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Squidoo

by govomg
71 replies
Hey warriors
Is squidoo still a viable option for building Amazon niche sites,or any affiliate niche sites actually. Thanks Mark
#squidoo
  • Profile picture of the author joaquin112
    Short answer: yes.

    Long answer: there are better ways to make money online.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brendon Zahrndt
    Is it still a viable option?

    It most certainly is.

    As with anything, it's value depends on how and why you want to use Squidoo in the first place.

    Are you trying to avoid learning how to build websites yourself?

    Are these pages merely links that will point to your money site?

    Certainly as the above poster said there are better (and safer) ways to make money online but if you feel safe starting out with Squidoo there isn't any reason you can't build decent lenses and make money with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author katherineolga
    Squidoo has gone through a lot of changes. I've been with them from close to the beginning and the changes seem like hey will be positive long term but it's been really messy for me. So, I am sitting tight to see how things play out.

    I plan on using them again but for link building, not for an income stream. My goal is to make a little extra cash for backlinks.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by katherineolga View Post

      I plan on using them again but for link building
      All their backlinks are "no-follow".
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      • Profile picture of the author DoubleOhDave
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        All their backlinks are "no-follow".
        True Alexa, but from the Google standpoint, isn't it better to have a mix of DO and NO follow links? Besides the human element means if your content is interesting you will still get visitors through to your main site, no?


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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Please excuse the observation that, to me, the reasoning "It's good to use Squidoo because its backlinks are no-follow and Google likes you to have a mixture of do-follow and no-follow backlinks" seems slightly tortuous, to put it mildly.

          It's not much better logic than what you see all the backlink sellers saying: "Google likes 'link diversity' - - so you need to buy some really crappy backlinks otherwise your good, natural ones will look suspicious"!!

          Originally Posted by DoubleOhDave View Post

          if your content is interesting you will still get visitors through to your main site, no?
          It's easy to imagine that you're deriving traffic from a Web 2.0 site when all that's actually happening is that you're effectively sending some of what would otherwise be your site's traffic to someone else's site instead of to your own, and eventually getting some of it back. To me, that's a net loss, not a net gain. It makes no more sense than sending your potential customer traffic to an article directory instead of to your own site. If your CTR is less than 100% (and everyone's is), you're losing on the deal. Not losing on it compared with taking no action at all, obviously, but losing on it compared with doing something sensible instead. Squidoo doesn't manufacture traffic. The fact that it's a "high traffic site" (which, incidentally, is far less true now than ever before, anyway) doesn't mean that your pages there are going to draw any of that traffic.

          To be serious for a moment, In my opinion the reality, here, is actually very simple indeed, and it's in post #24 on the previous page (and in 20 or 30 other people's posts in this thread, too). The game is up for Squidoo, and that's all there is to it.
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          • Profile picture of the author DoubleOhDave
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            Please excuse the observation that, to me, the reasoning "It's good to use Squidoo because its backlinks are no-follow and Google likes you to have a mixture of do-follow and no-follow backlinks" seems slightly tortuous, to put it mildly.

            It's not much better logic than what you see all the backlink sellers saying: "Google likes 'link diversity' - - so you need to buy some really crappy backlinks otherwise your good, natural ones will look suspicious"!!
            LOL - Okay, you got me on that. I hold my hands up - I had never looked at it like that.



            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            It's easy to imagine that you're deriving traffic from a Web 2.0 site when all that's actually happening is that you're effectively sending some of what would otherwise be your site's traffic to someone else's site instead of to your own, and eventually getting some of it back. To me, that's a net loss, not a net gain. It makes no more sense than sending your potential customer traffic to an article directory instead of to your own site. If your CTR is less than 100% (and everyone's is), you're losing on the deal. Not losing on it compared with taking no action at all, obviously, but losing on it compared with doing something sensible instead. Squidoo doesn't manufacture traffic. The fact that it's a "high traffic site" (which, incidentally, is far less true now than ever before, anyway) doesn't mean that your pages there are going to draw any of that traffic.

            To be serious for a moment, In my opinion the reality, here, is actually very simple indeed, and it's in post #24 on the previous page (and in 20 or 30 other people's posts in this thread, too). The game is up for Squidoo, and that's all there is to it.
            Hadn't looked at it like that either. It's a pity - I only started to get interested in Squidoo as it was going down the tubes. Still, It might be a good place to practice copywriting..


