Squidoo is quickly becoming a great way to market a business online and earn income via affiliate programs. In case you don’t know, Squidoo is a free resource that allows anyone to build web pages (referred to as “lenses”) about anything and everything. From an Internet Marketing perspective, these lenses can be extremely search engine friendly and drive massive traffic to your website.

Here are 10 strategies to build a great Squidoo lens that will bring traffic and money your way.

1. Make sure you completely fill out your entire Squidoo profile. This includes adding an interesting bio about yourself and a photo that represents you. Doing this will let people on Squidoo know what you’re about and encourage them to read more of your lenses

2. The name you choose for your lens is very important. Your title needs to be unique and catchy rather than bland and generic. The title also needs to point out exactly what the page is about and should include search terms that people would use when seeking out the info you are providing.

For example, the title “Why Dalmatians Are The Coolest Dogs Ever!” beats the pants off “About Dalmatian Dogs”.

3. Write a quality introduction that is appealing and informative to the reader. Your intro should also contain keyword / search terms in order for the search engines to recognize you. Remember that the first line of your intro is often what shows up in the search engines so make sure that it displays your purpose of the lens and targeted keywords.

4. Write killer content that people will enjoy. If you lens lacks content, doesn’t entertain or doesn’t inform people than nobody is going to want to read it. Pick subjects that you know something about and share your experiences. If people see you are excited that will get them fired up too. As always, don’t forget to include your keywords and search terms throughout the copy but make sure you don’t go overboard with this (ie. keyword spamming).

5. Include targeted links to related content. Remember that search engines notice not only who is linking to you, but also who you are linking to. Make sure that when you do link to related websites you use targeted words and phrases as your links. For example, if you are writing about making money on Squidoo your outgoing links should say something like, “For more info, check out this website on Squidoo Affiliate Profits“ instead of just “Click here”. You can also add Amazon and other modules that can help with this.

6. Don’t forget the graphics. Graphics will help break up your content and encourage people to continue reading.

7. Make sure that you tag your lens with 10 to 30 phrases and keywords that people might search for when looking for your topic.

8. Provide a variety of content. Large blocks of text, ads, graphics, etc can easily lose your reader’s attention. Mix it up and spread your lens out.

9. Encourage people to come back to your lens by providing a guestbook and poll. You also want to update or change your content every once in awhile which will help you with the search engines.

10. Make sure you proofread before you publish. Grammar and spelling do matter so utilize your spellchecker and read through your content a few times before you go live. It’s also a good idea to have others read your stuff over to catch anything you might have missed.

So now all that’s left for you to do is take action and start Squidooing! By putting all these strategies to use it won’t take long until you are enjoying targeted traffic to your website or earning affiliate commissions compliments of your new Squidoo lenses.

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When it comes to affiliate marketing there are several methods in which a person can make money. The truth is that there are literally thousands of great techniques and education courses available that will show you exactly what to do to achieve success.

Unfortunately most “newbie” affiliate marketers experience information overload from these programs and eventually give up before they ever make a dime. Most of the time, the new affiliate marketer will blame the eBook or training course for lack of success and quickly spends more money on new education.

What they fail to recognize is that it’s usually not the eBook that is the problem; it’s the person reading it that decides the outcome.

The truth is that only a small percentage of affiliate marketers actually earn the big profits that everyone is dreaming of. Although affiliate marketing is not a hard task, only a fraction of people really have what it takes to stay focused and press on even when the sales aren’t coming in right away.

If you want to be successful you must conquer the “self doubt” that is going to kick in as soon as you devote some time to your new affiliate marketing venture and don’t see the results. You must understand that this is natural and while others are giving up you are going to press on, build from your experiences, and continue to educate yourself on affiliate marketing strategies and tactics.

Think of affiliate marketing as pushing a snowball up and over a hill. At first it’s going to be difficult because gravity (doubt) is working against you. But after you make it over the peak you can’t stop the snowball even if you wanted to simply because it keeps getting bigger and continues to roll on its own.

So you need to understand that all the hard work is going to come at the beginning without any reward. But as you continue to market your affiliate programs on a daily basis, pretty soon your efforts will start paying off simply because you are everywhere on the Internet.

Forums… You’re there!
Articles… You’re there!
Social networking… You’re there!
Search Engines… You’re there!
EBay… You’re there!
And on and on it goes!

In closing, if you are just getting started with affiliate marketing make sure you do your research, find the right training program, and then stick with it. If you are one of those people that have already purchased a bunch of education programs, then maybe it’s time to dust them off and give them another try before you spend more money on training

* If you are looking for a super easy to follow training course on affiliate marketing, check out “Maverick Money Makers”. This education course is time tested, easy to follow, and comes with a money back guarantee!

One of the most popular ways of starting a home business today is building and maintaining an E-Commerce website. Depending on the products that you sell or promote, you can have quite a lucrative business in this area without having to do anything more than drive traffic your site.

You don’t need inventory, and you don’t have to ship any of the products because if you set it up right, these things can be done for you. It’s so easy that someone who has never run a business before can quickly learn how to operate one of these sites.

There are two different ways to set up a no-hassle E-Commerce website:

#1 – Find a company that offers a pre-designed E-Commerce website.

There are several companies on the Internet that you can contract with and get an E-Commerce website that is already to go. These websites usually consist of a “mirror” site of theirs with your own codes and URL.

You are responsible for promoting the site, but you will not be handling the shipping or maintaining of inventory. For someone who has a busy lifestyle and many things they like to do without being tied down to a desk, this is a perfect business. You don’t have to sit at your computer waiting for someone to buy something because it will be automated for you, including the installation of credit card links.

The only thing you will have to do is promote your site so that you will have a steady flow of visitors which can result in sales. You will receive a commission from those who purchase products from your site.

#2 – Build your own website and promote affiliate programs.

You may also choose to build your own website and post links and banners and market other people’s products of who you become an affiliate for. An example of these affiliate programs is Amazon and ClickBank. The concept is simple, in exchange for posting their banners on your website; they will pay you for click throughs or visitors that create a sale.

Of course not all affiliate programs pay the same and it’s important that you do your investigating before signing up with any affiliate program. Some programs pay 10 percent while many ClickBank products can pay as much as 50 or even 60 percent.

In the end, promotion is the key issue with any E-Commerce website whether it’s a mirror site or if you choose to promote affiliate programs. The amount of money you make is directly related to how much time you spend promoting your website and how visible your site is. With good promotion, your site will be highly visible and bring in enough visitors to make you a reasonable income.

How much you make depends on the scope of your site and your target audience, so it’s not something you can guess ahead of time. You have to do the work first and reap the benefits later.