SMALL SHOPKEEPERSIt was not so long ago that big box retailers, like shopping malls and Walmart, were rightly accused of destroying the small businesses that populated downtowns and supported families for generations. These types of marketing outdid nearly all the small businesses in pricing, selection and convenience. They purchased cheap goods manufactured in foreign lands, offered products that served the same purposes as the goods offered by small, independent retail shops, and did it at far lower costs.
Entire cities suffered great economic hardships because of this change. Downtowns were gutted, and people went to work for these retailers, losing income and lowering their standard of living. Cities suffered from the loss of revenue. Many cities have not recovered to this day.
THE LONG TAILThe internet, and Squidoo in particular, has leveled the playing field of the small retailer with the giants like Walmart. Once again, small shopkeepers, like yourselves, can offer high quality and unusual products, without having the disadvantage of higher overhead that destroyed those small businesses before. Even though those large corporations continue to offer cheaper goods badly made, here is your entry point into the national market, making yourself available to customers who are sick and tired of shoddy products and cold corporate 'service.'
THE CARAVAN IS COMINGYou are in on the ground floor of something very, very big. Squidoo has nearly doubled in size just since I started, and at this growth rate, by Sept. 2007, will be TEN TIMES larger than when I began; and by the end of the year will have over 3/4 million lenses!!!
PLANT YOUR ROOTS NOWIn order to survive the great flood of lensmasters who are coming, it is critical for you to plant your roots now. Well rooted trees planted in solid earth survive floods far better than green shoots and slender trees poorly planted.
Your lenses MUST be superior, a tough act to follow, submitted to Google NOW, before your competitors come in, looking to overtake what you have begun.
WHY?The reality, on the ground, is that many parts of our country are having grave economic difficulties. The new opportunity that Squidoo provides along with those realities means that many people will be seriously pursuing this opportunity. Their financial survival may depend on their success or failure. There will be a lot at stake.
DUPLICATIONI am already seeing it happen, and you may have noticed it too. There are pure affiliate module lenses that are easily duplicated by anyone who can build a squidoo lens. If one lensmaster seems to have a successful lens on videos, another lensmaster looks over the successful lens and builds one A LITTLE BIT BETTER; with more content, more links, a few more of the same products. A slicker title, better tags, even a better bio, any place where you haven't invested great work in great content, becomes a weakness others can and will exploit. As more and more lenses are built that are just like yours, your potential for attracting buying customers will be more and more diluted. There will be more and more lensmasters competing for the same customers.
BLACK AND WHITE HATSBlack hat SEO is what will be filling up the Squidoo lens roster in such enormous numbers. By its very nature, black hat SEO takes chances with standard practices outlined by Google; by its nature it takes risks. By its nature it attracts people who are also risk takers.
Viral marketing and social networking means that there will be long lines of networks and 'downlines' all trying to duplicate those things which have been successful. Your own success, if not carefully plotted out and cared for, will be what draws the attention of those who are happy to duplicate your work in every respect.
White hat SEO will be what saves you, what improves your business, improves your google rankings, nourishes the roots of the small business you planted.
AUTHORITY SITESWhite hat SEO tells us that Google NOW LOVES authority. It loves sites that are linked to by others, that get a link on Wikipedia, that bring content to the internet, not just advertising.
Becoming an expert in what you are selling, offering easy contact for your customers, giving information that only you can provide, showing your product and your knowledge in an appealing way; all of these things will help you to be considered an authority by Google and will help your small business grow well in spite of the flood of incoming lensmasters.
We have come full circle back to the value that the original small retailers offered to downtowns in every city in the world, but was lost. Google somehow knows how important those tiny, specialized retailers actually are, and has revamped the web algorithms to 2.0 to bring this back to life.
LENS CLUSTERSLens clustering is an extremely good way to demonstrate yourself to be an 'authority.' As you grow in knowledge of your products, as you research and collect links, tips, techniques, information and increase your collections, the opportunities show up for multiple lenses on related, if not the same, products. Your good content lenses will link to each other, relate to each other, and Google will read this as authority. Build an independent website to which your lens clusters can direct traffic and increase your visibility and your reach. Follow your chosen industry and blog its developments. Just because your squidoo lens is drawing traffic NOW is not a reason to neglect your lens, neglect your small business, or to ignore what the future clearly holds.
THE LONG TAILED SWORD?The Long Tail can be your great opportunity. It can also be what stretches the market too thin for anyone to make a living. This two-edged sword is what you will need to consider as you gear up your business for the future. Will you do it?
