Squidoo Miscellany

There’s a fine art to adding sales modules to lenses. The worst way is to intersperse them throughout the page in a haphazard manner—obviously not there for the reader’s enjoyment of the page but to sell something. Hopefully.

From the eyes of this consumer, I’d be more happy with someone’s recommendations if they were placed in a way that tells me that I’m about to see what’s in the marketplace for items related to the lens.

Why not add all Amazon Spotlight books to a labeled section—Best Books About Such-And-Such, for example? The haphazard method is confusing. I may note it with interest, but I read on because I’m interested in what is being talked about before I was interrupted with the sales module. However, by the time I’m at the end of the page, I may not be interested anymore in hunting down that mentioned book.

There are ways, yes, to intersperse modules throughout a lens, but if there’s not enough attention paid to the order of things, it can only backfire.

What’s your opinion? Any tips on module placement? How about ways to introduce what you are about to recommend?

One of the things that really bothers me with some of the lenses I find is when a lens looks great right off the bat — it has an excellent introduction that makes you want to read on — but, the first thing you are hit with as you scroll down is a sales module. Why? Why? Why? The lens can turn out to be a five-star lens even. But, why do this — to my mind — hard selling? As a consumer, I must say that it is a real turnoff. Can’t that module full of recommendations come after credibility has been established? Is it in the readers’ best interests to make a sales module their first impression after the introduction?