats, but if you have older kids, you know that they don’t tend to take the pets with them as they grow up. Hence, reality is – they’re MY cats now)….. our other cat just sat there staring out the window or at the wall or something. She’s really not the brightest light on the Christmas tree, but she wasn’t the one chasing a reflection of light, now was she?

{perhaps she is smarter than I give her credit for…..nahhhhhh}

You’ll catch a glimpse of the other cat during this quick video. She’s the big black cat sitting in the shadows watching Bailey jump the walls like a fool….lol.

Again, I warn you…

This Video Will NOT Change Your Life!

Are You Hurting Yourself Trying To Catch Shiny Things?

It’s so easy to get distracted by the “latest and greatest” Shiny Thing being sold online. And they all look and sound SO great, don’t they? Simple systems… effortless….hands off….even a three-year-old could make millions…

We all know the drill.

What’s worse is that for many, many people I talk to online, they are not simply distracted by the Shiny Things – they are STUCK on the Shiny Things.

One new “latest and greatest” product after another and they still have yet to get anything real online that will get to work FOR THEM.

When you’re trying to build a real online business, trying to catch the Shiny Things can make you look and act like my cat. And, as Bailey can’t seem to figure out – you can’t CATCH Shiny Things. All you do is run around TRYING to catch the all-illusive “prize”.

What DOES Work?

Wanna know what really works when building an online business?

These are four things that I believe in firmly…..and the four things that have enabled me to get to this point of success I’ve had online so far.

They are also the same 4 things that can get YOU ahead online, too.

PotPieGirls Personal Under The Radar Notes

I do a lot more online that just “be” PotPieGirl. In fact, my preferred online business model is very “under the radar”. It’s something I deliberately worked towards and something I still deliberately work ON.

Just like my dishwasher, it’s something you load…and then let it work for you. No, it’s not “effortless”. And to be honest, if you’re still looking for that all-illusive “effortless” system to make money online, you’re reading the wrong blog

Also, unlike One Week Marketing, it’s not free to implement so I had to work with free techniques until I got to the point where I could get to my “under the radar” ways.

No, it’s not PPC or CPA offers or whatever the latest and greatest is…. It’s just good old-fashioned web real estate.

Yes, websites.

No, it’s not “sexy” and it’s sure not Shiny…but it works.

I’ve learned a lot about creating these little sites….and learned a lot of shortcuts, too.

I’ll be sharing these things with all you great folks that are on one of my lists in the upcoming days.

No, it’s not gonna cost anything….Just little ol’ me sharing some things I’ve learned – and things I am currently learning to make it even better.

While my silly video up there won’t change your life, I’d like to think that some of the info and insight I have to share might have some impact.

Even if all it does is help ONE person focus, get to taking real consistent action, and stop chasing Shiny Things, I will be super excited!

Do You Want My Under The Radar Notes?

If you’d like to read along as I send out my Under The Radar notes – great! I’m happy to have you with us!

If you’re already on one of my lists (ie, you get occasional emails from me now and then already) then you don’t need to do a thing. You’re all set!

If you are NOT currently on a list of mine, all ya gotta do is sign up here at PotPieGirl.com

OR at OneWeekMarketing

OR at 6StepNicheSites.com

OR get my free Squidoo 101 Guide.

OR, just follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/potpiegirl). As the emails go out, I will link to them in a Twitter Tweet post thingy.

All there is to it =)

That’s it from me for now. I’m thinking I might go get a flashlight and turn off the lights to see what Bailey does with THAT Shiny Thing!

Hope my Flip camera is all charged up!

Have a great day!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

WARNING: This Video Will NOT Change Your Life

It’s that time again. Time we say good-bye to the year past, and welcome in a brand new year. New years are so bright and full of possibility – very exciting for me. However, 2009 was a fantastic year for me and it’s sad to see it go. Is anyone else in shock that it will be 2010? Twenty-Ten!??!?! Wow! I remember being little and trying to do the math to see how old I would be in the year 2000 and thinking ‘WOW, I’ll be OLD”. hahahaha! Funny how “old” doesn’t mean quite the same thing anymore =)

Thank You, 2009

2009 was so wonderful…and also full of ups and downs. Many “bittersweet” moments… my son got married, my daughter graduated high school and started college… youngest started kindergarten…. I became a grandmother (yay! That’s a picture of me and little Miss Hanna on Christmas Day. She’s just awesome!). We took some wonderful vacations, were blessed to be able to spend time with great friends and family. I had surgery… my hubby had surgery… we lost a terminally ill loved one. In short, LIFE happened in 2009.

Business-wise, 2009 was great and I am very grateful. I am also very thankful that I have the ability to work as hard as I do and the support of those I love the most.

Goal-wise, well…wow! As I have been closing out the 2009 books and taking a look at how everything went, I am amazed that I not only hit every goal I had for myself…but actually surpassed them.

Funny tho, one of my goals was to be able to earn a certain amount in a month via AdSense. Now, I am not a big AdSense marketer, but I do use it here and there so I set a goal for myself for a particular amount earned in a month.

I hadn’t hit that goal all year long… until… TODAY. Literally, today, December 30th, I hit a monthly earnings goal with AdSense….lol! So, that last goal DOES get to be checked off after all =)

Goals for 2010

This is my favorite week of the year… the week between Christmas and New Years. This is when I tear into all my stats for the year, looks thru my various campaigns and all that good stuff, and really SEE what worked, what didn’t work…what I want to amp up…and what I want to discontinue.

I’m not big on New Years Resolutions. There seems to be something about January 1st that makes people put so much pressure on themselves to make all these drastic changes…crazy. To me, EVERY DAY is a great day to make a small change in your life. One small change a day can mean a totally re-worked life within a year, ya know? But anyway…

I’ve been trying to set my goals for my next business year. I knew as soon as I stood up a bit ago to go get something to drink and tripped over a boot on my office floor that my very first goal is to clean my office. Lord have mercy…. it’s driving me nuts! I’m accustomed to tripping over a cat or a Barbie…. but my OWN BOOT? Sheesh!

Otherwise, I know I want to set myself to be able to outsource more. The funny thing is, it sounds so easy.. hire someone to do your work. Simple, right? But its not so easy for me. I’ve been totally hands on for just about 3 years now working my tail off. It’s habit for me now. Changing habits is hard, but I’m getting there. I know it’s time for me to scale and leverage…and learn how to work ON my business – not IN it (if that makes any sense). I also have so many great things going on in diverse areas that there’s no way I could do it all myself – so I won’t. It’s time for me to improve my ability to be the conductor….and stop trying to play every instrument in the orchestra.

In short, I’ve worked really hard to get to this point, so I need to stop fighting myself and do it. Do you do that? Maybe it’s a “mom thing”. Ya know, we work so hard to raise our children – so hands on and so involved – that we have to fight ourselves to let go and realize we accomplished our goal. I dunno… maybe its just me. One thing I do know is that each time I “let go” and outsource something, I feel so GREAT knowing the work is getting done and I am free to work on something else… or not work at all.

Anyway, I’m rambling…thinking out loud (sorry if that’s scary…lol!!!)