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  • Profile picture of the author RockNRolla
    It is yeah but if I were you I'd create your own sites and do it that way instead. The reason being that Squidoo have already had some dramatic changes regarding affiliate activity in the last few years. The last thing you want to do is put a lot of effort in to these pages and then have some new rule change come in that effects you. If you build your own sites, you retain complete control over them, which is important.
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    • Profile picture of the author wesawu
      IMHO Squidoo is a lost cause unless you use it for the occasional backlink. You are better off posting articles on your own site in order to maintain full control. Squidoo is at the mercy of the big G and can/will lock or delete or lens as they sit fit without notice. Support at Squidoo is less than desirable also.
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      • Profile picture of the author PotPieGirl
        Of course it is.

        But here's the "Big Picture" plan of action if you're new.

        Start with Squidoo - learn how to make a page there (called a "lens" and super easy). Make pages on all kinds of keywords/products/topics - these will be your testing ground. Some will be winners, some will be losers, but it's silly to go out and spend money and time building out a whole SITE on a keyword/topic if you have no clue if it will rank and convert for you.

        Once you learn how to make a Squidoo page that ranks and start getting sales and traffic, THEN make your OWN site around those keywords/products you've found that work for you.

        Then, go into your Squidoo page and edit it to add links to your new site (even if no-follow, they still are good at funneling traffic to a new site as well as making sales directly from your Squidoo page).

        At that point, you know how to rank a page, you know what keywords to target, AND you'll have TWO pages in Google ranking for your target keyword(s).

        For those new to all this and on a shoestring budget, this is a great plan of action to take, in my humble little opinion.

        Just be sure you know the rules of any free-to-use site before publishing pages there.

        Hope that helps!

        Jennifer
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        • Profile picture of the author govomg
          Thanks guys for your help, some really great advice, I sought of thought that building your own sites was a safer option, but Potpie girls advice makes great sense.
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          • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
            Originally Posted by govomg View Post

            Thanks guys for your help, some really great advice, I sought of thought that building your own sites was a safer option, but Potpie girls advice makes great sense.
            Owning your own website will always be the safest way to go. You don't ever want to be completely dependent on someone else's system for your income - not Squidoo's and not Amazon's.
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        • Profile picture of the author IanM723
          Originally Posted by PotPieGirl View Post

          Of course it is.

          But here's the "Big Picture" plan of action if you're new.

          Start with Squidoo - learn how to make a page there (called a "lens" and super easy). Make pages on all kinds of keywords/products/topics - these will be your testing ground. Some will be winners, some will be losers, but it's silly to go out and spend money and time building out a whole SITE on a keyword/topic if you have no clue if it will rank and convert for you.

          Once you learn how to make a Squidoo page that ranks and start getting sales and traffic, THEN make your OWN site around those keywords/products you've found that work for you.

          Then, go into your Squidoo page and edit it to add links to your new site (even if no-follow, they still are good at funneling traffic to a new site as well as making sales directly from your Squidoo page).

          At that point, you know how to rank a page, you know what keywords to target, AND you'll have TWO pages in Google ranking for your target keyword(s).

          For those new to all this and on a shoestring budget, this is a great plan of action to take, in my humble little opinion.

          Just be sure you know the rules of any free-to-use site before publishing pages there.

          Hope that helps!

          Jennifer
          ~PotPieGirl
          That's awesome advice! As a lot of other people have stated, you just don't want to have all of your eggs in one basket (Squidoo) because there have been a lot of changes and who knows what will happen in the future.

          But as Jen said, it is a great place to start out and I know a lot of people (like Jen) who have made really good money from Squidoo lenses so it is definitely still viable but at some point, you should take that knowledge and really build your own sites that you own and control.
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      • Profile picture of the author coffeediva
        Oh what a great thread and yes it seems that everyone puts so much effort into things that use to work but the impact of Google turns them into crappy useless platforms. I agree that we need to develop a site for ourselves. I rediscovered weebly as a site builder and i can use my own domain. Having had several wordpress installations hacked i am now going down the path of selling traffic as a revenue generating method and having success. Thanks for tge great info here
        Jenelle
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    • Profile picture of the author Lokahi
      Originally Posted by RockNRolla View Post

