Social media websites currently make up 40% of the top 10 websites in the world. What some of us remember as the humble "chatroom", is now a video-sharing, photo-sharing, music-sharing, idea-exchanging, game-playing bonanza.

We already know that social media is a rich vein of marketing opportunities. Just how to tap into it however, remains a delicate matter ...

After all, you're entering a place designed for socializing, and attempting to turn the "chin-waggers" into paying customers.

A friend doesn't ordinarily try to sell to his friends - or if he does, it's a sure-fire way to kill the friendship ...

Marketers often find themselves dancing between being someone's best friend and the most annoying guy in the room.

If you can nail it - you're laughing. If you don't - you become a social outcast.

Nigel-no-friends meets Charlie-no-cash.

This is where Squidoo comes in ...

Squidoo bridges the gap between social networking and marketing. A place where you can say, "Yes, I'm an expert in something!" - and still keep your friends.

While on other sites half your marketing battle is figuring out how to turn friends into customers, at Squidoo the framing is already done.

It's an open place to get found and find others, without all the "ducking and diving".

Where like-minded souls can interact, and openly earn income.

And it has a database in the millions.

Sounds pretty amazing, right?

Here's the rub:

One of the hardest things about social networking, is that there is so much of it.

On each site - and Squidoo is no exception - you gotta learn the lingo, how to set up your personal page, figure out all the "special fads" and how to use their quirky web tools ...

... THEN you have to figure out how to turn it into good-old-fashioned traffic to your site.

All of which takes Time.

Time is a fleeting asset ... once it's gone, you can't get it back.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Remember that time is money." That's just as true now as it ever was.

While the Web is a pool of potential wealth, it's also arguably the biggest sucker of Time on the planet.

Are you really building relationships that will return income - or are you just shooting the breeze with your new-found pals?

And how do you know what the difference is?

In the Squidoo Essentials Cashmap series, we take away all the tedious "figuring-it-out" on Squidoo, and distil it into a quick, step-by-step plan that will have you streaking ahead of everyone else.

No fluff here. Just the essentials.

Download your FREE Squidoo Essentials Strategy Cashmap now and learn...

• How to set up your account so you're up and running like a pro in mere minutes.
• Where to go first so you connect instantly with others.
• The single step you must do in order to convert your Squidoo account into an income-generating machine.
• The 5 essential steps to pull in traffic - miss these and you risk having your lens page languish forever.
• The quickest way to shoot your lens page traffic to your blog, website or other social media.
• and much more ...