Creating buzz to your site can be developed in a myriad of ways. I’ve uncovered 80 ways that ANYONE with the desire can set themselves up and over their online competition…some in a very short amount of time. Most cost no money…but almost all are priceless!

2. Sign up for blog top list like www.blogskinny.com or www.blogtoplist.com. These sites are a toplist-style ranking tool, where readers vote for their favorite blogs. Some blog top lists score you by the amount of visitors that go to your blog, and others score you by the amount of visitors who click on a vote button that you place on your blog. The idea is the more people who vote, the higher your score is. You can garner some pretty good traffic from blog

3. Use site directories. Directories are sites where users go to find websites and blogs, just like they do with search engines. But for people who are trying to boost the traffic to their sites, it is crucial to understand the differences in order to succeed. While search engines normally accept almost any site or page that is submitted to them without looking at its quality, directories usually only accept sites that offer quality information. Because all sites submitted to directories are reviewed by humans, sites that are of low quality rarely get accepted. It’s best to submit your site’s name using good keywords, in doing so you’ll discover you could be ranked higher in Google for those specific set of keywords, which translates into more traffic.
Here is a list of some of the top site directories based on their Pagerank and then Alexa Ranking.
Macromedia  - 9 - 100
GoogleBlogSearch  -  9  - 2
BoingBoing  - 9  - 0
Feedster  - 8  - 6064
Technorati  - 8  - 590
RingSurf   - 8  - 0
PDC Bloggers   -  7 - 948532
FocusLook  - 7 - 161899
NewsMob  - 7   - 126837
RocketInfo  - 7  - 85582
WeBlogAlot   - 7  - 40190
Sphere  - 7  - 25888
Blo.gs  - 7  - 21303
BlogDigger  - 7  - 15381
BlogRolling  - 7  - 10636
BlogPulse  - 7  - 9437
IceRocket  - 7  - 3553

Wayne Clayton is the founder of PowerSquidoo.com and President of InternetMarketingDeclassified.com. He is a newspaper publisher & investigative journalist who has desires to appear on major media including the TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and more. He also has an alter-ego called the Big Mouth Marketer on www.BigMouthMarketer.com (of course!) Visit http://PowerSquidoo.com for further details, FREE Marketing resources, or more FREE articles.  Starting in Feb 2008 listen to his radio program PowerSquidoo Radio on Talk Shoe Radio.

 Remember that when you post, use keyrich usernames to promote the site. Just in case they ask for it, you may want to have handy a list of good keywords or tags to use.

Here they are in alphabetical order. Enjoy…

AdURLBlog.com
All-Blog.com
AuthorsBlogs.com
BiggerBlogger.com/
Blog.HotOrNot.com/
BlogAdvance.com/
BlogAnnounce.info/
Blogarama.com/
Blogazoo.com/
BlogCatalog.com/
BlogDigger.com/
Blogdir.co.uk/
Blogdir.com/
Blog-Directory.org/index.php
BlogDust.com/Blog-directory/
BlogExplosion.com/
Bloggeries.com/
Bloggernity.com/
BlogHop.com/
BlogHub.com/
Blogion.com/
BlogLines.com/
BlogMatrix.com/
Blogoriffic.com/
BlogPoint.com/
BlogPulse.com/
BlogRankings.com/
BlogRatingz.com/index.jsp
BlogRoll.net/
Blogs.tomstopsites.com
BlogScholar.com/
Blogs-Collection.com/
BlogSearchEngine.com/
BlogsForSmallBusiness.com
BlogsRating.com/
BlogStreet.com/
BlogTopList.com/
BlogTopSites.com/
BlogWise.com/
Bloogz.com/
BlurtIt.com/
BoingBoing.net/
BrowseBlogs.com/
BulkFeeds.net/
Crayon.net/
DelightfulBlogs.com/
dir.BlogFlux.com/
Directory.Autismlina.com/
Directory.BlogThat.net/
Esperanto.se/Kiosk/Engindex.html
FeedMap.net/BlogMap/
FeedPlex.com
FindingBlog.com/
Findory.com/Blogs/
GeekPhilosopher.com/
GetBlogs.com/
GlobeOfBlogs.com/
HeadlineSpot.com/
IceRocket.com/
KookKoo.com/
Memigo.com/
NewsTrove.com/
Portal.EatonWeb.com/
QuickBlogDirectory.com/
RateItAll.com/
RSSMad.com/
Sarthak.net/Blogz/
SeaBlogs.com
SearchBlog.com/
StarBlogs.com/
Technorati.com/
TheVital.net/
TruthLaidBear.com/
Wutzle.com/
YourWeBlogHere.com/

The process is quick and simple. This is an incredible and exciting new tool for eBay sellers.

ON the site http://www.squidoo.com/SquidBids/, BDKZ says: “SquidBids gives you the power to market your eBay auctions and store with a lens that you build. Simply by entering your eBay ID you can create a customizable lens in minutes. Add modules for photos, polls, links, and of course your eBay items to market your goods.

SquidBids Tips
Enter your eBay ID exactly as it appears. SquidBids is case-sensitive. Add photographs to your SquidBids lens. Show off what you have with a picture. Use the the Flickr or Text Modules for adding photos.

Create multiple SquidBids. Try to be specific in what you sell like Sock Monkey’s, Lampwork Beads or Baby Clothes. Make a lens for each catagory. You can then create a regular Squidoo lens or group and feature all of your SquidBids in one place for even more exposure.

