Newcomers to Squidoo are often overwhelmed and have no idea where to start. There are now hundreds of modules to choose from and it`s easy to spend a lot of time and get no results. I`m going to show you right now how to skip all that and just create a very good, very successful lens in less than 15 minutes. Ready? Ok, here we go.

1. First, go sign up for an account with Squidoo if you don`t already have one. Do this in a new tab so you can flip back and forth between this tutorial and Squidoo.

2. Now log into your Dashboard. At the bottom of the page you`ll see a big blue button marked Create a Lens. Alternatively, you can click on the link at the top left corner of the page that says Make a New Lens. Either one will take you to this page:

Fill in what you want to write about. In this case, I`m going with “How to Make Twitter Work for You”. Click on Go to Step 2.

3. The next screen gives you four options for building your lens. Ignore the first three, since they will simply add modules that you don`t need to the page and you will waste time eliminating them.

Instead, select the fourth option, “I just want to do my own thing”. This will let you pick your own modules, which is what we want. Click on Go to Step 3.

4. Screen 3 will look like this:

You can leave the lens title as is, it will automatically put what you typed in the first screen here. If you want to tweak it, now is a good time, but you can change this later.

The URL you choose is going to be permanent, so take care choosing it. You want your keywords to be in the URL, but often the most basic phrases are already taken. Here you can see I`ve put “twitter-for-you”.

You will also need to pick a relevant category from the drop down menu and choose a rating for your lens. Most lens will be (and probably should be if you`re doing a business related one!) rated G. Click on Go to Step 4.

5. The final step in creating your lens is to choose keywords. Your title will be used as one keyword, but you can add three more here, as well. Make them relevant. You can see that I`ve chosen words that will work with the Twitter theme of my lens.

Once you`ve completed this step, type in the codeword at the bottom of the screen and hit Done. Your page will be created and this is what it will look like:

Now, you need to get some content up there!

6. Look to the left of the screen. There are lots of fun things to play with here, but for the purposes of getting this lens up in 15 minutes or less, we`re just going to go straight to adding modules.

Under Workshop Tools, click on Popular. Here you will see a long list of options. Ignore most of them for now. You need to add the following items, as shown:

1 Guestbook: This allows for some interactivity with readers and people can leave comments and tips for you.

1 Table of Contents: At the moment, it isn`t a big deal, but later, as you build your lens, you`ll want to make it easy to navigate.

2-3 Text Modules: These allow you to put up articles, short posts, etc. along with a photo or illustration. These should make up the base of your lens. Start with a couple and you can add more as you go.

I`ve also added a Wikipedia module here, but this will depend on what your lens is about. Click on Add at the bottom of the list to add these modules to your lens.

7. Now it`s time to do some writing. Your lens needs content. I would suggest keeping your modules fairly tight, 150-300 words is fine. If you have more to say, split it between modules.

Start with the introduction module. You`ll need to write something riveting here that lets people know just what the module is about . . . the first few lines will be shown in the search results on Squidoo.

You will also need to upload a photo or illustration. Without this, you`ll have a very dull lens, so make sure to include photos wherever possible. For a non-business example, take a look at my Jensen Ackles lens.

When you`ve finished with a module, click on the Save button at the bottom. You can always edit later, so don`t worry about getting it all perfect right now.

Repeat for at least two text modules, uploading files here as well. In a future post, I`ll show you how to add your Flickr or Photobucket photos, but for now, just use the auto uploader.

8. Personalizing the guestbook is important. None of your modules should have the title they came with. Change the title to something that encourages discussion, like “What Do You Think?” and add your own text.

9. Now that you have your content as desired, you`ll need to rearrange it so it looks good. Again, on the sidebar, you`ll see a section below Workshop Tools called Reorder Modules. This is where you can switch everything around to make better sense. For example, I always move my Guestbook to the bottom of the lens and the Table of Contents to the top. You can arrange them any way you like by simply clicking and dragging the titles here in the Reorder Modules section. If you decide to delete a module, just check the box next to it.

Once you have a configuration you like, click on the Apply button at the bottom of the box. Your lens will be changed to reflect the changes you made in the Reorder Modules widget.

10. Now you have a completed lens. You can continue to build on it, of course, but personally, I`ve found that the best way to rank higher and higher on Squidoo is to start with the basics, 3-4 modules total and then add one module or change something every day for a week or two, then change something every few days. This lets Squidoo know you`re serious about building this lens and you will see it rapidly rise through the ranks. This is how I got Jensen Ackles to be my top lens . . . it has reached a peak of #2321 but has remained in the top 3,000 for about a month now.

Go to the very top of your lens and look on the right hand side. There`s a big orange button labeled Publish . . . just waiting for you to send your lens out into the world! Hit it and you`re off! You can see my Twitter lens here. We`ll be using it in future tutorials so I can show you how to add more modules and really make your lens rock.

I hope this tutorial was helpful to those of you new to Squidoo and I would love to see what you`ve built! Leave a link to your Squidoo lens in the comments so I can visit you. Also, if you have any questions, please leave those, as well so I can take them into consideration for future posts.

And a question for you . . . would you like to see a video of this tutorial?

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