Columbus Ohio 43085 - Squid Zipper

Hi Maureen - I read about mayor of your own zip code over on RT, and promptly set one up for my zip code.  And then - well I did nothing else with it.  I'm on squidoo, and I don't think I get any spam from it.    I've spread myself out on so many of these so-called web 2.0 sites like this that I think I really need to start reining myself in and actually utilizing those that have the potential to work and do something for me.  But, the question is, which ones are those?  Hmmmm...

Ann

When you complete a lens, Squidoo gives you the advice below on how to get someone, anyone to read what you've done.  

"HOT DOGGY! Nice work!

Okay, so you made a lens. And you probably hope someone other than your hamster will see it. What to do?

1. Email it. To your friends, your mom, your boss. Don't be shy about bragging, you deserve a little limelight!
2. Blog it. Post your lens to your blog. Send a note to someone you admire who runs a blog on your topic, and ask them to check out your lens. Sincere flattery gets you everywhere.
3. Link it. Link to the lens on your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Flickr profile, eBay auctions, email signature. Create your own little traffic network and get discovered in more places. Wouldn't you like to get found more online?
4. Group it! Find a Group that's busy talking about your topic and request to join. Get friendly, get relevant, get feedback, get found.
5. Compete. Stop by the Lens of the Day Group for inspiration from winning lenses. And if your lens is up to snuff, enter it in the contest.

P.S. For more ideas, trot on over to SquidU.com and see what hundreds of other lensmasters are up to..."

When you finish a lens and want to know how anyone will find it....that's what they a link on Squidoo tells you.

I think the same info as posted on ActiveRain (for consumers) will get traffic... because it will be on Google... you don't have to email it to mom, etc. I know when I did my first Lens the premise I took was Squidoo should bring traffic to my blog, to my website, rather than vice verse.  I know I was getting a lot of spam FROM Squidoo lenses on my WordPress.org blog.  I know Squidoo had problems with spam and Google did something.  I know a lot of people use Squidoo with an attitude that it is just an SEO game (kind of like some do on ActiveRain) where they post ads rather than information. 

I am in the process of writing up a post to test the premise that the same local info posted on ActiveRain (for consumers) will get picked up by Google and generate traffic for me.  Thanks for the comment Ann.

Maureen, we are putting together some mayor zipcode pages, and have used squidoo for some area pages over the past month... godin really put some fire under us. I still prefer my personal blog (over activerain) and it's platform for personal referrals, but if these resources are out there either we are going to use them or our competition is, so I figured it would be good to be the first to the punch. My only big complaint about squidoo is the ads around the sides. Some of these ads are advertising our competition?!

Thanks for sharing this... very interesting I had not heard of this, you are awesome for sharing and I am going to have to try this.

Do you have traffic on those lenses on Squidoo?  I got 4 times as much to my Squidoo lens as it has had since 2-19-2008 by posting this on ActiveRain today.  Have you emailed it to your mom and your boss?  Blogged about it?  Gotten others to blog about it?  It has been awhile but some huge quantiities of spam on my WP.org blog was coming from spammy Squidoo pages.  

The structure of these Squid Zipper pages should in theory keep real estate agents from turning their lenses into big old balls of spam.  

Being the mayor of the city doesn't give you any exclusivity on Squidioo... there can be thousands of the same page on Squidoo and they'll get read by the public if and when they  find them.   I don't know that first to the punch is going to get you anything. The best info on the pages is going to get you found by Google eventually.  

Thanks Maureen. I have not done anything on Squidioo yet. I still trying to figure out with social networking sites beside AR I want to join.

ActiveRain vs. Squid Zipper - local expert<--- the one that shoulda got featured!  

I think the Squid Zipper is neat but I have had 5 visits on it in 5 days... 4 of those today and probably from this post.  I posted similar local info on ActiveRain (posted only to Local) and had 16 clicks on it in a half an hour and it was on Google within an hour.   Nothing against Squidoo but it does not have Google juice.  I want Traffic from the web 2.0 places I spend my time on.  I don't want to contibute and then have to drive traffic there too.

Squid Zipper is a good idea because it is set up to prompt the real estate agent what to post.  It is better than trying to figure out how to do a lens from scratch...

Maureen, I have a zipper and a lens. I really have been trying to figure out this "mayor" thing. From what I have seen anyone and everyone can do a "page" on a zip-code. It isn't like "protected" which is what I thought - you know first to claim has "rights" type of thing. I haven't had much traffic on my lens but they told me I was featured - just couldn't figure out what that even meant. I am still learning that whole platform.

Hi Maureen, I think Mike Bloomberg is doing a great job as mayor of my city lol. Seriously I no longer beleive that I should be all over the web. I think one can be over exposed with all these 2.0 sites. I have come to the conclusion that my own blog is better than all these sites that are desperate for free content. Remember content is King. I'm becoming more picky as to where my content goes.

My outside blog gets more than double the visitors and actions as my activerain blog. I doubt my lens on Squido gets anyone. While I think technology can be an important marketing tool but much of it is useless and a waste of time if not relevant.

Maureen, thanks for the post.

Reading your article was the first time I was aware of http://www.mayorofyourzipcode.com/ and Squid Zipper and the Squidoo service.

I promptly went and created an initial entry for my local 08055 zip code: Medford / Medford Lakes, to give it a try.