As for financial goals - I’m gonna boost my over-all goal by a certain percentage tho I’m not set on exactly what percent yet. I want it to be realistic, yet challenging. Also, this year I am doing more campaign-specific goals which I didn’t do last year (2009). This past year, I set an over-all amount that I wanted to hit (both gross and net), but I didn’t break my goals down per project. This year I am.

I am going to try and avoid a set $ amount and instead have a goal of a certain % increase over 2009. Why? Well, honestly, the $ numbers aren’t a real inspiring goal for me anymore. If every year is as good dollar-wise as 2009 has been, I’m good. Heck, I’m beyond good – I’ve been extremely blessed.

But let me ask something that might sound vain (and I’m sorry if it does – not intended to)…. How much money does someone really need?

When I started all this in 2007, my main goal was to be able to make enough online so that I didn’t need to go outside the home and work. You know, as in get a “real job”…lol. Once I accomplished that, I set a goal of a certain amount I wanted to earn each day that added up to a number for the year that I believed would give me peace of mind.

The daily goal in 2008 was $273.97. I wrote that number in pink highlighter ink on a sticky post-it note and stuck it on my wall next to my computer – and it’s still there now. It’s my “peace of mind” reminder. It keeps me balanced and focused…and calm. That number, if earned every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, means I bring in 6 figures – 100k. It amuses me now to think I really believed I could do that. My goodness, it would’ve taken me like 3 YEARS to earn that in my old job as a managing golf pro! What in the world made me think for even a second that I could generate that kind of income ONLINE?

But that was my number. To me, that amount meant I could lay my head down each night at peace knowing whatever financial challenges were thrown at me, I could handle it. As someone who was once a broke single mom:

money = peace of mind

NOT having money is stress…it causes problems…it hurts. I know that. All money does is take care of the problems that NOT having money creates (thank you, Chris). For me, the number one problems that NOT having money creates are stress….and fear. I wanted those problems gone and $273.97 a day seemed like a good number to erase those issues.

Oddly, I started out with goals that would stop pain and stress, but as 2008 came to a close and I realized I was really hitting my goals, something else happened that blew me away.

I became hopeful, brighter, optimistic…almost like I somehow empowered myself to do ANYTHING I set my mind to. What’s weird is it’s not really the money as much as it is being able to see real results from your actions and hard work. Once I made my first sale in February of 2007, I knew that if I could make $7 online, I could make 7 million – it was just a matter of time, repeating and learning, and butt-busting hard work….oh, and a nice dose of patience…lol.

So when it came time to set goals for 2009, I sat and played with numbers, read a lot about creating financial business goals (which I really didn’t know much about before), but each time I came to a number, it didn’t have the challenging feeling in my gut that I need. Suddenly I just blurted out a number, my hubby grinned, and I laughed because it WAS a really crazy number to shoot for.

And I’ll be damned… I hit it.

For 2010, I need new goals, but I know myself well enough to know that $$$ aren’t gonna challenge me. I’m a golfer – I’m out to beat myself. If any of you golf, you know that golf is one sport that your biggest competition is YOU. So my goals for 2010 will be to beat myself =)

Complacency and contentment are NOT good business traits – never get comfortable. Challenge yourself – and don’t be afraid to do it. If you work hard everyday to reach those goals, you can not fail – even if you don’t hit those goals. Working hard to make your life better is NEVER a failure. Never EVER.

Write your number down and post it where you can see it while you work. Don’t just pick a random number, pick something that MEANS something to you…something you can feel. I could feel $273.97 a day in 2008. I could also feel $78.90 a day in 2007 (that was my first goal to get to $2400 a month…a number I wanted so I didn’t feel I needed to get a “real job”).

Above all, remember that all of this is not about choosing a destination – it’s all about the process and creating checkpoints for yourself to follow along the way. Everything you DO to reach those checkpoints along the way is a success.

You can not fail when you keep moving forward.

If I could give just ONE THING to each of you that have managed to somehow tolerate reading this so far, it would be to give you the empowerment to KNOW that you can do ANYTHING that leads to the knuckle-headed raw determination to keep moving forward and go GET what you want.

No one is gonna give it to you and the only person in the WORLD that can stop you – is YOU.

I’ll stop rambling now (again) =)

2009 Highlight Posts from PotPieGirl.com

Whew… I got long-winded above, didn’t I? My apologies…and super glad you’re still here…lol!

I took a stroll thru my posts from the past year here at PotPieGirl.com and decided to pick one (or maybe two) from each month that I think are worth either re-reading, or reading if you never have.

Let’s see what I came up with:

January 2009 -

January had some really good posts so it was tough to pick. There’s posts on keyword research, getting Google to index your lenses, how to start with internet marketing….lots of stuff, but I like this one for my January pick:

How Much Does It Cost To Make Money Online?

February 2009

February is always a great month for me. My birthday is in February… my online marketing anniversary in also in February…and I’m a big fan of Valentines Day, too! Here is one of my favorite posts from February 2009:

A Day In The Life Of PotPieGirl

March 2009

March was a quiet month, but it also had one of the most important posts I’ve written. It’s about back links and the importance of how they work:

Links, Links, Links

April 2009

April had a lot of good posts, but one of them sticks out for me – the first time I made a video tutorial. Lordy, lordy, I am not a tech-wizard, that’s for sure!

I’m A Video GENIUS!

May 2009

May was a very quiet month. I had surgery and was out for awhile… we also had a loss in the family. However, in the midst of all that I managed to write a post that I really like. I went off about how exhausting it is to have everyone and their brother trying to sell your something online:

Stop Selling To Me!

June 2009

June had some great content here at PotPieGirl.com, but there are two posts that have really helped people learn how to create an ebook and how to sell an ebook using PayPal. Yes, I even have a bunch of my “fancy” graphics and pictures to walk ya thru the steps to get it all set up.

How To Make an Ebook

How To Sell an eBook With PayPal

July 2009

July had a post that I think is a big help. Ya know how you can search for a keyword in Google and it seems the results keep changing – even when you search back-to-back? Ever wonder why?

Why The Google Results Keep Changing

August 2009

August had a post that has a video on it that my husband shared with me. Absolutely mind-boggling!

Is Internet Marketing Too Saturated?

September 2009

I think September had one of the most important posts I’ve ever written. It’s on a topic that has crossed all of our minds as we work and learn this business.

Should You Follow Your Passion Or Just Try To Make Money?

October 2009

October was pretty darn quiet. Was on vacation and stuff most of the month, BUT I did manage to crank out one really good post about all these FTC changes.

Who Is The FTC After?

November 2009

November was a great month, not only was my granddaughter born, but I actually had some good posts here, too! lol!

I did a case study on Google ranking of a Squidoo lens and reported the case study results here.

Also, I taught everyone how to get those cool snippet links in your Google listing. These snippet links in my Google listings have been very effective for me – not just for Squidoo lenses, either (tho they are really easy to get for a lens).

How To Get Snippet Links

December 2009

Well that brings us to December 2009…and I’ve already typed enough in this ONE post to equal like SIX posts, but I still had some other good posts on the new Google real-time search results and talked a lot about converting your traffic into sales (good post for those struggling to make sales).

Happy New Year!

