Thread: Squidoo as a Social Network?

Recently I've begun playing with Squidoo again as a means of getting backlinks, and I hadn't noticed they've implemented a new points/trophies/levels system, but now that I'm actively building lenses again I've taken a look at what it all means.

One of the first things that happened when I logged in after several months away is the request to check and see if any of my email friends were using Squidoo, though once that has been done I don't see any easy ways of communicating with friends, but I guess that is only a matter of time, with the development Squidoo are undertaking surely going from being a content based website to a minor social network is just a matter of time.

What was really interesting though is the emphasis they're placing on growing lenses rather than just leaving them and taking the link juice, in fact Squidoo are now putting lenses back into WIP mode if they don't get enough traffic or have enough content, and as soon as that happens the lens loses its effectiveness as a backlink because all links revert to nofollow.

What this means is that Squidoo are pushing lens owners to keep updating their lenses, and to be more social on the site if they want to continue to benefit from the linkjuice and traffic. Being pragmatic, that suggests to me that anyone who seriously wants to use Squidoo for SEO might as well also use the site to earn additional income because otherwise the effort you put in to maintaining lenses is wasted.

Squidoo website

Hi,

I thinks it great ideas. It gets rid of all the junk, and the spammers. Being a squid angel we also have the ability to ding the lens get a few dings and it will lock your lens.

Also out going links are based now on word count. I do not know what that nunber is but you can only have so many outgoing links to the same site.

They also have a filter to stop the posting of spam certain topics you can no longer post, like online movies, forex and stuff. The page must be reviews first before it is even allowed to go live. They are also in the process to stop clip copy paste posts so that the content is to be unique.

Yes, you can talk to other members you do it at the bottom of the bio page.

As the levels go you get cool gifts. Kinda like they do here. When I got to enough points I got an ad for one of my lens that posted it on the squidoo search in the side bar. I could pick the lens I wanted to promote.

Sami

That's interesting about the number of outgoing links. Do you know if it is to one page, or to a URL? For example if I create a lens about my cityguide, and put 5 or 6 deep links to my site is that too much?

Hi,

It is to the URL. I have still seen 5 and 6 even seen 8 going to the same url. It is based on the overall word count of the lens.

It stops people from making posts like word link word word link word link link type of lens that spammers were doing.

Or just

link link link link link and nothing else.

With a little involvement you can make some good money at squidoo. I have only 80 lens and make around $50 each mo.

I have site that have over 80 pages that don't make me $50 a mo.

Sami

I've been reading a lot of lenses this weekend from people who earn more than $500 a month, that would be a nice little bit of extra income, and doing lenses for my SEO clients in Spain means I always have fresh material, but if I can add to it...

Hi,

Yes people even make more I know of one that makes $2,000 plus. Adding info to each lens is not that big of deal. You never heard this from me OK but all you need to do is edit lens, change a video, add a line, edit a word, or pic hit publish done. your lens will not be locked that way. Again this was done to stop the spammers who make junk accounts for backlinks and never revisit the lens after it was made.

Sami

I didn't hear a thing.....

But actually that seems quite reasonable anyway, I mean if anyone is serious about keeping their lenses fresh most will never need more than just a little at a time. the hard part seems to be getting lenses out of WIP, and for me the problem is that at least 3 of my lenses never did get much love from me.

Now I figure if I'm going to write a 300 word article for ezine, well maybe some of those articles can go into a lens or hubpage instead. Ultimately it doesn't matter where they all go, but the beauty of putting extra content into new Squidoo Lenses is that in time I can build up a healthy bunch of interlinked lenses to throw even more link value at my regular sites.

I've just build my first squidoo lens and I guess I was lucky because the keyword in the url was available. All looks cool except that there are google ads from competitors around the article But, keeping the lens updated with quality content, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Originally Posted by Loko

I've just build my first squidoo lens and I guess I was lucky because the keyword in the url was available. All looks cool except that there are google ads from competitors around the article But, keeping the lens updated with quality content, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Hi,

At one time you could shut some of the ads off. I am not sure now. I have my ads set to full I like my squidoo pay checks

Sami

Thanks for the tips Sami. I found the ad opt out option, it looks like google ads can't be turned off however.

But it's ok, i'm happy to have this keyword page with competitor ads myself rather than a competitor with other competitor ads having it