Squidlog.net

Bye, Bye, SquidLog

Anne Corcino — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 01:30:38 +0000

The original crew of SQUIDOO’s most engaged lensmasters has moved on to greener pastures.

Unless we see a new crop of crazy loyal fans who are willing to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with the world, we will board up the shop.(...)
Read the rest of Bye, Bye, SquidLog (36 words)

Farewell Squidoo

AJ — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 11:57:58 +0000

AJ Ashley

After five and a half years on Squidoo, I deleted my two accounts on November 16, 2013. There was a total of 201 lenses, which I am now in the process of filtering through and republishing elsewhere. This will be those that either have special meaning to me or which I believe can still earn an income.

Friends have asked me why I deleted all the lenses and not keep some published but having given it a lot of thought before I did it, I realised that I needed a complete break from Squidoo. It was too time consuming. The financial returns, when compared to the amount of time it took to not only maintain lenses but also keep revising each time a new policy was introduced, were simply no longer worth it.

I have many happy memories of my time on Squidoo, particularly the first three years and I learned a completely new set of skills that I can utilise going forward. I have also made some very special friends.

However, I genuinely believe that sites like Squidoo are in for a very rough ride going forward and they will need very savvy Management Teams who can not only intepret what Google now wants, but also apply the correct policies to ensure their sites continue to be viable, not just to generate income to maintain the sites, and pay the Staff, but also for the members.

Google Pagerank was updated recently and the warning signs are there. Squidoo Page Rank has dropped to 6 and when I left the site, traffic was still struggling to maintain an upwards trend. My traffic plummetted to only 10% of what it was during the same period last year and my income suffered tremedously. Although the traffic was very slowly rising, my income continued to fall I just did not see either traffic or income improving quickly enough to justify my continuing on the site.

And yes, I also have issues with the way the site is run, what HQ is doing to what seems like “re-invent” the site and how they appear to be favoriting some members, while ignoring anyone who offers constructive criticism.

I do believe that niche-focussed sites are what Google will want more and more going forward and this is what I will be concentrating on in 2014. I have already set up some new sites and once they have become established, I will share what I learn on my own blog.

If you would like to know in more detail why I left Squidoo and join me on my journey “Beyond Squidoo” then check out Why I Left Squidoo – Part 1.

In the meantime, I wish everyone all the best and hope that you are happy and successful in whatever route you choose to take.

Image: How my Avatars evolved during my time on Squidoo.

My Squidoo Account Has Been Locked, 838 Lenses

lakeerieartists — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 16:29:46 +0000

To show you that no one is immune to the clean up that Squidoo has been going through in the last few months, my own account was locked last Friday. I do not have more than one account, so as you can imagine I was horrified, furious and incredulous.

Over the past week, I spent almost all of my time, going through my account, saving the lenses to my computer. Then I went through them to come up with a list of 100 that I could ask to save per the instructions on the email that I got. I am a Giant Squid, even now, so I did get better treatment than those who are not.

In the process, I deleted over 500 lenses, and now have only 255 left. I tried to save the ones I was making money with, my favorites, and the best. I don’t always agree with Squidoo as to what is the best, which is why I saved all of them to my computer.

While working through this with the powers that be, I learned a few things which I will tell you now.

Squidoo is no longer a site that you will be able to make easy money on. They are frowning on commercial lenses, and want each lens to tell a personal story.
Whether you believe it or not, the staff at Squidoo are not evil and they are trying to deal with their new directives the best way they can. I personally feel that they could do a better job communicating with the community, but in turn, we as the community need to tone down our rhetoric. Shouting and railing at people who are already stressed out does not help anyone.
I need to take a break from Squidoo. I have resigned my post as a RocketSquid Greeter because I do not feel that I can help newbies anymore. I want to teach people how to make money online, and that is not what Squidoo wants.
If you want to save your lenses from being locked, then you need to make sure that there are no other sites copying your work, and if there are, file a DCMA. You also need to remove any copied content from product descriptions and rewrite them in your own words. You need to give your lenses a voice.
Squidoo really does want personal content. Personal content can sell, if you have the right topic, but it is harder to do this. Here is one of my lenses that is personal and also sells. Best Computer Printer for College Students

I am going to take a hiatus from this blog, but am going to continue blogging about making money online on Writing Online. I hope that you will follow me there. You can get the posts in your email, and I will be talking about alternatives to writing on Squidoo. For those of you who love Squidoo, but are looking for a similar place to spread out to, I recommend Zujava because it is the closest to the way Squidoo works. Wizzley is also a great site, but it works more like Hubpages.