So, how are you closing out 2009 and getting ready for 2010? Any new goals? I’d love to hear them!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and SAFE New Years! We will be celebrating here at home with friends. January 1st is also me and PotPieDude’s wedding anniversary so we have something extra to celebrate when the countdown to the new year is over.

My best to your and yours! See ya in 2010!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

2009 In Review

This Christmas marks the 3rd holiday season I have spent with all of you here at PotPieGirl.com – wow, time sure flies, doesn’t it? Each of you long-time readers have shared marriages, graduations, family vacations, births…and even sad losses with me. And now, we celebrate another Christmas.

Merry Christmas To You And Yours

I’d like to take this moment to wish each of you a very happy and very SAFE holiday season. Please, turn off the computer and take time for your family and loved ones. I can promise you that ‘work’ will still be there when you get back. Trust me, I know how hard it can be to put work to the side, but it is absolutely one of the best things you can do for yourself AND for your business.

We work in a business that is running wide-open 24/7. The internet never closes. Because of that, it can be a real challenge to make ourselves stop and take a break.

We all need breaks…and we all deserve breaks.

I’d like for all of you to have a relaxed and peaceful Christmas AWAY from the computer and work and all that stuff that absorbs our thoughts day after day. No matter how bleak your personal situation might feel at this moment, Christmas is not the time to think or dwell on those things. There are much more important things in life than click-thrus and hoplinks, traffic and back links, ranking and SEO. Please choose this time to be thankful and reflective on what is GOOD in your life.

And I hope you will each join me in doing just that – starting with turning off the computer…and closing the office door.

Everything will be right here when you get back.

A quick personal note to Anne. If you’re reading, I want you to know that I received your beautiful thank you note in the mail the other day. It touched me beyond words and it hangs on the wall in my office as a reminder of why I really do what I do.

Chin up, girl…. you’re gonna be just fine!

To everyone else… MERRY CHRISTMAS! Thank you for all you do all year long…and thank you for sharing your time with me.

Kiss your babies (no matter how old they are), love on your spouse or significant other, call someone you haven’t spoke to in a while, visit friends, hold the door open for someone, take your dog for a walk, smile and say hello to a stranger – whatever it takes to warm your heart and quite possibly warm the heart of another. Just do it OFF the computer =)

From my family to you and yours…. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Be safe!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Merry Christmas!

Good-bye long-tail… hello Tiger-tail! Ok, now I’ve seen it all…lol! It seems all the demand for up-to-the-second information on Tiger Woods has caused Google to use something I haven’t seen before – a scrolling box on the Google search results page that is automatically updating with Twitter “tweets” and newly found web content on the topic of Tiger Woods. Anything new on the internet, that Google finds “seconds ago”, is showing up in that scrolling box as you sit on the Google search results page. Unbelievable! Seems Google had to find a way to keep up with Tiger Woods!

Latest Results from Twitter and Other Web Sites in Google Results

Go ahead, try it…. Google “Tiger Woods” (no need for quotes, Google knows EXACTLY what you mean…lol) and see if a scrolling box shows up that displays latest tweets and web pages that were just found by Google.

Here is a screen shot of what I just saw:

How’s about that? Google had to find SOME way to keep up with the overly-dynamic, ever updating, constantly changing trend of Tiger Woods and all the stuff that is surrounding him now.

How big of a sudden trend IS this Tiger-phenomenon on the internet?

The Tiger-Tail Effect

Let’s take a look on Google insights and see the change in web search interest since all this stuff broke in the news:

Wow, huh!?!? That graph represents the web search interest for Tiger Woods since 2004. In case you live under a rock, Tiger Woods has been in the news and done MANY MANY news-worthy things since 2004, but his web search interest has remained pretty level for the most part.

Until the end of November 2009 – all this stuff about him has shot web search interest through the ROOF…and Google had to find some way to keep up and keep offering their users the most relevant and up-to-the-moment results. Quite a task, but what an interesting way to handle it.

Just a note: When I use FireFox and search Google for Tiger Woods (not signed in to Google), I see this scrolling box at the top of the results. Now, my hubby, in the other room (not signed in to Google either) is using Internet Explorer (ugh) and his scrolling “latest results” show up more towards the bottom of the first page. Not sure why, but thought I’d mention it in case your “latest results” are not in the same place as my screen shot…. or you don’t see them at all.

Anyway… I thought this latest coolness in the Google search results was really interesting. Sure shows the effect the “Tiger-tail” has on the search results, doesn’t it?

Oh, and just a fun fact… I don’t see one of the “latest results” boxes when I search on Google for Obama…. but, hey, he is “only” the President of the United States…why in the world would we people want up-to-the-second info on The President? (sigh).

PotPieGirl Edit - (8 Minutes after originally publishing this post): Looks like I made the “latest results” scroll bar in the Google results for Tiger Woods…lol!

personal note from PotPieGirl - this post is intended to discuss the effect the Tiger-tail has on Google from a SEO-perspective and to encourage further discussion on that one subject. I am NOT welcoming any comments that have to do with the current Tiger Woods situation. While I respect that everyone, myself included, DO have personal opinions on this situation, I do not feel that my blog is the place to discuss it. So please… please…resist the urge to discuss your personal thoughts on Tiger Wood’s personal situation. Thank you.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Google Can’t Keep Up With Tiger Woods?!?

After running my affiliate marketing poll, I see one of the biggest problems affiliate marketers run into is trying to get the traffic they receive to their web pages to convert into sales. It’s also one of the top questions I get from my readers. They tell me they are getting traffic, but they can’t get that traffic to turn into sales…. What are they doing wrong? I think this topic deserves some in-depth conversation, so grab a Coke or a cup of coffee and let’s get into it.

I’ve had this post almost finished and sitting in my draft folder for some time now. Life has been so crazy lately that I am just now getting to finish it. With the holidays…work… family… and that new awesome, wonderful, precious granddaughter…well, I’m swamped! (and a HUGE thank you to everyone for extending your congrats and well-wishes on her birth!)

The GREAT news is that the person who inspired this post is now making money! Ted contacted me via my help desk to give me the good news.

Hey Jen!!!

Just wanna tell you that I am your another living proof that OWM is totally awesome!!! I am making a living with this already!!! woohooo!!!!

I’ve a few sales already!!! yeah!!!!

and it just keep on coming!!! AWESOMENESS!!! Thank you so much!!!

I’m so sorry Ted for being late for you, but apparently you didn’t need my help after all! haha! I’m super proud of you!

However, I think there are still a few folks that suffer from the same situation Ted was in, so I am going to talk about this anyway.

Meet Ted

Ted is one of my One Week Marketing followers. He’s been working hard (has 7 campaigns out there already) and is getting traffic to his web pages – but, no sales. He contacted me to ask for some help and insight and since his questions were so good and so important, I asked his permission to re-print his message to me so we can all learn from it.

I have a problem with my OWM. The problem that I have is as below:

1. Product chosen – How do I know whether the product is converting? Any preference to choose clickbank product? looking into gravity? referred? or what? I have 7 campaign now and non of them are converting to sale.

2. Which leads me to the second and last problem. I am getting traffic from google and other various places but I don’t see any sales. So my question is, how can find a BUYING keywords and PROFITABLE NICHE KEYWORDS.