      It is yeah but if I were you I'd create your own sites and do it that way instead. The reason being that Squidoo have already had some dramatic changes regarding affiliate activity in the last few years. The last thing you want to do is put a lot of effort in to these pages and then have some new rule change come in that effects you. If you build your own sites, you retain complete control over them, which is important.
      So many people had what they thought were winning lenses, only to have them shut down with rule change. With your own site, that won't happen unless you stop paying your hosting.
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  • Profile picture of the author abcplumb
    Squidoo is tuff to get your head around, specially if you are new to all this seo stuff.
    Its all very intresting to learn tho.
    Thank for the advise Potpie (luv the name)
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  • Profile picture of the author kaposzta
    Squidoo is crap now. They lock lenses randomly, no matter how original, great, etc. is the lens. Forget Squidoo and start something new.
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  • Profile picture of the author JRoo
    Have a look at the Squidoo HQ forums Forums | SquidooHQ powered by Squidoo there are a bunch of angry and confused writers there. Even people who have been on there for years making good money have had their lenses locked. Every other post is someone asking questions about their locked lenses and getting very vague answers back from Squidoo. I wouldn't touch it right now if I were you. It's way too risky and like everyone else said there are better ways to make money online.
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  • Profile picture of the author Charanjit
    I got to agree with Jroo, since the changes its become a joke, they are so concerned with being on the right side of google that they have not taken into consideration the impact on the writers.

    Stay away from squidoo use it as a traffic source to your main blog not as a method of income as one day its here the next day its locked.
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  • Profile picture of the author cyberdenizen
    I worked hard on a Squidoo lens. The topic is on freelance writing (which is not a forbidden topic). The content is totally original; I wrote everything off the top of my head. I didn't post any affiliate links or links going to my own sites. I put some pictures and used other modules besides the text module. I wasn't selling anything. I just wanted the lens to be part of my writer's portfolio. In short, I followed all the rules.

    When I hit the publish button, I got a message telling me that my lens couldn't be published because of low-quality content. What an insult.

    I contacted support. I'm still waiting for a reply. I haven't deleted my lens yet. I'm earnestly hoping that I will be able to publish it, but I don't know. I may just be grasping at straws.
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    • Profile picture of the author KellyG
      Originally Posted by cyberdenizen View Post

      I contacted support. I'm still waiting for a reply. I haven't deleted my lens yet. I'm earnestly hoping that I will be able to publish it, but I don't know. I may just be grasping at straws.
      Something similar happened to me recently and I solved it by a series of trial and error edits. In the case of my lens, what was triggering the low quality content error was the keyword density was too high (there was a reference to kw density near the bottom of the error message I was receiving). So, I experimented with changing up the keywords in the various modules and after a handful of changes, my lens published.

      Through some searching I also found out that other possible triggers of the low quality content error are having only text and amazon modules, not using "I" in the introduction, having too many Amazon links and (ironically) not having any Amazon modules. I experimented with these solutions (e.g. added a YouTube module, used more first person references in the introduction) but none got me over the filter. Several people mentioned these fixes as things that allowed them to finally publish their lens so they might be things you want to consider.

      The other impression I got from my searching is that response time from Squidoo support for such matters can be a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you might try making incremental changes to your lens and hitting publish after each change. If the error message you're getting mentions kw density, I would start there, since that seems to be a particularly sticky area these days.

      Hope that helps.

      Kelly
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      • Profile picture of the author cyberdenizen
        Originally Posted by KellyG View Post

        Something similar happened to me recently and I solved it by a series of trial and error edits. In the case of my lens, what was triggering the low quality content error was the keyword density was too high (there was a reference to kw density near the bottom of the error message I was receiving). So, I experimented with changing up the keywords in the various modules and after a handful of changes, my lens published.

        Through some searching I also found out that other possible triggers of the low quality content error are having only text and amazon modules, not using "I" in the introduction, having too many Amazon links and (ironically) not having any Amazon modules. I experimented with these solutions (e.g. added a YouTube module, used more first person references in the introduction) but none got me over the filter. Several people mentioned these fixes as things that allowed them to finally publish their lens so they might be things you want to consider.

        The other impression I got from my searching is that response time from Squidoo support for such matters can be a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you might try making incremental changes to your lens and hitting publish after each change. If the error message you're getting mentions kw density, I would start there, since that seems to be a particularly sticky area these days.

        Hope that helps.

