Squidoo: Turn Your Passion Into Profits

Squidoo is a website created to allow anyone to set up a page on any topic he or she wants for free. It's an easy, fun way to turn whatever you are passionate about in life into a successful internet business!

You can combine your internet business interests with this solid and free advertising opportunity. You can also carve out your own unique business niche if you have a more obscure business product. You also get to be a bit of a philanthropist with your internet business, as Squidoo donates 5% of its revenue to charity.

Squidoo's stated goals are "to bring the power of recommendation to search", "to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity", and "to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them". This attitude filters down into its internet business owners and allows them to practice philanthropy while making a fair profit.

Squidoo's user-generated pages are called lenses - single pages that highlight one person's opinions, interests, or knowledge. Lenses can be about anything - products, ideas, people, places, sports, hobbies, pets, philosophy, politics - you name it. Lenses don't generally focus on content - emphasis is placed on recommending and then linking to content on the web. However you choose to personalize your lens tells your visitors what it is all about.

Combining your internet marketing vision with the proper lens content will increase your overall business appeal. When you create a lens, you become its lensmaster. As lensmaster, you use the tools available online to provide links, feeds, and lists to users who are trying to learn more about your topic. Your lens can link to eBay auctions, YouTube videos, blogs, Google maps, Flickr photos, and any other links related to your lens. You are encouraged to use your lens to promote your own personal knowledge, product, or cause as it relates to your internet business.

You can reach younger audiences and audiences less inclined to actively search for products in search engines. Many people who browse Squidoo may come across your page from another link, and you suddenly have a new customer! Squidoo divides its revenue with its pool of lensmasters. Above all else, 5% of the revenue goes to charity. Then 50% goes to the lensmasters, and the remaining 45% goes to Squidoo. So even if your lens isn't an instant success, it will still generate revenue for you as a result of its inclusion in the pool of lensmasters. And remember, you are also generating money for charity!

Overall, Squidoo is an easy way for you to make an internet business out of whatever interests you, no matter how obscure. In fact, you could make the argument that the more obscure your topic is, the better off you'll be. You can bank on the fact that no matter how obscure your topic is, there are thousands of other people out there interested in it as well. You can easily carve out your own little niche market.