Entries Tagged 'Squidoo' ↓

Some weeks back, I built a network of Squidoo lenses on a topic that’s shortly about to get VOLCANIC HOT!

Yes, Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula 2 is set to release on March 27th.

It’s a high-ticket product, with a price of around $2,000 - and pays out a rich affiliate bounty of close to one thousand dollars.

With that in mind, what do you think is the value of this Squidoo lens network? There are 10 lenses in it. You can click on each link to take a look at how it is.

Notice especially the nature and quality of content on each - these are NOT junk or spam lenses, even though I’ve created multiple sites for the same product (each one is targeting a different keyword, though).

Oh, and when you click to visit the lenses, please also do me a favor and click on the stars to rate each lens, and if you want to benefit from a link back to your site, you could also post a message on the Guestbook! Thanks)

http://www.squidoo.com/plf2-review

http://best.productlaunchformula2bonus.ever.com/

http://www.squidoo.com/plf2review

http://www.squidoo.com/productlaunchformula-review

http://www.squidoo.com/productlaunchformula2reviews

http://www.squidoo.com/product-launch-formula-2-0

http://www.squidoo.com/productlaunchformula-reviews

http://www.squidoo.com/plf2

http://www.squidoo.com/productlaunchformula2-0

http://www.squidoo.com/p-l-f-2

Initially, with a short-term focus, I put this network up for sale - at just $997 for the bundle. This was when the lenses were ranking high on Google for keywords that cost $2 or more on Adwords PPC bids.

Then, after noticing how they were sustained in their ranking for a week, I quickly pulled down that insane offer - and am retaining the network for a different purpose!

So, what do you think it is worth?

On March 31st, after Product Launch Formula 2 is out, and I’ve tracked down my results from the promotions that mainly involve this Squidoo lens network, I’ll post my results. And if you’re the closest in your guess, I might gift one of these lenses to you! So go on, leave a comment.

If you want to learn more about building similar Squidoo lens networks, I explain the process in my “Advanced Squidoo Profit Secrets” guide which you can pick up (along with my basic Squidoo course as a free bonus!)

Now, here’s another tweak to this that can add even higher value to your Squidoo lens network - creating related resources on other popular services!

One example - Hub Pages. See these hubs that layer on and integrate with my Squidoo lens network:

http://hubpages.com/hub/ProductLaunchFormula2Bonus

http://hubpages.com/hub/Product-Launch-Formula-2-Reviews

http://hubpages.com/hub/Product-Launch-Formula-2

There’s a lot more that you could do to add value to a portfolio of resources you create, either for your own use, or to flip to buyers. Do you have any thoughts and opinions on this topic? Please share them by leaving a comment below.

Oh, and I also posted my “Most HONEST Product Launch Formula 2.0 Bonus Offer” on this page - take a look!

New here? Please pick up your three FREE gifts - click here. Hope you like them. And drop by often!

I just read Seth Godin’s blog about “Thinking Outside the (eBay) Search Box”, which led to an introduction of Squidoo’s new auction supplementing tool, SquidBids.

The logic behind Seth’s post, however, eluded me - because he seems to be saying mere ‘Search’ traffic from eBay won’t work well, and outlines an alternative based on building relationships with prospects that in time translates into more sales made more easily at higher price points.

Seth Godin: “What about the hundreds of thousands of people that just want to sell typical stuff and don’t have great copywriting talent? They need a different strategy.”

In other words, the blog post outlines the smart, logical, ideal way ANY online business should be developed.

Then why the typical or conventional eBay model? And how does eBay work better for the half-million people who work on it full-time?

Sheer numbers.

Imagine getting 0.001% of the insane traffic that eBay receives daily to view your ad. Chances are something will stick. Especially if you target a niche.

The eBay model based on this rationale avoids doing much else but repeat listings in a niche, finding hot selling items, sourcing them cheap, and moving quantities enough to turn a profit.

No ‘marketing’ of any sort involved there - no list building, relationship building, funnel building, or anything. Just slipstream onto the massive traffic of potential buyers who flock to eBay.

That approach does indeed suit a certain demographic. Sure, it’s not the easiest, most profitable or even most efficient method - but it’s one that works for a particular group of people.

