2. Build a thorough lens.

Many lens masters put up one or two modules and let their lens fly. The problem with this is that Squidoo doesn’t see those lenses as being worthwhile no matter how much information is provided. Try splitting your information into at least 3 text or link modules and include one or two shopping modules as well as an RSS feed or other such self updating module. This gives your lens the appearance of being well rounded and useful, even if it isn’t.

3. Ask an Angel.

Squidoo has a group of lens masters who accept requests to rate lenses. While they don’t require their members to rate every request that comes in, even one or two ratings will help your rank rise (remember, you can’t get a rating of less than zero, and that’s what you start with).

4. Ask your friends.

If you have a blog, post a link and ask your readers to take a look and rate it if they like it. This is killing two birds as you’re gaining at least one link (your own) and hopefully a few ratings from fellow lens masters. Every time someone rates one of my blogs, the rank shoots up for several days.

5. Sell something.

Obviously, you can’t make people buy from you. But if you know someone who’s about to make a purchase from, say, Amazon, you can ask them to access Amazon via your Amazon module on your Squidoo lens. Whenever someone makes a purchase from one of my lenses, the rank shoots straight up. It only lasts for a few days, but that lens does tend to float a bit higher ever after. I’ve heard of people making purchases themselves through their own lenses, but I’d check Amazon’s and Squidoo’s Terms Of Service before doing that. If it violates TOS, it’s not worth taking the chance.

6. Update constantly.

If you have the time and inclination, you can keep your content “fresh” by updating on a daily basis. This is not an easy way to attain and maintain high rank, but it can work. Particularly if you add content often rather than simply change it out.

7. Don’t update constantly.

In the beginning, I thought that I had to update on a nearly daily basis just to maintain a decent rank. And then I got busy. What I noticed was that after a week or so, my rank dropped dramatically. But, after another week or so, my rank came back to almost as high as it was when I was constantly updating. And it stayed there. I have lenses that I haven’t updated in almost 2 months, but their rank is more or less where it was just after updating. Also, my rank usually tanks for a day or so after an update before it rises again. Adding a self updating RSS feed module can help keep content fresh while not penalizing your lens during the update period.

2. No having to upload ftp files for each individual page. With WordPress themes, you can set it and forget it- only involving yourself with adding content and keeping up with comments (which can be turned off). HostGator and a few other web hosts have programs to automatically set up WordPress accounts for your domains.

3. Blogs get crawled and indexed in search engines faster than normal websites. Even if you’re building a static website using the “pages” function, the search engines only see that it’s on a blog platform. My google alerts often notify me of my posts within a day- sometimes within the hour.

4. You can use different themes/templates for different pages of your WordPress site. All you have to do is upload the new themes, and choose a different theme when writing your new page.

A few months later I began writing freelance. I really wanted a website to promote my business, but I just couldn’t face the tediousness of building everything from scratch, even with the new, improved interface. So I put it off.

Down the road, I had more ideas. A craft site. An affiliate site. Even a Christmas site, along with a few others that I’d shelved months earlier. But I couldn’t afford seperate hosting on each site, and pay for the site builder. At least not until they began turning a profit.

So I looked into a free html editor thinking that I could just bypass the site builder. But I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, and it didn’t come with an instruction manual. Around the same time, a few friends were talking about HostGator and how they all had the “baby” plan. For $7.95 a month they had unlimited domain hosting. Granted, if you have high levels of traffic, you’d have to upgrade. But for me, it was a dream come true. I didn’t even know if I’d get one visitor, and if I got high enough traffic, I’d be more than happy to upgrade.

So I got a HostGator hosting account, and registered a few domains with GoDaddy (I know where to find good coupons for even lower prices than they list). But I still didn’t have a website to go with the domains and hosting.

I kept looking around. Several of my freelance friends had great, professional websites. When I asked for advice, there was an instant clamoring for “WordPress”. So I looked into it. For customization, all I had to do was pick a theme I liked out of the thousands of free ones available (the hard part is narrowing down to one). And later, if I changed my mind, or wanted to brand my image- all I had to do was download and install a new theme. The switch is so easy, and content rarely has glitches. Sometimes you have to work on the sidebar though.

But the real clincher for me, was when I found out that HostGator can automatically set up a WordPress account for your domain. I still dream of learning to code my own website, but I’d never have been able to do so much in such a short amount of time using anything else.

For why you should use wordpress, click here.