Squidoo is one of those marketing tools you don’t hear too much about in all the social meda hype. It’s almost a secret to some, but I’ve been curious about it for a while.

Basically Squidoo is made up of single lens (a free web page) that you can edit and draw people to (for example, linking it through your Twitter account).

For example, I created a lens labeled “Why Portland, Oregon is so great” inserting my own text and Portland photos from Flickr.

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The main modules that make up your page are:

-Text ( basically chunks of text created by you)
-RSS (just like a blog)
-Photo (bring in photos from Flickr and other photo sharing sites)
-Guestbook (get feedback from others or turn it into a Q&A)
-Amazon (choose products and make $ when products are purchased through you)

There are other modules as well, but these can get you on your feet.

You are encouraged to write about your passions, hobbies, yourself, etc. These lens are just another great way to generate traffic to places you like to funnel followers and customers.

How does Squidoo stay afloat? When a money changes hands through your lends -  you receive 50%, 5% goes to charity and the rest to Squidoo.

Squidoo provides tons of suggestions on ideas, ways to improve your lenses, a newsletter for tips/tricks, and much more. Overall, it looks like a great tool to take advantage of amongst all the social media tools.

I also have the option to add modules such as Amazon products (one of the ways to make money through Squidoo). Other modules include guestbook, other text inserts, and linking to other lens. Squidoo provides complete stats about who is coming to your lens, etc.

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• Connect with Colleagues and Clients Today

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Biznik – one of the essential tools for small businesses (or as their moto goes -business networking that doesn’t suck). I love sharing this website with other small business owners in Portland.

Biznik.com is a smaller, but upcoming social media website that allows businesses to create online profiles (the basic one is FREE) and connect with other small businesses. But it’s so much more that that!

1) It’s divided up by cities and most of the major ones are represented: New York, LA, Chicago, Boston – even Portland, Oregon has it’s own section! This help you narrow in on business people within your metro area (if you so choose too)

2) Have a question that you would love feedback on or want to join a discussion? Under “Biz Talk” – you can ask questions of your peers and get feedback on marketing, ideas, trading, starting a business, just to name a few.

Visit one of many groups on  a variety of topics such as “The Marketing Group”, “Digital Freelancers”,  “Creative Professionals”. All lead by Biznik members, these groups focus on a particular topic which can include events, discussion, and other features that make up Biznik.

I know, you are probably thinking, another social marketing tool, but it works and is perfect for the small business owner. Try it today!

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