Laughing out of Loud... Squidoo Did it Again

As stated earlier I took some distance from Squidoo. And I think I did good given the poor numbers in terms of traffic but also in terms of money for the huge lot of work done through the years. December payout is going to be a small one although the end of year holiday period that always brought a lot of money to the site.

Still it seems that HQ doesn't understand how far the joke has gone - too far, of course - and that it's more than time to DO something to help the site recover at least a part of its former prestige. 

Their first problem is having their older lensmasters to whether get back to create lenses or just come back to work on Squidoo although having their accounts deleted by HQ or that they deleted their accounts themselves. However with the way they were treated I seriously doubt they'd agree to do so.

Still it seems that HQ didn't understand (or receive) the general message.

Yesterday I've got my joke of the day from Squidoo. Woke up early, drank my first morning coffee cup and opened my emails.

The first one I saw was one from Squidoo. I was invited to join the contributors club. What a joke! It is not a new type of invitation, I've already got such an invite but didn't reply.

There's nothing particularly secret in this offer, it's just a standard 2-sentence invite to be part of one of their many new clubs I don't care about. But the cherry on the pie is this very standard invite. More particularly the sentence that refers to... the perks we get from being part of their new clubs.

In reality, it just literaly say: "It's a fun program with some neat perks".

That is where I need some more information... I already know these clubs require a huge investment in terms of time and work for a little, very little (or no) reward. But what are these perks? They forgot to list them.

But they might be these ones - make a lens and get this:

1. Daily dose of exercise jumping through our many hoops (exercise is good for the health),
2. Get a FREE LENS LOCK within 24 hours,
3. Struggle for a 1 up to 6 weeks journey trying to figure out how to unlock it,
4. We'll gladly unlock your lens for you after this period.

Isn't life beautiful?

More perks especially designed for you but first update your recently unlocked lens:

5. Daily dose of exercise: tears, laughter, doubts, (such exercises are good for your state of mind),
6. Get a second FREE LOCK within 24 hours after update,
7. Struggle for another 1 up to 6 weeks, etc.
8. Don't cry yet, in the meantime you'll get a cool "LOCKED" trophy,

Still not convinced? Here are some more perks:

9. Daily dose of depression,
10. We'll maybe unlock your lens and let it do its job of getting traffic and... sales,
11. In the event your lens makes you some money, we might lock it,
12. We're unsure as to whether to unlock it for you after the 6 weeks period though,
13. We'll delete your lens after the 6 weeks period (to keep the fun going on, you know),
14. Last perk: you'll get a new cool "DELETION" trophy.

Reminder, just in case:

Although we asked you to join the contributors club, be warned that if our conditions don't meet your needs, you're required to move your content else where along with yourself.

What was my reply?

I could suggest to ask my dog but she's still under shock.

C'mon HQ. Do you really think we're ready to build new lenses, invest a lot of time, energy, work, to see our lenses locked without any kind of valid motive? Don't you realize that your many adjustments and policies didn't work and are leading the way to oblivion? Squidoo's stats are still dropping.

• Adjust your filters, 
• Don't demand to violate our private life by posting our home's or families' photos, 
• Don't make a requirement to actually own a product in order to talk about it, 
• Don't ask for personal experience only: search engines aren't able to make the difference, 
• Don't penalize us for not crediting our own photos (nothing in copyright laws require from anyone to credit their own pictures)... 
• Remove or raise the link limit - ALL links are now set to no follow,
• Let us work with our own SEO knowledge - most of us are more knowledgeable than you are in this matter because we all have our own sites and own them for longer than Squidoo does exist.

As long as a lens is well written, interesting, isn't a link collection only, provides actual help or information, it should be allowed to live its life. Moreover, it's the only way for you to get your lensmasters come back and work towards making Squidoo get its prestige back.

You don't have faith in us, your most old and faithful lensmasters, how on Earth could we have faith in you? 

Posted by Holly Day

I Built a Website Now What...

So now that you have built your very first website - and it didn't require more than 30 days to see some traffic coming your way - what are you going to do.

First, as said in the last chapter, you can start again and build a website around a niche you already worked and that would compliment the first one. You can also choose an entirely different niche. However, and because you're building your reputation online, I'd suggest to keep your sites in related niches.

