Squidoo Bought Out By Hubpages - A Few Questions For Hubpage Users

21 replies
It's happened, Squidoo has been taken over by Hubpages and will soon transfer all lensmasters to the Hubpages platform. I got the announcement when I logged into my account this morning. Before I decide to transfer my lenses to Hubpages I'd like to ask a few questions about Hubpages. Can you promote amazon products? What is their filter like compared to Squidoo's? Am I better off just taking the content to my own site?
#bought #hubpage #hubpages #questions #squidoo #users
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by UnkwnUsr View Post

    Am I better off just taking the content to my own site?
    Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. In that order.

    You have nothing to gain by using HubPages instead of your own site (and nothing to gain by using both compared with using two of your own sites). Learn "the lessons of Squidoo" and stop letting other people own and control "your" pages.
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    • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      You have nothing to gain by using HubPages instead of your own site
      Except for

      - A second site to promote whatever you are doing. Do you like putting all of your eggs in one basket?

      - A backlink to your site.

      - Money from HubPages advertising and promotions.

      - Free advertising. Compare that to paying to promote your site in a signature graphic on the Warrior Forum. Why do that when you already have your own site?

      The point being having a HubPage and having a website are not mutually exclusive. Use both to maximum advantage. Even if using your own website is better than a HubPage, that doesn't mean you just ignore and trash a free resource that can only benefit you.

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      • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
        Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

        Even if using your own website is better than a HubPage, that doesn't mean you just ignore and trash a free resource that can only benefit you.

        .
        It would be interesting to quantify the benefits but it's going to be different for each person. A lot will depend on their reason for having put the content on Squidoo to begin with and whether those same reasons apply today or still make sense under HubPages.

        If you put up a lens as a backlink to something else and you still want the backlink and are okay if it comes from HubPages maybe you transfer the lens.

        If you put up the lens to get your affiliate links up and you can still have those same affiliate links up, maybe you're okay moving the content.

        If you put up a ton of lenses because you had no idea how to build a site of your own but now you know how or feel more comfortable doing so, maybe you go to your own site.

        Some people need that money that comes from their lenses and can't let it go for a few months while they work on their own site. Nothing wrong with that. Move to HubPages and then come up with your backup plan that makes you less reliant on 3rd party sites.

        A couple of things that come to mind in making the decision are:
        • Is the lens going to make the cut? Not all lenses are going to be transferred.
        • Even if if makes the cut, will it meet HubPages's TOS? According to Squidoo, transferred lenses will have a grace period on Hubpages. After the grace period, the HubPages TOS will be applied. A lens that gets transferred may still need changes later.
        • What's your financial impact? If the lens is making money, will it make money at HubPages and, if so, what do you have to do to keep that flow? If you move it to your own site it will most likely not make money right away. It could take months to recover the earnings from that content.
        • When the lens gets moved it's going to be on a new URL. All page rank and backlinks will be lost - at least temporarily. Squidoo's supposed to 301 redirect to the new URL. That should shift the lens traffic to the new URL on HubPages but if any of the traffic is from search engines, what impact will the new URL and 301 redirect arrangement have? Does the lens hold its spot in search engines even though it's been moved? Does the HubPage URL show up instead in the same position? If so, how long does that take?
        • I think HubPages and Squidoo have different rules about linking to Amazon. Some lenses may not meet HubPages TOS just based on how Amazon is included in their content. One would have to check - I haven't looked in awhile.
        • Outbound links on HubPages are usually nofollow until a certain score is met. I'm not sure how that score is measured and whether or not transferred lenses are going to meet that score.
        • A lot of lensmasters had high page rank on their Squidoo profile page but it doesn't say that there will be a 301 redirect from one profile to the next. A new profile on HubPages, I would think, is going to start out with a PR0. Sidebar links in the profile pages on Squidoo were dofollow until recently. They revised the layouts and did away with the links. Anyone who was using those spots as a backlink to their other content may see a negative impact to rankings of their other material depending on the PR on their Squidoo profile.
        Personally, I moved all of my lenses to my own site last July when Squidoo closed all but one of them. With 1/4 of my lenses published on my site (and the other 3/4 still sitting in draft mode - yes, still....) I've recovered 1/4 of the income I was making at Squidoo and saved a ton of time not having to deal with the changes they forced through on lenmasters since then.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

        Except for

        - A second site to promote whatever you are doing. Do you like putting all of your eggs in one basket?
        No; and that was why I took the trouble to specify, above, that two different sites of your own are better than one site of your own + HubPages. Using HubPages is just a way of using something bad and unnecessary in the name of diversity, while ignoring the fact that there are better, equally diverse, alternatives.

        Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

        - A backlink to your site.
        Apart from the obvious observation that there are countless better and easier ways of doing that, please excuse me for not dignifying this comment with a serious reponse.

        Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

        - Money from HubPages advertising and promotions.
        Please excuse the observation that the words "barrel" and "scraping" spring to mind, here: you excel yourself, Brian.

        Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

        Compare that to paying to promote your site in a signature graphic on the Warrior Forum. Why do that when you already have your own site?
        Thanks for your concern, but (a) I'm not paying, and (b) the site to which I link has absolutely no commercial component whatsoever, and (c) it's to try to help others (and at their request): I hope that's all ok with you.

        Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

        The point being having a HubPage and having a website are not mutually exclusive.
        Believe it or not, Brian, sometimes "both" isn't actually the right answer. This is one of those times, just as it was with Squidoo, over recent years (and for some broadly similar reasons).

        Was this just a 5-minute argument, or did you want the full half-hour?

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        • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
          Please excuse the observation that the words "barrel" and "scraping" spring to mind
          Odd. My bank account doesn't distinguish between money received from barrel scraping and high-level super wonderful and exciting stuff. It all gets lumped together and then eaten by horses.

          No reason to knock an entire platform and everyone who uses it. While I agree having your own website is better (as obviously evidenced by Squidoo shutting down), many do not want the hassle and cost. For some, using Squidoo isn't about making money at all. The time I am spending on this thread isn't either. Rather, it's entertaining to debate issues and raise different perspectives.

          It's a shame Squidoo is shutting down. Many use Squidoo because they did not like HubPages. I have to find my promotion of Erica's Squidoo guide and replace it.

          I wonder if Squidoo will be considered a victim of Panda?

          Or, maybe Squidoo is a victim of mass amounts of garbage, spam and thin content which resulted in Panda penalties?

          Here is an interesting article, over a year old now but I didn't find much useful data that is more recent, showing a significant loss of traffic and commentary about why Squidoo attracts lower quality content:

          Squidoo After Google Panda 25: How’s It Looking? – Squidbits – Greekgeek's Squidoo Blog


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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
            Banned
            Thank you ...

            With apologies, I sometimes misconstrue your posts (probably depending purely on my own mood) and imagine a probably unintended tone. This isn't the first time I've replied to you perhaps somewhat cheekily and you've just transcended that and come back with something interesting and relevant. I appreciate it. (And agree with several of your points, of course). Fortunately, you probably don't take me too seriously, anyway, which is sometimes a good thing.

            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            No reason to knock an entire platform and everyone who uses it. While I agree having your own website is better (as obviously evidenced by Squidoo shutting down), many do not want the hassle and cost. For some, using Squidoo isn't about making money at all. The time I am spending on this thread isn't either. Rather, it's entertaining to debate issues and raise different perspectives.
            Yes, I agree. You make good points, and make them well, of course.

            The problem I often have discussing "sites like Squidoo and HubPages" here is that I know that many aspiring internet marketers imagine that because they're "authority sites" and "high traffic sites", various benefits are going to accrue to them just by having pages there, which typically aren't going to accrue at all. Some people imagine that the page ranks of those sites' own home pages are going to make their own backlinks valuable, etc. (I can't remember about HubPages, now, but all Squidoo external backlinks had certainly been "no-follow" for as long as I can remember). And some people imagine that they're necessarily going to get some of those sites' collective high traffic themselves (which tends not to follow at all). So my posts on this subject tend to be colored by my sense of "being on an iconoclastic mission", which is sometimes counterproductive.

            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            It's a shame Squidoo is shutting down.
            Yes, I suppose so. It's all-too-easy to say, with the benefit of hindsight, that "it's no huge surprise", perhaps. Though, given Seth Godin's involvement with Squidoo, I'd have guessed wrongly that HubPages would close before Squidoo.

            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            I wonder if Squidoo will be considered a victim of Panda?
            Well ... a victim of Google, perhaps, anyway? My perspective is that people who have depended on Google (sometimes without realising it) love to blame Google. (My own overall perspective of Google isn't much different from yours, probably partly because yours is one of the perspectives that's informed mine).

