Squidoo or Blogger?

[newBum76]

The overwhelming consensus on the board seems to be the best way to go with article marketing is to point the articles toward a landing page rather than straight to the sales page. Being very new to IM, I'm trying to start article marketing in the simplest way possible, but of course I also want to be effective.

So I'm looking for opinions as to what would make a better landing page, a squidoo lens or set up a page with blogger? Or if there is a better option (short of setting up a full blown website) I'm open to suggestions. Thanks!

[Motiv8td]

I'm interested in the answer as well. I'll be subscribing to this thread. good luck

[newBum76]

Originally Posted by Motiv8td

I'm interested in the answer as well. I'll be subscribing to this thread. good luck

Thanks, and love your screen name! I probably should have been more creative with mine lol.

[LilBlackDress]

Your own website. Squidoo lenses are getting locked right and left. You have no control over blogger either.

Your own site is very doable and gives you control. It is simple to plug in a wp theme, grab a domain name for $10 and find a coupon to get domain hosting for less. Yes it takes more work than setting up a lens or blogger account but you will be better off in the long run.

I consider myself technically challenged and have managed to make quite a few websites.

[JayXtreme]

If you HAVE to use one... I suggest going with Blogger for a landing page..

Squidoo has WAY too many distractions.

Of course, I would actually advise you buy a domain name, but if you are set on using one of the other.. blogger for landing pages..

Peace

Jay

[DeePower]

The best alternative is to set up your own webpage. Squidoo recently went through, or I should say is still going through, a bout of closing down and deleting lenses they consider spammy. This includes a number of topics that previously were just fine, like weight loss.

Blogger doesn't seem to do that but you never know. It would be a shame to put a lot of time and effort into promoting a blog or lens and have it shut down.

It's not difficult to buy a domain and set it up on an inexpensive service. You can find free what-you-see-is-what-you-get wysiwyg webpage design software.

Use blogger and squidoo to then point to your own site.

Dee

[Tracey_Meagher]

I would also suggest not relying on a third party web property. You'll get far more value from owning and having full control over your own landing page.

But if I had to choose between Blogger and Squidoo, I think I would opt for Blogger simply because you never know with Squidoo's new policies when they might knock your lens.

[JeffMitchell]

I would highly suggest using your own capture page. ( you can get a warrior to create on for $50-$150) and use squidoo for SEO since the search engines seem to eat up lenses. Use the lens to drive traffic back to your custom website.

Remember: Your website is your asset. Squidoo, Blogger, WordPress...etc. can disapear tomarrow but your own website will outlast the test of time.

Jeff Mitchell

[newBum76]

Thanks for all the advice everyone, very helpful. Seems the best way to go is my own site......problem is I don't even have a dime to invest right now, that's why I'm going the bum marketing path. If I start to make any clickbank sales I will definitely set up my own site though.

[vpgemini]

Would't it actually be better to direct them to a squeeze page first then to a sales page or landing page?

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by JeffMitchell

Remember: Your website is your asset. Squidoo, Blogger, WordPress...etc. can disapear tomarrow but your own website will outlast the test of time.

Try paying for your domain renewal with an expired credit card and it won't be so outlasting.

[gskesavan]

OK! Here goes, as far as my personal experience is concerned -- as soon as I setup a landing page on squidoo, I write 5 articles to see how it works and everytime i did this I made 2 sale on average. With blogger I tried the same (for the same niche) but the sale didn't flow like squidoo.

But, it's all upto you. I prefer using both of them for backlinks.

[MisterMunch]

I would go for blogger if you have zero money to invest. I am not talking about rankings here, but the fact that Squidoo just blocked one of my lenses for a backlink to it.

I have never had problems with blogger yet, but you never know there either. Still, squidoo is not safe anymore.

[liza31n]

I already tried blogger and haven't tried squidoo.As far as i know,they both have good ranking and most marketers used them.Why don't you try both then look which fit your needs.

[peter gibson]

If you must use a third party platform, blogger is way better than squidoo.

[TrishOleary]

I would go with blogger as well. I just had several of my lenses deleted and it is very frustrating.

