{"id":2223,"date":"2008-06-21T21:15:40","date_gmt":"2008-06-22T02:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=2223"},"modified":"2008-06-21T21:15:40","modified_gmt":"2008-06-22T02:15:40","slug":"my-first-squidoo-page","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/21\/my-first-squidoo-page\/","title":{"rendered":"My first Squidoo page"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past week, I’ve been turned on to Squidoo<\/strong><\/a>, a social networking site founded by author\/marketing expert Seth Godin<\/a> $\"\"$ , who wrote Purple Cow<\/a> $\"\"$ , Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers<\/a> $\"\"$ , and Small Is the new Big<\/a> $\"\"$ , among others.\u00a0 Squidoo members (or “squids”) create lenses, which are articles focused on a particular topic.\u00a0 Then other Squidoo members can rank the lens you created, and choose to add it to their favorites.\u00a0 Writing lenses is a great way to get your name out there as an “everyday expert” and drive traffic to your sites.<\/p>\n

You can also make money with Squidoo.\u00a0 Squidoo displays ads on its members’ lenses (members can choose to opt out if they want).\u00a0 The revenue is shared as follows:\u00a0 5% is donated to charity; 50% goes to the creator of the lens; and 45% goes to Squidoo.\u00a0 Lensmasters have the option of donating their 50% to charity as well, and have over 65 charities to choose from.\u00a0 The more interesting and well-written a lens is, the more it will get viewed, and the more ad revenue it will generate.<\/p>\n

Bloggers are natural candidates to be Squidoo lensmasters, since writing is the primary skill in use.\u00a0 Since one of the sites I run is a store that sells items related to learning to play pool<\/a>, I decided to surf through Squidoo’s lenses on that topic.\u00a0 There really weren’t any.\u00a0 There were pool articles, all right, but most of them were just crappy “buy stuff” lenses full of affiliate links to sites selling pool tables, cues, etc.\u00a0 So I decided to sit down and create some content that was actually useful… a tutorial on how to learn left and right English in pool<\/a>.\u00a0 “English” is when you strike the cue ball off center.\u00a0 Hitting the ball with left or right English puts a spin on the ball that causes its angle to either be widened or narrowed when it comes off the rail.\u00a0 There are also top English (follow) and bottom English (draw); didn’t cover those but maybe that’ll be the next article.<\/p>\n

I have a feeling I’m going to be writing a lot more Squidoo lenses in the future… not only to promote my stores but for fun.\u00a0 I already have several Memphis-related lenses in mind.<\/p>\n

If you’re into pool, check out the tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now if I can only figure out how to write an interesting Squidoo lens on tube tops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"