        Kelly
        Thanks for the tips. Probably, I don't have enough Amazon modules because I removed one of them. (There were two initially.) I'll try making some changes. I hope these changes will solve the problem.
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    • Profile picture of the author pavionjsl
      I was with Squidoo for years and made income from them. Like you original content and informative subjects. 2 weeks ago locked lenses. This disregard for peoples efforts not to have spam content and to actually be informative does not pay using squidoo. Deleted all lenses, had enough of their so called holy war with no regard for peoples time or effort.
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  • Profile picture of the author badut jenaka
    I leave squidoo many month ago after they implement that "low quality content" filter. It's a joke..
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  • Profile picture of the author JRoo
    Another thing to keep in mind (for those hopefuls still writing on Squidoo) is that while you may be able to dance around the filter that's only half the battle. Your lenses can be locked the next day, 3 days later or 2 weeks later. Nobody really knows how they decide which lenses to lock. They will still lock them even if the filter allows you to publish and your email disputes will likely go unanswered. For me, I will be building up my own site and putting my new content there. I only used their site because it was slightly easier, but I have lost almost all faith in Squidoo as a place for any sort of reliable income. It's sad, but sometimes good comes from the bad as we are forced to move on to other, better things.
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    • Profile picture of the author themodernworld
      I went into Squidoo not realizing they were locking lenses like crazy. I thought it would be a good option to link to my site. My content was all original, and it was much better than 90% of the spam articles out there, yet all of my lenses were blocked. Not worth it in my opinion, especially since they can lock them at any moment. I didn't even know why.

      Right now I'm looking at submitting to another article directory. Any suggestions?
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    Squidoo became too demanding because Google became too demanding. It seems that Squidoo can predict all major updates beforehand.

    I use Squidoo to drive traffic to my websites and it is helping me. I believe that it is an effective free traffic generating method. I see at Analytics that all visitors who come from my Squidoo lenses remain longer at my websites; they are the best ones.

    Some people are making a lot of money thanks to their Squidoo lenses, but I don't think that if you are starting today you have the chances to be as successful as those who started using Squidoo a long time ago.

    I wouldn’t start creating lenses today with the intention to make money with them. I advise everyone to create a few lenses with the intention to drive traffic to their pages because I know that this works.

    I’m mainly promoting my own products in all my lenses, but I also promote a few Amazon products with them. I’ve accidentally sold a few Amazon products this way, but the commissions are too low.

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  • Profile picture of the author Legal123
    Squidoo is limited but fun
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Greene
    Squidoo is out of their head now. They will become OK after a few days when they will see a great drop at their content and traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Few people look at the bigger picture.

      This is all part of a bigger pattern of cycles, that repeats itself indefinitely, with Google calling the shots, because their parameters/requirements/algorithms are (most of) what determines Squidoo's own income and survival.

      I'm 23, but even I have seen more or less this same thing happen with Squidoo at least three times (arguably four) over the last five years.

      Come back in another year-and-a-half/two years, and see the whole conversation coming round all over again!

      The reality is that it makes no sense to depend on pages on sites you neither own nor control.

      It makes no sense to depend on them for income.

      It makes no sense to depend on them for traffic.

      It makes no sense to depend on them for backlinks.

      It makes no sense to depend on them as part of "your" business.

      Some people just "get it". Others just don't.

      The only people who really ever argue that there's anything "good" about using Squidoo are ...
      • people with an incentive/investment in promoting Squidoo, because they're selling Squidoo-oriented advice/services/information here
      • people with an emotional investment in believing that to be so, because they hate being wrong about anything and have extremely unwisely used up a lot of time/effort/energy in developing stuff at Squidoo and are feeling really defensive about that (this group is the hardest to discuss it with, because they're sometimes not even honest with themselves about it, let alone with anyone else)
      • mostly-anonymous trolls who enjoy arguing with reason/logic/common-sense, and are quick to point out that something that produces a small benefit still "produces a benefit" even if it's glaringly obvious to everyone else that it isn't worth talking about compared with the far-more-sensible, far-more-constructive things you could and should do instead (of which they're sometimes blissfully unaware anyway because their primary motivation is in trolling rather than in earning a living and building a business)
      If you enjoy Squidoo, and it's fun for you, and you really like it, then go for it.

      That's a good reason to use Squidoo.

      But if you try to convince yourself that it's somehow, realistically, "helping your business" in a way that's a reasonable or sensible use of your efforts, then you're fooling only yourself and eventually "a wheel will come off" and it will be your fault, not Squidoo's and not Google's, because their behavior-cycles are - in this context - pretty much predictable.

      It's about as simple as that.

      The people who want to hear it will hear it. The people who don't will ignore it. The people who feel threatened/offended/maligned by it will even argue with it (increasingly difficult though that's becoming for them, as illustrated by the increase in threads like this one). Such is forum life.

      For that one person in a hundred who's open to re-examining the issue and willing to change her/his mind, here are some threads in which you can see large numbers of successful and unsuccessful Warriors saying all of this, even before all the recent problems (which are only a repetition of various "earlier rounds of problems" and arise from exactly the same overall causes!).

