Squidoo/Blogger as primary website

86 replies
Hi everyone. Please share your opinions on the following topic.

I'm thinking of building a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog and getting them to the top of google for some narrow-niche little-competition keywords. This seems good to me because I'm just starting out and I can hardly afford domain/hosting (I'd also need to get a credit card which I don't yet have).

Now I'm having doubts beacause I think if that's such a good idea everyone would be doing it and also when I search I seldom find that kind of pages anywhere near the top.

Here are some pros and cons that I can think of.
Pros:
  1. It's free;
  2. It should rank well because I've read many times that google loves that kind of pages;
  3. Such pages stay up forever with no danger of forgetting to renew hosting/domain name services.
Cons:
  1. I also read quite a few times that when you do this you "don't own the content". This wouldn't be an issue for me since I'm starting out and if this method could help me make some startup money to cover the expenses of running my own website then going this route temporarily would totally pay off. Also it's unlikely that my site gets deleted if it's not about pornography, etc.
  2. I'd be limited in design options. I could live with that as long as I'm getting traffic and my affiliate link is there.
That's all the cons that I can think of. Please share your vision and let me know of any other cons I might have overlooked.

And to sum it up my final question is: can I get a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog to the top of google for a small competition keyword provided I get many backlinks to it? How difficult would that be? Thank you.
#squidoo or blogger
  • Profile picture of the author DeusX
    I think it's good to build blogs/squido pages for that kind of keywords, It's very easy to rank, they are easy to set, and You can put aff links straight on it
    I have few blogs build for such a keywords and made some sales ,

    go for it!
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    • Profile picture of the author voronov
      Originally Posted by KristofSX View Post

      I think it's good to build blogs/squido pages for that kind of keywords, It's very easy to rank, they are easy to set, and You can put aff links straight on it
      I have few blogs build for such a keywords and made some sales ,

      go for it!
      Thank you Kristof! This sound encouraging.
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  • Profile picture of the author mervyngoh
    The only main key factor you need to take note is that you don own the site and if anything happen, blogger can anytime close down your account and the hard work that you have created went to Zero and you need to start again. It is more advisable to create your own domain and web hosting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Charlotte Jay
    I had heard that Blogger is cracking down on affiliate type sites, correct if I'm wrong though. Why not buy a super cheap domain for 2 bucks and own the content yourself. I have hosting for only 6 bucks a month. Well worth it.
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    • Profile picture of the author voronov
      Originally Posted by Charlotte Jay View Post

      I had heard that Blogger is cracking down on affiliate type sites, correct if I'm wrong though. Why not buy a super cheap domain for 2 bucks and own the content yourself. I have hosting for only 6 bucks a month. Well worth it.
      Mainly because I don't live in United States. I live in Ukraine with my mother and I have little to no income. I recently got a job as a waiter and I made some money but when the month was up and I got my salary I was disappointed. With fines for this and that it was barely enough to get a credit card (which I would require to pay for hosting/domain services) and I have other offline needs, you know. Also that job was hell of a lot of stress. So I quit it.

      Don't get me wrong, my determination to succeed is very strong. I'll get another job if I really have to. But if instead I could make the start up money with the method described above I would totally prefer that. Hope you understand.
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      • Profile picture of the author Charlotte Jay
        Originally Posted by voronov View Post

        Mainly because I don't live in United States. I live in Ukraine with my mother and I have little to no income. I recently got a job as a waiter and I made some money but when the month was up and I got my salary I was disappointed. With fines for this and that it was barely enough to get a credit card (which I would require to pay for hosting/domain services) and I have other offline needs, you know. Also that job was hell of a lot of stress. So I quit it.

        Don't get me wrong, my determination to succeed is very strong. I'll get another job if I really have to. But if instead I could make the start up money with the method described above I would totally prefer that. Hope you understand.
        No I totally understand where you are coming from. You have to do what you have to do when it comes to finances. I bought a WSO many moons ago on how to do what you are asking. It's a neat method, but I was too worried I would get shut down. I make some extra cash by promoting WSO's through the forum, that pays for my hosting. It only costs 3 bucks a month to do so. Something to consider.
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    • Profile picture of the author JoshTara
      What if you get good at it, really good. what if you start making $100 a month? a week, or even a day. What if they close your account, for who knows what reason? what if your content somehow gets lost? what if squidoo/blogger sell to another company and you loose everything in the mix? in the short term free sites seem great. you have to have long term thinking, first of all because with internet marketing you will need it, it will not happen over night. if you are only thinking short term enough that you are considering free sites because you cant cough up $10 a year for a domain and $10 a month for hosting, then an internet marketing business may not be for you.
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      • Profile picture of the author BenoitT
        Originally Posted by JoshTara View Post

        What if you get good at it, really good. what if you start making $100 a month? a week, or even a day. What if they close your account, for who knows what reason? what if your content somehow gets lost? what if squidoo/blogger sell to another company and you loose everything in the mix? in the short term free sites seem great. you have to have long term thinking, first of all because with internet marketing you will need it, it will not happen over night. if you are only thinking short term enough that you are considering free sites because you cant cough up $10 a year for a domain and $10 a month for hosting, then an internet marketing business may not be for you.
        That's a pretty long "what if" but voronov, what if it works? Just do it and go for the Alexa's tips too
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        • Profile picture of the author JoshTara
          Originally Posted by BenoitT View Post

          That's a pretty long "what if" but voronov, what if it works? Just do it and go for the Alexa's tips too
          If you are not willing to invest $10 a month for hosting and $10 a year for each site you own. Internet marketing probably isn't for you, no business is for you for that matter. If you can't invest that small amount of money I wouldn't ever plan on making any money in any endeavor if I were you.
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          • Profile picture of the author voronov
            Originally Posted by JoshTara View Post

            If you are not willing to invest $10 a month for hosting and $10 a year for each site you own. Internet marketing probably isn't for you, no business is for you for that matter. If you can't invest that small amount of money I wouldn't ever plan on making any money in any endeavor if I were you.
            No need to repeat yourself. You are a negative person, everybody got that. I don't find your replies helpful so please don't post them anymore unless it is to show how cool you are. And I still doubt anyone finds it believable. Don't waste your time.
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
            Banned
            Originally Posted by JoshTara View Post

            If you are not willing to invest $10 a month for hosting and $10 a year for each site you own. Internet marketing probably isn't for you
            This is nonsense. Many people have got off to a successful start without spending money. You have no idea who's able to invest money, Josh. That actually has nothing to do with the issue being discussed here.

            Nor is this about "mitigating risks" at all.

            These are risks one can avoid entirely without spending any money.

            Again, it's just not about "free"/"paid-for": it's simply about safety and control over your business.

            I must be very inarticulate today, but this seems to be a difficult point to get across, for some reason.

            You can read about plenty of Warriors' experiences with Blogger in all the many threads like this one.

            Meanwhile, there will always be people announcing that they make $w,xyz per month from Blogger blogs, almost as if they don't quite appreciate that they could make exactly the same without the deletion-risks by using even free hosting elsewhere ... go figure.
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            • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
              Originally Posted by JoshTara View Post

              If you are not willing to invest $10 a month for hosting and $10 a year for each site you own. Internet marketing probably isn't for you, no business is for you for that matter. If you can't invest that small amount of money I wouldn't ever plan on making any money in any endeavor if I were you.
              For some people, it's not a matter of 'will' but a matter of 'able.' And plenty of people have started with NOTHING, even in 'offline' businesses.

              Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

              This is nonsense. Many people have got off to a successful start without spending money. You have no idea who's able to invest money, Josh. That actually has nothing to do with the issue being discussed here.

              Nor is this about "mitigating risks" at all.

              These are risks one can avoid entirely without spending any money.

              Again, it's just not about "free"/"paid-for": it's simply about safety and control over your business.

              I must be very inarticulate today, but this seems to be a difficult point to get across, for some reason.