Just as the Adsense based VRE model does.

Or to take an extreme (and not in any way related) example, just as email spam does.

These are people who are debunking Seth’s assertion that “average stuff for average people is no way to make a living”.

SquidBids won’t impact that audience in any major way. At least, that’s my guess.

Just like Adsense driven models ignore list building or affiliate marketing or developing and selling a product in the same niche. These are not-too-complex things folks using this model too can do and easily boost income from the same traffic they already receive… but many CHOOSE not to, for a variety of reasons.

So whom WILL SquidBids help?

I’m really not sure. The target audience seems to be one that’s already ‘marketing savvy’ - and they are already using Squidoo to great effect.

And for the rest who simply want to ’sell on eBay’… are they really going to take the time and effort to set up and integrate “a blog, a twitter following, a FaceBook social graph, and even a SquidBids page” into their process?

What do you think?

Another story.

Some months back, at a management seminar, I listened to Dr.C.K.Prahalad speak about his ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ model. One of the case studies he used was a hospital where I had worked, the Narayana Hrudayalaya at Bangalore.

After the lecture, as I waited to meet C.K., I noticed the CEO of one of the largest pharmaceutical firms standing beside me. I walked up to introduce myself, and was rudely snubbed by the CEO of Dr.Reddy’s Labs, who pointed towards the speaker and said: “I’m waiting to meet him.”

So I turned away, walked up to Dr.Prahalad, and when my turn came, spoke with him for a few minutes. He politely listened to my comment, and briefly responded.

I walked away, thinking. It is far easier to make contact with even world-famous people when they are (or have lived) outside India - but inordinately difficult to even greet a ‘big name’ inside my country!

That’s for ‘cultural background’.

Chris Brogan recently blogged about the wide ranging, even high level connections he has made through social networks.

My experience is very similar. I have interacted with bestselling authors like Seth Godin, tech mavens like Garage.com CEO Guy Kawasaki, and America’s top business consultants like Jay Abraham through online media.

And some of these connections translate into real world contacts too. A couple of years back, I was privileged to be a dinner guest at the British House of Commons, as an invitee of an M.P. who is a good friend of mine - and we first met over the Web.

There’s even more than this to social networking online.

The confidence gained by making such connections has let me boldly step up to a Fortune 500 CEO in my country, get snubbed… and then without being flustered, walk up to one of the management geniuses of our time (a man who is at third spot on Suntop Media’s 2005 “Thinkers 50″ list, behind Harvard strategy specialist, Michael Porter, and Microsoft founder, Bill Gates) and hold a meaningful conversation.

In short, it has made me bolder, more confident and a better person.

Which alone would be a response to Chris Brogan’s opening sentence, “Spending a lot of time in front of a computer is a waste of time.”

But then, I read 2 other things in the last 24 hours that made me think.

One was Seth Godin’s mention of his forthcoming new book, “The Meatball Sundae”. It’s premise is that just as you can’t put whipped cream and a cherry on a meatball and create a sundae… you can’t layer social networking and New Marketing upon a business or product and hope it will become an instant winner.

Social networking is suitable for certain businesses - not all.

The other was on Justin Kownacki’s blog, and was titled “Are You a Person or a Brand?”. And Justin makes some very nice points about how your behavior online, your choices of medium and marketing message, are defined by how you perceive yourself and wish to be known (as an ‘individual’ or a strong ‘brand’).

Social networking is better suited for networking - not quite for branding.

Except, when you step back and take a broader perspective, many things collapse down to a singularity.

Personalities (and individuals attached to them) do (or can) become brands. They can still participate in diverse social networks without diluting their ‘brand’ - simply because they ARE the brand.

The tools they use stop being separate and unique and distinct entities. Not ‘Facebook’ or ‘MySpace’ or ‘Twitter’. Instead, they become what they are - tools in a bag or kit, from which the person pulls out and uses the right one for the right task.

And when that’s the kind of business you are building or are in, social networking no longer becomes the ‘Meatball Sundae’ - it’s now the REAL deal… vanilla and chocolate topped with whipped cream and a cherry… or spaghetti, sauce and meatballs - with ketchup!