Is it true that PROFITABLE keyword is the keywords that is “problem-solving” keywords? like “How Can I”, What is the”, “Where Can I Find”, or what?

I guess if I have the solution for the above problems my OWM would be better I guess.

I am very determined to make this work for me and I won’t give up until I get my first sale! Once the first sale is made I will just rinse and repeat and eventually proceed to your wordpress niche!

Thanks for your help,
Ted.

PS-How long it takes for you to get your first sale when you started your FIRST campaign?

Great questions, Ted! Let’s take your questions one at a time and see if we can clear things up a bit.

Choosing Clickbank Products That Sell

This is always a tough one – how can you tell for SURE that a Clickbank product will sell for you? Well, you really can’t be SURE, but you definitely can take a look at some things to see if it might work for you.

About Clickbank Gravity –

Clickbank gravity, in a simple explanation, refers to the number of affiliates who have sold at least ONE copy of that product in the last 30 days. If an affiliate sells 100, it still counts as ONE gravity point just as if someone only sold one in the last 30 days, that would count as ONE gravity point, too.

I DO look at gravity…. but gravity does NOT make or break my decision of whether I promote that product or not. Yes, I like to see SOME gravity so I know that affiliates ARE able to convert leads to sales. However, I don’t have a “set” gravity number that I use as a rule of thumb. Some products are more popular, or have vendors that have more partners… some vendors have no idea how to attract affiliates. Some products answer the problems of a large group of people and some products are very, very niche-specific.

In short, for me, I look to see if there IS gravity…and then I look at the sales page. I want to make sure *I* don’t click to it and leave instantly, that it’s set up properly, no AdSense ads on the sales page (ugh), things of that nature.

Now, many ask me, “Do you choose a product to promote based on whether YOU’D buy it?”

No, I do not. ME buying it has NOTHING to do with it. I am looking for a product that answers the problems of a certain sub-set of people. Odds are good that I am not part of that sub-set. I can’t judge value for someone else.

Matching Clickbank Products With Buyers

To me, the most important part when looking as a sales page for a potential promotion is – WHO wants this?? WHAT is their problem and can this product solve that problem for them?

As the guys in Wealthy Affiliate always say, affiliate marketing is like being a match-maker. Find a group of people with a certain problem and match them up with the solution.

If the product you are thinking of promoting doesn’t solve at least one important problem of the target market, it’s gonna be tough to make sales. The more “troublesome” the problem is, the more sales you should make.

Travis, Mr Bum Marketing, used the phrase “Hair on Fire”. I love that phrase and I keep it in my mind whenever I am looking at products to promote. If the problem the group of people have is not like having your hair on fire, sales will be slower and you’ll have to work harder for sales.

Think about problems people go thru that are all-consuming for them at the moment. Think about things that have happened in YOUR life that you would’ve done just about anything to get the answer right away.

Anyone hearing me? {tap, tap, tap…. is this microphone on? Anyone hear me?}

Finding Buying Keywords

Learning how to identify buying keywords is a left brain/right brain technique. Sure, we have keyword tools that can help us identify good keywords in a competition sense – maybe even tell us the “commercial intent” of a keyword – but sometimes you just have to look at a keyword phrase and think about it. Think of what problem the searcher is having. If the keyword doesn’t imply a problem, but more an intent for something free or just some information, then it probably won’t lead quickly into a sale.

Unless…..

Yup, there’s an “unless”…lol. UNLESS you plan to bring people in with the “info searching” keywords and somehow get them to stay with you thru their cycle to get to a buying keyword. Good niche sites do this – they offer info to all cycles of the buying process. Good One Week Marketing campaigns do this, too =)

But this takes practice and learning how to identify if there even IS a product at the end of their search cycle. Sometimes…no, a lot of the times, you just have to get the content out there, see what keywords people are using to find you, watch their behavior, and take a good hard look at your own stats. There are NO stats better than your OWN.

Summary

Do you think someone who is looking to learn how to grow tomatoes is having a “hair on fire” problem? No, not likely…and the odds are really good that they will find all the info they need to satisfy them for free online.

However, what if some weird bug thing was eating their tomato plants? Hmmmm…. hair starts to sizzle a little now, doesn’t it?

The “problem” with most campaigns is not that our keyword research was wrong or the product was bad… usually the only problem is that we are “missing” with our match-making. Affiliate Marketers give solutions…we don’t sell =)

People come online to socialize, for entertainment, to get info….and to get solutions to their problems. Help them solve their problems and the sales will follow.

Oh, forgot a question…

How long it takes for you to get your first sale when you started your FIRST campaign?

It took me about a week to make my very first sale online. I have NO CLUE how someone found me or my site because I knew NOTHING about internet marketing or SEO or back links or ANY of that. But, through some grace of God, someone bought a $7 ebook from me… and changed my life. Once I saw with my own eyes that I COULD do this AND it really WORKED, well, I was all over this internet marketing thing.

As for my first sale with a One Week Marketing campaign…. See, the thing is, One Week Marketing didn’t exist back then. I created it as I went along learning. I didn’t even know I was creating a product – had no intention of it nor did it even cross my mind. I was just trying to turn the things I was learning and writing onto thousands of post-it notes into a plan of action that I knew worked and that I could repeat over and over and over.

No matter what you’d like to end up doing with internet marketing, One Week Marketing is the solid basics of just about all of it (excluding PPC).

Ted, THANK YOU for your questions! I love being inspired! Better yet…. CONGRATS on your sales! Keep up the great work!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Traffic But No Sales?

Just a quick post today to let everyone know that our first grandchild arrived safely into this world Monday morning. Both Mom and Dad (my son and his wife) are doing very well….and my granddaughter….well, she is absolutely PERFECT! I put together a quick video of pictures for you to see….

Welcome To The World, Hanna Joanne!

A big congrats to my son, Trey and his wife, Carissa, on the birth of their daughter, Hanna Joanne. I was blessed with the opportunity to be right there in the delivery room when Hanna was born…..and I can’t seem to find the right words to express the miracle I experienced.

Yes, I’m speechless (write that down…it doesn’t happen often).

Here’s a picture of the delivery team:

And here’s the precious results of our efforts
(OK, Carissa, the Mom, did all the work…we just cheered her on):

And here’s a video of my pictures:

Everyone is tired, but happy and healthy…and so, so blessed!

I’ll be back to full-speed sometime soon, but just wanted to share the miracle with all of you!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

It’s A Girl!

Back in mid-September, I did a Google ranking case study for one of my Squidoo lenses. I figured I’d take a few minutes today to take a look at the results of my efforts and then take a few hours to create screenshots and a follow up post detailing my results. I’d also like to share how I doubled my traffic for one of my keyword phrases. It’s all kinda cool (well, for a SEO-geek like me it’s cool). If you’ve got a little geek in ya too – or you’d just like to learn a simple way to double your traffic – sit back and let’s walk thru this.

The Google Ranking Case Study Details

As some of you may remember, I picked a Squidoo lens I’ve had sitting around that I hadn’t TOUCHED in over 17 months. It ranked fine, but I knew it could do better. Thankfully, Squidoo gives good traffic stats for our lenses so that made my work a bit easier (hey, guess-work is hard on the brain…give me REAL stats…lol).