      Is Squidoo a good way to bring traffic to a website?
      Is posting on Squidoo a waste of time?
      Is Squidoo worth the effort?
      What now? Woke this morning to find my squidoo empire has been locked!
      Squidoo Empire, A Really Big Empire Gone in Seconds
      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..

      Getting information on this subject in a forum is like taking advice on anything else: ultimately, one has to decide whom one believes and by whom one wishes to be guided. I'm selling nothing and promoting nothing, but I've set out my information stall, above. You can believe me, if you choose to. Or you can believe the people saying "Squidoo is good for beginners" or "Squidoo is good for backlinks" or "Squidoo is a very good site". As ever, you make your decision and you live with its consequences, but if you want a "sneak preview" of what those consequences are likely to be, there are 16 threads listed just above in which - collectively - large numbers of Warriors give their warnings about them.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8109462].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author omgfirstmillion
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Few people look at the bigger picture.

        This is all part of a bigger pattern of cycles, that repeats itself indefinitely, with Google calling the shots, because their parameters/requirements/algorithms are (most of) what determines Squidoo's own income and survival.

        I'm 23, but even I have seen more or less this same thing happen with Squidoo at least three times (arguably four) over the last five years.

        Come back in another year-and-a-half/two years, and see the whole conversation coming round all over again!

        The reality is that it makes no sense to depend on pages on sites you neither own nor control.

        It makes no sense to depend on them for income.

        It makes no sense to depend on them for traffic.

        It makes no sense to depend on them for backlinks.

        It makes no sense to depend on them as part of "your" business.

        Some people just "get it". Others just don't.

        The only people who really ever argue that there's anything "good" about using Squidoo are ...
        • people with an incentive/investment in promoting Squidoo, because they're selling Squidoo-oriented advice/services/information here
        • people with an emotional investment in believing that to be so, because they hate being wrong about anything and have extremely unwisely used up a lot of time/effort/energy in developing stuff at Squidoo and are feeling really defensive about that (this group is the hardest to discuss it with, because they're sometimes not even honest with themselves about it, let alone with anyone else)
        • mostly-anonymous trolls who enjoy arguing with reason/logic/common-sense, and are quick to point out that something that produces a small benefit still "produces a benefit" even if it's glaringly obvious to everyone else that it isn't worth talking about compared with the far-more-sensible, far-more-constructive things you could and should do instead (of which they're sometimes blissfully unaware anyway because their primary motivation is in trolling rather than in earning a living and building a business)
        If you enjoy Squidoo, and it's fun for you, and you really like it, then go for it.

        That's a good reason to use Squidoo.

        But if you try to convince yourself that it's somehow, realistically, "helping your business" in a way that's a reasonable or sensible use of your efforts, then you're fooling only yourself and eventually "a wheel will come off" and it will be your fault, not Squidoo's and not Google's, because their behavior-cycles are - in this context - pretty much predictable.

        It's about as simple as that.

        The people who want to hear it will hear it. The people who don't will ignore it. The people who feel threatened/offended/maligned by it will even argue with it (increasingly difficult though that's becoming for them, as illustrated by the increase in threads like this one). Such is forum life.

        For that one person in a hundred who's open to re-examining the issue and willing to change her/his mind, here are some threads in which you can see large numbers of successful and unsuccessful Warriors saying all of this, even before all the recent problems (which are only a repetition of various "earlier rounds of problems" and arise from exactly the same overall causes!).

        Is Squidoo a good way to bring traffic to a website?
        Is posting on Squidoo a waste of time?
        Is Squidoo worth the effort?
        What now? Woke this morning to find my squidoo empire has been locked!
        Squidoo Empire, A Really Big Empire Gone in Seconds
        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..

        Getting information on this subject in a forum is like taking advice on anything else: ultimately, one has to decide whom one believes and by whom one wishes to be guided. I'm selling nothing and promoting nothing, but I've set out my information stall, above. You can believe me, if you choose to. Or you can believe the people saying "Squidoo is good for beginners" or "Squidoo is good for backlinks" or "Squidoo is a very good site". As ever, you make your decision and you live with its consequences, but if you want a "sneak preview" of what those consequences are likely to be, there are 16 threads listed just above in which - collectively - large numbers of Warriors give their warnings about them.
        This whole post made me LOL so much especially the "mostly-anonymous trolls who enjoy arguing with reason/logic/common-sense" part... good writing and very good advice Alexa, always nice to hear your opinion
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  • Profile picture of the author Khemosabi
    Thanks Alexa!
    Wow, I posted a semi lengthy response to this.. and WF went down!

    Basically, yes, it is a great learning tool if you're new. It's a fun place to learn things as well. It is not something you should rely on for income.