There’s another dimension to why some people spend (waste?) time exploring (for now) social networking, and other cutting-edge, untested media and methods. They like being ‘different’. And that’s their brand. At least, it is mine.

See http://www.b–Different.com (yes, TWO hyphens after the ‘b’)

I daresay there are no other pediatric cardiac surgeons in the world who also run an online business, blog regularly and network online via Twitter, MySpace, Squidoo and blogs.

When I got my first Internet connection way back in 1995, there were 800 others in my city who had one. Today, there are a little over 1 MILLION people with Web access in the same city. Can you say ‘early adopter’?

And like Chris Brogan, who now is “over here figuring out ways you can make it work if you want to put in the effort”, I too have worked it out for myself. Turned what at the time was a ‘wasted’, ‘useless’, ‘unprofitable’ activity into an income stream that has secured my financial future and lets me reach out to fulfill a dream, brought me in touch with leaders and visionaries, technocrats and social reformers, millionaires and less wealthy but no less interesting folks around the world.

In the process, I built my PERSONAL brand on the platform of ‘being DIFFERENT‘.

It works for me.

Will it work for you? I don’t know. Neither do you. The question is:

Do you want to find out?

Do you dare to?

Why “Purple Cheese Fondue“?

Well, this riff is about Seth Godin’s new book, “Meatball Sundae” - and I read a few others with titles like “Chocolate Spaghetti, and Tribal Pizza, so in keeping with the theme…

On his blog, Seth Godin asked a very thought-provoking question:

“If you were alive in 1947 and knew what you know now about the last sixty years of mass marketing, what would you have done? What would you have built? Was it just about making better TV commercials?”

What would I change?

I would change the way I built my client/customer database.

And I would make the NAME of my client/customer the central piece of data, the one around which everything else hinged.

Not the product line.

Not the marketing method used to make sales.

Not the region, or language, or ad medium, or profitability.

The PERSON.

So that, when I analyze my data, I won’t be searching to see if Widget B shipped more units, or Campaign Y brought in more sales, or Infomercial J had a higher response rate.

Instead, I’ll be searching to see what Ann Smith from Ontario bought last summer, or what John Doe from Arkansas needs to be offered next week, based on his past record with my business.

Just like I do in my medical practice.

Journals compile data from a vast patient demographic. I study them to stay abreast of trends, understand latest breakthroughs, and be informed of potential pitfalls.

But when little Arun walks into my consulting room, I don’t directly transpose the data from a book to his treatment.

No. I recall (by reviewing his record) that Arun had an allergic reaction to a drug (so I can’t use it again), had a problem after his surgery (which limits choices for the next phase of his treatment) and comes from a unique social and family background (to which follow up care needs to be customized).

And while all this is done within the broader framework of current ‘best practices’ (as learned from experience and research and study), this process is also personalized to Arun… and then to Carla, and Kumar, and Shanti, and Vinod, and on and on.

Until, after some years, my brand - “Dr.Mani, the BEST pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon” - is built around the results I get.

And the cycle is completed, when I compile data I collect from my unique, personal experiences, and present them as a collated research paper that’s published in a journal, adding to the volume of collective wisdom suitable for a broader based demographic.

So, to return to 1947 marketing, yes, I’d have made a better TV commercial to tap into the mass marketing effectiveness that was then possible.

But then, knowing that in 60 years we would enter the era of ‘nicheification’, I would build my client database differently.

Each client would get a unique entry. In that entry would be stored all relevant data - what interests them, what they bought and why, how they heard about us, what their preferred communication channels were, when they bought and when they returned, what else they bought and why… and the database would grow and grow and grow - all the while hinged on the UNIQUE CLIENT RECORD as the crux.

So, as the database grew bigger, I could use it to perform mass media marketing just as effectively as anyone did in those days… but with one significant advantage over others - that when the era of mass marketing lost efficiency, I still had enough PERSONAL information to get niched, individual, narrowly focussed - and still have impact with my target audience.

Today, I thought of letting everyone know about my new
exploration into Facebook - after my initial foray into
Twitter was quite rewarding.

Then, I watched a new video on Seth Godin’s blog about
Web 2.0 - and something he said in the last 1 minute
made me pause and think.