The 30 steps listed in previous posts work the best best when you build micro-niche sites. These are generally built around 1 type of products - "micro-niche" - example : "best chewing toys for dogs". They work also for wider niches (dogs, cats, celebrations, electronics) but as explained earlier, the broader the niche, the harder is the competition. So if you're keen on anything related dog, then continue writing about narrower dog related niches. 

A good way to drive traffic to the products (whether yours or affiliate products) is by writing articles and building organic traffic (traffic that goes naturally to your site).

Another way to make your site visible to the world is by building a Facebook page that your potential future customers can like and regularly get information from. Once the page is created, add a Facebook Like button on your site and see the number of "likes" grow.

The third way to have your site visited is by using Adwords, Facebook or Twitter advertisements. 

Given the competition between webmasters who wish to rank on Google, Adwords might be expensive and if you're new to this kind of business, then you won't want to spend too much money on advertising your site or your products.

For such a purpose I'd suggest to take an eye on the Facebook and Twitter fees. They are cheaper. But the advantage that you can get from buying Facebook ads is that you can target your audience and not have your chewing toys for dogs advertisement displayed in front of people who don't like dogs.

Also depending on your audience, you will want to set up hours for the ads to be displayed, the average age of your audience and the country you want the adverts to be seen. You can also opt for 24/24 impressions, it's up to you.

However you may not want your links to be clicked on by people who couldn't access the products you wish to sell. Another option to turn on or off is that whether you wish people on mobile to see the ads or not. 

The secret to a successful campaign is testing, testing and even more testing.

This might sound tedious - and sometimes it really is, especially if you're not an expert in this field - but in the end you'll be rewarded for the hard work.





Posted by Holly Day

Not Feeling Productive these Days

I'm definitely not productive these days. I don't Squidoo any more, just log into my account and check my rankings for Valentine's Day lenses; which are terrible and depressive in comparison to previous years visits. From getting up to 37,800 visitors in February in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 (Jan 2013: 13,050 - Feb 2013: 37,705) my top lens got only 1,650 visits this January. Still it is nicely ranked given the poor traffic numbers and the absence of sales.

This doesn't give me any hope for Squidoo's future. And this doesn't give me the will to work on my existing lenses, let alone creating new ones.

However these terrible numbers have also an impact on my productivity as a whole. I just don't find any kind of pleasure in writing articles, building pages, looking for products to feature any more. Though I enjoyed revamping my sites and I start considering a potential sale for the future if my mind doesn't change.

The new wave of locks on Squidoo I heard of is probably responsible for such a lack of interest in anything Internet marketing related. 

Strangely most of these lense that are currently locked are TOP TIER lenses... Which means that they are ranked between 1 and 2,000. Why are these lenses locked after having been top money makers and traffic drivers for years? Most of those locked were also content lenses, like a lens about education - which seems to have become a "mundane" topic :(

There is a new trend regarding those locking waves: people don't post on their blogs, they don't talk about them in public, they rather keep their deep thoughts for private groups, forums, messaging, etc. Does lack of publicity mean lack of interest? I do think so.

Some still post about these locked lenses in the official forums but the cheerleader teams are there, they provide suggestions to unlock them as if the OP didn't clearly state that they deleted the lenses already. The lack of objective reaction is so disappointing that many don't even waste their time posting about that matter.

As for me, I made a decision on going to new pastures as well. This means that I won't be Squidooing for the weeks/months to come. By June or July after closely monitoring the traffic stats, I will make my decision on the future of my account. Unless HQ makes the decision for me by locking all of them. 

Given the poor traffic numbers I don't feel the need nor the will (or courage?) to update my lenses. Still I don't want to be seen as a junk producer, so I will switch featured products in case they run out of stock.

Because I reapplied for Gianthood I know that I must create 5 lenses in the year. If I don't see any improvement in terms of traffic, I will resign my status. Honesty, integrity... And will put my account at the risk of being locked as a whole just like it happened to many others who resigned their Giant status.

To say the truth I don't feel like being a lensmaster any more. I don't feel being part of the great community Squidoo once was. I'm not alone, though. That is what makes me confident that I'm not nuts or depressed... It's just Squidoo that turned into something I'm not attracted with.

You know I was once invited to join the Rocket Moms. And I never thought about myself as a Rocket Mom, nor would I have been comfortable in such a "selected" group... So I declined the invite. The feelings I have now are the exact same as those I had when I received that invitation. I'm oustide of the ring, I watch them running and rushing from one side to another, I'm not one of them. And I'm glad although I miss those fun years working all together for the success of just a site.