    What you said above about Squidoo setting their site up to make them income is 100% correct. That's what anyone should be doing with their sites! Why make them money when you could be making it for yourself!?

    ~ Theresa
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      There's one Squidoo lens which I visited almost every day, which was my only activity at all at Squidoo (it was a "new books" lens, updated daily), and just today, it was gone. Instead, there's just a notice there announcing that it's been removed, and explaining that they do that in cases of spam, etc.

      With absolutely typical Squidoo logic, however, even having removed it half a day ago, they're still promoting it on their main "books" page.

      Do you ever get the idea that the left hand has absolutely no idea at all what the right hand's doing?!

      Originally Posted by govomg View Post

      Is squidoo still a viable option for building Amazon niche sites
      I'd say not, really, Mark. It looks like they can promote them and remove them at the same time, whatever that means.
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  • Profile picture of the author naturaldry
    Squidoo is best for link building. I've just had them donate any money to charity from our articles. It was a very small amount anyways.
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  • Profile picture of the author affilorama-portal
    Like most of the comments here, you can still use Squidoo for your affiliate activities but still, it's best to build your own site for the reason that you cannot guarantee where Squidoo will be in two or so years from now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Darren Mallory
    personally squidoo is probably best for building 1st tier links to your money site.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by naturaldry View Post

      Squidoo is best for link building
      Originally Posted by Darren Mallory View Post

      personally squidoo is probably best for building 1st tier links to your money site.
      Do you guys appreciate that (as mentioned above) all those links are "no-follow"?

      Why do people keep saying this?!
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      • Profile picture of the author VanessaB
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Do you guys appreciate that (as mentioned above) all those links are "no-follow"?

        Why do people keep saying this?!
        Because follow/no follow only applies to 'Google" (not other SE's,) and there is some pretty strong evidence supporting the idea that even Google often ignores no follow anyway.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by DanielleS View Post

          Because follow/no follow only applies to 'Google" (not other SE's,) and there is some pretty strong evidence supporting the idea that even Google often ignores no follow anyway.
          I think there's some truth in that, indeed. But - call me a skepchick - I think the real reason people keep on saying that is probably just that they didn't know, and they're repeating what other people have said about "using Squidoo for backlinks" without appreciating that it's no longer true. To be fair, quite a lot of "Warrior Forum 'information' about Web 2.0 sites" actually falls into that category.
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  • Profile picture of the author carnal
    Squidoo is definitely a very good site, it is much better than Triond and Hubpages in my opinion.

    But getting your own domain name and hosting is always a better idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author corv
    I've been with Squidoo for years, but I feel it's time for me to get out. Their new filters lock lenses automatically without any human checking them, and it's nearly impossible to get them unlocked. No clear reason is given except generic message about "low quality content". New rules that don't make any sense are added nearly every day, for example it's now forbidden to have lenses with titles like "Best X of 2013". And they want "personal stories" in every lens.

    Not to mention, the earnings have been falling for half a year now.

    Oh, and the global nofollow thing is relatively new, so it's no wonder not everyone is aware of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Theeban
    Originally Posted by govomg View Post

    Hey warriors
    Is squidoo still a viable option for building Amazon niche sites,or any affiliate niche sites actually. Thanks Mark
    If you have your own website and promote Amazon products on it, you will have all the control on your hand. If you are using other people's site to promote your affiliate products - It is a real BIG risk. Of course there are successful stories, on the other hand there are many cases where Squidoo had unpublish all lenses/pages and suspend accounts...- You can search this forum to find such stories and read those.

    I would say, "Look before you leap"
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt@viewswin
    Wow, good thread. Thanks everyone
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  • Profile picture of the author JRoo
    Just logged in today to find my top earning lens is locked and cannot be edited. The last thing I did on the lens was move around some modules and change some of the text. The "quality filter" said 100%, way to go! There are a couple hundred bucks worth of sales pending on this lens which I will never get since they locked it they will donate all of that to charity. I am officially done with Squidoo...taking the few lenses I had left there and moving them to my own site like I should have from the beginning. I'm new to all this stuff and it was working for awhile, but I learned the hard lesson not to put your work in control of someone else. I will never waste my precious time writing on Squidoo again.
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    • Profile picture of the author DTGeorge
      Originally Posted by JRoo View Post

      Just logged in today to find my top earning lens is locked and cannot be edited. The last thing I did on the lens was move around some modules and change some of the text. The "quality filter" said 100%, way to go! There are a couple hundred bucks worth of sales pending on this lens which I will never get since they locked it they will donate all of that to charity. I am officially done with Squidoo...taking the few lenses I had left there and moving them to my own site like I should have from the beginning. I'm new to all this stuff and it was working for awhile, but I learned the hard lesson not to put your work in control of someone else. I will never waste my precious time writing on Squidoo again.
      Put simply, NEVER make your base where you earn the majority of your money on a platform that you can't fully control.