            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            Or, maybe Squidoo is a victim of mass amounts of garbage, spam and thin content which resulted in Panda penalties?
            More likely?

            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            Here is an interesting article ...
            It is interesting - thanks.
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            • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
              Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

              Odd. My bank account doesn't distinguish between money received from barrel scraping and high-level super wonderful and exciting stuff. It all gets lumped together and then eaten by horses.
              Good point. No horses at my house but I've got a few boys that eat like horses.

              (Following is just to add to the general discussion)

              Internet marketers have various reasons for doing what they do online to make money - an ill family member with outrageous medical bills; the desire to enjoy life and supplement their retirement income; extra income for annual family vacations; income to supplement that from their full time job in order to pay off debt.

              Not everyone is looking to build their own site or business no matter how well the benefits are outlined.

              If John Doe is 65, retired, and has enough retirement income to take care of the basics but wants to earn some extra income in order to provide his wife a few luxuries and be able to help his grandchildren cover college expenses is it "wrong" for him to use sites like Squidoo?

              Compare that to Jane Smith who wants to become an authority in her niche who uses only 3rd party sites and lives entirely off of the income from those sites. That could be very risky and unwise.

              Is Jane more serious than John about her work? Is it just a hobby for John? Not necessarily.

              Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

              I have to find my promotion of Erica's Squidoo guide and replace it.
              I might have a few ideas for replacements.

              Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

              I wonder if Squidoo will be considered a victim of Panda?

              Or, maybe Squidoo is a victim of mass amounts of garbage, spam and thin content which resulted in Panda penalties?
              I think Panda issues kicked off their downfall and those were probably the result of not having tighter controls on their content but I would say the problem was then helped along by other challenges (and it's probably wise to keep exactly what I think those were to myself).

              Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

              (I can't remember about HubPages, now, but all Squidoo external backlinks had certainly been "no-follow" for as long as I can remember). And some people imagine that they're necessarily going to get some of those sites' collective high traffic themselves (which tends not to follow at all).
              I *think* (but my memory, like my money, gets eaten up by my kids) - that Squidoo's outbound links inside lenses were dofollow for quite some time until a change they made last year as part of their cleanup. When they were dofollow it might have been that you had to hit a hurdle (making Giant? A certain number of lenses? I don't recall the specifics) but it was pretty easy to get dofollow links in your lenses.

              Links in profile text and in the sidebar showing your "favorite sites" were also dofollow. The profile text field was changed to nofollow sometime last year or early this year and then just very recently they revised the look of the profile pages and wiped out the sidebars.

              HubPages, I think, allows dofollow outbound links in their hubs once the hub or the author reaches a certain hurdle.

              I have sufficient data from my time on Squidoo to feel confident that lenses did, in fact, benefit from being on the high PR site because of the structure Squidoo used for internal linking. I see some signs of the same thing on HubPages but not to the same extent and it appears harder to achieve but that's just my opinion based on a quick look yesterday.

              I think Squidoo realized that was part of their problem - over-optimization - and you can see how some of their changes after March 2013 were attempts to get things back in line.

              Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

              So my posts on this subject tend to be colored by my sense of "being on an iconoclastic mission", which is sometimes counterproductive.
              It's important that people understand the risks of using user-generated-content sites even if they choose to move forward anyway so consider your mission worthwhile. At some point it will sink in and they'll say "Oh, THAT is what Alexa meant...."
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              • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
                HubPages, I think, allows dofollow outbound links in their hubs once the hub or the author reaches a certain hurdle.

                I have sufficient data from my time on Squidoo to feel confident that lenses did, in fact, benefit from being on the high PR site ...
                My understanding is there are several factors for SEO:

                1. Simply being on an authority site is important. Example, if I post the exact same article on a brand new site and the same article as a new Wikipedia page, each page with PageRank of 0, which do you think will rank better? Without question Wikipedia due to the domain authority.

                2. Nofollow only means PageRank is not passed. That does not mean Google wholly ignores the link for SEO purposes. PR is just one factor. The recently approved "Penguin patent", for example, refers to website "references" which are not PR producing links as being part of the equation for calculating quality.

                3. Some assert a mix of nofollow and "do follow" links is important for SEO and somehow looking "natural" - which mainly means not tripping a penalty trigger because every backlink is "do follow" even though the web is now significantly "nofollow".

                Sometimes I think an overemphasis on PR passing links causes marketers to focus on links instead of focusing on super content as a means of attracting traffic from the links. What's better? A Squidoo/HubPage with a "do follow" link and sending no traffic, or a page with a nofollow link that does send you traffic?