I also never applied for the contributor clubs because of the new treatment lensmasters get from HQ. Why would I join one of these groups? The risk of seeing the new produced lenses locked is too high. What will happen once their filters will decide that even a Blogger backlink is a bad neighborhood? No thank you. 

In addition, I don't plan on working for free... Whatever doesn't make ends meet is nowadays for me a big NO-NO.

Earlier this week, I left all Squidoo groups I was a member of on Facebook. All but two. One that was the new Fresh Wonders headquarters and the other one, that is a supportive group I'm really fond of.

I'll keep my membership at Fresh Wonders headquarters because we used to be a fantastic group, a group that brought a lot to each others, we were extremely supportive, we taught fresh Squids how to swim in the deep blue sea and how to make the most out of their Squid-endeavours. I met a lot of great people on there. I still value their friendship even though I don't follow the same route as many of them. Sadly the new headquarters are now deserted. We can only hear the sound of silence. These times have become history. 

Squidoo's forums... well there are some very disagreeable people in these forums, the kind of people that if you don't agree with, will become highly aggressive and I really don't want to fight with them as I don't have any energy for that. It would result into too much time wasted... Moreover, I was banned from the official forums and never asked for my access to be reinstated.

I wouldn't bet my head on that but I do think that Squidoo is in the process to become history as well. Things might change by the end of the year but I don't think they're on the right track for a brighter future. Search engines never asked for all the changes they implemented. And the majority of these new rules and changes is just kicking them off of search engines. They also make lensmasters run away from the site and bring their talents else where.

Although the huge number of lenses produced these days with these clubs, traffic numbers didn't change a bit. And that is not a good sign... Time will tell... As for me I'm now going to watch a movie and then go to sleep, hoping for a more productive mood for tomorrow.

Still, in a few days, I'll receive my new trophy: 7 years on Squidoo... Now that is history ;)




Posted by Holly Day

The Benefits of Choosing a Good Article Spinning Software

Yesterday you learned more about article submission and the best practices. So as you now know, it is better to submit unique content to article directories than duplicate content. 

So let's say that you wish to promote the best chew toys for puppies site you just built through article submission. You will do so through publishing ONE article on article directories. However, in order for this article to not appear to be duplicated, you are going to spin it so as to turn it into hundreds of different articles.

With SpinRewriter, you can bring the spinning science to the top by spinning each sentence of the article and, once it is done, spinning each word of it. This will allow you to create a myriad of totally unique articles from just one.

What Is the Best Article Spinner?

Spin Rewriter is the best online article rewriter software ever!

Of course, you are surely eager to know the best article spinner software that you can use. As of this moment, nothing beats Spin Rewriter.

I personally use it. I already tried a few article spinner software, however, no one beats Spin Rewriter. The software doesn't just provide you with a huge list of synonyms, it also understands the meaning of your texts. For this reason, Spin Rewriter offers several categories of definite synonyms which actually match your article and make sense.

With Spin Rewriter, you can successfully create the most unique article out of the original copy. This means that there will be no trace of plagiarism which is sometimes a concern in most article spinner software. This makes use of the best properties providing you high quality rewrites.

Aside from that, Spin Rewriter will also provide you with the opportunity to create hundreds of articles in just one original write up.

Top 10 Spin Rewriter's Strengths

What makes Spin Rewriter better than another article spinner?

Spin Rewriter is definitely different from other article rewriter software you can find on the Internet, whether for free, for a monthly fee or a yearly subscription. This spinner software really makes a difference!

Besides the 5 free day trial offered as well as the low yearly subscription for using the software, here are a few of my Spin Rewriter's favorite features:

    1    Spin Rewriter lets you rewrite your article by sentence level, word level or both
    2    Spin Rewriter understands the actual meaning of your art!icle and provides synonyms accordingly
    3    Synonyms of this article rewriter software come in sections; which greatly helps select the most appropriate synonyms
    4    Spin Rewriter allows "one click" article spinning and, therefore, rewriting process
    5    The article rewriter software has a "feeling lucky" feature that automatically spins the article
    6    This article spinner software lets you choose your own synonyms
    7    Spin Rewriter allows you to choose the article spinning level
    8    This spinner software also provides you with the option to go backward and foward (in case you forgot anything)
    9    This software saves your projects so that you can come back as often as you want to
    10  A feature I particularly love is that it allows you to choose between 4 spintax forms!