              You can read about plenty of Warriors' experiences with Blogger in all the many threads like this one.
              This isn't a matter of being inarticluate.

              It's a matter of being evasive.

              Everyone standing on point that "Blogger" is bad, wants to stand on point, their point, as the only point, so they evade the counters to their arguments...

              They quote a thread of someone's blogger horror story without addressing exactly the counter point: that if they didn't back them up, they didn't protect them. And they could have.

              They claim that you get free-$1 domain and hosting: without addressing the counter point: the issue of need for a minimum of $10-$15 for a bank account or pre-paid credit card just to be able to take advantage of free or $1.00 domains and hosting...

              A lot of people take for granted that someone has that $10-$15, to risk and thinks that if they don't, it's just a lack of education, ambition or 'will' on their part. That is an arrogance that is exceeded only by ignorance.

              I did start with no money at all, and with ambition, education and sheer will power, managed to build a successful business that started with those 'evil' Blogger blogs.

              The counters to the arguments against using Blogger are made, for anyone willing to accept them instead of evading them in an effort to continue to perpetuate a myth.

              I just hope that helps someone, somewhere, who is struggling with choosing between giving up a dream and risking even a penny that they just don't have to risk.

              -Dani
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              • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
                Banned
                Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                It's a matter of being evasive.
                I'm sorry you find me "evasive", Dani.

                I've actually tried my utmost to debate it with you and anwer your questions (apart from the "physical bricks and mortar business" ones, which I respectfully thought were irrelevant here as this conversation's about online businesses).

                It seems all I can do is repeat my points that the risks of using Blogger, without benefit, are entirely unnecessary and avoidable.

                To me, that seems plain, simple and factual.

                Nor have you offered any counter-argument at all. (Apart from something to do with renting bricks and mortar premises for offline businesses, which honestly didn't seem too relevant to me, if you'll excuse my saying so).

                You have to back up any site, anywhere, if you have any sense.

                It has nothing to do with "mitigating risks". You can simply avoid those risks, instead. To try to make out that Blogger is somehow "safe" or "better" or "reliable" or "not so risky" because some of the people using it went wrong by not backing up their sites, when they could have hosted them free of charge at Byethost in the first place and NOT exposed themselves to the Blogger terms of service deletion-risks at all ... just isn't a point to which I can make further rational response - sorry. We'd better just agree to differ.

                Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                I just hope that helps someone, somewhere, who is struggling with choosing between giving up a dream and risking even a penny that they just don't have to risk.
                It's not about money! :rolleyes:

                Nobody has to give up on their dream, or to risk a single penny, to host their site somewhere where they own it, and Blogger can't arbitrarily delete it.

                I would have thought, Dani, that having had a couple of your own Blogger sites deleted in the past, you'd be among the very first to be advising people never to use it, when it isn't necessary. But apparently not.
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                • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
                  Alexa,
                  Evasive wasn't directed solely at you, but at anyone and anyone who continues to refuse to admit that a back up is a simple answer to the threat of the blog being 'whisked away in the night' and that even to take advantage of the free and $1.00 hosting and domains will require a minimum of a $10 expense that some people just don't have to risk.

                  I stand on point that 'online business' is no different from 'offline business'. The technology, and applications for 'doing business' are different, but that's all. The basic principles (asset protection, risk management, operational procedures, are the same.)

                  And Blogger has only ever deleted ONE of my blogs... which happened to be a make money online blog. And it did not even have any negative effect for me. I had it backed up, and even had the backlinks protected through a simple redirect (I had set this blog up long after I started making money and owned a domain name to use for that redirect.) I just chose not republish it because I decided that it was high time I started to learn how to use WordPress. Which is still a daily struggle for me.

                  -Dani

                  P.S. Most of my Blogger blogs are monetized with Adsense, and recently, Amazon.

                  I do believe that does have some bearing on the fact that my blogs have been 'mostly safe.' Google owns Blogger and Adsense/Adwords, so they profit from what I publish. They won't profit if I were to promote Clickbank products, so I believe those are more likely to be deleted.

                  Incidentally, I can find no connection between Google and Amazon, but Blogger put the Amazon monetization option INTO the Blogger admin panel, so I have to 'assume' that for some reason, profit for Google or something else perhaps, they're also OK with the bloggers monetizing Amazon.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
                    Banned
                    Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                    Alexa, Evasive wasn't directed solely at you
                    Ok, Dani - thanks.

                    You'll doubtless appreciate, nonetheless, that when I said "I must be very inarticulate today" and you quoted that sentence and said "This isn't a matter of being inarticulate. It's a matter of being evasive", it did appear, to me, to be directed at me?

                    My mistake, apparently.

                    Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                    Blogger has only ever deleted ONE of my blogs
                    Ok, Dani - thanks.

                    You'll doubtless appreciate, nonetheless, that when I referred to "two", I was actually thinking of this post from February 16th when you said:

                    Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                    I've only ever in 5 years, lost 2 of them
                    My mistake, apparently.
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                    • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
                      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

                      Ok, Dani - thanks.

                      You'll doubtless appreciate, nonetheless, that when I said "I must be very inarticulate today" and you quoted that sentence and said "This isn't a matter of being inarticulate. It's a matter of being evasive", it did appear, to me, to be directed at me?

                      My mistake, apparently.



                      Ok, Dani - thanks.

                      You'll doubtless appreciate, nonetheless, that when I referred to "two", I was actually thinking of this post from February 16th when you said:



                      My mistake, apparently.
                      Sorry Alexa... I honestly did not remember any one but that 'make money one.'

                      I understand it seemed 'directed' at you, but I just happened to pick up on it to make the point about 'evasive.' I've supported the use and protection of Blogger blogs (when there are no other options) for so long, and for so long the counter points have been ignored in favor of simply repeating the original points they countered, which 'dismisses' the counter points altogether, which may actually cause someone to adapt to that negative attitude that 'some' feel about business, and discourage them, and I don't like to see people being discouraged.

                      I have no ill will toward you at all Alexa. I just have a very fond connection to Blogger and the people who need it as I did, and are looking for away to make it work.

                      -Dani
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                      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
                        Banned
                        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                        I've supported the use and protection of Blogger blogs (when there are no other options) for so long
                        I know. But there are other options, without needing money and without the Blogger deletion-risks you've once (or twice) encountered yourself.

                        I appreciate entirely that there may not have been when you started, but there are now - safer and better ones, as you've seen.

                        So perhaps you might decide to change a little of what you're saying, in future? And then there might be fewer Warriors bemoaning their fate by starting threads like this one.

                        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                        the counter points have been ignored in favor of simply repeating the original points they countered, which 'dismisses' the counter points altogether, which may actually cause someone to adapt to that negative attitude that 'some' feel about business, and discourage them, and I don't like to see people being discouraged.
                        Neither do I, but that didn't happen here. The OP learned something he didn't know and said "Alexa, thank you very much! You have been most helpful and I will probably follow most of your advice".

                        It was only you who seemed to have a problem with what was said, Dani - not Voronov.

                        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                        I have no ill will toward you at all Alexa.
                        Nor I to you, of course.

                        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

                        I just have a very fond connection to Blogger and the people who need it as I did
                        They don't actually need it as you did, Dani: they're simply (often) unaware of other, better, safer, similarly free alternatives. But the facility to share information about such matters is, fortunately, all part and parcel of this fine forum's attractions.
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                      • Profile picture of the author bretski
                        Privet Voronov! Welcome to the Warrior Forum!.. and welcome to the ignorance, at times.

                        Your English is VERY good for a Ukrainian and I am sure that you can make a go at this and become very successful.

                        Alexa has given you some good resources and advice, as well as some others here... such as the piece of advice of using Blogger and Squidoo to point to your main site to pass along authority etc.

                        I think the best advice that I can give you is to be wise in your choice of niches and in the choice of products that you become an affiliate for. Alexa also has some very good posts and information on this.