      While sites like Squidoo and other revshare's have that purpose, it should be to support your main site, and all other purposes should be secondary
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  • Profile picture of the author mohsinmallik
    Originally Posted by govomg View Post

    Hey warriors
    Is squidoo still a viable option for building Amazon niche sites,or any affiliate niche sites actually. Thanks Mark
    You cannot depend on a third party platform to build your business because you never know when they will shut down your website showing a reason and ruin your whole business.
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  • Profile picture of the author UnkwnUsr
    Squidoo can still be valuable if you know how to use it. They don't want lenses that primarily promote your main site or an affiliate offer. However, if you can write good product reviews, curate lists of content (with some of your own thrown in) you can do quite well. One thing many people don't realize is that if your page is converting amazon or ebay offers it will automatically get more exposure on the site. You can make decent money without ever ranking the lens in google.
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  • Profile picture of the author thatjc
    I spent a lot of time and energy on Squidoo and had a very popular lens for a couple of years. Last month it was locked.

    Lesson learned - as so many say above, don't depend on other owner's sites for business, unless you just enjoy using them for the pure fun of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    no, it should only be one strategy to using WEB 2.0 or to content curate.

    There are literally 944 ways to getting traffic to ones site. Well....ok.... maybe not 944 ways, there are probably more.

    I think to be a smart IM'er is to keep using the traffic strategies that keep giving you the best results. If articles are, then you should definatly use places like squidoo and other WEB 2.0 vehicles.
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  • Profile picture of the author jllagu01
    Originally Posted by govomg View Post

    Hey warriors
    Is squidoo still a viable option for building Amazon niche sites,or any affiliate niche sites actually. Thanks Mark
    Squidoo still remains to be one of the top article sites there is despite its flaws. However, lately they ran into some problems with their filters and erroneously banned or locked out some lenses. Search in Google and you'd know that many lensmasters ran into these problems.

    One time, I created a lens about smoothies and got locked out. Mind you, I never linked to any products or sites and I focused on quality content but they still locked me out and I never got to publish it. Never got any apologies or email from their customer support (I don't even know if they're real). Their new policy is so frustrating, I don't like it. I've read somewhere that if your topic is about health or dieting (and smoothies is probably added under these filters), then they will not publish them. I decided to publish the same article to Hubpages, and was featured a few hours later. I also got decent traffic from there.

    So my suggestion, stay with Squidoo if you want but there are better sites that can give you more traction without the headache.
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  • Profile picture of the author dynamyt100
    Having your own site is always first prize. I use Squidoo for backlinks and hence rank and it seems to help.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by dynamyt100 View Post

      I use Squidoo for backlinks and hence rank
      You haven't noticed that they're all no-follow backlinks, then?
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesBorg
    Squidoo is for chumps. If you want to write FREE content for OTHERS... on THEIR fickle but always anal terms... with little to no monetary reward for YOU... editing Wikipedia articles is a better hobby.
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  • Profile picture of the author mervp
    When we consider that SEO marketing does not have to be the center of everything, Squidoo has continued usefulness as a source of direct follow through traffic. The no-follow links do not have direct SEO value (though if a particular lens of yours itself ranks high, there will be a lot of indirect SEO traffic coming in from it, via human/link-through traffic).

    The bigger picture is to build traffic to your site via both the SEO pathway (ranking, follow-through links) and through non-SEO methods as well (no-follow links from relevant, highly trafficked sites and pages). Squidoo makes most sense used in the latter sense. In a SEO context, putting up a lens can be said to be "sending traffic to somebody else's site," but in a non-SEO context, when you are creating a funnel for visitors without regard to ranking tactics, putting up the lens merely means you are accepting they weren't first going to go to your site anyway, so let's try to catch them exiting the related sites they do visit.