You can read the original case study here.

In the 3 months previous to me changing anything, that one lens had gotten 556 visits via Google. I also identified a keyword I ranked ok for, but had a nice opportunity to harness more traffic if I ranked even better for it. Then, I picked a “tough” keyword to see if I could rank for it since it had really great traffic potential.

The lens was my worm composting lens that I use for most of my case studies and experiments.

The opportunity keyword that I wanted to rank higher for was “how to make a worm farm”. At the beginning of the experiment I ranked #5 in Google for that phrase and got “ok” traffic for it. Now, I rank #3 for it and traffic has improved for that one keyword phrase.

The tough keyword? Well, let’s just say that failure is a big part of this business….lol! As of this moment, I can’t find my lens in the top 200 results of Google for that tough keyword. However, the tough keywords take more time so I am not giving up, nor am I admitting defeat =)

About The Google Traffic

Before I started this experiment, I received 556 organic visits from Google for this project in the previous 30 days.

Now?

In the past 30 days from today? Oh yeah, now we’re at 796 organic visits from Google for this project!

What’s even better is that previous to these changes, I received about 60 visits a month from Google for ONE keyword that I wasn’t even targeting…and now? Now I’ve had 124 organic visits from Google from this same individual keyword.

So tell me, would YOU like to double your traffic for a keyword you already rank for?

Thought so! Let me show you what I did.

How I Doubled My Traffic

When I first started I had one little listing on page 1 of Google for this keyword phrase. See this screen shot taken 10-27-2009:

I said to myself, “Self, how can you harness MORE of that traffic?”

Sure, I can try and rank #1 instead of #2 – easy enough….but what else?

So then I thought that getting a Google snippet link would be cool – AND would help my traffic:

And it did help… AND it helped my ranking to get to #1. (read how to get a Google snippet link)

Then I said to myself, “Self, if ONE listing is good, wouldn’t TWO listings be better? Like TWICE as good?”

So, I tried that:

And let me tell ya, two IS double better than ONE =)

I used to only have the #2 position which brought about 60 organic visits a month from Google.

Now, I have #1 AND #2 AND a snippet link and that has brought 124 organic visits from Google in the last 30 days for that ONE KEYWORD!

Lens #1

Lens #2

Any of your lenses or web pages rank for a keyword that you wish you could double your traffic for? It can be done!

Doubling Your Traffic

This works for your own web pages, not just for Squidoo, but it is really easy to do with Squidoo. However, if you have your own web site that has a page that ranks well for a targeted phrase, you can do these same steps on your own site, too.

First rule is this: for best and easiest results, you need control of both web pages. Now on these free-to-use sites like Squidoo, you CAN piggy-back another page on the site that you don’t control, but it’s not near as easy.

And yes, “piggy back” is my official technical term for ‘double listing’ or ‘indented listing’ =)

So, take a look at the stats for a lens you already have that is already ranking. Pull the traffic stats for as far back as you can get them and look for a keyword phrase you are getting traffic for that you didn’t specifically mean to rank for (ie, you didn’t optimize specifically for that phrase).

Now, build a NEW page targeting that one specific keyword phrase.

We’ll call your original lens “Lens A” and your new piggy back lens “Lens B”.

Ok, now….. link Lens A to Lens B…and Lens B to Lens A using the exact phrase your want to piggy back for as the anchor text. Yes, they each link to each other with the same exact phrase as the “clickable words”.

Now, get Google to crawl/index your new lens and re-crawl your old lens. A couple of back links to the new lens with that exact same anchor text you want to piggy back for will do fine – or read how to get Google to recrawl your web page here.

Now, you wait. Yes, I know, patience is a booger, but it’s a necessary evil in this business.

Google Double Listings

Here’s the “catch” about getting these double ‘piggy back’ listings in Google. Lens B (your new lens) has to be able to at least rank on the same page as your original lens (Lens A). If they both rank on the same page of the organic listings it is most likely that Google will pop them together and make a double listing out of them.

The good news is that it takes WAYYYYYYY less back links to get that piggy back lens to rank where its needed in order to get that double listing.

Take a look at this screen shot that analyzes the Google organic listings for my targeted phrase:

As you can see by the orange arrow, my piggy back lens only reports ONE back link. Now, yes, that is an easy query space to work in, but my point is, that’s all it took. Actually, it started showing as a double listing when there were ZERO back links showing on this tool (and by the way, if you don’t have this free analysis tool you’re missing out on something good).

As you can see by the green checks all the way across for my piggy back lens, that page is optimized for this specific keyword phrase. I talked about how to do that in the original Google Ranking Case Study post here.

The purple arrow shows the “cache age” of the web page – ie, how many days ago that Google crawled and cached that web page. As you can see, for both my lenses, my cache date is fresh (and it has been) and that is really important. Sure don’t want Google to forget about you, now do ya?

Now, I have found that when I do a piggy back lens, that it will pop into Google….and then pop right back out. That happens, don’t worry about it. Fall back on that “patience” thing we all struggle with =)

That particular piggy back lens was MIA from Google for about 3 days and then not only did it come back, but both lenses were then #1 and #2.

Don’t try and out-do the original lens (lens A) with your back links and optimization efforts. All you want is for that Lens B to be able to rank on the same page as Lens A – not to beat it. If you take it too far, it is possible that eventually your Lens B could out-rank and “cannibalize” your Lens A leaving you right back where you started – with a single listing.

So, just take it slow. Make the new lens, get them linked together, get Google there to do it’s thing, and then see where you stand.

Once you have your double/piggy back listing, you will most likely get double the traffic you WERE getting for that keyword phrase – regardless of whether your double listing is on page one of Google or page 4…. it will double what you WERE getting. Obviously, having #1 AND #2 is really, really good tho =)

If all this seems over your head right now, don’t worry about it. When it’s time, this tutorial will be right here waiting for ya!

Read the original Google Ranking Case Study here

Read How To Get Google Snippet Links Here

and, in case you missed my email -

Get this Free Report – Top 6 Super Affiliate Secrets (it’s from the same guy that makes this cool free software I used up above).

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Google Ranking Case Study Results

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

Since the announcement from the FTC that they had updated their advertising and endorsement guidelines, there sure has been a lot of talk and speculation over what all this means for those of us who work online. While the new FTC guidelines are not aimed solely at the blogging community, the internet is a new advertising medium that until these changes was not included in their policies. What does all this mean for us – especially for those of us that are affiliate marketers and online vendors? Who is the FTC after?

It’s Only Been 29 Years

The last time the FTC revised their guidelines was in 1980. This silly little thing called ‘the internet’ happened since then so I would think it’s about time they did some updating.

Here is an excerpt from the FTC announcement that was released on October 5, 2009 –

The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.

The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.

As I said previously, these revisions are not ONLY for the online marketing community – they are for ALL advertisers be it print, radio, television, etc. After reading and re-reading the 81-page revision guide from the FTC, I have to admit that I have been paying more attention to commercials than I ever have in my life! I am very curious to see how these commercials change to try and comply once everything takes effect on December 1, 2009.

I have this vision that a normal 30 second commercial will suddenly become 10 seconds of content and 20 seconds of disclaimers…lol!

