If you're not happy, pack and leave! The title of this post pretty sums up Squidoo HQ's message to those that aren't happy with all the changes, the double standards, groups that open here and there to praise HQ's decisions and aggressively post about those that don't understand why their hard work was deleted without warning, and so on...
So, if we're not happy we can pack and leave... Makes me think to Dion and the Belmont's song "Little Diane"...
"I wanta pack and leave and slap your face
Bad girls like you are a disgrace..."
However, the song wouldn't fit the one that tells us to leave and we aren't bad at all even though Squidoo doesn't like us any more and despite the general message that's been sent these past months.
It wouldn't fit with my mind either since deep inside I don't cry... I'm just angry! Angry because they ruined my 6+ years hard work, because they don't want to listen to people who are accustomed working with search engines, optimizing pages to comply with SE new rules, who understand what Google and other SE actually want. Because the most important thing that HQ seems to overlook is that traffic is still dropping dramatically along with sales.
I'm also angry because a few days ago I landed to a post made by one of the high instances of Squidoo that I highly respected all these years, I looked at this person like an ethical marketer, working with integrity and never playing that "sending bunches of flowers your way even though you're killing me" game that's so trendy in the community. At first sight, I was upset, next I became angry. So the game's still on...
Next, I noticed that an HQ member suddenly follows me on Pinterest. Why? Why am I followed by this person after all these years without this individual never having taken an eye to my work?
Oh, if it only stopped there... but no, old timers and great writers are once again hit and see their best pages locked... Even those that don't sell anything, that tell personal stories, that relate to general history or else. Now that might just be the filters that are getting mad... but still, HQ doesn't seem to bother.
And what about the wave of lenses locked for out of our control happenings! Backlinks, for example. How can you control WHO links to your lens? And even so, if 10,000 people linked to each of your 200 lenses, how do you keep track of these links, how do you make sure these are safe links? How do you make sure these links aren't on Squidoo's black list? Why should YOU be penalized for someone else's behaviors?
I read somewhere that paranoia is setting in... Yes, it is. I'm also getting paranoid. I've never had faith in all what they did and often asked for clarification about whatever subject but these past months have been extremely hard for lensmasters, including me. And I definitely wonder what's the goal behind all these events.
To say the truth, I'm getting so paranoid that I'm seriously envisaging that they're going to come with a new filter right before the start of the Halloween season. Just to ruin their old timers' hard work, because we have Halloween lenses that perform pretty well... and losing this income - that's dropping like a stone - would make us all leave.
If you're not happy with us, pack and leave... Yes, I could pack and leave, however I built traffic to my Squidoo lenses, I worked hard to make them comply with their constantly changing rules. I don't see why I would leave... All I can do right now is keeping the lenses as they are, they still make me money - nothing to talk about, though - and wait for the holiday season to begin. Then from the earnings, I'll see what to do with those lenses: moving all of them to my niche sites and other platforms or leaving them on Squidoo, updating from time to time.
Well there have been a few years of fun but Squidoo isn't fun any more. Not at all... with all the fear, the suspicion, the duplicity, the double standards. The way things are going I don't see a future for Squidoo itself, at least the way it used to be for us. One day, the site might be well be just a site like eZineArticles, one that doesn't pay for your content.
Some will be happy - the flower senders - other won't - those will pack and leave.
Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66
I used to write for eHow and had over 400 articles on that site. At a certain point, they realized they had grown too fast and were loaded with junky articles.
ReplyDeleteThe started having mass purges to clear these out. Writers were upset, some left, some tried to adjust to the changes... During this period, eHow had continual problems with their editing and publishing software as they tried to structure the writing to prevent more junk from creeping in.
(is this starting to sound familiar?)
About this time, I backed off writing new articles and started creating over at Squidoo. My eHow articles were still producing residual earnings. Finally the site closed the writer's compensation program and set up a structured writing/editorial oversight with one-time-pay for articles.
This killed all creativity and individuality on the site and the potential to really earn. Before long, they cut off the residuals and offered a buyout to many writers.
My articles are still there but without my byline. I took my buyout and tried to put the whole unpleasant degeneration of the site out of my mind.
The whole range of activities going on at Squidoo is very upsetting. It brings back the way eHow spiraled out-of-control. Sad to see.
Indeed this looks and sounds familiar. And having to face the same kind of troubles once again must be highly frustrating.
DeleteNow just thinking about them taking the same way as eHow... oh my, I just don't want to think about it.