The purpose of this article is to provide a guide to publishing high quality content using the Squid platform, as a way to generate an income. It covers the Squid publishing platform in a step by step fashion, concentrating on four key concepts:
Providing high quality resources
An attractive and logical layout
Attention to specific details
Providing interaction with visitors
These four concepts are vital to creating a viable revenue stream with Squid. In addition, the reader needs to have a good understanding of keyword and niche research, as well as the importance of tags.
About Squid
1) Squid is arranged into a series of Lenses. Each Lens is a user-owned piece of Web 2.0 property, which can be updated in a very intuitive click-and-type interface. This removes the need for strong HTML or web publishing skills, putting it in the same ease of use category as a blog. But, unlike blogging, a Lens is designed to be a collection of resources, and not a daily delivery of opinion on a given subject.
First Steps with Lens Publishing
To get started, the best approach is to pick an area in which the Lens master has some expertise. Remember this is a new publishing platform, so it will help if the only research that needs to be done is to learn how to use the interface, rather than having to look around for content.
The next step is to start building the Lens skeleton. This is as easy as clicking the ‘Make a Lens’ button on Squid. The whole process is wizard driven, starting with picking a name for the Lens.
For example, ‘water proofpatio speakers’ is meaningless to Google. On the other hand ‘waterproof-patio-speakers’ is treated as three separate words, which is probably what the Lens creator intended. So, the title might be ‘Waterproof Patio Speakers’ and the lens URL end in ‘waterproof-patio-speakers’.
The next step, after naming, is picking the tags which best represent the content. The primary tag should reflect the content that the Lens owner is going to use to introduce the topic. This means that it should be a three word phrase that is used in the very first paragraph of the Lens.
Next, tags should be added that reflect the rest of the topic. The definitive limit is set at around 30 individual tags (three to four word phrases), so do not overfill the tags at first. Leave some slots to add further down the line. Having created the basic skeleton, the Lens owner can start to add modules.
Squid Modules
A module is just a place in the Lens into which content can be inserted. There are many kinds of modules, from basic text blocks, through to lists of links (with voting), and, more importantly, places to showcase products from third party suppliers, such as Amazon.
And this is the key to making money on Squid - choosing modules that keep interest, engage the reader, and generate sales. The most popular are:
The best approach seems to be to mix up visual modules (like the Black box or Quote modules) with pure content (Text/Write modules). The revenue generating modules can then be added at appropriate ‘break points’ within the other content. Interactive modules should appear lower down in the Lens, with a guestbook at the end, so that visitors can leave their comments.
For more useful tips & hints, please browse for more information at our website: -
http://www.blogers-guide-to-profit.com
http://www.blog-and-ping.com |
Added: Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:08 am GMT 