                        I'm not sure what direction you are heading in as far as that but let us know if we can be of any help. Ignore the static of people arguing and remain positive and optimistic.

                        Just my 3 kopecks and let me know if I can do anything for you personally...
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                        • Profile picture of the author voronov
                          Originally Posted by bretski View Post

                          Just my 3 kopecks and let me know if I can do anything for you personally...
                          In Ukraine the saying is "5 kopeyek", not 3
                          Which as you probably know figuratively means "a small input to the conversation" and literally "5 units of Ukrainian coin currency" like American cents.

                          Sorry for offtopic and thank you for this. We'll be in touch.
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                          • Profile picture of the author audrey77
                            I think I can just state my experience with Squidoo here. I have built over 100 lenses with them. So far, none have been deleted. Generally, if you put up quality content, there is no reason for them to delete your pages, even if you have your affiliate links inserted.

                            Having said that, yes, they do not like certain topics, and I think they have a list there. You can check out their policy for more info before you start. Also, be careful if you are promoting Clickbank items.

                            So, can you make money with Squidoo? Yes, but it is hard work. You have to put up a lot of lenses before you see the money because everything is trial and error when you start.
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                            • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
                              Alexa...

                              I owe you an apology. I misread your post regarding the free domains. I saw you say free hosting and then the free domains but saw the $1 and incorrectly assumed that the $1 was for one or the other and would still require a credit card.

                              My apologies.

                              I stand corrected.

                              -Dani
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                              • Profile picture of the author saiyan11
                                You might have the dangers of losing everything with free blogger blogs, and of course I understand that right now you can´t afford to buy a domain and hosting.

                                So my advice is that you keep working with free blogs by now, and as soon as you have your first $100 in your hand you buy a domain and hosting for a whole year! Don´t worry if you don´t have a credit card, you can always ask a close friend or a relative to use their credit cards and give them the money in cash. That's the way I started, I´m from Venezuela and understand your situation.

                                Saludos

                                Marcos
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      • Is it easy for blogger to close some one account just for no reason?.And what is squidoo?
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  • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
    Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    Hi everyone. Please share your opinions on the following topic.

    I'm thinking of building a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog and getting them to the top of google for some narrow-niche little-competition keywords. This seems good to me because I'm just starting out and I can hardly afford domain/hosting (I'd also need to get a credit card which I don't yet have).

    Now I'm having doubts beacause I think if that's such a good idea everyone would be doing it and also when I search I seldom find that kind of pages anywhere near the top.

    Here are some pros and cons that I can think of.
    Pros:
    1. It's free;
    2. It should rank well because I've read many times that google loves that kind of pages;
    3. Such pages stay up forever with no danger of forgetting to renew hosting/domain name services.
    Cons:
    1. I also read quite a few times that when you do this you "don't own the content". This wouldn't be an issue for me since I'm starting out and if this method could help me make some startup money to cover the expenses of running my own website then going this route temporarily would totally pay off. Also it's unlikely that my site gets deleted if it's not about pornography, etc.
    2. I'd be limited in design options. I could live with that as long as I'm getting traffic and my affiliate link is there.
    That's all the cons that I can think of. Please share your vision and let me know of any other cons I might have overlooked.

    And to sum it up my final question is: can I get a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog to the top of google for a small competition keyword provided I get many backlinks to it? How difficult would that be? Thank you.
    You've got your information a little backward.

    Blogger and Squidoo have been known to take down sites.
    YOU do own the content.

    Also, as to 'Google loving' them... and putting them at the top.. no.

    Search Engine Optimization of any page is what will get it to the top- theoretically.

    I personally prefer Blogger over Squidoo as I find Blogger much easier to use. I have loads of Blogger sites, but they are all monetized with Amazon and Adsense. I have list builders on some of them, and some have one or two links to CPA offers, but no Clickbank or other such affiliate program.

    Now, Blogger CAN take your site down, and in all the years I've used them the only one they ever took down on me was a 'make money online' site- they don't like those.

    I back mine up, so if they ever do get deleted I can simply put them back up on a different domain, but I also do use an asset protection strategy to protect my backlinks, but it does require the use of a domain name and hosting.

    -Dani
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    I also read quite a few times that when you do this you "don't own the content".
    This isn't quite right.

    The content (that you have yourself posted there) is the one thing you do own. The problem is that you don't own the site on which it's sitting, and it can disappear in the night.

    There are 100 threads here in which Warriors explain all the disasters they've experienced with Squidoo and Blogger. It's just all so unnecessary. Why would anyone want to set up a business on property they don't own?! :p

    Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    This wouldn't be an issue for me since I'm starting out and if this method could help me make some startup money to cover the expenses of running my own website then going this route temporarily would totally pay off.
    What "expenses"?

    You can easily start with your own site from day 1, without needing to spend a penny.

    If your reasons for thinking about starting off this way are to do with money, then think again!

    There's excellent, reliable, well-established, professional free hosting available at byethost.com (and in some other places) ... they don't put an "advertising button" on your site, unlike some ... and it looks perfectly professional because nobody has any way of telling that it's on free hosting.

    You can get free domain names from .tk or .co.cc, or for $1 you can buy a regular .info domain-name from GoDaddy.

    Money isn't an issue, for setting up an internet business, and it isn't a reason to use someone else's site which you neither own nor control. :p

    Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    Also it's unlikely that my site gets deleted if it's not about pornography, etc.
    This is completely wrong.

    It can easily get deleted for being "monetised". Period.

    Squidoo notoriously changes its terms of service often, and is intolerant to affiliate links, these days.

    Blogger is famously idiosyncratic and inconsistent about the way it interprets its own terms of service. All it takes is one competitor to "flag" your site and it can be gone for being "spammy" or for "generating traffic to another site" (that includes affiliate-links).

    It's just not worth thinking about at all.

    Sorry to express it so forthrightly, but it's impossible to see any advantage to using Blogger, in particular. It's all downside. You get nothing from using Blogger that you can't get on your own. This forum is full of threads in which successions of experienced Warriors recount their horror stories with Blogger, many of them permanently losing sites, often without even understanding what they've done wrong! Try the search function and read their accounts for yourself: some of them will make your hair stand on end. They're not all confabulating it, you know?

    To set up, and build up, your own business, you need to start from a perspective of being business-minded. That includes owning and being in control of your own site.

    It's not about money, or expenses. You don't need any money at all. It's about control and security and responsibilty.
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    • Profile picture of the author voronov
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Sorry to express it so forthrightly
      Alexa, thank you very much! You have been most helpful and I will probably follow most of your advice.
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    • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
      Alexa,
      You always seem wise beyond the years that your profile pics indicate about your age...

      But on this subject, I would like to open a constructive debate, based on 'business' and not just "Internet Marketing."

      There are plenty of successful 'brick and mortar' businesses that don't 'own' the land their storefront sits on.

      Is it a risk? Yes.

      Rent could go up, owner could sell the building... any number of things can go wrong in non-ownership situation. (And sometimes even 'ownership' won't protect a business owner, thanks to a nifty little Ace In The Hole our government has called Eminent Domain, but that's another conversation)

      But renting incurs a lower start up cost than owning, and sometimes a business owner has to calculate the risk of renting vs. the reward of profiting.

      A smart business owner can take certain measures to protect from the fallout of a situation in where the 'rental' property may no longer be an option for them.

      That first measure would be to set a short time line goal for generating enough profit to move to an 'owned' location, while simaltaneously engaging in efforts that will 'prepare' for the move (collecting customer contact information so you can let them know about it when it happens) using mail forwarding services and virtual telephone numbers, etc.

      Sometimes you have to take risks in business, but the savvy business person knows how to calculate and mitigate the risks, and can still achieve success in spite of them.

      I had to use those Blogger blogs because I couldn't afford to risk $10.00 on a domain name, having no idea when I would make it back, (this was back when I didn't know anything about Internet Marketing) and because they made it very simple to put content up. I used them to test.