That’s why I chose to blog this instead. See the video
here:

Seth Godin talks about Web 2.0

I first wrote this post some months ago.  In light of the recent ‘Squidoo Slap’ (the catchy term used to describe ranking drops on Google of Squidoo lenses), this once again gains relevance.

I’m republishing it primarily for the attention of buyers of my ‘Squidoo Marketing Secrets’ and ‘Advanced Squidoo Profits’ reports, since the ‘gloom and doom’ naysayers seem to be writing obituaries for Squidoo.

In my opinion, the recent changes only make Squidoo stronger than before.  Read Seth Godin’s interview about “The Squidoo Slap” and you’ll see what I mean.

But first, learn how to make a giant pay you…

How to Make a GIANT pay you?

If I asked you to name some online GIANTS, you’d likely
include these names:

Google
Yahoo!
eBay
MySpace
Squidoo
Del.icio.us

All of these are places where MILLIONS of people flock
to every day to do many different things.

And each of these giants can be made to pay YOU cash!

This article will share some insights about how you can
get familiar and friendly with these giants, work with
them to further their ends… and make a tidy profit.

It begins with studying the giant’s purpose.

Google and Yahoo are search services.  They compile and
sort through massive mounds of data to give their users
a productive, useful search experience.

eBay brings together buyers and sellers and helps them
exchange value to each other.

MySpace and Squidoo are personal spotlight services,
where the emphasis is on giving each member their own
‘5 minutes of fame’.

Del.icio.us and similar bookmarking services let you
store favorite sites online to recover and share easily
with others looking for the same kind of information.
Online forums foster a sense of community where members
meet, share, and help each other.

Understanding this core purpose of each of the giants
puts you far ahead of the crowd of competitors seeking
to profit from them.

There are ways to take advantage ethically of the huge
crowds they have aggregated. And there are manipulative
ways to exploit them too.  Which you choose to use is a
reflection of your personal philosophy and approach to
working online.

Take Google and Yahoo! for instance.  You could build
a website that is the answer to any searcher’s dream -
rich with solid, useful content, containing relevant
keywords, linked to related sites.  Or you could try
SEO tricks which seek to pervert the system and fool
the engines into ranking you higher than your site
deserves.

Guess which works better in the long term?

MySpace and Squidoo are places where people meet and
network.  If you join as a member, and hang out to
meet folks and make friends, surely it will translate
over time into increased business and profits.  There
is an unbroken rule in business and in life - people
relate to and do business with people they like.

Or take social bookmarking services like Furl, Spurl
and Del.icio.us.  They arose as search alternatives
because the bigger engines threw up irrelevant
results.  By building websites that other users found
interesting, and bookmarked more often, you’d provide
their users with a valuable experience on their site
- and they will reward you with a higher ranking.

Of course, you could try and manipulate the results by
getting many sites (maybe all owned by you!) to list
your wbesites, unfairly loading the dice in your
favor.  Over time, though, you’ll get caught out -
and have to begin from scratch all over again.

Does this mean getting an advantage from these giants
needs to be a long-drawn, back-breaking effort?  No.

You don’t have to work hard, if you work smart.

Instead of painstakingly building links to your site
on your own, pay someone to work on link exchanges.
Pick the most popular forums in your niche and take
time each day to hang out and help others.  Build
content rich sites optimized for your right keywords
systematically, over time - and get them ‘discovered’
by the search engines.

In other words, help the giants help the audience
THEY serve, and you’ll benefit wildly from the massive
crowds they have attracted.  Zig Ziglar said it well:

” You can have everything you want if you give enough
others everything they want.”
Read Seth Godin’s interview about “The Squidoo Slap” - click here.

The instinctive answer most infopreneurs and online business
owners would give to this question is:

“Why, for myself, of course!”

But think about it for a moment - and read this carefully.

I’m going to share 2 case studies that will open your eyes to
reality.  They are based on things that happened to me in the
last week.

#1 - On the Warrior Forum

It’s the #1 Internet marketing discussion forum.

Since 2003, I have posted almost 3,500 messages on the forum,
of which I estimate 700 are content-rich posts that took 10
to 20 minutes each to compose and create.

That’s a mind-boggling 175 HOURS - or over 40 hours a year -
I’ve spent just WRITING quality posts on the Warrior forum.

