So often I read the question: "Can I rank a SQUIDOO page faster than I can one on my own site?"

Truth be told, authority site page are easier to rank, generally speaking, but the above question is generally translated from this: "Can I make money using a SQUIDOO or similar web page and leverage the fact that it is an authority site and make money faster?"

Again, the answer is yes, generally speaking, but there is a fundamental problem with this mindset that we should point out.

All to often, the person asking this question is asking it because they are having trouble with two things:

• Getting Traffic To Their Web Page – This is always a challenge for all of us. The only pages on the web that get tons of traffic are home pages of authority sites and inner pages that contain truly viral content. In the past SEO could rank a page in search results for high traffic keywords, but that method is becoming less and less reliable as time passes and algorithm updates are incorporated.
• Getting Traffic To Convert – This is an even bigger challenge. Copy writing, in addition to focusing on "buying keywords" as "psychological triggers" have to be in perfect order to get the sale.

If either one of the two aforementioned points are NOT in order, then your offer will only make a sale every "once in a blue moon" if you’re fortunate.

For these reasons, many focus on "Product Review" pages and place them on "Authority Sites" as a means to make "the sales pitch" on the front end…BAD IDEA!

Making a pitch on the front end of a lens or even on our site is a bad idea. Sure, it is a great way to "learn the ropes quickly" but ultimately, you should be building your own business.

The Problem With Authority Sites

There is, of course, a problem with trying to rank a web page on an authority site…you don’t own it. And that IS a problem.

If you don’t own a web page you are trying to rank, then there are two things you have to worry about:

• Getting Your Page Deleted – This happens on authority sites like SQUIDOO. People get banned and pages get deleted and guess what happens to all of the links that were pointing to them…they all get 404′d and 301′d to the authority site’s home page. Yep. All your hard work is gone and all that stands between you and this horrible scenario is a simple "Policy" change by the site’s owner or owning entity.
• Your Content Gets Diluted By Advertising – This may not seem like a big deal, but it really is. It is a huge deal. Authority site owners split test their advertising constantly and love to move around their advertising so as to "effect" (yes, that’s how you spell it) maximum conversions for "themselves", not "you and your page". And, yes, they are successful at it.

So What Should Be My Main Goal?

Two words: LEAD CAPTURE

Any and all articles are best placed on your site first and foremost. Then, if you like, you can republish them elsewhere. If your article is truly EPIC, then other webmasters will republish it. If its not truly EPIC (99.99% aren’t…including yours and mine), then you will probably have to write something unique because most webmasters require unique content for SEO reasons…as well they should.

Takeaway: Write EPIC content, and if you can’t, write unique content. This opens up more options for you in terms of publishing and/or re-publishing. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve EVER read a piece of EPIC content. I just haven’t.

Get That Funnel Set Up

I have been monitoring click stats for the better part of a year now and I can now see a clear winner in terms of "click thru potential" in terms of content.

And the winner is: EMAIL! Email gets more affiliate link clicks than any other form of marketing. More than blog posts, more than SQUIDOO lenses, more than Ezine Articles, more than anything. And not by a little, I am talking about a factor of 20:1. Yes that’s twenty to one…meaning…for every person that clicks on an affiliate link in an article I have published on the web somewhere, twenty people click on the affiliate link in the emails I send them.

Why is this? Well, remember what we stated before about advertising and its ability to dilute your marketing efforts. Well, any and all distractions on a web page lessen the likelyhood of a reader clicking on your affiliate link. And this means less sales in the long run. Think about it. In those terms, SEO truly pales in comparison with repsect to "lead capture" and a "sales funnel" as a means of making money online.

That being said, I highly recommend using any and all SEO efforts you spend time on to capture leads. Then, once you have the persons email address, build a relationship with them and make your "soft pitch" offline. It works. For me, it makes a 20:1 difference. Hey. You really can’t argue with those numbers.

The Bottom Line

Get yourself a freaking autoresponder already! I highly recommend Get Response.

Check them out here:

Mark Thomas

Mark is the Administrator of TheBitBot.Com News Articles For Ezines and Chief Editor of the TBB SEO Newsletter. Writes. Scripts. Hacks. Cracks. Re-Writes. Mods. Practices SEO of ALL shades. Has Some “VERY SMART” Friends Boldly Experiments. Publishes. Moderates. Trains. Explains. Pursues Three Important Careers Simultaneously. If you are interested in submitting a guest post with us then simply [ click here ] and sign up for a free account. Then simply submit your guest post there.