      Eventually, some of them started making money, and I went in search of a way to protect them, knowing that they were vulnerable to the 'Landlords' decision to remove them from their property. Backing them up was easy enough...but protecting the back links to them, can be done, but as it turned out was actually something I would have had to do from get go... and would have required a domain name and hosting... but once those sites made money, I had the money to invest in the domain name and hosting that made the strategy feasible, and I was able to create more sites, for more income, which now ARE protected.

      So I have to say, that to say that someone shouldn't start a business on a property they don't own isn't an entirely absolute correct assessment.

      Many businesses have to 'rent' when they start out, but if they are smart businesses, they can protect themselves from the perils of non-ownership, and mitigate the risks.

      -Dani
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

        There are plenty of successful 'brick and mortar' businesses that don't 'own' the land their storefront sits on.

        Is it a risk? Yes.
        I don't doubt it. Few new businesses have the capital to invest in physical real estate. So they're perhaps taking necessary risks by renting (but even then, their landlords can't normally take their buildings and their ability to earn a living away in the night, so the risks are hardly comparable!). Fortunately, though, in the online world no investment's needed to avoid all those risks. As so very many Warriors have discovered (sometimes - when they've mistakenly used Blogspot - to their great cost and horror, which is why there are so many threads recounting all these entirely unnecessary horror stories).

        Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

        I would like to open a constructive debate, based on 'business' and not just "Internet Marketing."
        Well ... not with me, if you'll excuse me, Dani. Like the OP, I was talking only about online businesses, of course.

        I'm happy to acknowledge that "bricks and mortar" are entirely different.
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        • Profile picture of the author Joe Mobley
          I do not have the right answer for you because I am not you. If you are interested in starting with blogger, have a look at the 2 threads below.

          http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...hlight=blogger

          http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...o-excuses.html

          Hope this helps.

          Joe Mobley
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        • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          I don't doubt it. Few new businesses have the capital to invest in physical real estate. So they're perhaps taking necessary risks by renting (but even then, their landlords can't normally take their buildings and their ability to earn a living away in the night, so the risks are hardly comparable!). Fortunately, though, in the online world no investment's needed to avoid all those risks. As so very many Warriors have discovered (sometimes - when they've mistakenly used Blogspot - to their great cost and horror, which is why there are so many threads recounting all these entirely unnecessary horror stories).



          Well ... not with me, if you'll excuse me, Dani. Like the OP, I was talking only about online businesses, of course.

          I'm happy to acknowledge that "bricks and mortar" are entirely different.
          Alexa,
          My apologies. I wasn't clear. I meant a debate 'in general' not just specifically with you. I realize I specifically the reply to you, but this debate is for anyone. So I'll address 'everyone' in the rest of this post...

          I read Alexa's posts about $1 domains and hosting, back when I started they were not an option, but nonetheless...

          There could be hindrances to even $1.00 or $2.00 setups, as just about anything purchased online, including domains and hosting, will require some kind of 'payment method' usually a bank account or prepaid credit card both of which will cost more than $2.00 to OPEN... I know that I need at least $10.00 to go to any local bank and open a bank account, and I believe the lowest priced pre-paid credit card I've found is $3.95 (though you can get one for free from NetSpend's website, but then there is still a $3.95 fee to load it,)

          As to being able to 'take away a building in the night...' a fire could do that in the 'offline world.' That's what 'insurance' is for, and having a back up of that Blogger site, is free insurance. All of the 'horror stories' from people whose sites disappeared fail to acknowledge that they didn't protect their asset.

          Finally, online business truly isn't any different than offline business. The technology and applications are different, but the fundamental principles remain the same.

          In short, to anyone contemplating the subject of the OP, if you have to start for free because you have no other choice, don't let anyone stop you by convincing that you doing it for 'free' will result in imminent failure. It is not always the case, and you can mitigate the risks with asset protection strategies.

          -Dani
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  • Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    Hi everyone. Please share your opinions on the following topic.

    I'm thinking of building a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog and getting them to the top of google for some narrow-niche little-competition keywords. This seems good to me because I'm just starting out and I can hardly afford domain/hosting (I'd also need to get a credit card which I don't yet have).

    Now I'm having doubts beacause I think if that's such a good idea everyone would be doing it and also when I search I seldom find that kind of pages anywhere near the top.

    Here are some pros and cons that I can think of.
    Pros:
    1. It's free;
    2. It should rank well because I've read many times that google loves that kind of pages;
    3. Such pages stay up forever with no danger of forgetting to renew hosting/domain name services.
    Cons:
    1. I also read quite a few times that when you do this you "don't own the content". This wouldn't be an issue for me since I'm starting out and if this method could help me make some startup money to cover the expenses of running my own website then going this route temporarily would totally pay off. Also it's unlikely that my site gets deleted if it's not about pornography, etc.
    2. I'd be limited in design options. I could live with that as long as I'm getting traffic and my affiliate link is there.
    That's all the cons that I can think of. Please share your vision and let me know of any other cons I might have overlooked.

    And to sum it up my final question is: can I get a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog to the top of google for a small competition keyword provided I get many backlinks to it? How difficult would that be? Thank you.
    Hi voronov,
    Building a Squidoo lens is a very good place to start, especially because it it's FREE. You can make it your primary site, but don't stop there. I've enjoyed some success by linking from Squidoo lenses to my "money" sites. Squidoo provides some good "link juice" to your own website which obviously helps in search engine ranking because the links are "do follow" back-links from a high page rank site. I hope this helps you out!
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  • Profile picture of the author Klemen Znidar
    The thing is ... you don't own the website and all of your hard work can go down the toilet if google decide to shut you down.

    -m
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  • Profile picture of the author CACruiser
    It comes down to control,censorship, and ownership. If your online business or hobby is worth doing--buy your own domain. Small investment but HUGE peace of mind.
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  • Profile picture of the author brunom
    Unfortunately I've had bad experiences with both, where I got content deleted because it was made with the intent of selling something.

    It's a good way to start, but don't have it as the foundation of any business as it may be shut down without notice.
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  • Profile picture of the author zoqy71
    Blogger can be a very good money earner if you only stick with amazon and adense (Both built-in). I used to run a number on Blogger blogs and they made a decent income in regard to time invested in them. You just have to avoid spam/junk content.
    A friend runs a food/cooking blogger blog and earns well over €2k a month from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
    What does all this talk of "backing up" have to do with the simple fact that on a platform like Blogger/Squidoo and so on, you simply don't have the facility to redirect a subdomain/sub-directory URL that's based on someone else's domain and that's been ceased from you?

    Yes - you can quite easily restore your site elsewhere, usually, if you've taken backups, but it won't have a fraction (if any) of the traffic it once had if people cannot find it, will it? And that's the major problem. A site without traffic is dead in the water. And where did all that traffic come from?

    Two main sources, most likely: links from other high-traffic webpages on the 'net, or exposure in the search-engines (which, similarly, usually requires plenty of good backlinks).

    Links that've already been set up cannot always be easily edited/changed - sometimes not at all. So in such a scenario, you're screwed. You're starting over from scratch - period.

    Most/all of the work you've put into building backlinks for SEO and/or promoting the hell of your site up to that point, whether through article marketing or whatever, will have been wasted because all your links are dead and you can't do a darn thing about it.

    Backups will not help, here.
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    • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
      Originally Posted by DireStraits View Post

      What does all this talk of "backing up" have to do with the simple fact that on a platform like Blogger/Squidoo and so on, you simply don't have the facility to redirect a subdomain/sub-directory URL that's based on someone else's domain and that's been ceased from you?

      Yes - you can quite easily restore your site elsewhere, usually, if you've taken backups, but it won't have a fraction (if any) of the traffic it once had if people cannot find it, will it? And that's the major problem. A site without traffic is dead in the water. And where did all that traffic come from?

      Two main sources, most likely: links from other high-traffic webpages on the 'net, or exposure in the search-engines (which, similarly, usually requires plenty of good backlinks).