And that’s a forum owned by Allen Says!

Less than 10% of my online income comes directly from the Warrior
forum, or things I do there (like running special offers).

My websites do get spidered through the forum - but I have my
own high traffic blogs that can get the same result easily.

Many people read my posts there, but my own opt-in mailing
list is far more responsive to anything I write about.

Then why do I post there so often?

I participate mainly because it helps me GIVE BACK.

Because of the notes, posts and email I have received over
the years from HUNDREDS of people who read my posts and
were inspired, energized and encouraged to go for their
dreams.

But I get a strange ‘where-am-I’ feeling when people say:

“I’m not surprised you post frequently on the Warrior
forum.  Everyone likes and respects you there”

That simply isn’t true.  If it were, it would be UNREAL.

The forum has over 53,000 members.  Among this diverse
group, there are some folks - not many, but a few - who
dislike me, are jealous of the reputation and ‘brand’
I’ve built over the years, and would be delighted if
I goof up.

Recently, some of my posts have been dealt with in a way
that seems to indicate my passionate purpose of working
for Congenital Heart Defects awareness is NOT as important
or relevant to the forum’s core essence - talking about
making money.

For me, making money online and running my Web business
is intricately woven with my work with CHD kids - and if
people think one of these components is inappropriate for
discussion on a forum - why, then, the others are too!

So, instead of whining, complaining and crying about how
my posts are being moved around and deleted, I remembered
this essential point…

I’m working for the forum owner

And in the light of this realization, make future plans
to participate on the forum that align with my overall
goals and targets.

#2 - On Squidoo

Squidoo is Seth Godin’s brainchild - a high-profile Web2.0
social networking site… with a twist.

  It Is ‘Marketer Friendly’

Not surprisingly, when it picked up speed and lenses were
getting ranked high by Google, it attracted a crowd of
unsavory marketers who were looking to exploit the
system.

They created junk sites.  They built spammy lenses.  They
used ‘dirty tricks’ to take advantage of Squidoo power.

One of them involved abusing iFrames.

In an attempt to fix the problem, Squidoo’s management
announced they would be disabling iFrames soon.

Among Squidoo’s tight-knit and loyal community of users,
there was a flurry of anxiety and near-desperation.  Like
old grannies in skirts, the group was clucking and
complaining about how this change would hurt them, cut
down their revenues, destroy their ‘business’.

I have 60+ Squidoo lenses.  Authored 2 ebooks on the topic.
And this change will have little impact on my network.

If it did, I would adapt to the change.

Why?

Because when you build a lens on Squidoo, you must know
and understand that you are

Working for Squidoo’s owner

And if the owner changes the rules of the game, you either
play by the new rules - or walk away from the ballpark and
begin a new game.

Preferably one where YOU get to call the shots!

Don’t waste your time and energy complaining about the
changes.  Don’t get upset that the balance has shifted
against your favor.  Don’t get frustrated that all your
hard work has been for nought.

Just change, adapt and win.

You see, at the core, it is simple.  Obvious.  Clear.

You Are Either Working For YOURSELF - Or For Others

If you rely on GOOGLE for your website traffic, and are putting
in a ton of effort to optimize your site for Google, then always
remember - you are working FOR Google.

If your SQUIDOO lens(es) get you a flood of visitors and sales,
which is the main reason you build lenses on Squidoo, then keep
this in mind - you are working FOR Squidoo.

If you post on busy discussion forums so that you will get your
signature link viewed by other participants, so they’ll buy from
you, then understand well - you are working FOR the forum owner.

Is that smart?

Maybe… for some things, at some times, for some people.

But here’s what’s SMARTER.

Have your own forum - like this one:

http://www.Reach-n-Relate.com/ask-niche/

Have your own blog - like this one:

http://www.MoneyPowerWisdom.com

Have your own ezine - like this one:

http://www.InternetInfopreneur.com/tips.htm

And build your own network of sites, friends and resources
so that YOU are really working for YOURSELF.

Then, get more and more people to work - FOR YOU!

All success

Dr.Mani

P.S. - Thank you very much if you voted for the best CHD website
design in the poll.

