I’m back to see what I can get to today in my review of my own product. Ha! That sounds so weird. Okay, left off on page 20 last night and was annoyed that I hadn’t gotten to implement anything yet. I’m starting today on the Pimping Your Lens section. Right away I see something I need to take out that’s outdated (or will be soon actually – the opt in form info). ClearSpring isn’t going to work on Squidoo lenses anymore. It’s not YET outdated – at the time of this blog post – you can see it in action here: http://www.squidoo.com/tiffanydow – you can enter your name and email address and get on my list. But I might as well take it out since it’s about to not work.

What I’ll have to do is leave in the instructions for how you can make it LOOK like you’ve got an opt in form on there. This was the early work around, so we’ll be going back to that route. On page 22 I listed several YouTube video tutorial links. I think I need to create step by step screen shot instructions to include in the guide. Question for you – this would make the guide much longer – would that make you feel overwhelmed? Maybe give them the option of watching the videos OR reading the guide?

Someone mentioned that it would be great to have a reference sheet in the back (or as a separate bonus?) for codes, etc. That’s a great idea because I see on page 22 I’m giving codes for something and if you have to refer back to it, it’ll be a pain to try to find it. Also, here’s a tip: You know Squidoo lets you hyperlink images in the text modules now, right? Well that’s not always the best way to do it because there’ve been plenty of times that Squidoo’s pictures go down (so your lens is text only) and then you have a blank space. I think I’ll teach both ways – the HTML way to hyperlink your images and the text module way.

Now I’m on to Chapter 2 where the action gets going. But I went 24 pages to get here. I need to test the sign up in case they’ve changed the layout since I got my last account for page 24. So I’ll sign up for a new free account. I registered a new free gmail account and then got a new Squidoo account – sure enough, it’s changed. Made screen shots for the update. On page 25, I talk about Quickbuilder but then move past it. The reader would be saying, “Huh?”

Wow this is EYE opening!!

Totally need to redo that section. I also need to go through each step of the profile set up. I gloss over that – focusing on setting up cash payout but there are other things you can add. On page 27 I get back to QuickBuilder. I did a great job giving step by step here and explaining how to choose the URL. However – a newbie may not know what they want to build a lens about. I need to have them go through the process with a dummy lens and then let them know which guides I have as bonus materials to help them choose what to promote.

So I decided to create a lens for my AdSense topic site on car insurance. Might as well drive traffic to it Screen shots made for update of the process. I do an excellent job of showing readers who to add modules and alter their favorites list. I’m also thorough in showing how to go through each module and edit it and add to it. I do need to expand on the images portion though if I don’t elsewhere – many people don’t know where to get images for their lens. I use my own paid graphics OR images I buy from istockphoto.

Okay while I’m doing a great job of going through my lens favorite modules in a step by step fashion, I haven’t told them yet what modules THEY will want to have. How many text modules do you need, for example? If you’re following along, you’ll want to be doing it right as I’m doing it. Not having to go back later. For this reason, I think I’ll have to create a short Read Me First file that helps them determine which of the 3 types of lenses they’ll be creating, and gives a sample template layout for each.

Ah page 36 I do a “by the way” with a link to istock – but that’s too late – the reader may have already stopped and spent time searching for a resource. On page 38 I talk about utilizing keywords for SEO purposes in the titles and subtitles – I need to give a broader tutorial of that like I did in my free 52 on Squidoo guide. This is in alignment with IPK’s OPSEO lessons, which work for any type of lens.

Once again, I’m feeling like this was written for a marketer – not necessarily a total newbie with no IM experience. Hmmm…maybe there should be 2 guides? A newbie starter guide and an advanced guide? I know as an advanced marketer, I hate having to read tons of basic info like, “What is SEO?” when I’m in a hurry. What do y’all think about this? Two guides? Or if not, how’s the best way to address the different learning levels?

Here’s something else. I spent a lot of time showing what I’m doing. There are TWO parts to learning something in Internet Marketing – case studies and action steps. I think I may need this guide broken up into two parts (here’s how I use it – here’s what you do). Some people learn best by doing, some people learn more by watching and then emulating.

What I notice that I do is spend a bit of time saying, “Here’s how I use____ (fill in the blank – maybe it’s a YouTube video)” and then I give step by step instructions on how they can log in and do it. Is that best? I don’t know. Maybe I need to reverse it – DO this, and then here’s how I do it…

The saying about giving people too many options and they choose none comes to mind. Maybe I need to give a specific layout, action steps without teaching so many options. Options can be in a different guide.

So many ideas popping into my head. This is what happened when I was reviewing OWM – I kept thinking, “Oh, she oughta do it THIS way! Or maybe THIS way!” Now I’m seeing it on my own guide. I just now got another one – a series of smaller guides (all sold together) so they’re easily broken up. Like a guide for modules. A guide for traffic. A guide for setting up your account (w/profile), a guide for Lens Tags (aka: keyword research and usage).

I like this……

Ending on page 51 for the day. I still wasn’t told exactly which modules I would need to use, but I was shown how to use the ones the author (me) chose to use. Chapter 3 will be about modules, so maybe it’s in there but at this point in time, I’d still be sitting here with just a basic account and an empty lens unless I happened to use the same modules the author did – and what if that wasn’t best for my particular lens?

This revamp will be turning this product into one hot product. LOVE it!
Tiff

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