Squidoo

What They Say:

Squidoo’s goal as a platform is to bring the power of recommendation to search. Squidoo’s goal as a co-op is to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity. And Squidoo’s goal as a community is to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them. 

How they do it:

Squidoois a website designed to make it easy for anyone, for free, to set up a single page, called a lens, on a topic he or she knows or cares a lot about. Squidoo lenses highlight one person’s point of view, recommendations, or expertise. Lenses can be about anything, such as ideas, people or places, hobbies and sports, pets or products, philosophy, and politics. Lenses aren’t primarily intended to hold content; more emphasis is placed on recommending and then pointing to content on the web. Annotation and organization and personalization delivers context and meaning.  A lensmaster uses the tools available online to provide links, feeds, abstracts, and lists to users who are trying to make sense of a topic. For example, a single lens could point to Flickr photos, Google maps, blogs, eBay auctions, YouTube videos, and other links. Lensmasters are encouraged to promote personal agendas, expertise, causes, products, and opinions.

How easy is it to setup a lens?   Check this video:

How can you make money?

Squidoo splits its revenue with its “co-op” of lensmasters. 5% goes straight to charity, first. Then 50% goes to the lensmasters. 45% goes to Squidoo. The site is estimating that nearly half of all the lensmasters on the site are donating their royalties to any of 65 featured charities, ranging from NPR and the American Heart Association to smaller organizations like Chimp Haven and Planet Gumbo.  The revenue that Squidoo generates comes from affiliate sales made from its lenses.  All lensmasters have the option of adding modules that host items from Amazon and Ebay.  The items should be related to the content of the pages so as to make the possibility of a sale higher.  Additionally, lensmaster have the freedom to add their own affiliate links to other products or services that they maybe selling on their lens. 

 I like this feature. I’m big on giving back and it’s nice to see a company that has it built into it’s business model.

What People are Saying:

No scam-dar needed here.  Squidoo is a solid business opportunity, the question is…is it worth your time and effort? Does it pay and does it pay big. I was really interested in information on what amounts people were making.  here’s a sample of what I found.:

  “$2.16 [last month].  Now if that goes up exponentially, which I’m sure it will, I’ll be making a good income in a year or so. ”

 Congrats Julieanne!! I also got paid and received $1.77. Yay. I’m getting paid from Squidoo. How about you? Who else got paid?

  - posted in Powerful Intentions forum

 made $300 since October (this is squidoo pay only, excluding the revenu generated from my own affiliate links). Remember than your lenses will not start earning right away, they need good content to built traffic. Most lensmaster will tell you that you can expect a lens to start paying after at least 2/3 months.

-posted on mylot.com

 April ended up being a banner month for the Captain and his Roving Band of Squidoo Piracy. Earnings have continued to increase each month I have been a part of squidoo and reached a new record high in April. Some of these earnings came from websites that I have used squidoo exclusively to promote but Squidoo is the lynch pin that holds the entire earnings picture together. Net earnings (after advertising, hosting, and other costs) for April Came out to…$2,384.81

 -posted on Captain Squid.com

Another Point of View:

By now u know I love to give you various points of view from the average joe out there, here’s one I came across o YouTube. Note: I am not promoting Chris’s site (could he be anymore obvious):

Legal Matters

During my investigation I came across no records for compliants against Squidoo on either the Better Business Bureau or the Federal Trade Commission.

The Verdict

Squidoo seems to be a fun and free way to share your passion, expertise, or opinion with anyone who might care.  The potential to earn money is real however because it is free you are competing with thousands of people. You will have to invest time and a geat deal of effort to turn your Squidoo lens into a stable money maker. But it can be done and with Squidoo’s charity focus it makes it a great site to invest yourself in.