That FTC document is full of ALLLLL kinds of hypothetical scenarios in an attempt to explain who should comply in all kinds of situations, but all it really does is confuse most folks. It also can make for a good chuckle here and there as well.

Now, I’m not a lawyer, I don’t play one on TV either. I have no legal knowledge nor am I offering advice or anything that should be construed as advice (enough of a disclaimer? lol). All that said, I do have some thoughts on all this now that I have read more, learned more, and really thought about it.

Thoughts About The FTC Revisions

First off, I think it is a really good idea that we comply. No, not because of some rumor of an $11,000 fine for not complying with the FTC, but because there is nothing wrong with being transparent.

Also, as Frank Kern pointed out, when it’s you vs the FTC – it won’t be you that wins. He also shared his story of how being sued by the FTC is no fun at all.

I do also admit some shock that there are still people in this world that don’t realize that the celebrity raving about that latest diet is a PAID endorsement. Or that those pharmaceutical commercials that depict these “real life” people with certain medical conditions that were solved by some pill are actually paid actors.

But the fact remains, that there are MANY people out there who do NOT know this. There are also plenty out there that really believe that if they take that diet pill and do nothing else to change their lifestyle habits, that they will lose 500 pounds overnight. If they buy that how to make money ebook and DO nothing – maybe not even READ it – that they will get rich overnight.

Yes, its sad….. sad, but true.

Those are extreme examples, but the fact remains that people all around us are being sucked in to deceptive advertising every minute of every day and I think that is what the FTC is wanting to get a handle on.

Most likely, if you are reading this little blog of mine, you work online or have some knowledge of internet marketing. Folks, the Wild, Wild Web is a haven for those that are out to deceive others for profit. I am sure that is not a news flash for any of you.

Those of us that understand internet marketing may have built up a bit of immunity to a lot of the things going on around us. We are more aware of how things can be online – how a simple script can do something to a page…. how a seemingly innocent link in your email could rob you blind…. how clicking a link on a site could generate revenue for that site owner…and so on.

However, I think those that truly understand that and are aware of it make up MAYBE 1% of the population.

The good news is….

As of December 1, 2009 – EVERYTHING On The Internet Will Be TRUE

A local friend of mine asked me about these new FTC guidelines the other day and that is how I responded. Yep, all advertisements on TV, radio, print, the internet….they will all be TRUE after December 1st. (please see the humor in that statement).

I think we all realize that it won’t work that way in reality, but these FTC revisions just might put a little more faith into the average consumer when it comes to buying online. That can only help us. Knowing that our family, friends, and loved ones that fall into the “other 99%” will be a little more protected is only a good thing, too.

I bet we all know of at least ONE person who got taken by some deceptive advertising or online scam. It would be nice if that happened a little less and it would be even better if consumers were more aware.

However, I am afraid that all these compliance guidelines will do is increase the amount of fine print in advertising to the point where no one reads it at ALL. The FTC says that relationships etc must be disclosed, but I don’t recall them saying HOW to disclose it.

To me, this is a fascinating time to be involved with internet marketing as we watch all this evolve….see who gets made the “example”….see how many bail because it all gets too hard.

Who Does The FTC Want?

Last night, as I was doing some market research, I didn’t notice it, but a pop-up window opened in my task bar. I wish I could remember what site I was on when it happened, but I simply can’t recall. BUT, I CAN recall the little site that I saw in that pop-up.

As soon as I looked at it I thought, “THAT is exactly who the FTC wants to nail!” I kept the window open with plans to blog about it today, but my computer re-booted itself last night and I lost it. Go figure.

Crazy how things work tho. Today, in my email, I got an email from Harlan Kilstein who made a video he wanted to share with everyone. It was a video about a flog CPA scam site…

The exact same site I saw last night. Thank you, Harlan!

For the record, a flog is a fake blog….and I personally think these types of sites will be directly in the cross-hairs of the FTC come December 1st (if they aren’t already).

Take a moment and watch this video from Harlan – see if it shocks you, too.

Flog CPA Scam Video

Think back to when you were first looking into making money online – wouldn’t you have really looked at this site? Doesn’t the setup give the perception of credibility where it is totally NOT deserving? Do you feel that maybe some of the folks in your “other 99%” might fall for this?

I think so and personally, I am ok with that kind of advertising being monitored. To me, it’s not about free speech – it’s about flat-out deception.

So, How Do We Comply?

That’s a good question and one that I am not exactly sure of yet. We are all gonna have to be accountable for our own businesses and do our due diligence with this. These guidelines are new – not even being enforced yet – so I KNOW there will be tons of backlash and hysteria and all that other fun stuff that comes when something this major happens in our community. Just don’t forget, this extends wayyyyy beyond our internet marketing community – it applies to ALL advertisers. I imagine there are corporate lawyers scrambling all over the world to either fight this or figure out how the heck to comply.

Andrew Hansen has a great post about his thoughts in how to comply here >> My Take On the New FTC Changes

This could all prove to be very interesting….very interesting, indeed.

Oh, and by the way, if anyone comes up with (or knows of) a FTC compliant privacy policy/terms of service plugin for WordPress, let me know please. I have a sneaky feeling that there will be a few released in the very near future.

So, your thoughts? Have you been following all this? How do you feel this will impact your business? What are your plans to comply…or to NOT comply?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Who Is The FTC After?

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

When first starting an online business or your first One Week Marketing campaign, you may find yourself stuck on one question – WHAT should I sell?  I’ve seen this question asked numerous times in forums and I’ve had it asked of me time and time again.  Is it the best idea to start your internet marketing career working on something you are passionate about?  Is the phrase, “Do what you love and the money will follow” accurate?  Is it good advice?

Once Upon a Time…

When I first started online, I had this big idea that I would make a huge authority website about something I really love – golf.  I was in the golf business for years, I love the game, I know the products, and it would be an easy topic for me to write about.  Seemed like a good idea to me.

But there was a problem…

I didn’t know anything about internet marketing.  I didn’t know how to make a website.  I didn’t know how to do keyword research or get traffic or any of that stuff.  I spent hours and hours each day working on a site that no one was visiting.  I kept on thinking that since I am passionate about the topic and I really enjoyed it, that they money would come soon enough.

In reality, “soon enough” was not nearly soon enough.  Fact was, I needed money yesterday.  I was so stressed about making money that this normally enjoyable topic for me became stressful and a big bucket of pressure.

It hit me like a ton of bricks that I didn’t have the luxury to follow my passion.  I needed to make money.

So, I changed my direction…started working on Squidoo and learning what to sell and how to sell it….. and the rest is history  =)

“I Only Want To Sell What I Believe In”

I’ve heard many people say, “I only sell what I believe in” as if there is something wrong with selling products you do NOT “believe” in.  Stick with me here, ok?  I’m not slamming people who only recommend things they’ve tried – I’m talking about marketing as a whole.

What if you referred people to things THEY believe in?  Is it wrong to make money that way?

If I find a passionate market who is all about purple widgets, but I don’t have any use for a purple widget, am I wrong for marketing to these folks?  I’m not passionate about purple widgets, but THEY are.