                John Doe is 65, retired,...
                Someone like me, most of my websites are html sites I code by hand. That's what I learned and I enjoy it.

                But I had to convert one product of mine to a WordPress plugin because so many use WordPress now and do not have the skills or desire to learn how to edit files, upload them to a website, monkey around with php and databases, etc.

                There is step beyond that, John Doe 65 and retired, and others younger and not retired, who get befuddled by the domains and especially web hosting, setting it all up, installing WordPress and then being faced with themes and how to configure it all, somehow creating graphic headers, and then the blizzard of plugins and having update notices every day, having to pay every month or it all disappears, and so on.

                Wouldn't it be nice if you could sit in the backyard, with an easy to use Chromebook, log into a site and write? Respond to comments by others and get ideas for more things to write about. Make some money doing so? Absolutely. Look at Facebook. Except there you don't get paid.

                The weird thing is, if Squidoo was worth buying so the best pages could be picked-off and added to HubPages to make money from, Squidoo could have done that itself and trimmed the gunk, unless it thought its Google problem was permanent.


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          • Profile picture of the author JohnnyPlan
            Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

            No reason to knock an entire platform and everyone who uses it. While I agree having your own website is better (as obviously evidenced by Squidoo shutting down), many do not want the hassle and cost.
            And, I see what you are saying.

            The only advantage I can see for using Hubpages is how many people have blogs already that don't rank at all or not high enough to benefit from traffic. And, possibly this is why so many people rely on Hubpages or formerly Squidoo as a publishing platform as you have instant access to a community of readers who want to see what you have published and these pages will rank on Google Search very easily. That's why I think the site is good for anyone just starting out in writing and who wants to get instant exposure and over time that same person can work on having their own blog and funneling readers from Hubpages. Though maybe these sites are not right for experienced writers who already know how to SEO for traffic and can earn greater income from their own blogs.
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  • Profile picture of the author UnkwnUsr
    I just don' really know what I could do with a bunch of amazon reviews and random lenses. They don't really fit in with any of my current sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
      Originally Posted by UnkwnUsr View Post

      I just don' really know what I could do with a bunch of amazon reviews and random lenses. They don't really fit in with any of my current sites.
      Transfer all your content on Squidoo to Hubpages. To answer your question, yes, Hubpages allows Amazon affiliate links and you can add Amazon products to your hub with your associates tag embedded, although they do take a cut of your earnings by displaying your tag and theirs randomly according to a certain percentage.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by UnkwnUsr View Post

      I just don' really know what I could do with a bunch of amazon reviews and random lenses.
      Up to you. For me, this would be a no-brainer: it's surely better to earn all the commissions arising from them, and not to be subject to a completely unnecessary third party's ever-changeable terms of service, than to have HubPages "sharing" my own income with me. Just my perspective.
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      • Profile picture of the author Woodsusa
        I agree...Squidoo was an easy platform to use, but why settle for easy and lose money (and control over your page) when you can create new inexpensive or free pages elsewhere?

        I don't have a lot on Squidoo, thank goodness, but I know some people who invested quite a lot of time on there, only to have their lenses blocked during that last 'update'. It seems like a big sacrifice giving all your control to another site, in my opinion.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
      Originally Posted by UnkwnUsr View Post

      I just don' really know what I could do with a bunch of amazon reviews and random lenses. They don't really fit in with any of my current sites.
      Put them all on one new site then. Doesn't matter if the lens topics aren't related to each other. At least they won't be at the mercy of anyone else. Hubpages has their own set of restrictions and rules and you're likely to have to make changes to the content one way or another.

      While the lenses are still accessible:
      • Open the lens in public view and use your browser to File/Save Page As/Web Page, Complete - then you'll always be able to access what it looked like even after it's been moved or removed from Squidoo. (The tool to save a lens inside of Squidoo is a nightmare to use in recreating the content.)
      • Copy the content module by module into a post on a new domain (if you go that route) or on an existing domain if you're unsure what you're going to do with them. You can always save them as Drafts in one of your existing sites until you decide.
      • When you're ready to make the lens public as a post in a site of your own delete the lens from Squidoo, publish the lens on your new/existing site and then use the Google Fetch tool inside Google Webmaster Tools to submit each new URL for indexing. The new post should be indexed in minutes. (Just keep up to date on what Squidoo/Hubpages intends to do about payouts that are pending. If you delete a lens with money owed you may lose that money. Watch your timing on these steps.)
      Then add new content to the site to which you move the lenses - make it your personal blog and add any content you want. Add more reviews, add more monetized posts, and share links to your content through social media.

