Basics:
Everyone knows that Squidoo is a popular marketing choice. Many marketers state the importance of utilizing Squidoo as it has gained authority in the eyes of Google and the lenses that users create rank well in the search engines and they rank quickly.
You probably already know that it is simple for you to set up a lens on Squidoo.com in a matter of minutes. You can add all sorts of modules to the lens to make it more interesting, to encourage user interaction, and to add more information.
You can also rate lenses, add them as favorites, and leave feedback on lenses. This is good, because if you do a good job on your lens then people will rate it and favorite it. When other people see that previous visitors have ranked your lens highly, they will trust you more and be more willing to purchase whatever you have to offer.
One trick that I do is I create multiple Squidoo accounts and rate my own lenses and favorite them. You can even rate your lens with the account you created it with. Not only does it make your lens appear more beneficial and trustworthy right from the start, but it also makes your Squidoo ranking higher. If you constantly rate it with new accounts and favorite it then your lens will rank higher and higher on Squidoo, meaning you will gain more traffic. I believe this also helps you to rank better in Google, but I am not positive on that fact. (It can’t hurt though)
There is one thing that I do not like about Squidoo though, and that is the fact that it has INCREDIBLY low click-out rates. The people behind Squidoo have done everything possible to keep people on Squidoo, or to get them to click-out through the Adsense ads so that they can make money.
There are a few things you can do to increase the click-out rates, which I will discuss if you continue reading (which you better, or else I won’t like you)
Modules:
As you probably know, Squidoo has many, many modules you can add to your lens in order to allow more user interaction, to share more information, to add fun content, to add regular content, and more.
There are so many modules on Squidoo that I don’t even know what they all do. Squidoo adds more modules as time goes on, so I don’t think I will ever figure out what they all do. However, knowing what they all do is not necessary. I will tell you of some of the more important modules though.
The “Featured Lenses” Module: With this module you can add more lenses created by you that are related to that lens. That way if they want more information related to that subject, they have the option of going to one of your other lenses.
The “Text Module” Module: This is the most basic module and it allows you to add a basic text module to your Squidoo lens. This is good for adding more articles to your lens. HTML is allowed in this module, so you can add links, pictures, etc.
The “Big Arrow Link” Module: The Big Arrow Link module allows you to put more focus on a specific link. It has two big arrows pointing to a link, in which you will obviously place your affiliate link or a link to a pre-sell page, review page, opt-in page, or your own sales page. (Increases click-out rates)
The “Blackbox” Module: This module is just a big black box with a title and description of your choice. You can use this to display a specific point you are trying to get across, or you can even include a link to the page you are promoting. It stands out from the other modules and draws attention to it. (Increases click-outs if you include a link in the description)
The “Talk Bubble” Module: This module does not allow you to include many characters, but you can put in small quotes that stand out. Put little notes that you want people to remember in these so that people skimming the page will see it and remember it.
“The Most Important Thing” Module: The Most Important Thing places an orange box around the text, so it stands out. You want to put “the most important thing” in here, as people skimming the page will see it and read it first, and are much more likely to remember whatever you put here.
These are the most important modules, and many of them will help you to increase your click-out rates and make your module more appealing, so people are more likely to actually read your lens.
Revenue Sharing:
Revenue sharing is something that Squidoo offers so that people will be more inclined to use Squidoo. There are two ways in which you can make money through revenue sharing.
The first way is through Adsense. You will notice that Squidoo has Adsense all over the Squidoo lenses. As people click on Adsense ads, the money received from the clicks is put into a pool, which is distributed to different users. There is some algorithm that Squidoo uses to determine who gets paid (has to do with lens rank I believe) and how much they get paid. The money is pooled to avoid click fraud.
The second way is through the sale of Amazon products. You can see that there are several modules related to Amazon. You can display different Amazon modules which will show the visitors to your lens different related Amazon products. If the visitor clicks through these links and purchases the product, then you share 50% of the commissions with Squidoo. (Basically nothing)
There are people who attempt to make a living off Squidoo’s revenue sharing program. Please, do not even attempt this. Do NOT put Amazon modules on your webpage. Seriously, you can get a few cents from the Adsense clicks IF your lens has a really high ranking. You can also get a couple dollars IF people purchase Amazon products through the module on your lens.
However, would you rather make MAYBE a few dollars/month if you are lucky from revenue sharing, or would you rather promote other products for $20+ commissions? I personally find that promoting affiliate products from Clickbank or a similar place is much more profitable than revenue sharing. If I were you, I would never waste my time with Squidoo’s revenue sharing.
Automation:
I have seen multiple different programs/software developed that automatically create Squidoo lenses. Many people see these types of software to be beneficial, as Squidoo does rank highly, and it is nice to have the process of creating the lenses automated. However, there are a few problems with Squidoo automation.
The first is that it is against Squidoo’s TOS. Squidoo wants good quality lenses that truly help people and provide useful information. Squidoo does not want people to automatically create a bunch of Squidoo lenses. Our goal is not to spam the web 2.0 sites and anger them, and by using automated lens creation you are going to upset Squidoo, and you are violating their TOS.
The second thing is that Squidoo is good at detecting lenses that were automatically created. I have heard of people losing 20 lenses in one day, because Squidoo found out the lenses were created automatically. I have not heard of one lens that was created by software that has lasted. They may be around for a week, or maybe even a couple of weeks, but they all end up getting deleted at some point.

Claiming Domains:
When choosing a name for your Squidoo lens you need to have your keywords in your domain. Once you have determined what keywords you are going to target, it is wise to go and claim the domains with the keywords in the URLs before someone else does.
To get maximum effect out of Squidoo, your Squidoo URL must contain your keywords. For this reason you should claim the URLs immediately, even if you are not going to create the lenses right away.
This is especially important for new products and new trends that emerge. If you are can claim the major keywords before anyone else does, then you can outrank others. Claim your domains for all the major keywords and it will be easier for you to outrank your competitors.
If you are ok with being mean to your competitors, you can claim the domain with just the keywords, with hyphens between the words (for keywords longer than one word), and with hyphens between just a few of the words. These are the domains your competitors will want, as they will rank the best. If you claim all of these domains (even if you don’t use them), then your competitors will be left having to add letters and numbers to the end of their keywords and they will not be able to rank as easily.
“Force” Visitors to Leave:
As I have mentioned before, Squidoo lenses have a very low click-out rate. So when creating your Squidoo lens, it is important to do everything you can to get people off the lens through your links. If you don’t specifically attempt to get people off your lens, then they will not click on your links and they will most likely click on the Adsense or go look at other lenses on Squidoo.
There are a few things you can do to “force” people to leave your lens through your links. The first thing that I always do is I make sure to include a link to my website in EVERY text module. Yes, it makes the links do very little for ranking your main page, and it may appear a little bit spammy, but it helps get people to your site, where you can then make sales, which is the whole point of this process.
The next thing I do is I always include the modules stated above, especially the Blackbox and Big Arrow Link modules. These catch the users attention and give the visitor a link to get off the page to something that will hopefully solve whatever problems they are having.
The third thing you can do is make every picture on the lens clickable. I know Squidoo gives you the option to upload a picture with the text modules, but they are not clickable, and people LOVE to click on pictures. So instead of using the option Squidoo provides to upload a picture, use HTML to insert a clickable picture that will take the visitor to your site.
If you do not know how to do the HTML, then simply use a Wordpress blog and insert a picture with a link in it, and then copy the HTML that Wordpress automatically creates and paste it into the text module.
If you do these three things, your click-out rates will increase dramatically, and you will make more sales from your Squidoo lenses.