When you walk thru the grocery store, do you think the grocery store owner has personally tried each and every product?  Do you think a bookstore owner has read every book on their shelves?  Do you think they are passionate about each and every product in their store?

Of course not!  They are stocking their shelves with the products their CUSTOMERS want.

Is it ok to be passionate about giving your market what they are looking for?  For referring them to something and letting them decide if it is what they want?

What If You’re Passionate About NOT Being Broke?

A little over a week ago I had a very special day.  Internet Marketing bought my daughter her first car.  As someone who was once a broke, single mom, this was a very special and proud moment for me.

I am passionate about never being broke again.  That is a stress that is almost unbearable.  I am passionate about my marriage and my family. Doing things that make them happy and doing things to open up our options for now AND for the future is very important to me.   It is empowering to know that I have the ability to do these things now.

I don’t know where you have been in your life, but I’ve been down a broken road.  For the longest time I only thought I was capable of what others said I could do… that I was only worth what others said I was worth…. and I allowed that to limit me.

Did money change that?  Yes and no.

By being passionate about learning internet marketing and making money from it, I am now able to explore my real passions and do the things I really care about.

Once upon a time my “passion” was hoping I could scrounge up enough money to have enough gas to get the kids to school and give them lunch money…. now my passion is in creating a whole new business that could help my community and I’ve been working really hard on that lately.  Meanwhile, because I worked so hard on making money online, those income streams are still working for ME so I don’t have to worry about paying the bills while I follow a passion.

Sure, having money is cool and all, but that’s not “it”.  A friend of mine sent me a quote that says, “Money will take care of problems that NOT having money creates”.  So true – and I’ll be the first to admit that having money beats the heck out of NOT having money…lol!

But if you spend the time to create the income streams online that bring money in, the reward is far greater than just “making money”.  It gives you this freedom to do the things you really care about.  It gives you the luxury to follow your passion AND be able to pay your bills.

Above all, it is incredibly rewarding, empowering, and self-satisfying to know that YOU are capable of doing these things for yourself.  No one tells you what you are (or aren’t) worth – no one tells you what you are (or aren’t) capable of.  You decide.  You know.

No one is going to fire you… No one is going to lay you off.  This is yours – you created it.

But it all starts with making that first dollar and then continually creating things that make more dollars for you long after the work is done.

It starts with making money.

It Really Is OK

Needless to say, all this has really been on my mind.  As I read folks advising people to “follow their passion” when starting internet marketing, I just cringe.  What if there isn’t a market for their passion?  What if they don’t know how to promote their passion?  These folks are turning to internet marketing to make a difference in their financial situation….not start a hobby!

So I want to tell you – it is plenty OK to just want to make money online at first.  I’m not saying be deceptive, I’m saying it’s ok to be a marketer… to give people what they are looking for (regardless of whether YOU would buy it or not).  It’s ok to just make money first, and THEN figure out what your passion is and how you can use internet marketing, or the money from internet marketing,  to make a difference in the world.

Make that first dollar online.  Then, scale and leverage your resources and make more money.  Get it all set to where it all works for YOU.

Passionate people don’t have to be broke  =)

Pursue Passion… or Profit?

As I said, this has all been on my mind lately.  It’s tough when you want to scream, “Sell people what THEY want!” because some people take that as a greedy or self-serving attitude and they don’t want to be “that kind” of marketer.

But think back to jobs you have had in the past – or even a job you have now.  Are you passionate about it?  Or are you just making money?  How many times did you stay at a job because you needed the paycheck?  Is that wrong?

What if you viewed your internet marketing as your job?  Why not use your time and your resources to make money so you then have more time and resources to do the things you are passionate about?

As I was trolling around the internet tonight, I stopped by a blog I love, but haven’t visited in a while.  A very sharp and very cool woman named Lynn Terry runs this blog and her stuff is always so good.  One of her posts had a video of her talking about this very topic and I’d like to share it with you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this… Passion? Or Profit?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Should You Follow Your Passion?

I have been working intensely the past few days. I have been bringing a new business idea to life and it has consumed me. It’s funny, but once an idea sets in my mind and I can “see” it work, I’m off and running. That’s how this new local business idea has been for me. While I’ve been playing with it and toying with the concept for a few months, it has been the past few days that I have really dug in and went to work to make it happen. Tonight, as I finally slow down, it hit me how intense I have been – how focused. It got me wondering how others focus on their online projects…

Right Brain/Left Brain (If I Only HAD a Brain)

Ok, sorry for the Wizard of Oz reference (but for the record, that little song used to be my ringtone on my phone…lol!), but the whole “left brain/right brain” concept is with me tonight. I’ve heard it said that when you are in your “left brain” you are in your analytical side, when you are in your “right brain”, you are more in your creative mode.

When I am focused, as I have been the past few days, it is like I am in BOTH brains….and oddly, it almost feels “brain-less”. Does that make any sense to you? It all just happens….it flows…and I love that!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still have those moments when I go to type some content and my brain goes B-L-A-N-K and I can’t find the right wording to save my soul (ie, really “brain-less” moments), but for the most part it’s like I am automatically following some map that is in my head – and it all just comes together.

BUT…

There are some requirements for me to be able to work that way.

First, I have to be in that “mood” – ready to work, know what I want to work on (with “want” being the operative word).

Second, all other distractions have to go. Email, stats, other accounts…they all are closed out.

But in a weird way, when I get in this “mode”, there aren’t any distractions. I am THAT focused. Hours and hours go by and I barely realize it.

Does anyone else get this way?

Does Believing Help?

Do you find you focus better, work harder, and get more accomplished when you believe in what you are doing? I really believe what I am testing will work. Probably won’t be tomorrow, or even next month, but I really believe it will work. I can SEE it working and that drives me.

Would I be this intense and this excited to do this work if I didn’t believe in it? No, probably not…and distractions would be inevitable. When I’m not interested, even the idea of cleaning the bathroom becomes tempting…lol!

Believing.

At this point, it is highly possible that most of us have seen the Tony Robbins video with Frank Kern and John Reese. Personally, I loved that video (watched it 3 times) and yes, it also sold me on Tony’s new product that came out (I’m a big Tony Robbins fan anyway). In that video, Tony talks about how believing in what you’re doing has a major impact on your outcome and the effort you make along the way.

I think he’s right.

From the moment I started working online, I had this unexplainable belief in what I was trying to learn and trying to do. Why? Heck if I know! There was no reason for me to believe in it – I just did.

But, in a way, that made it “easy” for me to work hard, to make my mistakes, and keep moving forward. For me, there wasn’t an option but to keep finding every WRONG way so I could find even just one right way.

That realization got me to thinking tonight about how hard it would be to do this – and how easy it would be to give up – if I didn’t believe in what I was doing.

So, I ask you…

Do you think that believing in something really helps you focus better and work harder?

Or, do you think focus and hard work are just “work ethic” and it doesn’t matter if you believe in it or not?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Getting Focused

Today at PotPieGirl.com we have a guest post from Jason Tarasi who would like to share 10 things your mama never told you about internet marketing. Jason makes some very important points about the mind set we all need to adopt when trying to make a success of internet marketing – and he’s got a pretty humorous style of sharing his views with us. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Ten Things Your Mamma Never Told You About Internet Marketing

If you have any children near the computer, I strongly suggest you have them hide their eyes…

Now I want you to imagine this frightening scenario – online marketing without PayPal and autoresponders!

