What now? Woke this morning to find my squidoo empire has been locked!

by 58 replies
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Hello warriors,

I kind of regret using squidoo now. I woke this morning to find all my squidoo lenses have been locked! I couldn't believe it.. all the lenses were under different accounts as well and not all were promoting clickbank products.

Has any one else had this experience with squidoo before - whats the likely hood they will over turn their decision? and what is the approch I could use for the best chance?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,
#main internet marketing discussion forum #empire #find #locked #morning #squidoo #woke
  • [DELETED]
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
    • [ 14 ] Thanks
  • Do not build something on other's property!
    • [ 8 ] Thanks
  • I hate to hear that.

    I really don't like relying on third part operations...especially when money is involved.

    That is why I am experimenting with self-hosted solutions for every aspect of IM constantly.

    Ask them what you need to do to get them unlocked and then get to work fixing whatever it is...if they respond.
  • I agree with the above poster. Try to salvage one account. I have several lenses under one name and have never had a problem.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks, its crazy to think how much power they have, one of the lenses is making at least $800 a month! 1 account is the best approach, but they know I own all of them,

      In fact I'm now blocked from loggin into the accounts! Squidoo keeps redirecting. Maybe if I kick up a fuss in the squid forums that would help?

      Thanks Warriors!
      • [4] replies
  • I recently deleted all my Squidoo lenses and closed my account because they were all low quality work that I had created when I first started. Besides, I don't want to keep growing others' businesses anymore for a small return compared to how much it could have been better if I had spent that time on my own assets.

    If I were you, I would forget about Squidoo or any other third party site to grow my business and start focusing on my own sites which I have full control over. If you have backups for the content of your lenses, post them on your site and continue from there.
    • [ 8 ] Thanks
    • [3] replies
    • Great advise, since the lenses will deindex eventually, posting the content on another site - could that count as duplicate content?
      • [1] reply
    • This sends the wrong message. You can, and should be leveraging other properties in an effort to drive traffic to your own sites.

      The problem isnt with Squidoo, its with the way the user has used it.

      In any case, always syndicate your content across multiple properties to avoid being single source dependent.
      • [ 5 ] Thanks
    • I do agree with this, however there doesn't seem to be any security in even building your own sites anymore. You can get wiped out just as easily.

      At least Squidoo has their TOS in black and white so people know what to do.
  • Banned
    Only "kind of"?!

    Yes, hundreds of Warriors.

    There are two things you can do ...

    (i) Appreciate that you're not getting any real benefit by using Squidoo rather than your own sites, for all the reasons explained in all the threads listed below (and about 100 others just like them);

    (ii) Don't let your business be dependent on the ever-variable terms of service, and their weird, inconsistent and idiosyncratic interpretations of entirely unnecessary third parties.

    Is posting on Squidoo a waste of time?
    Anyone make money on Squidoo?
    Anyone Making above $ 100 Per Month with Squidoo ?
    Affiliate Market in Squidoo?
    Too Much Advertising on Squidoo??
    Is Squidoo still okay to post article to?
    How to subtly advertise on Squidoo and Hubpages?
    How do I Use Squidoo Effectively?
    Advice on Squidoo
    What's the value of a Squidoo Lens?
    Using Hubpages, Squidoo, and Tumblr to generate backlinks
    A question about squidoo..

    This ... exactly this - this is the way forward - and good luck!

    I'm giving looooo-o-o-o-ong odds against you getting them unlocked, in the circumstances. They'll disappear. Save the content, if you haven't yet done so.
    • [ 7 ] Thanks
  • I used squidoo because they are quick to rank, and can handle a lot of backlinks. Is there any other web 2.0 site that have similar attributes without strict terms and conditions?

    I see alot of people using blogspot for ranking sites now and seem to be doing really well, but I've not been able to find any internal link structure that is comparable with squidoo.
    • [1] reply
  • I also depend on squidoo and blogspot. I use them mainly for the reasons stated and because I dont do this full time. Although my income is under $1000 a month, 99% comes from using these sites. I know they can delete them at any time - and they have closed accounts and deleted some sites in the past - but Google has kicked my ass on my personal sites, ppc is too expensive and competitive and Bing just has too little traffic.

    I am not dependent on this money but it provides a nice second income.
  • You I'm starting to see that they can be good money spinners, however they are far to risky. All the time I was thinking google would screw me over but I was wrong.

    I take Nail Yener point - have a Plan B and make it Plan A
  • Yeah I agree with Nail Yener, have a Plan B and make it a Plan A

    Fortunately I have a plan B and it exactly what you said Nail.

    All this time I thought it would be google that would bring me down. It just goes to show that taking into consideration even the smallest things, should go into your risk analysis.
  • Well, if you NEVER get it back, it's worth it.

    Why? Because you just learned a valuable life lesson. And, more importantly, a marketing lesson.