      Links that've already been set up cannot always be easily edited/changed - sometimes not at all. So in such a scenario, you're screwed. You're starting over from scratch - period.

      Most/all of the work you've put into building backlinks for SEO and/or promoting the hell of your site up to that point, whether through article marketing or whatever, will have been wasted because all your links are dead and you can't do a darn thing about it.

      Backups will not help, here.
      Michael,
      I am certainly not suggesting anyone rely on the strategy for long term profits. As soon as my sites started making money, I started buying domain names, and I did use those domains to create redirects (and new backlinks) to those Blogger blogs, just in case.

      I only mean that for getting started, if there is no other, way, you can begin earning the money necessary to fund a more secure future.

      -Dani

      P.S I do not recommend using Squidoo at all. I am fairly certain that lenses can't be backed up.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Here's what I would do, and whether it will work for the OP will depend on what payment options are available to him.

      First, do three jobs on Fiverr. That would get $12 which is enough to buy a domain name.

      Then, start a blog on Blogger using that domain name. Keep a copy of all your posts on your computer as well as a note of the URLs for each of them.

      Then, build it up to where you can afford to buy hosting and move your site there. Use 301 redirects if necessary to point the old links to the new, if you will be using a different URL structure than you did while on Blogger.

      Plus, if Blogger ever shuts down your blog for any reason, since you own the domain name, you can still reproduce your site with a new host and maintain all your incoming links, so you would not be starting from scratch.

      Alternatively, you could do six jobs on Fiverr, which would give you $24, which is enough for a domain name and one month's hosting. Then commit to doing three jobs a month on Fiverr to cover your hosting until your site becomes self-sufficient.

      I wouldn't mess with Squidoo at all. They are too flaky in my opinion.
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      • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
        Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

        Here's what I would do, and whether it will work for the OP will depend on what payment options are available to him.

        First, do three jobs on Fiverr. That would get $12 which is enough to buy a domain name.

        Then, start a blog on Blogger using that domain name. Keep a copy of all your posts on your computer as well as a note of the URLs for each of them.

        Then, build it up to where you can afford to buy hosting and move your site there. Use 301 redirects if necessary to point the old links to the new, if you will be using a different URL structure than you did while on Blogger.

        Plus, if Blogger ever shuts down your blog for any reason, since you own the domain name, you can still reproduce your site with a new host and maintain all your incoming links, so you would not be starting from scratch.

        Alternatively, you could do six jobs on Fiverr, which would give you $24, which is enough for a domain name and one month's hosting. Then commit to doing three jobs a month on Fiverr to cover your hosting until your site becomes self-sufficient.

        I wouldn't mess with Squidoo at all. They are too flaky in my opinion.
        Dan,
        That's positively positive. One question... what to if you can't get a Paypal account (geography).... what site would you recommend one use instead, in order to 'access' any earnings for the use of buying the domain?

        -Dani
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        • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
          Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

          That's positively positive. One question... what to if you can't get a Paypal account (geography).... what site would you recommend one use instead, in order to 'access' any earnings for the use of buying the domain?
          Look for alternatives to Fiverr that will pay using methods other than PayPal. Gigbucks, for example, can pay with PayPal or AlertPay.
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          Dan's content is irregularly read by handfuls of people. Join the elite few by reading his blog: dcrBlogs.com, following him on Twitter: dcrTweets.com or reading his fiction: dcrWrites.com but NOT by Clicking Here!

          Dan also writes content for hire, but you can't afford him anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
    Alexa, dare I suggest that you view Dani's public profile, click on, "User Lists," and select ignore. I have found it very useful in preventing my IQ from slipping after reading other peoples posts, such as those of the late Dave Rodmans.

    Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
      Originally Posted by Chris Worner View Post

      Alexa, dare I suggest that you view Dani's public profile, click on, "User Lists," and select ignore. I have found it very useful in preventing my IQ from slipping after reading other peoples posts, such as those of the late Dave Rodmans.

      Chris
      You're too late.
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  • Profile picture of the author Serenity090
    Save $20-50 from your Pocket Money and Build the Real Site...That's Only Cost you Need for taking a start...

    Else you Can Use Blogger.com for hosting site with your Own Keyword Rich Domain...

    Take Care...
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    Love the Humanity...:)

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  • Profile picture of the author rockone
    I think we should opt for cheap domain and hosting rather than going for the free blogger. At least if we are buying the domain and hosting then we can have full rights on our content.
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  • Profile picture of the author PR0VIDENCE
    Banned
    If you are serious about getting started blogging for NOTHING, then you can pick up a domain from co.cc and host it for free at 000webhost.
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  • Profile picture of the author myseoclub
    Hi

    I find they are easy to rank too, though these days I use them just as part of my backlinking campaign. And will have an article written for squidoo and then have it spinned to the other article directories.

    The major downside of what you are suggesting is that you are at risk because it is not your own and if someone complains about your content they can pull it at any time and then all the traffic you have built is gone.
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  • Profile picture of the author gromhold
    really? you havent 5$ for domain and hosting??
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      This thread is still active? :confused:

      Originally Posted by AYoungMillionaire View Post

      There are a lot of sites out there besides just Squidoo and Blogger- Weebly, Hubpages, Typepad, etc.

      Even though some are strict about affiliate links and whatnot, you can definitely start with some of the more lenient ones (like Weebly).
      Indeed.

      TypePad is my main host, for many of my "money sites".

      I also use (and like and recommend) Weebly.

      But just to avoid anyone getting confused, here, please excuse my clarifying that TypePad and Weebly are not, in ways both important and significant to the context of this thread, similar to the Web 2.0 properties like Blogger, HubPages and Squidoo that are also being discussed here.

      The risks/dangers/problems with Blogger, HubPages and Squidoo are that it isn't your site: it's theirs. Their (suddenly changeable) terms of service, policies and procedures apply, and as countless Warriors have discovered and discussed here, that can cause huge problems, including the deletion of your site.

      Weebly and TypePad are basically "web hosts" with a built-in website-builder.

      Weebly is a little different from other hosts in that it allows 2 small free sites on its own subdomains, with the option of a paid-for upgrade to increase the number of sites allowed and to remove their advertising button from your sites. (You can also buy your own domain and redirect it to a Weebly site).

      TypePad is the internet's "third" blogging system (after Wordpress and Blogger), which kind of combines Blogger's ease of use (nearly) with self-hosted Wordpress's facilities and capabilities (again, nearly). It's brilliant, but not free. In fact, as hosting goes, it's not even what you'd call low-price: I think I pay about $140 per year - can't quite remember now.

      Weebly's free - for 2 sites only, with a Weebly advertising button on them (not too professional, and in that sense not as good as Byethost).

      It's perfectly reasonable to use TypePad and/or Weebly as "primary websites" (indeed, some huge businesses do exactly that) ... in contrast to Blogger, HubPages and Squidoo, which can never be "your site" in all the ways that matter, including security, reliability and not suddenly getting deleted.

      Originally Posted by gromhold View Post

      really? you havent 5$ for domain and hosting??
      In my experience, people's difficulties on that front aren't usually because they don't have $5 - they're more often because they live in countries from which they can't use credit-cards or PayPal. Just saying.
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    • Profile picture of the author capitalalchemy
      Hi,

      I like Squidoo and use it a lot.

      1. You do own the content. It even says so on the website. You just don't own the platform.

      2. There are trillions of search terms, don't assume that very few people are using Squidoo just because you don't see it ranking at the top for certain search terms.

      3. In theory this strategy is easy, but it doesn't always work out.

      4. Squidoo has the potential to rank well because of the internal site structure/link juice structure.

      5. Just because you rank does not mean you are going to make money.

      6. There is no such thing as "forever" when you are talking about SERPs, no matter how many back links you build or how well optimized your content is.
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  • Profile picture of the author WebPen
    There are a lot of sites out there besides just Squidoo and Blogger- Weebly, Hubpages, Typepad, etc.

