How to Use Squidoo to Generate Traffic to Your AC Page or Website

Squidoo (www.squidoo.com) is generating a lot of buzz recently, but so few people understand what it is and what to do on their page, that many people are just plain avoiding it all-together. Much like Digg, this is a website that can greatly increase your Associated Content Page views, or drive traffic to your website.

The idea is simple: you market your website, your articles, or yourself by creating your own Squidoo Lens. A lens is a lot like a page on Myspace or Facebook, where you can tell all about yourself and your interests, while promoting things you've written or done.

Starting up is easy. You sign up to become a Lensmaster, and follow the simple process of inputting all the right information. It's very step-by-step. Start by picking a title for your first lens. It can be as simple as your name or it could include information on a specific subject, such as your associated Content articles, or your website address, or it could even be a step-by-step guide on how to do something.

The Introduction should be just that, and should include a picture. I took my biography from my Associated Content page and put that in word for word, with a few links to my CP page.

The Modules are the most important part of the entire experience. I use my modules to update any news about my website. For my Associated Content page, I write a blurb about my newest articles and add a link. You should update your modules a lot, because the most updated lenses will receive the most traffic, and allow you to climb higher and higher in the standings of most-popular lenses. Obviously, the higher your ranking, the more page views you'll be getting.

You are allowed a guestbook and a link to any Youtube content you may have on your lens. I don't recommend the guestbook, as people are very good about spamming it consistently. It is a nice feature if you don't mind all the nonsense that goes on with things like that. I have disabled my own, however, and I recommend that you do the same.

The final necessary piece to the puzzle is to create your biography. This is best done by having a descriptive paragraph that tells a tiny bit about yourself, and then a page that provides links to your lenses, your AC page, and your website. The biography takes basic HTML codes, so this is an easy thing to put in. With this biography appearing on every one of your lenses, you get a lot of exposure.

Now that your lens is created, you need to do some promotion. The best way is to join groups. On the top of the page there is a tab for groups. To find ones to join, go to "explore" and pick a category. Unfortunately there isn't much of a search feature, so you kind of have to browse manually for the time being. My advice on groups is simple: join as many as you possibly can. Obviously, you wouldn't want to link your AC page to a group about animals unless you've written some articles about them, but you could join writing groups, making money online groups, internet marketing groups, or groups related to the kind of content that you are producing. The worst that can happen from joining too many unrelated groups is that you can be removed from the group in question. Even then, however, you're generating a few page views from people browsing to make sure that you fit the category.

The best form of promotion, though, is to create your own groups. When people are browsing, they'll look to see which other lenses have been submitted to the group, and are likely to click around and get a general idea of what is going on in the group before they join. With your lens featured prominently, and your biography appearing right on the side, you'll get a lot of promotion for your lens and the content that you're promoting therein.

FYou can also post a link to some of your lenses on your Myspace or Facebook accounts as well. Email your lenses to your friends to check out.

After you get enough visitors to your lenses, you can even make some money with the program, and they take referrals, so even more money can be had. It's easy promotion, and has made for about 15% of the traffic to my website, so you know it works.