    In truth, many people do not go the search engines first, they just go to their favorite or highest authority sites first, and use the links or internal search functions on those massively trafficked sites to go everywhere else. So if you use Squidoo, you can build it for that secondary follow-through link universe, and still derive good relevant traffic from it.
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesBorg
      Originally Posted by mervp View Post

      In truth, many people do not go the search engines first, they just go to their favorite or highest authority sites first, and use the links or internal search functions on those massively trafficked sites to go everywhere else. So if you use Squidoo, you can build it for that secondary follow-through link universe, and still derive good relevant traffic from it.
      I wonder how many people actually go to Squidoo and run searches, though. If a site like YouTube didn't have videos ranking in the SERPS, you could still depend on a ton of people using YouTube's internal search. But Squidoo's internal search?
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      • Profile picture of the author Sandra Martinez
        Originally Posted by JamesBorg View Post

        I wonder how many people actually go to Squidoo and run searches, though. If a site like YouTube didn't have videos ranking in the SERPS, you could still depend on a ton of people using YouTube's internal search. But Squidoo's internal search?
        The community used to be active. I haven´t been around there for a couple of months, so I don´t know how it is working right now. I do know that many big players moved on. And that some of my lenses that were on first page of google are not there anymore.

        I will probably keep adding lenses from time to time, but it is not a good moment to use it if you don´t have an investment already.
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  • Profile picture of the author rtldanas
    they might be no follow links,but if you ever read any SEO articles or if you already have experience in SEO you should now that google requires not only do follow but also some no follow links,so they might actaully help your site
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesBorg
      Originally Posted by rtldanas View Post

      they might be no follow links,but if you ever read any SEO articles or if you already have experience in SEO you should now that google requires not only do follow but also some no follow links,so they might actaully help your site
      The dofollow/nofollow-diversity thing is the usual SEO speculation that gains traction when enough SEO heads repeat it without any kind of rigorous analysis (it just "sounds right"), eventually getting elevated to the state of Google Says.

      Admittedly I don't really take Matt Cutts' word for much of anything, but he recently seemed to deny the whole dofollow/nofollow-diversity requirement:

      Matt Cutts: Too Many nofollow Links Won't Hurt Your Google Search Rankings - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

      (Edit: Hmm, my bad. At issue here is whether too few nofollow links will hurt rankings. Cutts' answer isn't precise enough to be useful on this point, it would seem: "But for the most part, nofollow links are dropped out of our link graph as we're crawling the web, and so those links that are nofollow should not affect you from an algorithmic point of view.")
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  • Profile picture of the author bilbobaggins
    Did you know that Hubpages has now overtaken Squidoo in terms of traffic.

    I have a soft spot for Squidoo as I was able to make some really good money there. But the traffic has really disappeared in the second half of this year.
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  • Profile picture of the author ZerocooI
    Having your own site is always first prize. I use Squidoo for backlinks and hence rank and it seems to help.
    Squidoo used to be a good thing for affiliates but they are now nofollow and extremely have strict guidelines so I don't use them anymore its to much of a hassle.
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  • Profile picture of the author acreewaqj
    You are better off posting articles on your own site in order to maintain full control.
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  • Profile picture of the author JRJWrites
    Squidoo is slowly losing momentum. Invest time in yourself, and your own website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    Having your own site is always first prize. I use Squidoo for backlinks and hence rank and it seems to help.
    But links from Squidoo are nofollow links, so I don't think they are of any value.
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  • Profile picture of the author CrossCreations
    Lens of the Day Today on Squidoo? 5 Reasons to Knit Chicken Sweaters
    I'm serious!
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  • Profile picture of the author ViralMediaBoost
    Fiverr is the new money maker which is basically amazing $5 per order imagine 1 order per day its much better than Squidoo and can become a huge profitable site if you become popular.
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    • Profile picture of the author passiveincomebiz
      Why would someone build a "money site" on squidoo is beyond me
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Delos
      Originally Posted by ViralMediaBoost View Post

      Fiverr is the new money maker which is basically amazing $5 per order imagine 1 order per day its much better than Squidoo and can become a huge profitable site if you become popular.
      You're comparing apples and oranges...
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    UnkwnUsr:

    your wrote that squidoo not like lenses about to promotie your own business (website) or about amazon products.......

    With that,it makes no sense to write great content about an amazon product to maker sales through squidoo as affiliate?

    Or does squidoo only locked lenses without have the squidoo affiliate modul on it who split their comissions with squidoo (that is their business model)?

    So they locked out only people who not will spend comissions with squidoo?

    Alexa: what do you mean with that;
    "people with an incentive/investment in promoting Squidoo, because they're selling Squidoo-oriented advice/services/information here"

    What are squidoo oriented services?
    ???

    marco005
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Szalok
      Squidoo locked lens randomly. They have some new automatic filter, that locks even the best/oldest lenses on the site. Don't touch Squidoo, they were the best 2 years ago, now they are disgusting. I wouldn't piss on Squidoo even it were on fire
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