    Even though some are strict about affiliate links and whatnot, you can definitely start with some of the more lenient ones (like Weebly).
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    • Profile picture of the author grandstar
      I'm not only from the Third World but I had a devastating experience recently.

      My bank was taken over by our Central Bank after it went under. Due to this, I can't load my credit card. I can't even buy a .info. Its that bad!

      I however blogger for years and never had any problems. My best advise is to create a blogger account and start. Don't bother about being a perfectionist. You just won't start.

      I know where you're coming from. Help yourself by starting!
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  • Profile picture of the author goindeep
    Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    Hi everyone. Please share your opinions on the following topic.

    I'm thinking of building a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog and getting them to the top of google for some narrow-niche little-competition keywords. This seems good to me because I'm just starting out and I can hardly afford domain/hosting (I'd also need to get a credit card which I don't yet have).

    Now I'm having doubts beacause I think if that's such a good idea everyone would be doing it and also when I search I seldom find that kind of pages anywhere near the top.

    Here are some pros and cons that I can think of.
    Pros:
    1. It's free;
    2. It should rank well because I've read many times that google loves that kind of pages;
    3. Such pages stay up forever with no danger of forgetting to renew hosting/domain name services.
    Cons:
    1. I also read quite a few times that when you do this you "don't own the content". This wouldn't be an issue for me since I'm starting out and if this method could help me make some startup money to cover the expenses of running my own website then going this route temporarily would totally pay off. Also it's unlikely that my site gets deleted if it's not about pornography, etc.
    2. I'd be limited in design options. I could live with that as long as I'm getting traffic and my affiliate link is there.
    That's all the cons that I can think of. Please share your vision and let me know of any other cons I might have overlooked.

    And to sum it up my final question is: can I get a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog to the top of google for a small competition keyword provided I get many backlinks to it? How difficult would that be? Thank you.
    Many people do it.

    I once heard someone hear say that they make $2 a month on squidoo with one lens. If he multiplied that by a few thousand... well, you know the rest.
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshTara
    Some ppl are very touchy!! I'm not against doing it, I'm sure there is money to be made that way. From my point of view the end goal is to be wealthy I guess, should have said that, if thats not your goal then my comment didnt apply to you. I'm not saying you have to spend money to make money or be wealthy, but if your not WILLING, forget it. Don't be so sensitive about the comments you receive it wasn't to insult you, when you go out on the internet to get opinions you will get a lot of them, some you may not like (that's ok)................... I'm sure if you look in to all the very best internet marketers they own their own sites. If that's what they think is the best way, and they have the best results, good chance its the better route.
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  • Profile picture of the author apra
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by apra View Post

      when you start seeing $ you can invest in domain and hosting
      As explained in such detail higher up in this thread (which it really might help you to read, Apra), you can get your own domain and hosting even before you start making any money. You can do that free, on day 1.

      It isn't about money.

      Originally Posted by apra View Post

      Blogger sites are indexed very fast by google and many successful affiliates having their own sites also use them to give link juice to their sites.So just go for it
      That's dreadful advice, that contravenes Blogger's terms of service. They don't allow their subdomains to be used for that purpose. :rolleyes:
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      • Profile picture of the author steveshills
        I think were all missing the point about the OP situation, The guy has no money to start with, and better than most, at least he's willing to give IM a chance, most people never leave there sofa, let alone ask for advice such as this.

        Dude, use blogger, weebly, squidoo, all let you use programs such as Amazon, and once you start earning, then move on to paid hosting, or even use free hosting such as freehostia.

        Point is, you have to start somewhere, Okay you can risk losing your account, but if you do things right, I'm sure your be ok.

        To many know it all's on this forum, just do it, use what ever blog of your choosing, and get started. Good Luck
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        • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
          Steve,

          Originally Posted by steveshills View Post

          Point is, you have to start somewhere, Okay you can risk losing your account, but if you do things right, I'm sure your be ok.
          The real point - the one Alexa's been making repeatedly - is that you don't have to risk losing your account/site at all, if you go about things the right (i.e. logical, low-risk) way.

          Originally Posted by steveshills View Post

          To many know it all's on this forum, just do it, use what ever blog of your choosing, and get started. Good Luck
          It's not a case of know-it-all's dictating to others how it should be. It's a case of helping others make an informed choice between high-risk and low-risk avenues. When both are entirely free, what conceivable incentive and justification is there for going the high-risk route?

          This is a matter of common sense - nothing more. :p
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          • Profile picture of the author steveshills
            Originally Posted by DireStraits View Post

            Steve,



            The real point - the one Alexa's been making repeatedly - is that you don't have to risk losing your account/site at all, if you go about things the right (i.e. logical, low-risk) way.



            It's not a case of know-it-all's dictating to others how it should be. It's a case of helping others make an informed choice between high-risk and low-risk avenues. When both are entirely free, what conceivable incentive and justification is there for going the high-risk route?

            This is a matter of common sense - nothing more. :p
            Its common sense when you have money - YES - He has little, put yourself in the guys shoes, some of the worlds richest people started with nothing, lifes about risk, if you dont take risk, then success will never come
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            • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
              Banned
              Originally Posted by steveshills View Post

              Its common sense when you have money - YES - He has little, put yourself in the guys shoes, some of the worlds richest people started with nothing, lifes about risk, if you dont take risk, then success will never come
              Steve, this is just nonsense.

              There's no need to take this risk. You can just as easily avoid it, with or without money. There's no possible benefit from it. A "risk" in business is something that has some potential reward, compared with the alternative. This simply has none. It has only potential downside.

              No money is needed. Good heavens, man, have you actually read the thread at all?! :rolleyes: :p

              Originally Posted by steveshills View Post

              The point is, he just wants to start making money online, instead of us telling him what a bad idea this is, why not just encourage him to take action, but also alert him that its also risky using web 2.0 sites as a long term solution to making monay online.
              You have TOTALLY missed the point. :rolleyes:

              He can just as easily take slightly a different action, even with no money, without taking that risk at all. It's not about "whether we encourage him to take action". It's about whether he takes entirely unnecessarily dangerous action rather than safe action.

              You're talking as if he has no alternative completely safe, free option, and can gain something from this entirely unnecessary risk that he couldn't equally gain by avoiding it - which makes me think you just haven't read the thread.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by steveshills View Post

          Point is, you have to start somewhere, Okay you can risk losing your account, but if you do things right, I'm sure your be ok.
          Steve, this forum is full of threads started by people who thought exactly that and weren't ok! Your being "sure" that they'll be ok isn't much consolation to them.

          It isn't about money. It's about choosing a free-of-charge route that doesn't carry those risks but leaves you in control of your own business rather than depending unnecessarily on "getting away with something". How simple and straightforward can a decision be?
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          • Profile picture of the author steveshills
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            Steve, this forum is full of threads started by people who thought exactly that and weren't ok! Your being "sure" that they'll be ok isn't much consolation to them.

            It isn't about money. It's about choosing a free-of-charge route that doesn't carry those risks but leaves you in control of your own business rather than depending unnecessarily on "getting away with something". How simple and straightforward can a decision be?
            Alex the guys Broke, now he's not going to use this method as a long term approach as a method of income.

            He's just looking for a way to get started that will lead to him to getting paid hosting and his own domains.

            I understand about controlling your business, but with where he lives, and his issue of little income coming into his home. I can understand why he wants to use blogger or one of the other blog networks to make money online.

            The point is, he just wants to start making money online, instead of us telling him what a bad idea this is, why not just encourage him to take action, but also alert him that its also risky using web 2.0 sites as a long term solution to making monay online.
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  • Profile picture of the author jt808
    If you want to do, that type of site, I would suggest that you start with Squidoo, because you will not only get the traffic from the search engines but your will also get traffic from people already on Squidoo.

    Just make sure you link to your lens from other relevant places, if you want your rankings to go up.

    Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author NoBSGuy
    Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    Hi everyone. Please share your opinions on the following topic.

    I'm thinking of building a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog and getting them to the top of google for some narrow-niche little-competition keywords. This seems good to me because I'm just starting out and I can hardly afford domain/hosting (I'd also need to get a credit card which I don't yet have).

    Now I'm having doubts beacause I think if that's such a good idea everyone would be doing it and also when I search I seldom find that kind of pages anywhere near the top.

    Here are some pros and cons that I can think of.
    Pros:
    1. It's free;
    2. It should rank well because I've read many times that google loves that kind of pages;
    3. Such pages stay up forever with no danger of forgetting to renew hosting/domain name services.
    Cons:
    1. I also read quite a few times that when you do this you "don't own the content". This wouldn't be an issue for me since I'm starting out and if this method could help me make some startup money to cover the expenses of running my own website then going this route temporarily would totally pay off. Also it's unlikely that my site gets deleted if it's not about pornography, etc.
    2. I'd be limited in design options. I could live with that as long as I'm getting traffic and my affiliate link is there.
    That's all the cons that I can think of. Please share your vision and let me know of any other cons I might have overlooked.

    And to sum it up my final question is: can I get a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog to the top of google for a small competition keyword provided I get many backlinks to it? How difficult would that be? Thank you.
    Hi there,

    I`d like to adjunge the following cons:

    - With a squidoo lens / Blogger blog you won`t be able to maximize your opt-in list as there are no squeeze pages or popups available to capture emails from prospects.

    - sometimes, a TLD domain with your main keyword in it is more likely to get google`s love and rank higher within a short period of time rather than squidoo lenses and blogger blogs with your main keyword in it (according to my previous experience).

    When I do seo I use these sites to pass link juice to my money site.
    This way the money site gets more authority and a greater chance to rank higher in search engines, not to forget the immense value of opt-ins leads.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paleochora
    @Alexa

    Unless Byethost has recently got it's act back together, the free hosting service is not as attractive as it once was. The 'Vistapanel' alternative to Cpanel is very outdated now and the script installer - similar to Fantastico - has been disabled for months. It is possible to install Wordpress manually, of course, but this is not so 'newbie-friendly'.

    FreePassHost is probably the better option although it has moved from a free service to a paid one.....but it's only $5 a year so it is not that much above free . It comes with full Cpanel.

    You can't expect great bandwidth or other resources but it is a great stepping stone for people on a really tight budget to begin with.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce99
    Lots of questions and answers here.

    This is my take on it, correct me if I am wrong.

    People spend a lot of time getting domains with keywords in them, choosing dot com or dot net etc. They provide a great deal of good content on the site and optimize everything on every page.

    People use squidoo etc but mainly to point links to their main site, because as said you dont own the content, the url isnt primarily your keywords, and you live by their rules.

    I also hear that people use web 2 sites to experiment with bombarding senuke 1000's of links at so it it blows up, their main site does not get axed. Also web 2 sites can have lots of the site owner advertising links on your page diluting the hell out of your link juice that you are trying to funnel to your money site. You can pay to stop them putting links on your page, but i guess it can get fairly convoluted.

    I hear of people using link wheels of these kinds of free sites all pointing to their real site.

    This might be what you end up doing. at the moment I cant be bothered with maintaining a fleet of social sites with updated info and keeping it all original, so I dont.
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  • Profile picture of the author WilliamBLee
    Squidoo Hub pages is best way to publish your content through web 2.0 and their page rank is also high for the Google serp and you will get the back links also from the high PR website to your article.
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  • Profile picture of the author StuHaynes
    Squidoo is good I use it myself. A possible alternative (if you know someone with a credit card) is to get a $1 .info site from godaddy. These come with free Windows hosting
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  • Profile picture of the author Raj Riyat
    Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    Hi everyone. Please share your opinions on the following topic.

    I'm thinking of building a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog and getting them to the top of google for some narrow-niche little-competition keywords. This seems good to me because I'm just starting out and I can hardly afford domain/hosting (I'd also need to get a credit card which I don't yet have).

    Now I'm having doubts beacause I think if that's such a good idea everyone would be doing it and also when I search I seldom find that kind of pages anywhere near the top.

    Here are some pros and cons that I can think of.
    Pros:
    1. It's free;
    2. It should rank well because I've read many times that google loves that kind of pages;
    3. Such pages stay up forever with no danger of forgetting to renew hosting/domain name services.
    Cons:
    1. I also read quite a few times that when you do this you "don't own the content". This wouldn't be an issue for me since I'm starting out and if this method could help me make some startup money to cover the expenses of running my own website then going this route temporarily would totally pay off. Also it's unlikely that my site gets deleted if it's not about pornography, etc.
    2. I'd be limited in design options. I could live with that as long as I'm getting traffic and my affiliate link is there.
    That's all the cons that I can think of. Please share your vision and let me know of any other cons I might have overlooked.

    And to sum it up my final question is: can I get a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog to the top of google for a small competition keyword provided I get many backlinks to it? How difficult would that be? Thank you.
    Hey Voronov

    Firstly, do not be put off by the naysayers!

    Secondly, what you are suggesting is a great place to start. In fact you could go one step further and also create articles and Hubpages. All are free and can be interconnected for additional link juice. Then I would back this up by social bookmarking everything and creating links through related forums and blogs.

    Once you have a bit of regular cash coming in then buy a keyword rich domain and some good hosting and backlink this from your existing Web2.0 properties.

    Hope this helps and good luck with your endeavors my friend!

    Raj
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  • Profile picture of the author richgrad
    Get a paypal account, go do some fiverr gigs and get paid. Use the money in the paypal account to pay for a hostgator web hosting account (baby plan).
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  • Profile picture of the author CyberSorcerer
    Ok, I feel I have to get involved now especially sense this brings up blogger and free hosting.

    As Alexa, and others know, I use both blogger and free hosting (byethost is just one free host I use) in teaching my students about internet marketing. It is true that if you through up none-sense, outright spamming, questionable practices, MMO stuff, etc, you won't be long for blogger.

    But there are ways to get blogger to work because there are plenty of people that I know who are doing it. Granted there sites look nothing like internet marketing sites and are on subjects like 'ferrets', 'sewing', 'cooking', etc.

    To give my own example and to show I'm not just talking non-sense, here is a site I put up just this last week for my students to follow along with and how I'm using it. The Amazon plugin is something that Blogger provides now and was a new addition not to long ago, so I'm sure it fit's into their TOS. This is just one site that I have on blogger and that is making money. Nothing to write home about but the money does pay for ALL my hosting accounts, including one dedicated account. Granted, remember, I've been doing this for a few years now so all you newbies reading this take that into account before you mention that you're not making anything.

    Just remember anything is possible as long as you put your best effort into accomplish it. Also remember that going the free route it will take longer for you to start making a decent income so don't expect rapid growth. It is a long, slow, drawn out process and does take a lot of time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Viramara
    hi, dont get me wrong....I come from third country too when i started and couldnt afford a domain and hosting in $$ currency. I purchased a local hosting from my country and it's very dirt cheap with excellent service, $0.99 per month and Namecheap domain using my friend's paypal for $3. and autoresponder for free from imnicamail and listwire. I was quite penniless too (not broke, no no no....LOL just have very little money), and working as offline translator to fund my landing page.

    maybe you know a more affordable Ukrainian hosting that's more affordable than like, bluehost or hostgator? go for it.

    if you don't you can go try blogspot. the downside of it was the Google Horror where Mr.G blatantly delete your blog without clear reason, usually after 1 or 2+ years having the blog. if you have made your first money, you may want to redirect the traffic to your paid domain and hosting.

    hope it helps
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  • Profile picture of the author jezbiz
    well you can't blame the guy, I was exactly in the same position as he is, no credit card or means to pay for hosting and domain. So I set up a blogger account. Wrote some articles that points to my blogger with some affiliate links. I was even surprised to see one of my blogger blog went to the 1st page of google for my keyword.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by jezbiz View Post

      well you can't blame the guy, I was exactly in the same position as he is, no credit card or means to pay for hosting and domain. So I set up a blogger account.
      But clearly you appreciate now that the "So" part was mistaken and that you could have achieved exactly the same without setting up a Blogger account and making your business dependent on their changeable terms of service and their idiosyncratic and inconsistent interpretations of them?