      You'll have fewer headaches and the start of your own site where you can write about random topics without worrying about whether or not you already have a site around that specific niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
    This is a shame as it will undoubtedly have a negative impact on Internet Marketers who use Squidoo strictly as a promotion platform. Squidoo was much more lenient in the content they would allow as well as what they would allow you to link to.

    HubPages used to be an amazing source of traffic for me back in 2008-2009 when I was new to IM and producing lots of quality content. You used to be able to promote both Clickbank & Amazon, as well as link to your blogs, squeeze pages, etc.

    If I remember correctly it was back in early 2010 that they changed their policies. I remember I had over 100 lenses published and many of them were earning me Amazon, Clickbank, and Adsense commissions. I logged in one day to find that all but 3 of them had been taken offline "awaiting corrections". Basically they wanted me to remove all Clickbank links, squeeze page links, and even links to blogs that linked to Clickbank products!

    Actually it worked out for the best because it was that day that I set up my first WordPress niche blog and started publishing all of the content they had taken down to it. Within a couple of months that 1 blog was making more than all of those lenses did combined! I don't think I ever published another piece of content to a website that I didn't own after that. It was actually a blessing in disguise!

    IMO, however, HubPages is not going to be good for Squidoo and it's users. I hope I'm wrong though.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
      Originally Posted by nicheblogger75 View Post

      Actually it worked out for the best because it was that day that I set up my first WordPress niche blog and started publishing all of the content they had taken down to it. Within a couple of months that 1 blog was making more than all of those lenses did combined! I don't think I ever published another piece of content to a website that I didn't own after that. It was actually a blessing in disguise!
      That's the silver lining! When something like this happens it pushes you to explore outside your comfort zone. Sounds like you benefited nicely!

      (Now, stop hogging the rain on the east side of town. We on the west side need some, too! But you can keep the wind...)

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      • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
        Originally Posted by Sojourn View Post

        That's the silver lining! When something like this happens it pushes you to explore outside your comfort zone. Sounds like you benefited nicely!

        (Now, stop hogging the rain on the east side of town. We on the west side need some, too! But you can keep the wind...)
        Yes you're right. It was a silver lining. It opened my eyes to the wonderful world of WordPress!

        Yes the amount of rain this monsoon season has been pretty good I think. However, I could do without the humidity that it brings. I hope you get some rain soon, too. See, I'm not greedy!
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  • Profile picture of the author EZlivin
    Ok, a little clarification please...

    Hubpages bought Squidoo so does this mean that the Squidoo.com domain is going to be shut down? I have SEVERAL lenses ranked on page one for different niches promoting clickbank products.

    These lenses have brought me a solid income each month for the past 5 years. Will this effect my lenses on the first page of Google?
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    • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
      Originally Posted by EZlivin View Post

      Ok, a little clarification please...

      Hubpages bought Squidoo so does this mean that the Squidoo.com domain is going to be shut down? I have SEVERAL lenses ranked on page one for different niches promoting clickbank products.

      These lenses have brought me a solid income each month for the past 5 years. Will this effect my lenses on the first page of Google?
      Hard to say - Squidoo says they'll put in a 301 redirect from the old URL for your lens (IF your lens makes the cut and gets transferred) to the new URL on HubPages. How that's going to play out in Google rankings is an open question.

      I recall reading that a 301 redirect *can* lead to recovering the rankings held by the original URL but I have no idea if that still holds, if that always applies, or if there's an interim period of time where neither URL shows up where you'd expect. A good question for the SEO subsection and experts.

      I suspect that it won't be too long before squidoo.com simply redirects to HubPages and there's no squidoo.com site at all. I don't know that for sure but that's how I've interpreted their announcements. They have a full post and a FAQ post available through their hq.squidoo page.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    I stopped using squidoo and hubpages more than a year ago and those articles supposedly posted to them are now ranking very high on my own authority sites. The best thing to do is always creating your own site where you have full control of everything.
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  • Profile picture of the author EZlivin
    On a side note, I have been using Weebly the past year or so and they will let you put whatever you want on their site. They rank really easily too. So I guess I will continue to use them.
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