Using Squidoo YouTube Modules More Effectively
I feel that the YouTube module is one of the most poorly used modules as a whole across Squidoo when it has the potential to be one of the most powerful.
What is your goal when someone visits your lens? To learn something new? To buy a product or service? To get them to go visit your store?
How many of you build lenses specifically to send traffic to YouTube? Probably not many. However, many lenses do that unintentionally just because lensmasters don’t change the default setting.
The Squidoo YouTube module and the YouTube plexo allow you to choose two options: Thumbnail View (Small, static screenshots of the movie) or Full Size (full movies set into the page). The kicker is that if the visitor clicks on a thumbnail they are whisked off to YouTube and its many distractions instead of staying on your lens that was carefully designed to sell them something.
I call this ‘click leak’. Whenever visitors are leaving your lens through links that don’t benefit you or the visitor in any significant way, it’s important to look at ways to stop it. If someone visits your lens and can click on and watch a movie, they will often scroll around and click on other things and read more etc. while the movie is playing.
The Captain Says:
YouTube doesn’t need your traffic as much as you do. Put full length YouTube vids in your lens instead of thumbnails. This increases visitor retention and click out quality for your lenses.
-The Captain
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Comments
Good tip. The large size is much better for viewing anyway. I’ve been campaigning for Squidoo to change the anomaly with the smaller size. Perhaps someday they will.
Thank you for the tips. I considered using the thumbnails, but I see why a full size video is better now.
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Great tip, thanks a ton. I never really thought about this until now. Why should YouTube get MY visitors?
Thanks again.