I will be pursuing a career in freelance writing, and working more on my own sites, where I have total control over the content. I do not agree with Squidoo as to what Google wants nor do I agree with them about what readers want. The proof of that is that I have had regular sales on my Squidoo account continually through the loss of traffic. However, we will have to agree to disagree because that is just the way it is. Squidoo is looking at its site as a whole, and I am looking at my income and earnings from Squidoo that feed my family and help me run my business.

I am thankful that I still have an account on Squidoo while I transition to a new type of income source. To find out more about that, follow me on Writing Online.

It’s Not All About You: Making Lenses More Personal

lakeerieartists — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:06:56 +0000

A fellow lensmaster, marciag, started a discussion today on Facebook, and I thought it warranted a post here on Squidlog. She is a well-established lensmaster who has a regular income from her lenses, and was talking about adding personalization on her lenses as SquidooHQ has been asking us to do since March. This post from Bonnie give us an outline of what they are asking us to do.

After being on Squidoo 5 years, (I had my Squidoo anniversary last week), I thought that I would urge a bit of caution as you try to comply to the changes that Squidoo is asking us to do. As lensmasters, we always need to keep in mind that Squidoo staff are reacting to the whims of Google, and the new trends and guidelines from Google. They are doing their jobs in working to make Squidoo as a website rank better on Google with the general outcome that lenses as a whole will do better, and continue to make money for Squidoo.

However, what helps Squidoo as a whole may not necessarily help you specifically as a lensmaster.

Squidoo is working steadily on clearing out a lot of the spam and junk that has littered the site for a very long time. This is well overdue, and sorely needed. We may not agree with Squidoo on what is spam or junk. Squidoo wants to get rid of the lenses that Google will ding the site for, or that are pure spam. In the process, they are instituting new rules and new guidelines as to how to create a lens, and what is no longer acceptable.

While I agree that Squidoo should clean out a lot of spam from the site, I differ in my opinion with what is worthwhile to keep, and what changes should be made. This is because they are looking at a presentation model for the site (in other words what Squidoo looks like), and I am looking at a profitability model for the site (what we earn from our work there).

Presentation

Squidoo wants to look good in the eyes of Google. Google has a lot of power to upgrade or downgrade the site’s visibility in the giant search engine. By looking good in Google’s eyes, Squidoo succeeds in maintaining a good reputation. This good reputation can help with many things, not the least of which is the overall valuation of Squidoo, if the site should ever be up for sale.

Profitability

Most lensmasters are on Squidoo to make money. This is my primary goal. I want to earn money from the work that I have done over the last 5 years, and I do have a monthly income from my lens portfolio. I would like to maintain and continue to grow this for as long as possible.

Changing the Rules

To this end, Squidoo has been changing the rules that we as lensmasters must follow to keep our lenses active. While in general, their advice is good, we also have to keep in mind that our time is worth money, and it might be better spent creating new content than continuously tweaking and updating old content.

Here are some comparisons of what Squidoo is advising us to do, and what I believe we should do:

Squidoo: Delete cookie cutter and spam lenses.

lakeerieartists: If you are a spammer, I won’t miss you, but if you are like me and created lenses in groups, which are somewhat like cookie cutter lenses, then leave them alone. There is nothing wrong with them.

***

Squidoo: Add personal stories to every lens.

lakeerieartists: Every lens is not about you. And frankly, I do not want to wade through your entire life story on each of your lenses. If your story is relative to your topic, great. If not, I would rather learn stuff about the item on your lens. My interpretation of what Squidoo is asking for is a higher amount of text to each lens. The text should be valuable but doesn’t actually have to be about you.

***

Squidoo: Add your own pictures to each lens.

lakeerieartists: Sorry, I am not a photographer. Some pictures by other people, including the manufacturer of what I am promoting, selling or referring are better than mine. Manufacturers would rather have you use their good pictures than your bad ones. If your personal pictures make sense, then add them. If not, don’t.

