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So ****ed at Squidoo

by GeorgR.
22 replies
( First, I am back after a few months of a break, hope you all are doing well. )

Here a little story which made me incredible angry:

I had a whole ***load of lenses on Squidoo, some in the health niche, some really nice ones about WoW, Bible Verses, IM Products reviews. I spent a lot of time making those lenses, and some lenses i also had made for me which cost me quite some money. All lenses were of high quality.

Those lenses were running for about two years and i never had any problems - and some of those lenses even ranked very high on google. I had #1 Google position for "Micro Niche Finder" Reviews, things like that.

Now...as we all know, Squidoo this past summer changed their policy, and now they basically consider everything "spam" - if you made a lens in the health niche, eg. Acne, Hair Loss etc... <-- spam

IM Products, Reviews <--- spam

They shut down all those lenses and i had several emails going back and forth trying to get the lenses reinstated. But they still insisted that they are "spam", so they shut down all 30 or so lenses i had.

What makes me angry is the fact that they shut down ALL of them including my whole account, without the chance to keep some...eg. my World of Warcraft lens or my Bible Verses lens.

So...if you're still using Squidoo...careful. I know this is old news for some, but i just wanted to vent about this. I don't like the double-standard they have, they are making money from ads and the people who make lenses. You can very well have an informative lens about acne or hair loss...but Squidoo (respective their bots) doesn't differentiate as it seems.
#squidoo
  • Profile picture of the author euhlir
    That's the same problem everyone with a blog/page/lens on a free hosting platform vent about.

    It's easy as crap for them to shut down anything they want because they have the traffic already, and they can.
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  • Profile picture of the author getsmartt
    Sorry to hear that, I have a couple of lenses but never really invested much in them.

    I had much the same thing happen over on scribd.com, one day I get a notice that one of my many (read hundreds) of dociuments was tagged as spam, the next week my entire account is closed and my documents are gone.

    This is one reason I have a hard time placing content in the hands of Web 2.0 properties, you never know when they are going to change their rules, or get a wild hair up their a**es and delete your stuff.
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  • Profile picture of the author TiffanyLambert
    Squidoo will give you a chance to export the content, so make sure you do that

    Also check about some of them - IM is not off limits. But certain lenses about affiliate programs themselves are.

    You can see the offlimit topics here:

    SquidDon't!
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  • Profile picture of the author kendrickyi
    Thanks for the warning. I nearly planned on exploring Squidoo Lenses.
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Bruno
    That really suks I would be a little ticked off too.

    Its an inheren risk that many of us take (including myself) and when it all comes fallin down we sometimes are also angry with ourselves for taking the risk and making the decision to use web 2.0 sites for profit.

    Its fun to play in the sand box as long as cats don't step in to play too...

    Frank Bruno
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  • Profile picture of the author 808glass
    Yikes! Thanks for the heads up. Why not just use multiple accounts? At least that would lessen the chance of getting all lenses shut down.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sumit Menon
    I never got any of my lenses indexed on Google. So, nevermind...
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  • Profile picture of the author steveniam
    I have two lens and they are still working. My lens are only for backlinks building. Even if they are shutdown it does not really affect me.
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    I had planned to use it for backlinking and I guess I still will try, but like someone said, this is the issue when using things like squidoo/ezinearticles/blogger/wordpress blogs (hosted by wordpress), etc.

    Sucks but you are the man so you can get over it, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author Emily Meeks
    I plan to use Squidoo for niche marketing. The way I figure it, they can be a nice traffic funnel that pays you on the side.

    However, I've never liked the idea of putting all your eggs in one basket. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to create multiple streams of income, so if you get banned from one platform, dust yourself off and move on to another.
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  • Profile picture of the author WinsonYeung
    Wow, I didn't aware that squidoo actually came out with that new rule. The good thing is that I never rely on out-party hosting because they can shut down my website anytime.

    Anyway....try to go to google cache or waybackmachine to check if your content is still available. If it is, grab a domain name and move all the content over to your new website.
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  • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
    Dont you hate it when someone changes the rules in the middle of the game....but they already got what they wanted from it ie a big site built, money etc.

    The other thing is some of these lenses that discuss weight loss, hair growth, acne etc are still on Squidoo.
    And they have obvious affiliate links.
    Yet these lenses have not been removed.

    Do some Squidooers get special treatment?
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    • Profile picture of the author AverageGuy
      that's how the game plays, and it is always the case. that's why we should always host our own sites by ourselves, not totally depend on others.


      david

      Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

      Dont you hate it when someone changes the rules in the middle of the game....but they already got what they wanted from it ie a big site built, money etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author TiffanyLambert
      Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

      Do some Squidooers get special treatment?
      Yes:

      NEWSFLASH! A Squidoo Policy Update

      Giant Squids do.
      No link limits.
      No spam filters.

      So make 50 great lenses and apply for Giant Squid status
      Tiff
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    • Profile picture of the author AnneE
      Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

      Dont you hate it when someone changes the rules in the middle of the game....but they already got what they wanted from it ie a big site built, money etc.

      The other thing is some of these lenses that discuss weight loss, hair growth, acne etc are still on Squidoo.
      And they have obvious affiliate links.
      Yet these lenses have not been removed.

      Do some Squidooers get special treatment?
      While there are special rules for "Giant Squids" I think the other issue is that if a lens is out there and is NOT edited, I think it survives just fine. Their SPAM-detection filter seems to go off when you save a lens after editing it. So if you have a lens that you think MIGHT violate the new Squidoo terms of service, DON'T TOUCH IT!!!

      I have a couple health-related lenses that have done alright for me and I don't plan to ever edit them again.

      I'm pretty irritated as well with the drastic rule change.
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  • Profile picture of the author greff
    I have a lot of Squidoo lenses. But I think people should be more worried about what Wordpress can do to them. Can you imagine losing your successful blog overnight? I mean, pfffffft!
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    • Profile picture of the author Emily Meeks
      Originally Posted by greff View Post

      I have a lot of Squidoo lenses. But I think people should be more worried about what Wordpress can do to them. Can you imagine losing your successful blog overnight? I mean, pfffffft!
      So long as it's hosted on your own domain, Wordpress can't delete it.
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  • Profile picture of the author SurviveUnemployment
    Why on God's green Earth would anyone put their premium content up on Squidoo? I barf out a lens now and again for the backlinks and trickle of traffic it brings. The whole point is to not waste a lot of time or money building content for somebody else. You can put up a lens in 15 minutes and point it back at YOUR site that YOU own. Why not use them? They're using you.

    I can see why you're ticked off, but live and learn. Next time invest the ten bucks and get a domain of your own.
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    • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
      Originally Posted by SurviveUnemployment View Post

      Why on God's green Earth would anyone put their premium content up on Squidoo? I barf out a lens now and again for the backlinks and trickle of traffic it brings. The whole point is to not waste a lot of time or money building content for somebody else. You can put up a lens in 15 minutes and point it back at YOUR site that YOU own. Why not use them? They're using you.

      I can see why you're ticked off, but live and learn. Next time invest the ten bucks and get a domain of your own.
      Not "premium content", but i used squidoo as an additional means, links, some traffic, SERPs...interlinking with other Web2.0 properties. I still put some effort in it to NOT just be "another spam lens"...but it seems their bots dont care. Some/most lenses were really nice and informative.
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  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    Well im glad i never went deep into squidoo. thats a huge screw over.
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  • Profile picture of the author kevinw1
    One moral to this story is - back up your content that's on properties you don't control. Then at least you can move it somewhere else if you get shut down.
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