Squidblog

Kimberly talked to a bunch of our top lensmasters — people getting mega-traffic to their niche topics — and put together this incredible list of tips, testimonials and ideas for promoting the lenses you’re proud of.

You’ll be surprised, I bet, to learn that’s it not about SEO tricks or link farming. It’s about making great stuff, owning your slice of the Long Tail, and getting people talking.

Amy won

Joseph did, too.

At eBay Live, we ran a fun little contest. (Gimmick, yes. Irrelevant, no).

We printed up 600 bright orange t-shirts, each with a handwritten letter posted on the front. The letter was from a seller talking to a friend about the free traffic she was getting from her eBay lenses on Squidoo.

So we gave the shirts away to people who were willing to set fashion sense aside for a day and wear Squid-tees on the show floor. Once on Thursday, once on Friday, I tapped just one orange-shirt-wearer on the shoulder. The person who got tapped won $9,000 worth of free SquidOffers advertising on our site… quality ad space to help promote their eBay store, their favorite auctions, their blog, their personal site, their favorite charities… whatever they want.

Amy won. Joseph did too. Both are eBay sellers looking to tell their stories and get found more online.

Thanks to everyone who wore the shirt. And remember, even if you didn’t get picked for the free advertising… that doesn’t mean you can’t make a free lens to promote your stores!

Squidoo.com is growing fast. Summer is here, and if you haven’t found the internship of your dreams, maybe we can help.

We’re looking for 3 interns, people who are in it for the experience, for the resume-builder, for the passion of changing the way the web works and helping people spread their ideas online. (and perhaps helping us raise some serious money for charity).

Here’s the deal:

You work from home. Wherever home is. 3 to 5 days a week.

Every week, we’ll email you a bunch of new projects to take on. You manage yourself.

There’s a little research, some lensmaking, some nonprofit marketing, some design work (if that’s what you’re good at), some writing, some trends reporting… a smorgasbord of web 2.0 stuff.

All of it hands-on, exciting work for a fast-growing startup company.

There’s a small honorarium at the end of the summer if you’re as good as we think you are. Plus a letter of reference and school credit if available.

If this sounds like you, take 5 minutes to make a free lens about:

1. Why you want to work with the SquidTeam this summer.
2. What your 3 top skills are.
3. What your 3 favorite books are.

Then send the lens to megancasey[at]squidoo.com.

So Seth and I were out at the eBay Live conference last week.

I don’t know how many trade shows you’ve been to, but believe me when I say this one was different. I wasn’t once besieged (okay, maybe once) by people bellying up to the booth looking for freebies and growling, “Why I should care about your product, anyway.” Instead, nearly every single person who came to talk to us sought us out because another eBay seller told them to, or they read our eBay ebook (< -- PDF download alert) or had bumped into that great lens on seashells, or read a cool blog post, or heard Seth on Janelle’s interview.

Focused, recommended traffic. Smart people who know what they want–and are ready to take action–because they heard our story in the right place.

That’s what came to our booth, and that’s exactly what we were trying to help eBay sellers get for their stores and auctions.

It was just the right event, with just the right people, at just the right time. We were able to offer them something new and authentic. They offered back real feedback and enthusiasm.

If you’re on eBay, I bet you’re going to be hearing from more and more sellers who are using lenses to promote their items for sale, get discovered more online, and sell more stuff.

We can’t wait to see what you do.

PC World calls Squidoo one of the top 25 websites to watch.

“Got an obsession or special passion you want to convey to the world? Squidoo is your ticket. Using the site’s simple tools, you can build a “lens” (aka, a Web page) that includes information on any topic that’s close to your heart, whether it’s cats or Kafka.”

Interestingly, when we graphed these 25 sites against each other in Alexa, (some of which is comparing elephants to bananas) we were delighted to see that Squidoo comes out on top (having just lately surpassed the very cool Meebo, and ignoring Yahoo Pipes… come on, it’s Yahoo).

So hey, thanks for keeping an eye on us!

We don’t like to brag.

But our lensmasters make us!

They just keep making better and more focused lenses, creating their own environments for getting found, and introducing great new people to Squidoo. NOT bragging would insult their success.

So, some fun milestones for you…

1. In the last 2 months alone, Squidoo’s traffic has doubled.
2. (We’re now at 9 million page views per month).
3. Last week we quietly reached 150,000 lenses.
4. Lensmasters donated more than $2,500 to each of our top 2 charities last month.
5. Someone lands on a lens every 1/4 of a second.
6. Seth and Megan are getting ready for eBay Live! eBay sellers, we’ve got great stuff in store for you…
7. Gil and Corey have some gangbusters new features ready to roll out in the next week.
8. And, just for fun, it appears we’ve been nominated for Best Community in CNET’s Webware Awards. Stop by and vote for our lensmasters!

Here’s to starting the summer off with a bang.

Thanks, everyone.