Give buyers a reason to buy from “you”. Let them know that your items come from a smoke-free home, are shipped the next day or are packed with extra special care.

Show off your good feedback rating.

Let your customer’s add testimonials using a Text List Plexo or have them rate you with a Poll.

Sell eBay How-To books and products that compliment your eBay auction using the Amazon Module. For example if your sell Wilton Cake Pans on eBay set up an Amazon Module to sell other Wilton products. If you sell baby clothes set up an Amazon Module for crib bedding.

Show off your goods with a YouTube Video Module. Just think how effect a marketing tool it would be to have a video of the car, motorcycle or house that you are selling on eBay?
Offer your eBay store customers weekly incentives like free shipping, holiday specials or clearance merchandise. You can update your SquidBids lenses daily so encourage people to bookmark you for future savings events. This is a really great way to create a following for your store. When I ran my bead store my repeat customers were the most loyal.
Always add a guestbook so that people can leave you comment.”

You should really check out what SquidBids can do for you and the profitability of your new Squidoo lens.

It’s amazing to see just how fast some turned on Squidoo, when just months earlier they were singing it’s praises.

The first time I recall hearing about the Squidoo Slap was from Ed Dale, on TubbyNerd.com. Dale came out saying, “The lab has been investigating the recent drop in ranking for Squidoo lenses in Google’s search engine results. It appears that as of the 7th of July nearly all Squidoo lenses have dropped in ranking in the Google search engines. There is a lot of speculation in various forums at present (including Squidoo’s own SquidU forum) but the reasons are uncertain.

Dale went on to say that he believed there were 3 potential causes.

1. Recent Squidoo changes have resulted in Google indexing Squidoo lenses in a different way and consequently that caused lower ranking scores as compared to before the infamous “slap.”

2. Google “slapped” a virtual penalty on the Squidoo domain for reasons known only to Google.

3. Google was undergoing a re-indexing process. The re-indexing resulted in unusual SERP rankings which will re-assert themselves after the re-indexing has completed (again think cleaning out the driftwood.)

Ultimately, Dale confessed that the lab leaned more toward the penalty cause reason because websites that ranked above their previously high ranking Squidoo lenses had much fewer backlinks and lower page rank than the Squidoo lenses they had replaced.

Seth Godin himself discussed the “slap” in an interview with Howie Schwartz of Searchingdot.com. Godin states, “Squidoo’s promise from the start has been simple: we give anyone an easy-to-use platform where you can help people understand your little part of the world. A page where you can include links and content and pointers and a bit of community to help people figure out what’s going on. That hasn’t changed and won’t change. Along the way, Google and other sites rewarded these pages with plenty of search engine traffic. No surprise. If we can help search engines find meaning for those that are searching, it’s all good.”

From the latest program being promoted by Schwartz, Conversation Domination on Jack Humphrey’s BendingTheWeb.com, Schwartz likes Squidoo and now actively uses them in his approach to generate traffic and consequently monitization of that traffic. On a conference call with Humphrey on 10/9/07, Schwartz announced he made well into FIVE figure for the month with a Halloween costume site that in part was promoted with…HIS SQUIDOO LENSES.

Makes me wonder if some of those shouting of the early demise of Squidoo arent doing so to thin out the herd so they can make more money with less competition (with the exception of Schwartz who actively pushes using Squidoo.) Unfortunately, some of the faithful walk away with more questions than answers after watching to their guru lead the funeral pyre with Squidoo being the firewood.

Dan Raine, who is one of the partners with Ed Dale in Thirty Day Challenge, said “Well I am one for rampant speculation here (an Ed’ism) but Seth pretty much shot himself in the foot by pimping the fact that Squidoo was responsible for sooo much traffic to eBay Stores that Google (after their embarrassing retreat) had to take action and slap him… (Well come on… serious loss of AdWords revenue)

True, don’t get me wrong, there has been a lot of really crappy lenses created recently, and that is not what Squidoo is about, but using Squidoo as a marketing tool is not a bad thing… It is all about responsible marketing…”

Still questions arise with no clear answer…even from those who composed the supposed Squidoo Slap. Take for instance this question from one reader named IBCynical on TubbyNerd.com. IBCynical asks…”Bummer that I never saw an answer to the question, “Should we stil use squidoo to link to our sites”. Does it cause a drop in the ranking of a page it links too, now today, Sept 29th 2007…So, do we use squidoo or not.”

Although I have huge respect and admiration for Ed Dale and Dan Raine, as of today, no one responded. Unfortunately some will go elsewhere. Take the post from Stuart at earnersblog.com who said that he had a notable decrease on his Squidoo ranking. He states, “I’ve seen about a 75% decrease in traffic to all my lenses since Wednesday 4th July, but I’ve also seen some of the more popular lenses keep their consistent rankings.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the rankings come back or whether Google has applied a permanent penalty to Squidoo or whether you just need to put more effort into building backlinks to get the lenses ranking (this seems more probable).

It’s not surprising really since 80% of the lenses on Squidoo are probably spam anyway & rank ridiculously well without any effort.

In the meantime, don’t despair many people are already jumping onto Hubpages which also seems to be doing equally well in the SERPS.”

Hmmmm… Hubpages.com huh….?