A few areas of confusion that I initially encountered when I clicked on the "mayorofyourzipcode" link...

1. I goes right to a template page that allows you to quickly fill in some basic information -- you do not have to fill in everything at this time (you can always edit it later).

2. These are not exclusive zip codes... anyone can do this for the same zip codes... you do not control who can create their own entry for the zip code... you only control your page.

3. In Squidoo talk, the page you are creating is what's known as a topic "lens". 

4. Creating a lens in Squidoo requires registration (free) to save the lens.

5. After filling in the initial creation form, and clicking on the "MajicBuild My Page" button, it will generate a preview of the page and ask you (in upper right side of page by big asterisk (*)), if you want it (and will personalize it now) or No or "Click here to take it over".   If you want, then click the first option as "taking it over" means you are already registered.  You will be given the opportunity to login or register.

I, of course, chose "door #3" instead of "door #1" and lost what I had entered. 

So I registered, came back in via the special SquidZipper link: www.mayorofyourzipcode.com, then saved entry as an existing member.

Thanks Maureen

Very nice tip, I will have to try it out.

http://www.squidoo.com/annarborandsalinemirealestate

Here's my lense as Mayor, I haven't done much except set itup,  we'll see how it goes. No I have not blogged about it yet. 

I'm the Mayor of 30317, but I'm a little confused!

I just created http://www.squidoo.com/Atlanta-Kirkwood-real-estate but I'm still not sure how this is going to help drive my business, especially if others can also sign up for my zip code.

Also, it looks like there will be several areas that will be automatically populated / updated by Google each day. 

I guess I will just watch the page and see what happens!

Maureen,

I just signed up for it....I'll let you know.

Hi Maureen - I've got a few SquidZippers in the works. I like the framework they build for content -- good ideas for blog posts and consumer-oriented info. I'm not really concerned about the GoogleAds. I figure if I can provide enough good info within the lens, then viewers won't be tempted to click the ads.

One more positive about Squidoo is that it involves us with another group of 'netizens' that we might not meet on AR, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any of the other sites that we have a presence on. You never know where a dialogue with another Squidoo-er might lead!

Currently working on it. There is so much web 2.0 stuff to do, you can never get around to it all. Not sure if the squidoo thing is really going to pan out. There was a future of real estate marketing blog on it recently, and many commenters weren't very excited about it.

I seriously just can't seem to keep up with all the web 2.0 stuff.  It's a full-time job in itself! However, I am parking here to see what others have to say about SquidZippers, thanks!

thanks all for the comments.

this was a test.. Squidoo pages do not give you web presence NOW.  Or it takes a long time now... From Squidoo this is what you need to do to get traffic to your Squidoo lens: 

"HOT DOGGY! Nice work!

Okay, so you made a lens. And you probably hope someone other than your hamster will see it. What to do?

1. Email it. To your friends, your mom, your boss. Don't be shy about bragging, you deserve a little limelight!
2. Blog it. Post your lens to your blog. Send a note to someone you admire who runs a blog on your topic, and ask them to check out your lens. Sincere flattery gets you everywhere.
3. Link it. Link to the lens on your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Flickr profile, eBay auctions, email signature. Create your own little traffic network and get discovered in more places. Wouldn't you like to get found more online?
4. Group it! Find a Group that's busy talking about your topic and request to join. Get friendly, get relevant, get feedback, get found.
5. Compete. Stop by the Lens of the Day Group for inspiration from winning lenses. And if your lens is up to snuff, enter it in the contest.

P.S. For more ideas, trot on over to SquidU.com and see what hundreds of other lensmasters are up to..."

What if you had to do all that to get traffic on your ActiveRain post?  Would you do it?  

ActiveRain is easier but what if ActiveRain would get spanked by Google because of the spammers like Squidoo got spanked by Google (because of spam) what would you do? What would your web presence look like then... heaven forbid that happens.  

The Columbus Ohio 43085 page is a Squid Zipperish page on ActiveRain.  It showed up in a search for Columbus Ohio 43085 an hour after posted. It is only posted to local but I am sure some of the traffic is ActiveRain members.

While 27 clicks on the post of the three about Squd Zipper is not all that great... it is still more than the now 23 visitors on the Squid Zipper page published on 2-19-2008

Maybe it doesn't get you the exposure you want right away...maybe it takes time to be indexed...I hope I didn't create an advertising monster:)

Maureen - I'm still having issues with it myself - for some unknown it will not publish - but I do think it's about hitting all the avenues and testing what works.

Ines I am glad kind of that I am not the only one with issues on how to get it to publish.  I know I went back a couple of times and finally got it to publish but I don't know what I was doing wrong....   

I like your attitude!  Really we gotta try things to have an opinion on them or to learn about them.  I agree there are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many social media, web 2.0 things out there.  I wish there was a way to tell which ones are going to have the most impact.  It might be Squidoo but it might not be.    I wish 2/3 of them would fail quickly. 

Neal you are right, once it gets indexed it may be a great thing.  Really it only takes minutes to do the page ... if you don't run into whatever publishing road block some of us ran into and it is not like I spent hours playing with it to publish it.  I came back and puzzled over it a couple of times and got it to publish.   

I have never heard of this. Of if I did, I forgot. I am checking them out right now. It sounds interesting. Thanks!