***

Squidoo: We will be continuing to refine the filter which means the lens you fixed yesterday that passed the filter may not today.

lakeerieartists: Okay, while I understand your need to clean up the site, I have a life, and cannot update Squidoo lenses every day to keep up with your schedule. I have, and I will make my lenses better, especially if they are making money for me, but I will have to do it when I have time, because I still have bills to pay, and updating my lenses constantly does not pay them.

***

Squidoo: We may need to lock your lens if you don’t comply even if you have been a loyal, supportive member for the last 5 years.

lakeerieartists: Well, that is going to be your loss if you do, because I am smart enough to find new ways to make money, and there are lots of content sites out there. Yes, they are not all Squidoo, but so what? If I create enough content, I can make the money I need. In the meantime, I have a business to run, a family to feed and spend time with, and I am not going to let you increase my blood pressure right now. I have enough real things going on in my life that do that for me. If you do decide to lock one of my lenses, I will just put the content somewhere else where it can do me good.

***

Squidoo: We want you to create amazing content!

lakeerieartists: I have been creating good solid content for the last 5 years. Yes, in the beginning it wasn’t as good. There are probably lenses that I could let go of. Most of my content is not amazing, but frankly, most people do not need amazing content, they just need content that answers their questions or their need. My content is adding value to the site, and I know this because people are finding it, and buying stuff from it. I have continued to tweak it over the years to mirror what people are looking for.

***
My biggest problem with all the changes that Squidoo is asking for right now is that I am not willing to deplete my lenses of the valuable ingredients that I have included in each one just to meet the new expectations. While I am willing to work to keep my work in the forefront of Google, I am not willing to forget everything that I have learned to do so.

Here are the things that I am going to keep on my lenses:

The keywords that drive people to my pages who buy
The on-page SEO that induces people to buy more
The valuable backlinks that I have built from related articles, blogs, and sites to drive traffic to my pages
The referral links to what I am selling.

If doing this is not conducive to Squidoo’s new state of the website, then eventually I will have to find a new home for my content. I will not be able to earn an income at Squidoo because these are still the things that drive traffic to my lenses. Nothing has convinced me that has changed.

The bottom line is that keyword research is still what drives traffic and good content is still what keeps them there. People are happy if you give them what they are looking for. Full stop.

Image credit: diongillard CC 2.0

Round and Round the Mulberry Bush with Squidoo

lakeerieartists — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:21:17 +0000

Just like the rest of you, I have been frustrated by the rapid changes on Squidoo. Unlike many of you, however, I went through a similar process when Hubpages found themselves slapped by Google a few years ago. And while I don’t always agree with Squidoo’s communication methods or their decisions, I still feel that Squidoo as a website has a lot more to offer than any similar site online.

That being said, I have decided to spread out my writing to several other sites, some of which I was already on, and others that are new to my experience. This is a good time of year to test out some theories and try new things, since the second half of the year is always better for selling just about anything.

For those of you who need a break from Squidoo, want to diversify, or just try some new content sites, let me enumerate the ones that I will be spending some time on:

Zujava–Zujava is fairly new, and very similar to Squidoo in how it works. It is still very small so that there is room for most topics, and they staying on top of quality control from the getgo. (Before you get too far into your rant about Squidoo’s quality control, realize that Squidoo is a much older site, and its standards were established in a different Google atmosphere.) Zujava pays out tier payments directly, and you can also earn from Amazon.

Wizzley–Wizzley is now about two years old. It is a bit more similar to Hubpages, than Squidoo. On Wizzley, which I have been on since its inception, my earnings have been going up recently. It seems that Google is pretty happy with the progress that they have made over the last six months or so. On Wizzley, you can earn from Adsense or Chitika, Amazon, and Viglink.

InfoBarrel–I signed up for InfoBarrel two years ago and only wrote one article. I am going to write some more there now to try it out. InfoBarrel allows you to earn from Adsense and Amazon.

Seekyt–Seekyt is like a cross between Pinterest and an article site. It has the look of Pinterest, and articles only need to be 2000 characters which is about 350 to 400 words. This site earns money from Adsense, Amazon, and Chitika.

