Google Loves Web 2.0 sites

Google falls in and out of love with Web 2.0 platforms. There was a big rush by spammers to use Squidoo and Hubpages. Google devalued them and both were forced to tidy up their act. Squidoo and Hubpages seem to be back in favour with big G. We believe the key is to providing real unique content on these platforms – go easy on the links. So with all the other platforms use with caution – good quality content and don’t spam the links. Hey, be responsible.

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How Good is Zimbio?

Zimbio like Squidoo was an excellent Web 2.0 platform for “promoting” websites or products.

But has Google devalued the links on Zimbio rather like Squidoo? Unfortunately, as more webmasters (being a kind description) spam Zimbio with external links, Google endeavours to devalue the link juice.

There are still plenty of web 2.0 platforms!

My Stuff  on Swivel
Grave Contributor
Revolution Health
WE Empower | The Nations Premier Forum For Women
The Insider
The Hub
Stickam, Live Streaming Video, Watch & Broadcast Interactive Shows, Webcam Chatrooms

Squidoo Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid

Squidoo marketing requires lens masters to recognize certain opportunities that will help them increase profits to their direct and affiliate links. Many lens masters mistakenly believe they are capitalizing on Squidoo marketing opportunities, but later find out that they’ve missed a few things. There are five major Squidoo marketing mistakes that you should avoid at all costs if you want your lens crafting to be successful.

First, you have to use your tags properly with your Squidoo marketing efforts. It all begins when you choose the URL for your lens. You want to make sure that your tag, or prime keyword, is in the URL name. Check to ensure that you’ve spelled your tags properly, because you won’t be able to change the URL at a later date.

As you create your lens based around Squidoo marketing opportunities, you want to ensure that your keywords, or tags, are listed in every title and subtitle within the lens. This includes poll modules, guestbook modules, and every other module on your lens. The content that you put on your lens needs to have your keywords woven throughout. Don’t engage in keyword stuffing if you want your Squidoo marketing efforts to unfold nicely.

When Squidoo was first launched, it was important to add relevant keywords to your tag list. However, beginning January 1, 2008, Squidoo implemented nofollow codes to their tag pages. This means that when you add the available 40 tags to your lenses, it only serves to help with the inner Squidoo searches, not search engines such as Google.

The second Squidoo marketing mistake that you need to avoid is in not utilizing your hyperlinking opportunities. Some people simply put banner ads at the bottom of their text modules. Don’t forget other areas where you can hyperlink text that goes to your websites or points to your affiliate links, such as your My Bio section.

You can also use basic HTML code to create hyperlinks in your text modules, including your introduction module. Another little-known place that you can use a hyperlink is in the description section of money modules such as Amazon and eBay.

If you use a poll module, then you have unlimited linking opportunities. For example, you can ask a question such as, “What is the best e-book on affiliate marketing?” Then, each of your poll response options can be hyperlinked to a particular e-book using your affiliate link. Both before and after the visitor takes the poll, they will be able to click through on the link. If they choose one option, and then see that the majority of visitors chose a different option, they may be influenced to go and buy that product.

The third Squidoo marketing mistake that you want to avoid is in not joining groups on Squidoo. This is a social networking site, and as such, that means that you need to participate in the community. But joining groups serves a dual purpose.

While tag pages have a nofollow code implemented on them, group pages do not. They earn their own individual PageRank on Google, just as your lenses do. It’s better to start your own group and encourage people to join, but it’s also beneficial to expose your lens links on existing group pages.

Not promoting traffic to your lens is the fourth Squidoo marketing mistake everyone should avoid. Many people believe that once they create their lens, adding content and images, their work is done. But this isn’t true.

It’s your responsibility to send targeted traffic to your lens and help it build a reputation in the search engines. You can do this by using social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, e-mail your list about it, write an article and submit it to a directory with your lens link in your resource section, and blog about it to help it get picked up and entered into the Google spider rotation.

Lastly, you want to avoid the Squidoo marketing mistake of not updating your lens regularly. You don’t have to log in daily to make major changes to your Squidoo lens content. What you need to do is log in every once in awhile and freshen up the content — even if it’s in a minor manner.

One good way to do this is to check your traffic stats for the lens and see how people are finding your lens. You may discover that they’re entering questions into Google and landing on your lens, but it’s a question that you haven’t yet answered in your lens content. This provides you the perfect Squidoo marketing opportunity to provide a solution to their problems.

If you can steer clear of these five Squidoo marketing mistakes, your lens crafting will be more successful. Be sure to test and tweak your lens content so that it performs to the best of its ability. Take time to make sure that your hyperlinks are all working. Polish your lens and your visitors will appreciate your expertise and authority — which is boosted by the clean layout Squidoo lenses have to offer.

If you would rather utilize expert lens masters to build your lens instead of having to navigate the rules yourself, you can visit http://www.BuildMyLens.com and but a single or 4-pack lens package. Tiffany Dow and Lewis Smile, two lens masters who have been awarded Giant Squid status, have built hundreds of lenses for Internet marketers. You get original content by a top ghostwriter paired with images, as well as bookmarking to help your traffic get a jumpstart. You also get a lens master cheat sheet to help you maintain your professionally-created lens from that point on.