If you haven’t done it yet, please check this out:

http://www.reach-n-relate.com/ask-niche/viewtopic.php?t=1517

I value your opinion and will be grateful for your vote to help
me pick the ‘new look’ web design.

Thanks.

Just for fun, and because some
folks accused me of creating my latest ebook,

ADVANCED Squidoo Profit Secrets
http://www.socialmininets.com/advancedsquidoo.htm

to help the black-hat SEO crowd and spa.m mers,
I went on the offensive and created this lens…

Squidooism - the religion!

http://www.Squidoo.com/squidooism/

Take a look - and if you like it, do 3 things:

#1 - Rate the lens by clicking on the stars near
the top of the page

#2 - Post a quick note in the Guestbook (include
a link back to your site, don’t forget!)

#3 - Get your copy of ‘ADVANCED Squidoo Profits’

http://www.socialmininets.com/advancedsquidoo.htm

Enjoy your weekend

All success
Dr.Mani

Gabriel Aguinaga is giving away a list building
report he regularly sells for $47 - for free.

Pick it up - click here

It’s not fancy or complex - and the thing is you
do NOT need to be fancy or complex to build a
list.  Everything is simple and straightforward.

Just as Gabriel explains

- - -

One idea mentioned in the report is to use PLR
articles for your list mailing.

I’d like to remind you about my PLR article pack
deal that ends on July 1st - and only 17 packs
have been sold.

I’m sure the other 33 will NOT sell out before
July 1st… and that’s good for you!  If you take
this offer, you will get MORE exclusive content.

I will never sell this PLR content ever again. I
wrote the articles to use myself, after all!

- - -

Tim Phelan, the master site flipper, who sold
John Reese the popular blogging site, Pingoat.com
said this about ‘ADVANCED Squidoo Profit Secrets‘:

“I read your ebook last night and was impressed.
I joined squidoo a couple months back and gathered
some lenses but hadn’t done anything with them
as of yet.

Tim Phelan, www.BlogsRater.com

Would you like to access the same Squidoo secrets
Tim found so fascinating - and potentially
profitable?

- - -

Pick up FIVE more reports - free

The BIG Summer Infopreneur Giveaway ends soon.

http://www.niche2.com/IIA/summer/

And watch out for a special note tomorrow (or maybe
the day after!)

All success

Dr.Mani

You’d expect someone to rave about the HUGE bonuses that
folks are using willy-nilly these days to get you to buy
the next multi-hundred dollar mega program through their
affiliate link… so they can pocket juicy commissions.

But no.  I’m raving over a bonus that Kevin Riley created
specially to be in time for the launch of my new ebook:

‘ADVANCED Squidoo Profit Secrets’

http://www.SocialMininets.com/advancedsquidoo.htm

This brand new report already has readers excited.

- - -

“I especially liked the ideas you shared on Page 9 where
you take something quite simple and show the real power
of it. I will be implementing that on all my lenses
straight away.

That’s what I like about your reports you give a
different twist on something and make it more
powerful.

Paul Duxbury - www.squidoorevealed.com

- - -

I bought the advanced Squidoo report, lots of great
content and ideas here that’s really going to be
useful. Thanks a lot.

Duncan MacIntyre

- - -

More about the report later.  First, let me tell you about
this neat bonus Kevin is letting me share with owners of
the ADVANCED Squidoo Profit Secrets report.

Kevin is author of the series of $7 recipe booklets (no,
NOT cooking recipes, but infopreneur recipes to build an
online biz), and is the most versatile creator of
marketing videos I’ve seen.

Just see the graphics gracing this little bonus report,
and you’ll see what I mean - they made me go ‘Wow’!

The bonus is called “YOUR ONLINE MONEY FACTORY”.  It is
23-pages long.  And it will change your idea about how
infopreneuring should be done - the smart way!

But You Cannot Buy The Report

No, not for $7, and not for $70

You can only get it as a bonus for ADVANCED Squidoo Profit
Secrets - and that’s one more good reason to go ahead and
buy this ebook today

http://www.SocialMininets.com/advancedsquidoo.htm

There’s another good reason, too.  And it’s even better if
you hurry, because there’s less competition to fight off!

Oops, I’ve already said too much

All success

Dr.Mani