Over the next few months, I will be expanding my article base on all of these sites and see which ones perform the best, or if they perform in conjunction with each other. I plan to leave as many of my lenses on Squidoo as possible, because I still like that site quite a bit, and I do well there. My prediction is that after the dust settles, we will see that Squidoo regains traffic over time. I am willing to wait it out.

In addition to content sites like ones mentioned above, I am seeking new ways to earn money writing online, and this is through freelance content sites that pay directly for content. There are many of these. Some pay better than others, and several are difficult to get permission to write. Most of them have some sort of qualifications testing requirements. Here are the sites that I am aware of personally:

iwriter.com–I buy some content from this site and it runs the gamut from good to bad. The best thing is to be rated 5 stars and get the best writing gigs there. A lot of the work is pretty easy to do though.

CloudCrowd–I like writing here when they have work for me, because they pay the same day your work gets approved which is usually the day you write it. Assignments are short and long, and there are a variety of topics.

Demand Studios–This site requires experienced writers from various backgrounds. You need to apply with a writing sample and a resume for the section that you want to write for. Much more demanding for quality than the average site.

WriterAccess–I have just learned about this site, and will be applying here. No information yet.

Write.com–This is supposed to be difficult to get into. I have not tried myself yet.

Besides these two types of sites, there are numerous freelancers sites like Elance and ODesk. These sites are for people who want to find their clients themselves, and deal directly with them. Writers bid for jobs, and take tests to qualify for specific skills. If you want to start a real freelance writing career, these sites are a great place to start.

These sites listed here are only ones that I have had direct or indirect interaction with. If you know of other places that you would like to add to this list, please feel free to put it in the comments below.

Image credit

The New Keyword Density Dance

lakeerieartists — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:41:53 +0000

With the downward turn in overall Squidoo traffic, and the soon-to-be-released Panda 2.0 algorithm from Google, it is clear that Squidoo powers that be are revamping the rules on the site to clean up the level of spam, junk, and rule breaking content on Squidoo in the world according to Google.

Google is the prime player in search engine technology with the majority of searches run on Google. Therefore, when Google says that something is bad, we need to sit up and take notice. Recently, SearchEngineLand came out with a pictorial view on how search engine optimization works. This chart can really boil down the main factors for most writers to give you an idea of what Google is now considering as crucial factors in search engine technology.

One of the problems is keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is overuse of a keyword in an article with the intention of having this tactic push the article higher in the search engines. This is not to say that you shouldn’t do keyword research when you write a post, article, or lens. You should. Keyword research is as valid as ever. However, overuse of the keyword is not.

What has happened over time is that Google’s search engine technology is developing more sophisticated ways to detect content, and keyword stuffing is no longer the way to get your content noticed, at least in a positive way. It is still a good idea to use your keyword in your url, title, and module titles. However, to balance that usage, you need enough text content to dilute your keyword density to between approximately 2% to 5% of your total words. This includes the entire lens, tags, sales modules, introduction, and content of any kind.

Squidoo is working to get back into Google’s good graces. While this may annoy you personally, it makes sense from a business point of view because Google is where most of Squidoo’s income comes from. The measures they are taking to comply with Google may seem draconian to you, but the reason is to rework Squidoo’s image in the eyes of Google.

It is completely clear from articles on the HQ blog, that keyword density is a very big emphasis right now. So it is time to let go of all that SEO experts were touting a few years ago, and get up to date with the new reality. If you want to maintain your content on Squidoo, you will need to double-check the keyword density on all of your Squidoo content.

Image source CC 2.0

What Makes a Backlink Bad?

lakeerieartists — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:59:48 +0000

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I joined a site named Squidoo. During the first year that I was a member, I was taught that creating as many backlinks as possible to my lenses was a good idea because it would make the lenses do better on Google search, thereby giving me more traffic. And so I linked everywhere, some places that are now defunct. You may have heard of some of them, Delicious, Tagfoot, Digg, and on and on.

It took me two years to unlearn that strategy, and to learn how to write lenses that did well do to keyword research. Keyword research was so much more efficient. I could get so much more traffic with much less effort. However, I did still create backlinks with short articles on other sites.