I recently starting just building wordpress blogs and hosting them myself and it is really easy to do. The only charges involved are a domain name for under $10 and your hosting account which you get the small shared hosting account for under $5 a month I believe.

I see you are in Port Orchard? I have some family in that area and I am over in Leavenworth camping right now up from San Diego, I forgot how beautiful Washington is...

Good luck with everything!

[newBum76]

Thanks Trish! I've been reading bad things about squidoo lately, plus the majority seems against it so I won't be going that route.

Yeah Leavenworth is a fun little town to visit, I need to get back out there sometime. I forget what the place was called, but they had the best soup I ever had. Ask around about "that good soup place" and I'm sure you'll find it. Hope you have a fun visit up here in WA!

-Jon

[wealth2moms]

Hi Everyone,

What do you think about weebly. Weebly can be setup as just a simple landing page or you can setup weebly as a blog to be the home page. Weebly has a good pagerank and it appears it would be a good alternative to Squidoo (which I have heard can give you problems) and blogger.

I do have Wordpress blogs but I thought to test a product for viability that weebly might be a good alternative. anyone have anything to say about weebly?

Thanks,

Fern

[peter gibson]

Originally Posted by wealth2moms

Hi Everyone,

What do you think about weebly. Weebly can be setup as just a simple landing page or you can setup weebly as a blog to be the home page. Weebly has a good pagerank and it appears it would be a good alternative to Squidoo (which I have heard can give you problems) and blogger.

I do have Wordpress blogs but I thought to test a product for viability that weebly might be a good alternative. anyone have anything to say about weebly?

Thanks,

Fern

Nothing wrong with weebly in my eyes. I like the interface actually. I just mention blogger because it gets more google luv

Wordpress free is also nice, but there are monetization restrictions there (no adsense for example).

As a beginner the first thing I would do is grab your own domain and throw up a wordpress install. It is a great time to start mucking about at the PHP and seeing how things work. It's really not much money to start that way. When I started I decided to skip 2 lattes a month and 2 more per year. Boom, my hosting costs were covered. Plus no matter what, the only way you can get shut down with your own site is if you do the shuttin'.

If I were starting again right now, I'd develop sites on all of the good third party platforms and point them straight at my own hosted domain. The more the merrier. Hubpages are another good example. You get the link love from all the sites, and the more you add and update (+ping) the more your main site gets a boost.

It's an overall good strategy in my eyes.

[1wisewoman]

If you're trying to create a free squeeze page to get email addresses, you want to avoid distracting the visitor with too many options. With this in mind then weebly or blogger would be better options than Squidoo.

[SarahMcHarry]

Originally Posted by newBum76

Thanks for all the advice everyone, very helpful. Seems the best way to go is my own site......problem is I don't even have a dime to invest right now, that's why I'm going the bum marketing path. If I start to make any clickbank sales I will definitely set up my own site though.

newBum76,

If you are serious about Internet marketing you really do have to get your own domain on your own hosting account.

If you are short of funds, find something that you own that you can sell on eBay and invest the proceeds in getting your own online real estate. You can get started with about $100. Get a hosting account that lets you add on multiple domains and then you can host as many as you like for peanuts.

WordPress is ideal for throwing up quick websites and the advantage is that you don't need to know anything about HTML and you can make your blog look unique.

And when you get started, use both Squidoo and Blogger (and more) to link to your WP blogs which will help with SEO.

Good luck!

Sarah

[vpgemini]

I would use blogger and squidoo as part of a link wheel which all point towards your own site.

[gus89]

Your best bet is to get your own domain. You never know what kind of policy changes might go on at blogger or squidoo. Plus, if you are promoting your own site you are increasing value for something you own.

[rmholla]

You can get .info domains super cheap. Having your own domain gives you much more control and flexibility. Having a domain is an investment in cyber real estate.

[Geopentagon]

They are 2 different things. according to which be trying to make, one could work more best than other. the blogger is a plarform blogging in which you can continue to write the mail and to create the nea pages. on the other hand, social site of squidoo that it affords that you create a page that you can use for various reasons. , it promotes yours own product, it obtains PR and the form of the backlink juice form the lens, etc

[John Sullivan]

Get your own domain if you can as you have more control over it. There are many advantages of having your own domains like more plug ins etc.