    First, never put your eggs in one basket, especially if the basket isn't under your FULL control.

    If you were an egg scavenger, would you like your eggs to be under your direct control, or some stranger who says "I will hold your eggs".

    Sorry for a deranged metaphorical symbol here. I hope, you can get something out of it.
  • That is not good news at all sorry to hear that

    That being said you have to look at it as a learning experience because if there is 1 thing which I have ALWAYS told people and that is to NOT put most of your income in free services and platforms like squidoo because you own absolutely nothing

    A few sites making you a little bit of extra income is fine but you have to draw a line somewhere

    It happened to me back in 2008, i was on for my first $200 day and youtube deleted all of my 30 accounts lol because they were all from the same IP

    Lesson learned

    Hope you manage to come back from this :-)

    Paul
  • A single account is always the best policy. Be it any make money online program or any home based business. It is very sad to hear that a lens that fetched $800 a month is blocked!
  • Are multiple accounts allowed?
    • [1] reply
    • I've always thought that they were but now you mention it. I'm not entirely sure
  • Thanks Paul I appreciate it man!
  • I read in the "SquiDonts" section that Squidoo can choose to eliminate entire niches and products if they get over-promoted on their website.

    They even directly mentioned Travis Sagos' "get your ex back" niche. Travis invented the bum marketing method back in the days and was one of the most active promoters of Squidoo as an affiliate marketing plattform.

    I find it kind of wierd though as Squidoo in the beginning was wery focused on how we could make money by promoting affiliate programmes using them as a plattform.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Interesting, though, isn't it, that people always run into these problems over things seeming "kind of weird" when their pages are on someone else's site, and yet by a remarkable coincidence the same problems somehow seem never quite to arise for them when they're on their own site?

      Call me old-fashioned, but I can't help wondering whether there might even be a point to be made about that, somewhere? ...
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    Always a risk to put all your IM eggs in one basket but sorry to hear of your misfortune
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Guys and gals thanks for coming along and pitching in, I'm really grateful. Theres a lot of useful information here and realisations =)
    • [1] reply
    • Ugh, this really sucks but as others have already mentioned you run that risk when you use 3rd party sites. It seems like you know what products to pick and how to get your content noticed, start your own sites and before long you will be back in the money. Good luck!
  • Everyone has given you good information about never using a third party (maybe for some backlinks here and there, but never as a main source of income), and how you should lift the articles and place them on another site.

    I was wondering why you had several Squidoo accounts? I could understand setting up several domains so that they are targeted to specific keywords and people, but it doesn't work like that with Squidoo. All of your accounts are still bringing people to Squidoo. So, what was the point of that?













    • [1] reply
    • To the best of my knowledge, it's okay to have multiple accounts. It's even considered a good idea if you have wildly divergent niches. See clever7's response below.

      They do reserve the right to tighten their rules and then lock lenses that no longer fit. Same deal as on Ezinearticles, where I lost a whole bunch of articles in my primary money niche because they no longer allowed articles in that niche!

      And the fact that I had had those articles prevented me from being promoted to Diamond for a long time even though they were legit when I originally wrote and published them.

      The Giant Squid is indeed a great solution, but it's not easy to become a Giant, especially since they don't tell you why they turned down the application. I've tried a couple of times. I plan to try again, but not until I have beefed up ALL of my lenses...
  • It's amazing when you hear about pr2/3 sites that are making $500K+ and you realize pr doesn't mean anything.
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  • Banned
    [DELETED]
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • It's also around the same time people were making millions getting a link on a pr9 site and ranking for huge keywords in big niches.

      Some people play the short-term game and some don't. I can't see that changing.
    • As I try to tell people, and almost no one listens.

      Organic, Organic, Organic.

      Google is getting really good at spotting - Organic.
      • [1] reply
  • Haven't read through all this thread, but if all your lenses were like the one in your sig (can still find it in Google cache), I'm not too surprised they've been locked...Talking about things like buying Youtube views and such, that's a clear violation of Squidoo TOS.

    Regardless of what the usual 'against Squidoo regulars' say about it, there's nothing wrong with Squidoo platform for making money (making a good amount myself every month), but - treate it like garbage and it will treat you like one as well.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • I understand your point, although even now I don't feel like I've been treating Squidoo like garbage, in fact the lens your speaking about went through many iterations, I conducted poles to see what the readers wanted and I tailored the lens to their needs. I gave options and solutions to readers problems. I was very fond of that lens, I've had it just over a year, it's even been liked by many giant squids, the content was by no means garbage. It was ranked within the top 2000 lens and the money generated through ad sense all went to charity. It wasn't a lens I made to spew out garbage and then make a quick buck. There are still similar lens on Squidoo even now.