When Panda and Penguin first rolled out, it was clear that Google was taking another look at backlinks. They started to decimate the paid backlink services like Build My Rank and other sites. This type of backlinking was no longer a valid SEO strategy. Google has continued down this road since that point in time and they are only getting more strict in this matter. If you are buying links, trading links, or bookmarking at a rapid rate, you are wasting your time and your money. Google is downgrading sites that do this on a regular basis. They are working to bring back the original backlink, one that had real value.

Squidoo has been attacked by spammers of all kinds. This is not news to those of us who have been on the site for years. And they are working to clean it up. This week they came out with the newest cleaning filter which is looking for spammy backlinks. It is clear to me that backlinks from specific sites are being blacklisted while accounts with laundry lists of spam backlinks are being examined. These add no value to Squidoo, and in fact, detract value from the site.

Personally, I do not think that there is any reason for lensmasters to panic unless you have been actively adding spam backlinks. If you have, then you have not been listening to Google over the last two years. However, if you are in question about a lens that gets locked you can appeal the decision. It is possible for filters to make mistakes.

There is still value in valid backlinks. These are backlinks that link from related content or interest from readers. If you have lenses that are on the same general topic, blog posts, or articles on other sites that relate to what you have written you should link those together. A reader will want to go from one to the other.

In the end, a writer needs to think like the person who will be attracted to his work. If you think the links add value to your lens, whether outgoing or incoming, then go ahead and link. If not, then don’t. By following this practice, you will be doing the right thing.

Product Reviews for Dummies (or Newbies)

lakeerieartists — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:12:23 +0000

I have been involved in a discussion on Yuku with some other lensmasters regarding sales lenses and product reviews, and I thought that I would write this post as a guide for people who are afraid to dip their toes into the product review water, so to speak, because they can’t figure out what to review or how to make it different from the millions of other product reviews.

One of my biggest pieces of advice for new lensmasters is to write what you know. Google is now emphasizing this attitude with the downgrading of empty pages and upgrading of unique content. I have discussed this in a previous post, and this is also what Squidoo is now reacting to with their site improvements.

One of the biggest frustrations for newer lensmasters is understanding that to make money on Squidoo it is necessary to sell something. This means that they need to in some way, shape, or form do a product review. This can be in the form of a “how to” lens, an informational lens, or a product review lens.

Today I want to discuss more about product review lenses, because these are the ones that seem to intimidate people the most. One of the reasons they are intimidating is that people think that they don’t know anything about interesting products. This is completely untrue! I have learned that if you are interested in something, other people are too. Each of us has experience that we can share with people who want to learn about it.

I thought that I would share a lens with you that I wrote on the spur of the moment after taking my daughter to college for the first time. The lens is called Best Computer Printer for College Students, and it essentially discusses our search for a computer printer that was small enough to fit into the dorm room space that my daughter had at the time. She is now finishing her sophomore year at school and her printer was one of the best purchases that we have ever made.

As you can see by the lens, it is a simple basic lens written about why we chose this particular printer. It was chosen not because it was the best or the best price, but because the size of it fit on her shelf. It is a simple as pie, down to business printer that she prints her college papers with.

This is a product review. It is not in depth, nor does it point out too many features. Frankly, the printer doesn’t have very many features. This is mostly about having a daughter in college and meeting her needs. And I have to tell you that I have had many sales of printers from this lens.

What I am trying to point out is that a product review doesn’t have to be so much about the product as about the people who use the product. And that is what readers will resonate with. Sure, you can write product reviews about stuff that you don’t use, but why? Why not start with stuff that you do use?

Think about your daily routine and what you buy on a regular basis. Can you find just one thing that you use that you love? Or that you chose for personal reasons? Or that your kids love? You get the idea. Telling a story is what will draw your readers in. Then you can just tell them why you love this item or service, and walah! You have written a product review.

Why Can’t I Get Sales on My Squidoo Lenses?

Making Money on Squidoo without Being in the Top Tier

Remodeling Old Lenses

lakeerieartists — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:02:30 +0000

I wrote in the last post that I had been hit by the new standards filter on Squidoo, as I had expected. I am happy to announce that I have managed to get all of my lenses out of the doghouse, and the flags are gone.

