Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo?

digileaf · 10-06-2009, 05:58 PM

Hi

For a number of personal reasons I have been unable to log on to Warrior Forum for about 4 months.

When I was last on this forum, Squidoo was all the rage. There were lots of posts on the general forum about Squidoo lenses. Now there is not a single mention of Squidoo in any of the posts on the first 5 pages of the main IM Discussion Forum.

Have we fallen out of love with Squidoo so soon? If so why? Or is everyone just getting along successfully using it as a part of their IM toolkit to the extent that it is no longer worthy of discussion?

Just curious as I was keen to get back on track with Squidoo, now that I am online again and able to restart my IM career.

Many thanks

Kate

Heuristic · 10-06-2009, 06:45 PM

I gave up on them after half my lenses were locked. Didn't bother trying to fight it. I'm hoping that the 6 remaining are ok as they still make me money. I don't even update them anymore for fear of them getting locked automatically.

Tom Goodwin · 10-06-2009, 06:54 PM

For me, a combination of:

(1) locking of lens and/or cutting down on the topics that can be discussed;

(2) "clickability" -- there is just so much happening on the pages in terms of ads and what not I find that many article directories are much better; and

(3) it takes significantly longer to do a "lens" than submit an article to Ezines, Articles Base, GoArticles, USFreeads, etc.

I just don't find it cost-effective.

Quote:

Originally Posted by digileaf

Hi

For a number of personal reasons I have been unable to log on to Warrior Forum for about 4 months.

When I was last on this forum, Squidoo was all the rage. There were lots of posts on the general forum about Squidoo lenses. Now there is not a single mention of Squidoo in any of the posts on the first 5 pages of the main IM Discussion Forum.

Have we fallen out of love with Squidoo so soon? If so why? Or is everyone just getting along successfully using it as a part of their IM toolkit to the extent that it is no longer worthy of discussion?

Just curious as I was keen to get back on track with Squidoo, now that I am online again and able to restart my IM career.

Many thanks

Kate

mikeyman120 · 10-06-2009, 06:54 PM

They locked all my lenses so I fell out of love with them fast. I email and they say they will check into my lenses and then they never respond. That happened several times so I'm done with them.

Mike

Wham · 10-06-2009, 06:58 PM

compared to other ways squidoo sucks in my opinion, I guess it doesn't hurt to use squidoo but never by itself.

Marty S · 10-06-2009, 07:02 PM

I never did really use Squidoo and instead stuck with Blogger. Although not the most flexible designs (even with using Artisteer now), Blogger still provides a lot of control, really easy to set up, lightning fast indexing, and accepts posts directly from SideWiki comments now.

RebeccaL · 10-06-2009, 07:52 PM

No... only those who can't see beyond promoting Clickbank products

Michael Taylor · 10-06-2009, 11:21 PM

Still a good place to drop a link. I wouldn't use them to get real traffic, but as a back link resource, it's fine.

digileaf · 10-07-2009, 03:55 AM

Thanks everyone. I guess I will put it lower on my list of priorities than I was first planning, but as I want to get some backlinks going I won't ignore it altogether. I'll definitely get back to article writing tho.

Cheers

Kate

LegitBlogger · 10-07-2009, 12:24 PM

Squidoo, I think, got too tough on IMers,

Colin Palfrey · 10-07-2009, 02:20 PM

They have only locked a few of my lens's but what irritates me and I suspect others is their random locking. It doesn't seem to always be the spammy one's they are after.

I have lens's with aff links all over them and they love them, others that had no links at all and were written just to help others were locked very fast.

sbucciarel · 10-07-2009, 03:18 PM

I deleted all mine and said adios Squidoo ... with their new TOS, they just aren't worth the effort.

robinincarolina · 10-07-2009, 04:03 PM

I made a decent amount of money with Squidoo, but I too had some lenses locked. It was my fault though, I should have read the terms of servcie more closely.

webdiva · 10-07-2009, 05:08 PM

Well, I for one have not fallen out of love with Squidoo. I've never yet had a lens locked - not even in this last major lock-down event. I've built ~ 200 lenses by now - for my clients, to include with sites/networks I sell, and of course for myself. I have ~50 lenses of my own currently.

Call me lucky, or call me smart.

But I ...

