One of the affiliate marketing blogs that I really enjoy is the Smart Marketing Affiliates Blog by Jason Forthofer. His message today dealt with how to market effectively as an affiliate using Squidoo. Squidoo is a social network created by user experience genius Seth Godin that allows people to build a “lens” or niche mini-site on the topic of their choice. These mini-sites are searchable from Squidoo.com and there are daily “lens of the day” spotlights given to interesting lenses generated by their users.

The really cool thing is that Squidoo allows “lens-masters” to post affiliate links in their lenses. Here are some tips that Jason posted for is readers on how to “Squidoo” for fun and most importantly PROFIT.

• Don’t spam. We all hate it and your visitors will too. Create a lens that is first, informative and engaging. Now, compliment it with a few (did you get that? A FEW) strategic affiliate links. Don’t be a SquidSpammer.
• Be specific. Don’t create a lens on weddings. Their is probably already thousands of those already. You can build hundreds of lenses so create a few that are targeted. My suggestions…create one about twin babies, baby shower cakes or spring weddings.
• A Squidoo lens can get great search engine ranking. A google search for cool laptop bags will find a Squidoo lens in the # 1 spot. So, when creating your lens, do it in a way that optimizes it best for the search engines. Remember to link to your lenses from your website.
• Have fun and be realistic! Creating a successful Squidoo lens isn’t going to allow you to quit your day job. However, creating a few done right can compliment your overall business income nicely. And remember, link back to your website from within your lens.

Jason is an affiliate manager that has programs dealing with babies and weddings (clearly) I took a look for some Christian lenses and here are a few that I found that were cool.

Official C28.com Squidoo

Cool Christian T shirts Squidoo

If you need a hand at getting started, Squidoo has a handy learning center at where else? SquidU.com

Squidoo is all about allowing folks to share their passion and experience with others, without the need for a lot of technical knowledge. If you’d like to get started in affiliate marketing and have some passion to share, check out Squidoo today.

God Bless,

Wade Tonkin