People buy from people they like and trust. One of the best ways to build trust with people you don’t know is to provide high-quality information. You should want to share your knowledge about insurance and about the products and services you provide.

In order to accomplish that goal, you have to make people aware that your website exists. I call this Mastering your Internet Presence. Having your cousin Lenny and the rest of the family read your agency website might be fun, but that’s probably not exactly the audience you had in mind.

One way to promote your agency is to use Squidoo.

Squidoo is a publishing platform—created by Seth Godin—that lets you create and publish “lenses” or articles, about the topic of your choice. It’s a place to express your perspective and share your knowledge about a subject. It’s also a smart way to drive traffic to your agency website. Here’s why:

Squidoo is free.

Most advertising is expensive, but you can create a presence on Squidoo for free. All you have to do is provide an interesting article and publish it at the site. A variety of readers then have easy access to your lens and links to your website. You’re building your reputation as an expert on your subject and it costs you nothing—except a little brainpower.

It’s easy to Squidoo.

You don’t need many computer skills to use Squidoo. It’s user friendly and easy to understand. There are helpful tutorials that teach you how to optimize your lens for the best results. You’ll also find convenient, easy to use tools that make your lens painless to maintain and update.

It enables open communication.

When people visit your Squidoo lens, you should communicate with them. To start, you can use the Guestbook module to reach out and communicate with people who visit your lens. At the same time, you can use this tool to track and visit websites or the Squidoo lenses of visitors.

It’s a good way to create back-links.

Squidoo is a good way to create back-links. Back-links help increase your page rank in search engines and that’s key to increasing readership. You need all the back-links you can get, and Squidoo is a great place to start building them.

You can earn money on Squidoo.

Besides increasing traffic to your website, you can make a little cash along the way. Earn royalties when readers visit or make money with affiliate marketing. Google AdSense can match your lens with advertisements that complement your topic. There are other ways to earn money with Squidoo, and you can even choose to share some of those earnings with your favorite charity if you like.

It works.

The best reason to use Squidoo is that it can work. Oh, it’s not going to work quickly. Like your website, it takes time and effort from you before you begin seeing results, but it’s worth it.

Squidoo is effective, free, and easy to use. Try it. I think you’ll agree that Squidoo is a smart way to drive traffic to your website.