1. Never use Squidoo (or ANY web 2.0 site) as a MAIN site or page. I use Squidoo strictly as a TOOL. ;-)

I use these sites to spread my content around for off-page SEO, and to direct traffic to where I want it to go. Generating income directly from Squidoo lenses is not my focus or main intent. Although I do have lenses that regularly generate sales (read item #3 below).

2. I have always set up my lenses in such a way as to remove all the Squidoo-induced distractions possible.

Did you know that by changing your lens SETTINGS to donate 100% to charity you can then UNcheck the ads and banners, and they disappear from your lens?

3. I take a little extra time to create or retrieve my OWN RSS feeds to publish on my lenses - Getting feed code directly from my affiliate area at Amazon, eBay, et al. And I always use my own blog feeds, static site feeds, web 2.0 pages, feed mashups, etc...

This way I get 100% of any commissions of sales generated from those feeds, or I get revved up SEO and backlink juice by using my own sites' and blogs' feeds.

4. I also use content that's on average about 35% unique or MORE. Depending on the purpose, I either go completely 100% unique, or rewrite to be 35% unique.

5. And I take care NOT to pepper my lenses with a bunch of promotional copy, links, or images. A little goes a long way here - especially when placed strategically within the flow of the lens.

6. Oh, and here's a big one. I try to pick natural looking names (the part that becomes the lens url) for my lenses - Titles that are as keyword relevant as I can get without being obviously IM-ish. Sometimes it's just not possible to get a really keyword rich title for a lens url without it either looking way out there, or spammy. I would rather err on the side of 'natural' rather than being extremely keyword targeted if being keyword targeted results in an OBVIOUSLY Promotional-looking lens title/url.

I am definitely NOT a Squidoo-aholic. It is just another tool in my toolbox that I continue to use, when it's applicable, because it continues to work.

10-06-2009, 05:58 PM	#1
digileaf HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: UK, Watford Posts: 233 Thanks: 66 Thanked 53 Times in 43 Posts	Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? Hi For a number of personal reasons I have been unable to log on to Warrior Forum for about 4 months. When I was last on this forum, Squidoo was all the rage. There were lots of posts on the general forum about Squidoo lenses. Now there is not a single mention of Squidoo in any of the posts on the first 5 pages of the main IM Discussion Forum. Have we fallen out of love with Squidoo so soon? If so why? Or is everyone just getting along successfully using it as a part of their IM toolkit to the extent that it is no longer worthy of discussion? Just curious as I was keen to get back on track with Squidoo, now that I am online again and able to restart my IM career. Many thanks Kate
	Get access to all the video content you could ever need to create your own awesome video ads. Warrior Special Offer the ULTIMATE Niche Marketers Video Archive Tailor-made videos for business, by digileaf Succeed in video marketing www.digileaf.co.uk

10-06-2009, 06:45 PM	#2
Heuristic HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 330 Thanks: 73 Thanked 53 Times in 48 Posts	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? I gave up on them after half my lenses were locked. Didn't bother trying to fight it. I'm hoping that the 6 remaining are ok as they still make me money. I don't even update them anymore for fear of them getting locked automatically.

10-06-2009, 06:54 PM	#4
mikeyman120 Mike-Nagle.com War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: NY, USA Posts: 984 Thanks: 180 Thanked 172 Times in 102 Posts Social Networking	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? They locked all my lenses so I fell out of love with them fast. I email and they say they will check into my lenses and then they never respond. That happened several times so I'm done with them. Mike

10-06-2009, 06:58 PM	#5
Wham HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 187 Thanks: 83 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? compared to other ways squidoo sucks in my opinion, I guess it doesn't hurt to use squidoo but never by itself.

10-06-2009, 07:02 PM	#6
Marty S Screencaster Yoda War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Toronto Posts: 1,455 Blog Entries: 11 Thanks: 241 Thanked 317 Times in 213 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? I never did really use Squidoo and instead stuck with Blogger. Although not the most flexible designs (even with using Artisteer now), Blogger still provides a lot of control, really easy to set up, lightning fast indexing, and accepts posts directly from SideWiki comments now.
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10-06-2009, 07:52 PM	#7
RebeccaL Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: NSW, Australia Posts: 2,981 Thanks: 166 Thanked 156 Times in 58 Posts Social Networking	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? No... only those who can't see beyond promoting Clickbank products
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10-06-2009, 11:21 PM	#8
Michael Taylor Denizen of Azeroth War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: St Louis, MO Posts: 373 Blog Entries: 9 Thanks: 458 Thanked 82 Times in 56 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? Still a good place to drop a link. I wouldn't use them to get real traffic, but as a back link resource, it's fine.
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10-07-2009, 03:55 AM	#9
digileaf HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: UK, Watford Posts: 233 Thanks: 66 Thanked 53 Times in 43 Posts	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? Thanks everyone. I guess I will put it lower on my list of priorities than I was first planning, but as I want to get some backlinks going I won't ignore it altogether. I'll definitely get back to article writing tho. Cheers Kate
	Get access to all the video content you could ever need to create your own awesome video ads. Warrior Special Offer the ULTIMATE Niche Marketers Video Archive Tailor-made videos for business, by digileaf Succeed in video marketing www.digileaf.co.uk

