Squidoo - a Great Place to Learn For Free
Last Update: July 30, 2012
I have been using Squidoo as an article site and had not really considered it as a place to monetize, however I have been pleasantly surprised by some of my results.

There are a lot of good reasons for using Squidoo:-
  1. It is free!
  2. The Squid points and quest system, which takes you along for the ride and teaches you good IM practices.
  3. SquidU their forum system offers a lot of great tips and help if you get stuck.
  4. They only tolerate legitimate tactics, spammers and scams get banned.
  5. They appear to be gaining in Google love.
  6. Their commission rates are higher than new user rates on Amazon and eBay.even after allowing for their take.
  7. If your lenses do well you get a share of the adpool.
  8. You do not have to wait until you have $100 or whatever arbitrary figure the affiliate source has placed before you get paid, you can set this as low as $1.
  9. You get blessed by Squid Angels if you produce excellent lenses.
  10. You get increasing rewards both financial and in terms of lens features as you progress.
  11. It is structured in a way that makes learning easy.
  12. Many top WA people started on or use Squidoo (Notably PotPie Girl).
  13. It is a great place to try keywords before forking out on a domain name.
  14. You an use it for articles or monetized sites, Do not direct link to a WA landing page though, this could lead to the site being banned or even them cancelling your whole account!
My personal best performing site is a Squidoo Lens for Jane Savoie's A Happy Horse Course, this was a quick and I thought dirty site that I threw up in a hurry, but which gained traction outranking Jane's own site for a while.

What I am trying to say is that Squidoo is an excellent place for newbies to learn without wasting any money. It teaches you to read the terms and conditions of the sites you use, it teaches discipline and most of all it teaches best practices. So sign up join, whatever and enjoy the learning experience. It is totally ethical and white hat, so you better be too, but if you are you will learn quite quickly if you want or at your own pace, it is entirely up to you. Oh did I mention it is FREE!
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Meredithlonestar Premium
I Love using Squidoo. You can get very good traffic & exposure, great place to test a niche before buying a domain, on & on. Ask Jennifer (PotPieGirl), about Squidoo. She's made a career using Squidoo Lenses.
CQuel Premium
I thought about using Squidoo but rather than put the time into a site that doesn't allow me to use my affiliate links, I think it is just as easy to put up a mini site. Does anyone agree or am I looking at this the wrong way?
The Dressage Husband Premium
It is just as easy, but a Squidoo lens often looks better and there is no cost to you! The downside is that you can not link directly to an affiliate offer, unless it is something contained in one of the Squidoo modules, Amazon, eBay, CafePress or Zazzle. If it is you can get a better rate than you would if you were doing it on your own as a Newbie. You could get banned, if you do not stick by the rules, but that is my point this is a place you will be helped to learn the rules safely.

Once learned you will be a better webizen and are more likely to get Google love and therefore do better financially in the long term.
Deezdz Premium
I agree....Squidoo is great! A fun place to share your interests, interact, brush up on your writing skills and test out different markets/niches...and it's all FREE!

Squidoo will lock sites that are purely based on promoting an affiliate product and "making a sale". They have a list of niches they don't favour such as some ClickBank products. As stated on their TOS page, these are some broad guidelines.

#1 No Spam
#2 No X-Rated or Porn
#3 No junk topics
#4 A limit on "overly promotional lenses"
#5 Plagiarism takedown
#6 No aggressively duplicated or unoriginal content
#7 A special note about affiliate marketing lenses

If anyone is interested in a more detailed list of what Squidoo accepts, here is a link to "The SquidDon't Content Policy" http://www.squidoo.com/squiddont
The Dressage Husband Premium
Deezdz,

Thanks you have totally got it, and it will definitely help you towards success in the long run. There are no shortcuts that have not or will not be banned when the relevant authorities get round to it. The point is Seth Godin is totally ethical and he intends to keep Squidoo that way too.
klrrider Premium
Squidoo doesn't like promoting WA last time I checked. Do a Squid search to see if others are promoting. If all you find are older lens they are most likely grandfathered in.
The Dressage Husband Premium
You are correct you must not link directly to WA or advertise directly on Squidoo, but this was not the point. You get a lot of Google love and it is a great place to test out niche ideas before committing to the domain. Also for the cash strapped newbie it is free!

The other point is if you follow the Quests you learn best practices in an environment that does not cost you. The down side is that if you spam or duplicate you could be banned. The upside is if you learn to work by the rules, which they enforce strictly, you willl have learned how to run a successful IM business that gets Google love.
Shawn Martin Premium
You people keep plugging this site. I am thinking it might be a ggood place to promoter WA. Thanks for the info!
Renni Premium
It's so easy to set up a page or lens as Squidoo calls it. And great for monetizing as they have modules for Amazon, Cafe Press, Chitika, etc. and help you easily search for relevant products to sell on the lens without becoming an affiliate at the official sites of those stores.

I wrote a whole Street Article about Squidoo and its benefits a while back...Squidoo: WYSIWYG and So Much More if you want to know more.

Dressage Husband is right, it's a great place to start learning - and for getting your online presence started. Google likes it because Google owns it (I think). Seth Godin and Google worked together to build it if I remember what I read about it when I first signed on a year ago.
Shawn Martin Premium
I am headed that way, got my account set up today :)
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