Back in the day, we did business online without autoresponders or PayPal, and we liked it! I also walked through a foot of snow to get to school everyday, even in the Summer. Ok, I confess I am only 34, but I have been in this business for well over ten years. Yes, I used to write out HTML code by hand and no, it isn’t as funny as you think.

While I’m not old enough to pull my pants up over my waist and complain about the government full time, I have been making a full time living online since before Pokémon was all the rage. Over the years I have learned a thing or two about what it takes to make it in this business and what you absolutely must do to stick around for the long term.

I know the anticipation is killing you, so let me get right to this life-altering list:

1. Your Name Is Your Brand

Many big companies brand themselves to the public through logos and catchy phrases. When you are marketing online, you want to brand your name as an expert in your niche. You need to focus on becoming someone who is trusted and respected.

Why? Because…

2. Trust Sells

If someone doesn’t trust you, what are the chances they give you their business? About as slim as Jabba the Hut.

Take the time to build trust with your audience, customers, and prospects. The sales and profits will follow.

3. Quitters Never Get Anywhere

I’m going to be brutally honest, I hate quitters. I have seen countless people come into this business and they simply gave up because it took actual work. Who knew!

Never let anyone tell you that you aren’t good enough and never, ever quit on yourself. Success is usually just around the corner for those who are willing to put in a little hard work. This kind of determination will put you ahead of 99% of the competition because…

4. People Are Generally Lazy

Most people don’t want to work hard. They want ready-made solutions handed to them (this is where you come in). Understanding this one concept can make you very wealthy if applied correctly.

5. Max Out Your Ideas

Too many marketers create a profitable product or service, and then quickly move onto their next brilliant idea. They are constantly juggling a number of projects at any given time. This is counterproductive and you are leaving untold amounts of money on the table.

If you find a profitable idea, milk it like a chocolate cow. Once you feel you have maxed out the profit potential with your idea, then and only then should you move on to the next project. However you should…

6. Never Fall In Love With An Idea

If you are in this business long enough, you will find that you have way more bad ideas than good ones. You have to set limits and decide when a project/idea is doomed to failure.

7. Don’t Be Afraid To Take Risks

To get anywhere in this business, you will need to take risks. It takes nerves of steel and even the best ideas can blow-up in your face. It happens. Learn from your mistakes and don’t let failure make you gun shy.

8. Customers Are Like Gold

Treat your customers well and they will return the favor.

9. Outsource, Outsource, Outsource

How many times have you heard the phrase “Jack of all trades, too stupid to outsource”?

Actually, this might be the first time you have heard it, but the point is that as your online business grows, the harder it will be to keep up with your everyday tasks. Learn to outsource now before your business grows too big and spins out of your control.

10. Trust Your Gut

If you have an idea or a gut feeling about something, then you need to trust yourself. You will never make it in this business if you don’t trust yourself enough to make the important decisions for your business.

So there you have it, my big list of what your “mama never told you about Internet marketing”, or maybe she just “forgot” because she didn’t want any more competitors for her new Ebay business!

Discover the little known money making ideas used by the experts in my hot new ebook “Secret Lives of Internet Marketers”. You will discover the successful blueprint seven famous marketers used to become financially independent and how you can easily apply it to your own online business! To download my FREE REPORT instantly, follow the link below:

http://easyebookrights.com/mmi.html

Thanks, Jason! Great article that makes some very important points about working online.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

10 Things About Internet Marketing

If you’ve been trying to learn internet marketing for any amount of time, you have surely experienced the feeling that “everyone” has already done “everything” and there is no room for you. Ever feel that way? I know I sure did at one time! That feeling that all the good stuff was gone and over-done – that the hot time for internet marketing was over….and I missed it! Oh boy, was I wrong! When I read some stats about the internet, it absolutely boggles my mind and gets me all fired-up about this awesome industry I am working in now. Folks, this is only the beginning! Take a watch of this video and see if it doesn’t boggle YOUR mind…and get YOU all fired-up, too!

Did You Know?

First off, it’s great to be back! PotPieDude and I just came back from a WONDERFUL beach/golf vacation this last week with two dear friends of ours. It was quite a surprise to me to get there and find that I had VERY limited access to the internet (and quite a shock to my system, too!) – but the time off was good for me.

PotPieDude and I talk often about the massive potential of the internet and internet marketing. It truly amazes both of us. What is even more amazing is how new all this really is. There is so much room inside the internet marketing industry for tons of folks offering the ability to make a real change in their lives.

I know it’s hard to NOT feel like “it’s all been done before” when you are absorbed by other marketers all day long.

But it HASN’T all been done before.

There are markets out there that are still virtually un-tapped… and markets coming that we haven’t even thought about.

When the hubby and I were talking about that, he told me that he had seen an awesome video that shows internet stats that would blow my mind….BUT, he couldn’t find it online.

When we got home I head a loud, “I got it!” from the other room and he came rushing in my office with his laptop in hand.

And boy oh boy, am I ever glad he found this video!

Please take a few minutes and watch this video. It is mind-boggling. I’ve already watched it 5 times just to let the sheer magnitude of it sink it.

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Internet Marketing Is Too Saturated

As usual, I was poking around Google last night and I cam across something I’ve never seen before on page one of the Google SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). While Google has always offered to show more results for a website (that opens in a new Google search), this new option allows a searcher to click and expand to see more results from one website on the first page. This is cool! Watch this video and I’ll show you what I am talking about.

More Results From One Website Being Shown By Google

Ya know how when you’d search for your keyword, or just do a casual search on Google, that the first page would show only one, maybe two pages, from one website?

Well that’s all changed.

Take a look at the new Google search option:

note: It’s a little easier to see the results I am showing if you watch the video in full screen mode (its an option on the bottom right of the video player)

As I said in the video about the new expanded Google search results, I had a hard time forcing this to come up for search queries. I had to poke around and see where it came up. As you also saw in the video, just the change from the word “your” to the word “a” changed the “show more results from” expanded results option (ie, it was no longer available).

Personally I think this will not only be a great enhancement to the user experience for Google searchers, but I think this is an awesome way to offer more relevant pages from one website on the first page of Google search results.

What are your thoughts about this new Google search results option?

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Google Offers ‘Show More Results’ (Video)

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?

Did you catch the webinar Thursday night? Ryan Moran, Matt Davis, and I had a GREAT time talking with fellow marketers and answering their questions. I had never done a live event like that before – and WOW, I had a BLAST! What’s more amazing is that there were over SIX HUNDRED people registered for the webinar!!! If you missed the webinar, Matt and Ryan were kind enough to record it and send it over to me so I could have a replay here at PotPieGirl.com.

Tough Love Webinar with Ryan Moran, Matt Davis, and PotPieGirl

I’d love to hear your feedback, comments, and suggestions. Since this was my first webinar, I was a little blown away by everything that was going on. Okay…truth… I was a LOT blown away!

But I’m thinking webinars are something I’d like to do again if there is enough interest.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Thank you to all that were there live!

Post from: PotPieGirl.com

Webinar Replay