However, I do not believe that this is the end of what we will be hearing from Squidoo, because passing the filter just means that we have done the minimum necessary to get rid of the flag. I have been thinking about that a lot because I would like to see my work get back into Google’s good graces, as I am sure that most of you would as well. So I am running an experiment to determine if adding a lot more content to my lenses will change their fortune significantly.

I am starting with lenses that are near the top of my list of lenses that are already getting good traffic. This way if the traffic and sales pick up, it will be noticeable more quickly. As you might have guessed, I have a lot of sales lenses. That is because I like to sell and I like to make money. That is no secret by now. I decided for this experiment, I would change about 10 lenses of different types or templates that I tend to use a lot.

The lenses that I am changing either focus on Ebay sales, Amazon sales, or both together. They will be in several different topic categories including fashion, education, and collectibles as well as others that I write in often. For these lenses, I am not taking anything off unless it is an out of date product or information. What I am doing instead is adding relevant information, links, and anything else that I think will add value to this page.

As an example, I am using a lens that I originally wrote 2 years ago in April 2011. It is well established and typically sits in Tier 2 on Squidoo, getting about 900 to 1500 visits per month. This lens, Collecting Antiques: Tea Cups and Saucer Sets, has not been changed much at all since I first wrote it, so it is a good one to experiment on. Yesterday, I spent time adding some content to the lens that is relevant to the niche I was writing about. This lens sends people primarily to Ebay to shop there.

Part of my goal in adding content was to enrich the keywords that would draw people to this page. I will see how much that makes a difference over the next few weeks and months. I will be working on more of these this week and next week because I think just passing the filter may not be good enough for Google, and that we need to do more than that. But other than changing the lens itself, I will not be changing anything else. This will give me a better idea of how the search engines see the lens.

Image by TheLivingRoominKenmore CC 2.0

Getting Hit By the New Filter on Squidoo

lakeerieartists — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:24:41 +0000

As I expected, I got hit by the new standards filter when it swept the Giant Squids accounts last week. In my account of over 800 lenses, I had 208 that were considered substandard according to the new filter.

This was not surprising to me as I have quite a few sales focused lenses that I have on a very simple template.

What I found as I went through and improved my lenses was the following:

Going forward lenses need to be published with a good balance of content which needs to be a mix of the following–text, pictures, sales modules, interactive modules.
You do not need all of those things to pass the filter, but a balance in what you have.
The filter will trigger if you do not have enough text and interactive content to balance sales content.
Keyword stuffing is not allowed. However, if you have enough general content to balance your keywords, then you are doing it right.
Don’t forget about the sidebar widgets. They contribute to the balance.
The interactive modules are necessary to pass the filter. That includes comments, duels, polls and any other module that allows readers to participate on your lens.

My personal lens template usually includes text and sale modules, either Ebay or Amazon or both, a Table of Content module (I prefer that over the one imbedded in the introduction), and a comments modules. For most of my lenses, I had to delete sidebar widgets, add text into sales modules, add interactive modules like polls, until the balance of sales modules was more in sync with the rest of the lens. I will be going back to all of those lenses and adding more text eventually because that will actually help these lenses with search engine traffic. The more text I add, the more keywords I can also add to my lenses.

Personally, although I did not love fixing all of these lenses at one time, I do believe that this is a big step in the right direction for Squidoo, and I applaud what they are doing. It will be easier to get this right with new lenses because we will be able to see before we publish what we have to add to the lens.

On another note, this project has forced me to take a good, hard look at some of my older lenses that clearly needed to be updated. I am sure that I have more in the mix that can with some good cleansing and refreshing. In the meantime, I am still getting sales while this process is going on, and I expect more as the individual lenses and the site as a whole regains Google’s good grace.

My biggest advice to lensmasters is that balance is the key to the filter. Too many of anything will shove your lens off balance and cause your lens to trigger the warning. And that is actually a good thing for us. We all become too focused on our own goals and not always what is good for the site.

In addition, Squidoo is clearly working to please Google’s new standards for detecting spam. For those of you who have trouble understanding this, you may want to read further here.

Image credit: puuikibeach CC 2.0