What the heck are Squidoo lenses and how can you relate them to online business opportunities? Squidoo.com is a web 2.0 website that specializes in hosting personal web pages for anyone who has 10 minutes to build one. They are referred to as "lenses" instead of website because each one focuses on a particular topic or idea.

You can create a lens for whatever purpose. Whether you want to share your opinion on a particular online business opportunity or just complain about the electric company, Squidoo gives you a quick and easy venue for getting your message out to the masses. It it so easy anyone can do it.

Squidoo lenses are simple to set up, requiring absolutely no technical knowledge or programming experience. With a few clicks you can easily add youtube videos, Flicker photos, polling surveys, google blog searches, RSS and much more to your personalized lens.

Squidoo can also serve as a highly effective and risk-free marketing tool for your online business opportunity in addition to providing a social outlet. Below are the top seven reasons why you should create a lens to help give your online business opportunity a boost:

1. To increase traffic to your site. Squidoo lenses can include inbound links to your website, boosting your site's credibility in the eyes of search engines and increasing your overall link popularity. Plus, the lenses themselves are indexed by search engines, so your personal page can achieve a high ranking with strategic keyword placement. Get a few links to your Squidoo lens and you can easily get your lens to rank favorably in search results for some competitive keywords.

2. To save money on advertising. Unlike costly print ads and direct mail campaigns, creating a personal Squidoo page won't cost anything. It takes about 10 minutes to build a Squidoo lens and you can really boost your credibility and brand yourself as an expert in your industry.

3. To highlight multiple aspects of your online business opportunity. You can create as many lenses as you want. It's possible to have hundreds of different lenses focusing on different components of your business, all driving traffic back to your website.

4. To piggyback on other Squidoo pages. When your lens is placed among among thousands of other interesting lenses, it's more likely to benefit from the traffic generated by those neighboring pages.

5. To sell stuff. A great way to get your feet wet in the e-commerce arena, Squidoo lets you sell items from Ebay and Amazon and earn royalties from each sale. It also lets you have direct links to any of the affiliate programs you promote.

6. To do surveys for your business. Squidoo pages are a great way to clinic consumer attitudes and reactions to new products. The Squidoo polling feature is really easy to set up and allows you to survey your customers.

7. To interact with potential consumers. Visitors to your lens can add their comments and links. Every time an update is made, it makes your lens that much more appealing and relevant to search engines.

If you're still unsure about Squidoo, ask yourself just one question: what do you have to lose? It's free and easy, which are two of the most desirable qualities for anyone promoting an online business opportunity! I highly recommend it!

Copyright (c) 2008 Jim Suzak