      I believe one of my lens broke the TOS the one I was actually making money with and so they decided slap everyone of my accounts. But even this lens was a very high quality review of a clickbank product. And it was a product I believed in. And again there are many lenses on Squidoo right now with lesser quality promoting the same clickbank product.
  • While PageRank is per page, Authority, Hub, Hilltop and TrustRank, as well as Whilelistings are applied domain-wide, and each can and does influence the amount of link juice passed.

    As far as using third party sites, IMO it's the 80/20 rule. 80% of your effort should be for your own domains, with the other 20% split between the 5-6 "best" third-party sites, with a wider mix of secondary sites.
    • [1] reply
    • diversify. google slap was a wake up call, you cannot rely on one source of traffic anymore, invest in other methods too
  • Right in time for halloween! thats frightening! I dont use squidoo but I can only imagine.

    Whats your next course of action?
  • not meaning to be shallow, but here are some tips.

    1) Stop being a BIG baby!

    2) There are tons of other ways to make money.

    3) Sit down with a wine, and formulate your next plan of attack.

    4) TAKE MASSIVE MASSIVE ACTION!

    Good luck.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • This brought a big Cheshire cat smile to my face! thanks = )
  • So they kept your original content up, and just changed the user name? Was it hacked? Yeah this just goes to show you, that while 2.0 sites have their place in the backlinking strategy, it's always best to have most of your content on your own sites that you control.
    • [1] reply
    • lamo! easier said then done, if it were so easy, then people would
      be doing that, rather then taking advantage of squidoo high rankings,
      so why do you think people use squidoo? and i do not see why anyone
      would need multiple accounts, as you do have the option to transfer
      the lens to your own account from the previous owner, most services
      will ban you for having multiple accounts, so always transfer your
      lens to your master squidoo account and be done with it.

      and I doubt squidoo is the ugly monster people make them out to be, they have their terms of service for a reason, and when people violate the TOS, then they get pissy as if squidoo really owes them for bad content.

      if someone is making $1000/mo and his account is locked, then the lens owner probably already knows why, regardless if he was notified with reason; when squidoo locks your account, then that means they are cutting their income also, so do you think they do this for fun? Its like telling your best client,
      take a hike, I dont want your business anymore...seriously? It is likely when they lock your account, then all of your pages go offline, otherwise this would be highly unethical for them to lock your account, and continue to receive paid compensation; at this point, i bet you could sue them! Because if you violated their terms, then it would be a double standard to lock your account, then continue to earn from all of your hard work; so i bet your lens were disable also; It is one thing if you violate their terms, it is another if you
      are running an honest business, and they shut you down just because....
      and I bet 100% that squidoo does not shut people down just because...

      and if your account was locked for what-ever reason, then continue to
      work out a solution that would benefit both parties, agree to fix
      whatever the problems were, and do not repeat the problems; You are
      at the mercy of squidoo, so if you send them hate emails, then
      I would suspect you will never get your account(s) unlocked, and I
      would never-ever use more then one account, ever, no need!

      I agree, dont put all your eggs in one basket, and use squidoo
      effectively, for every high quality lens you create; then create
      a high quality lens on your own site, do not use duplicate content,
      you can not control squidoo, and squidoo can not control the
      lens content you put up on your very own site, and yes, we
      should be creating high quality lens on our own sites, for the
      most part, our own sites will never rank as high as squidoo....

      DON'T CHEAT THE SYSTEM, WORK WITH THE SYSTEM....
  • I think you should e-mail administrators.
  • I lost one of my affiliate accounts with them. It was ranked in the top 1000 even. Then I log in one day and bam they had locked the lens. It was a really terrible time for me because it was the one which was driving over 600 clicks a month to my affiliate page. I feel your pain because losing that much in income can be a shock all at once!
  • I just noticed that my Squidoo lens has been locked AND have no idea why? I SPENT A LOT OF TIME ON IT. IT'S ABOUT HEALTHCARE RECEIVED BY MY MOTHER..I AM TOTALLY CONFUSED. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIGURE this out. How can I contact whoever did this? I can see no rules that I violated. I simply recalled care received by my mother with photos.
  • @Cheeth - It sounds like you just lost a fairly significant revenue stream in your life. It doesn't matter what ANYONE on here says right now, that is going to hurt emotionally and financially for a while but you can bounce back from it. Try not to get too hung up on what was and now concentrate on building your income streams based on assets you control and leverage as much as possible. Obviously you cannot control and own everything, so have contingency plans in place. Avoid free platforms as much as possible and anything built around a single third party site that exploits any loopholes or are subject to change if your 'assets' are locked in on that site.

    It's a tough lesson and one many marketers will go through as things change over time. It doesn't matter if you do everything 'to the book', if they decide the rules have changed, then they have changed and you can evolve or die (excuse the turn of phrase).

    Take stock and come back out swinging. Good luck!
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