10-07-2009, 12:24 PM	#10
LegitBlogger HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: , , . Posts: 473 Thanks: 21 Thanked 58 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? Squidoo, I think, got too tough on IMers,
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10-07-2009, 02:20 PM	#11
Colin Palfrey Author & Ghostwriter War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Ireland Posts: 1,047 Blog Entries: 3 Thanks: 238 Thanked 289 Times in 195 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? They have only locked a few of my lens's but what irritates me and I suspect others is their random locking. It doesn't seem to always be the spammy one's they are after. I have lens's with aff links all over them and they love them, others that had no links at all and were written just to help others were locked very fast.
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10-07-2009, 03:18 PM	#12
sbucciarel Suzanne War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Virginia, USA. Posts: 10,646 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 1,211 Thanked 4,048 Times in 2,261 Posts	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? I deleted all mine and said adios Squidoo ... with their new TOS, they just aren't worth the effort.
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10-07-2009, 04:03 PM	#13
robinincarolina HyperActive Warrior Join Date: May 2009 Location: South Carolina Posts: 147 Thanks: 2 Thanked 26 Times in 22 Posts Social Networking	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? I made a decent amount of money with Squidoo, but I too had some lenses locked. It was my fault though, I should have read the terms of servcie more closely.
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10-07-2009, 05:08 PM	#14
webdiva HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 489 Thanks: 1 Thanked 32 Times in 26 Posts	Re: Has the IM Community fallen out of love with Squidoo? Well, I for one have not fallen out of love with Squidoo. I've never yet had a lens locked - not even in this last major lock-down event. I've built ~ 200 lenses by now - for my clients, to include with sites/networks I sell, and of course for myself. I have ~50 lenses of my own currently. Call me lucky, or call me smart. But I ... 1. Never use Squidoo (or ANY web 2.0 site) as a MAIN site or page. I use Squidoo strictly as a TOOL. ;-) I use these sites to spread my content around for off-page SEO, and to direct traffic to where I want it to go. Generating income directly from Squidoo lenses is not my focus or main intent. Although I do have lenses that regularly generate sales (read item #3 below). 2. I have always set up my lenses in such a way as to remove all the Squidoo-induced distractions possible. Did you know that by changing your lens SETTINGS to donate 100% to charity you can then UNcheck the ads and banners, and they disappear from your lens? 3. I take a little extra time to create or retrieve my OWN RSS feeds to publish on my lenses - Getting feed code directly from my affiliate area at Amazon, eBay, et al. And I always use my own blog feeds, static site feeds, web 2.0 pages, feed mashups, etc... This way I get 100% of any commissions of sales generated from those feeds, or I get revved up SEO and backlink juice by using my own sites' and blogs' feeds. 4. I also use content that's on average about 35% unique or MORE. Depending on the purpose, I either go completely 100% unique, or rewrite to be 35% unique. 5. And I take care NOT to pepper my lenses with a bunch of promotional copy, links, or images. A little goes a long way here - especially when placed strategically within the flow of the lens. 6. Oh, and here's a big one. I try to pick natural looking names (the part that becomes the lens url) for my lenses - Titles that are as keyword relevant as I can get without being obviously IM-ish. Sometimes it's just not possible to get a really keyword rich title for a lens url without it either looking way out there, or spammy. I would rather err on the side of 'natural' rather than being extremely keyword targeted if being keyword targeted results in an OBVIOUSLY Promotional-looking lens title/url. I am definitely NOT a Squidoo-aholic. It is just another tool in my toolbox that I continue to use, when it's applicable, because it continues to work.
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