I. Introduction
I’ve mentioned Squidoo before, but this time I’d like to go into a little bit of detail.

I think of Squidoo as a publicly available list of bookmarks from experts on a subject. Sure, it’s much more than that, but that’s the idea.

Squidoo’s main idea is: “Everyone’s an expert at something.” So the idea is to have “experts” create “lenses”, which are dynamic pages that use RSS to link to relevant sites and articles. The lenses are then categorized by keyword and ranked.

For example, I have a lens called Law Firm Blogging by Nathan Burke (yes, it is a very clever name). When I set up the lens, I chose the following keywords for categorization purposes: attorney, blog, marketing, blawg, and legal.

Since I started early with Squidoo, my ranking is particularly high within the law-related keywords. Right now, here’s what you see under the attorney tag:

So at least I have some company there. But when you go to the “blawg” keyword, this is all you see:

And while I enjoy being atop the ratings right now, it is lonely there. So, I’m inviting some competition from fellow bloggers. Here’s a little primer on how to get started with Squidoo.

II. Creating a Lens

1. Registration- To get started, you need to create an account. To do this, simply go here, and fill in your account details. Once you have registered, you need to…..

2. Create Your Bio- Enter some text about yourself in the form field:

3. Choose how you want to get paid- Squidoo puts Google AdWords ads on your lens, and you can choose what you want to do with your cash (if you generate any, of course):

4. Create a lens URL- You now create a lens URL, which is http://www.squidoo.com/lensname
On mine, I used http://www.squidoo.com/lawfirmblog

5. Give Your Lens a Title- Come up with your lense’s title.

6. Pick a main category for your lens- Here is the list of main categories:

7. Add Your Tags (Five Required)- Add the keywords you want associated with your lens. I listed mine above. I’d really like some company in the blawg, attorney, and legal category, so I’d suggest you add those. Since I blog about blogging, I’m fairly limited when it comes to tags. For legal bloggers, I’d suggest adding tags that relate to your subject. For instance, if your blog is about Intellectual Property, I’d add that.

8. Should everyone see your lens?- If your lens is going to be “family and office safe”, say yes.

9. Your lens is created- Now your lens is created. Time to add content to it.

a. Link List Module- This is basically the same thing as a blogroll.
b. RSS Module- This is where you can add an RSS feed, which will be published on the lens.
c. Text Module- You can add any text you’d like here
d. Google Maps- You can enter an address, and a Google Map will be published.
e. Money Makers- I chose Amazon here, and you can either let Amazon pick what displays, or you can choose your own entries.

10. Introduction- This is where you can enter and edit your lense’s description, and upload a photo of yourself if you’d like.

When you’re done, click “Publish”. Now you’re done.

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