See What Spin Rewriter Can Do for You

And check out the one-click rewrite feature...

Article Rewriting

When you plan to do article rewriting, it'is important to consider the uniqueness of the article. Once the article is unique, you don't need to worry much in terms of possible duplicate content or plagiarism in the future. This doesn't mean that you can use content posted by others and spin it! However, most words have been already used all over the Internet and it's sometimes hard to avoid coming up with sentences that haven't been posted yet.

There are some marketers who have been sued because of this matter. But in the case of Spin Rewriter, you do not need to worry about the originality of your article. This online article spinner software will provide you with the highest quality results.

Best Online Article Marketing Tools and Software

Make the most out of your article writing

Spin Rewriter
    SpinRewriter eases the process of rewriting your articles as easy as 1.2.3., the software doesn't just provide you with a wide range of synonyms, it actually understands the meaning of your text and offers accurate suggestions.

Spin Distribte
    SpinDistribute allows you to submit spun articles to up to 800 article directories on the Internet at the push of a button!

Smiley SEO
    Take your IM business and SEO efforts to the next level! Smiley SEO is a service that provides you with all SEO tools you need in order to make the most of your online business venture. Smiley SEO allows you to find out your competitors anchor texts, their largest sources of traffic, their rankings and much more. You'll also be able to analyze your own business and get needed suggestions from professionals.

I think I should let you know that I use this service when I need to. I don't do it every day but when I want. So I don't talk about it just for the purpose of promoting a product, I talk about something I know for having used it and still using it. I gave a try to dozens of different of such pieces of software and never found on that is that advanced and accurate.

Cherry on the pie, if you want to give it a test drive, you can do so with the 5 free days they offer for you to make sure it is something you'll be interested in.


Posted by Holly Day


Posted by Holly Day

Article Rewriting Before Publishing in Directories

Now that you've set up your website, we're going to have a little talk about publishing your articles in article directories. Article directories come in handy for building authority and links back to your new website. Although these days we're unsure about the value of link building, they are excellent ways to provide your readership a link to get more information, see your product reviews or the array of products available in your niche. Simply said: they're the key to find your site.

While they rarely penalize your content for being duplicate (submitting the same article to different article directories), it is a good practice to submit unique content. And in order to submit unique content you have to write a lot of articles. However writing dozens of different articles might be tedious and time consuming.

Unless... you use one spintax article that can be turned into hundreds of different articles. And do spin each article that you are about to submit to article directories.

One of the most productive SEO (search engine optimization) tools available on the Internet is article spinning. This tool is used by niche marketers to produce unique content. People do SEO to increase the ranks of their websites among search engine results.

Since you started your very own website, you enter the world of SEO and you must have an idea of what article spinning can bring you in terms of in-depth information. Once you know what exactly an article spinner software is and makes, you will be able to do the right technique of article spinning. Additionally, you need to find out what is the best online article spinner software that will handle the task on your behalf.

Why should you use an article spinning software?

What is "article spinning"?

Before knowing the in-depth understanding about the best online article spinner software, it is first essential for you to understand "what is article spinning".

When we speak of article spinning, this is considered as a search engine optimization means that is used for website and blog purposes. The main intention of article spinning is to provide you with unique as well as relevant content for your site, article directories and blogs of which you post as a guest... This is basically done by means of rewriting some of the parts of the existing write ups using an article spinner software .

Under the process of article rewriting, there is also replacement of other elements which is being done. There are lots of marketers who believe that article spinning will help reduce the future penalties in terms of SERP. Additionally article spinning will also keep you away from a potential penalization when you use private label right materials that can be found on any other site as well.

So, what is an article spinner? Well, simply said, it is a software that does the job of an article rewriter. And in my humble opinion, SpinRewriter is the best article spinning software in existence right now.

Finding an Article Spinner

Make sure to look for a high quality article rewriter software

If you are planning to do article spinning, then you're quickly going to find out that there are lots of options available for you online. This means that you can easily look for the right article spinner software you can use.

What you just need to do is typing the exact keywords in your favorite search engine and you will be revealed with many articlespinner software options. Once you found one, you can download it and install it to your computer.

Naturally, all article spinner softwares won't provide you with the same quality and you might end up changing from one to another in order to find the one that works best for you.

How to Spin an Article Using Spin Rewriter Software

Take a look at how this online article spinner software is easy to use!

See you tomorrow for some more information about this.



Posted by Holly Day