      As people reading this and similar threads will know, it's only really lack of information that makes people imagine that lack of credit-cards and ability to pay anything is actually a "reason" for doing that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacob Cuculiza
    Both sites are good, but I do notl ike them as homepage. More as an extra page.
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    • Profile picture of the author cjshu99
      It could work. I'm doing this right now. Everyone has already told you about the negatives. The positives are that you can create a bunch of sites for free and if they don't work out, delete them and you've lost nothing but time. I also find I can get some pretty good keywords in my domain names.

      I use to make a few hundred dollars a month from affiliate sales on some squidoo lenses but things have changed over the years.

      I also have a few domains I own, but my best site is a free blogger blog that gets a few thousand visits a month. I also have a squidoo lense that gets a few hundred visits a month and I send the traffic to a blogger blog.

      Out of all this I only make a few hundred dollars a month adsense income.

      Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    If you want to use Squidoo and Blogger because they are the easiest solution for you, you should follow their rules and be very cautious. Many times even when you follow their rules you have unexpected problems.

    I lost 4 blogger blogs in 2009. I have 2 blogger blogs now that I use once in a while only for sending traffic to my websites.

    I have already created 52 Squidoo lenses because they are helping me send traffic to my websites and to my Wordpress blog, and at the same time I'm building a passive income, but Squidoo has too many irritating rules that keep changing.

    You have to follow the rules and hope that you won't have unexpected problems. Sometimes this happens, but by creating Squidoo lenses you have a very nice way to make money without spending money, and a nice way to promote your links.

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  • Profile picture of the author Nathy Curiel
    I got some blogger sites making some extra money on the side. All adsense.. just start small and re-invest in succesfull ideas and you will be fine .
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
    Banned
    Originally Posted by looccaa View Post

    You have been most helpful and I will probably follow most of your advice.
    I bet you won't. Not after posting something like 45 or so posts in the past hour, pretty much every single one of them one liners to get yourself up over the 50 post threshold. One a minute on average.

    And upon getting there, 'mysteriously' stopping.

    It's plainly obvious to anyone that you're here for spamming purposes. :rolleyes:

    http://www.warriorforum.com/members/looccaa.html
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  • Profile picture of the author DeborahDera
    There is always a possibility of your content being taken down if you don't own the site.

    Both sites limit your advertising options.

    On Squidoo, for example, you make less on Amazon modules than you would if you had your own site and were selling through your own links. If you use those modules you only receive part of the original commission.

    Originally Posted by voronov View Post

    Hi everyone. Please share your opinions on the following topic.

    I'm thinking of building a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog and getting them to the top of google for some narrow-niche little-competition keywords. This seems good to me because I'm just starting out and I can hardly afford domain/hosting (I'd also need to get a credit card which I don't yet have).

    Now I'm having doubts beacause I think if that's such a good idea everyone would be doing it and also when I search I seldom find that kind of pages anywhere near the top.

    Here are some pros and cons that I can think of.
    Pros:
    1. It's free;
    2. It should rank well because I've read many times that google loves that kind of pages;
    3. Such pages stay up forever with no danger of forgetting to renew hosting/domain name services.
    Cons:
    1. I also read quite a few times that when you do this you "don't own the content". This wouldn't be an issue for me since I'm starting out and if this method could help me make some startup money to cover the expenses of running my own website then going this route temporarily would totally pay off. Also it's unlikely that my site gets deleted if it's not about pornography, etc.
    2. I'd be limited in design options. I could live with that as long as I'm getting traffic and my affiliate link is there.
    That's all the cons that I can think of. Please share your vision and let me know of any other cons I might have overlooked.

    And to sum it up my final question is: can I get a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog to the top of google for a small competition keyword provided I get many backlinks to it? How difficult would that be? Thank you.
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    • Profile picture of the author kislany
      Originally Posted by DeborahDera View Post

      On Squidoo, for example, you make less on Amazon modules than you would if you had your own site and were selling through your own links. If you use those modules you only receive part of the original commission.
      Yes, if you use their Amazon modules, no if you use your own affiliate code on the text lenses (which Squidoo allows without any problems)
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      Jewels of Cyprus - my personal blog
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  • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
    Steer clear of Blogger. They are the worst at ripping down high page rank blogs with no notice at all. What you need to do is fork over $20 for a domain and some hosting and then set up a nice CMS program such as Wordpress.

    Wordpress can do just about anything nowadays. From blogs to landing pages to squeeze pages to memebrship sites, there is a Wordpress template or plugin to handle whatever you want to do.

    Just my 2 cents.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by nicheblogger75 View Post

      Steer clear of Blogger. They are the worst at ripping down high page rank blogs with no notice at all.
      Indeed so.

      (Though by all accounts Squidoo and HubPages are pretty bad, too.)

      Originally Posted by nicheblogger75 View Post

      What you need to do is fork over $20 for a domain and some hosting and then set up a nice CMS program such as Wordpress.
      Or even forking over $1 for a .info domain-name and - if really necessary - using free hosting somewhere well-established and ultra-reliable like Byethost will avoid that problem.

      Originally Posted by nicheblogger75 View Post

      Just my 2 cents.
      And worth more ... but the problem is: some people don't want to hear this. People who use sites owned by other people are always going to be the potential victims and losers in this scenario. It's been going on for years and years: Squidoo, HubPages, Blogspot ... it's all the same thing, really.

      And all totally unnecessary - because everything you can get from those sites, you can get free of charge, under your own ownership and control, elsewhere.

      It's about being in control of your own business and not being subjected to other people's variable terms of service, with the potential to find that your sites have suddenly disappeared in the night, as has happened to so many Warriors, of course.

      Some people "get it"; others just don't.
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  • Profile picture of the author wegenbelasting
    Interesting stuff here, I have a question though as I'm not very familiar with the re-direct stuff as a backup for the linkbuilding efforts but I get the point.

    However, say the name of my squidoo page is. squidoo.com/keyword.html

    And the domainname I registered is www.keyword.com , now I redirect www.keyword.com to squidoo.com/keyword.html and i will build links to www.keyword.com right?

    Now I reach page1 in Google, what will it say? www.keyword.com or squidoo.com/keyword.html?


    Also if after the redirect and we are at page1 our result will show www.keyword.com will the internal links from other squidoo pages and the squidoo directory links still have effect on our rankings, since these are probably pointed at squidoo.com/keyword.html right?
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  • Profile picture of the author dagaul101
    It's a good idea to have your own site, because even if your plan works, who is to say somewhere down the line someone just removes your Lens for violating a new policy
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  • Profile picture of the author TEK
    Hi, I have seen many really bad answers, so I have to add my own experience.

    Yes, you can be suspended from blogger or squidoo if you don't follow the rules. You can get penalties with your own domain if you don't follow the rules too. So no need to worry if you wear white hat.

    You own the content if you write it. No need to worry. You just give the service a permission to redistribute it (show it to visitors). If they for some reason suspend your account use your backup to put your content in some other place.

    And to sum it up my final question is: can I get a Squidoo lens or a Blogger blog to the top of google for a small competition keyword provided I get many backlinks to it? How difficult would that be? Thank you.

    Yes, you can. I got both, with blogger and squidoo, but I prefer squidoo because it is much much faster (talking about hours), not blogger (talking about months). And for your case it is much easier to earn money with squidoo (no affiliate acoounts, you got sale modules etc.). I suggest you to use squidoo to earn money and couple of blogs to support squidoo lenses. And wordpress (free) is much faster than blogger too.
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