A: SquidOffers™ is the new user-generated, community-voted, turbocharged, gotta-have-it "advertising" system. It's like Plexo or Reddit or Digg, except every single listing is a cool offer from someone who wants to promote something. So, the best offers rise to the top and get the most traffic.
A: Squidoo is getting millions and millions of new visitors every month. Traditional advertisers want to sponsor our pages and pay us a lot of money to do so. But we'd rather have you do it. For NOT a lot of money. (Actually, for just $25/week right now).
When people compete to share authentic content with our users and our millions of visitors, everyone wins. Squidoo gets a little more money for operating costs. Lensmasters could get extra royalties from their lenses that carry SquidOffers. Charities get more donations. Real people with remarkable sites and services get the chance to put their work in front of lots of interested folks. That's one better than a trifecta of wins.
A: You want to promote your stuff, right? You drool over clickthroughs and traffic. You want genuine user feedback. SquidOffers to the rescue! Here's the deal: You provide great content for our users, we'll provide the eyeballs and let them visit and vote for their favorites.
Are you an author with a new book coming out? A blogger looking to promote an event? An entrepreneur with a hot new gig to launch? A politician campaigning on an issue? Set up a SquidOffer and see what the people have to say.
BETA: We're just getting started, so we encourage you to sign up to post an offer or two and see what happens. First come, first served. The program will be changing over time as we experiment with the best way to get the right offers in front of the right people.
A: For an insanely low fee ($25/week right now, with a 4 week minimum), you can submit your ad to be listed in SquidOffers. It will include a thumbnail image, a headline and a short description.
There will be a maximum of 100 offers in a set, by topic. The offers will be in a Plexo, a Squidoo-patented list that gives people an easy way to vote up their favorite offers. If you're voted into the top 5 in your topic, your offer will show on every participating Squidoo lens in that category.
Your offer runs on the site for the amount of time you purchased, and you pay the same fee regardless of how much traffic or votes you get. So, a great offer could generate tens of thousands of clicks for just $100, while a lousy offer might lead to not much at all. This means that advertisers will compete to offer the best possible content to Squidoo users, which is our goal.
The rules are simple:
Your offer has to be transparent. You make an offer and your website keeps the promise of that offer.
Your offer has to be under your control. When you buy an ad, you warrant that you are authorized to do so.
Your offer has to be legal. No warez, no software installs, no Adult content in non-adult categories.
We are going to manually and editorially inspect every ad submitted, and we'll reject any offers that violate our policies, or even just offers we don't love. Think about the ads that run in Wired or Cosmo. Cosmo makes sure the ads fit their story, appeal to their readers, and offer them something neat. Wired makes sure the ads are geeky and smart and in the right tone for THEIR readers. Squidoo will do the same: if we're going to run your offer, it's got to be real and authentic and fun and relevant to the category you buy. Our goal is to connect users to sites, not to sell out our users to make a few bucks.
A: SquidOffers will run in a clearly marked sidebar on all of the nearly 100,000 lenses on our site, as well as being featured on SquidOffers voting pages.
Offers are categorized by Squidoo topic. For example, Music SquidOffers will show up on Music lenses on Squidoo, while the Sports&Rec; offers will be on the Sports&Rec; related pages. Single offers are allowed to buy slots in multiple relevant categories. If you're trying to sell an ebook about blogging, let's say, it's possible that SquidOffer could go in Computers&Tech; and in How-to & Education and in SEO & Internet Marketing.
Here's the big win: The top 5 most user-voted and endorsed and awesomest SquidOffers per category will show up on every lens in that category. If you're not in the top 5, your offer will show up on a voting page full of every offer in that category. So it's up to you to compete for the top slots, by creating really great offers that people like, and inviting your clients and readers and friends to vote your offer up.