John

[JWB]

I hear directing to a Wordpress blog is highly effective. It is as good or better than a regular site. Google loves blogs and I hear. particularly Wordpress blogs. So I would definately start there...Good luck

[mikemcmillan]

I've had luck with both of them, but you are, of course at the mercy of things they may do. Like JayExtreme said, Squidoo has a ton of leakers--ways for people to click off your site. Long term I'd get a domain name and a hosting account and host a WordPress blog on your own account.

Blogger is much easier to add text and images to and it is much easier to load opt-in forms into. But there are tons and tons of reasons to host a blog on your own domain. Go that route when you can--but you can still get blogger and squidoo pages ranked well in the SERPs if you do everything right.

[mayapearl]

I have not had too much luck with Squidoo, although I know a couple of friends did very well.
The new rules on Squidoo are very annoying and I had one of my lenses blocked for some mysterious reason.
Go for your own domain and practice on Blogger to start off with, Google gives preferential treatment to Blogger, so use it to generate traffic towards your own site, it is better for you in the long run to own your own domain.

Squidoo can block or even delete your lens and all your work may be gone.
However should you still go with Squidoo [there is nothing wrong with that] back up all your articles and pictures on your computer and post them elsewhere should there be any problem.

[tom4business]

It's always better to have a website, since it gives you more control over how you can sell.

You are taking a big risk if you are using a 3rd party service for landing pages. You never know when they will change rules.It can totally ruin whatever efforts you had put in.

However, Squidoo is a great tool to get targeted traffic and quality back links.

Yesterday I made a lens for one of my clients, added 10 back links from Angela's packets and today its on page 1 for a keyword, competing with almost 700k pages.

I was surprised to see another web 2.0 property I created 2 hours back, at position 4, just below the lens.

I think you need to plan, what to use for what purpose.

1. Register a .info domain and setup a site
2. set up your main site( including your landing page) there
3. then use Squidoo and other stuffs to promote your site

Tom

[ezeey]

Buying a domain name would be the best choice. But I will say this I have 3 Blogger blogs and I have made nothing off of them, I did start them when I first started with IM so that's expected but I also have 5 Squidoo lenses and they bring in about $200 a week and I don't update them at all.

The only thing that I hate about Squidoo is the lens health but once that’s right its fine. I do not suggest you just use Squidoo lenses as they are getting blocked, rather get your own domain its way more fulfilling.

[Arted4Life]

I would go with Wordpress. You can't get any simpler then that. And you can do anything you want with wordpress. The community is simply massive, and their is a plugin or widget for anything and everything you could possible need.

[robinincarolina]

I love love love squidoo. I do both though, but more squidoo. I read about the blocks and it really depends on your niche as to if you get blocked. I do this full time and am supporting myself because of squidoo. Not much left over yet, but the plan is than when I do reach that point, then I can sit back and build a site. If I build a site now, I would have to start learning all over again and it would take time away from what is working for me now.

I have 10 lens, lets say they only make and average of $40.00 per week per lens, well thats 400 a week, so add 10 more lens and thats $800.00 per week. Once I get 20 lens up, then I will build my site, but for now I just build the lens write the articles and a few other things and set them free, rinse and repeat.

Again, I love squidoo and would not be here had I not discovered it.

[wisecrone333]

As a newbie I have got my own domain and hosting, blogger, Squidoo and Weebly pages - I have found that my Squidoo lenses don't get a lot of traffic at all and I figure that might be because they are in a highly competitive niche (freelance writing) so I am going to try them this week with a non-money making niche - ghosts actually.

Squidoo has or is doing a huge crackdown on affiliate marketing pages so I am interested to see whether or not a non-money making niche fairs any better. I do agree with other replies though in that Squidoo does have a lot of distractions for the reader to click away from your information and in that respect blogger or your own site would be better.

Best wishes
Lisa

[Zukario]

I also agree that using blogger as your landing sales page is better because you have not much control over squidoo plus in squidoo there are alot of ads advertising that can lowered your chances of making any sales.