My Move from Squidoo to HubPages

7 years on Squidoo now a Hubber

34 lenses moved from Squidoo to HubPages on 8th September

So my 34 remaining lenses finally became Hubs this 8th September 2014 for my greatest pleasure. As indeed, it's pleasure to see those lenses getting their fair share of traffic. And it is an even greater pleasure to edit them and turn these pages into Hubs.

Like many Hubbers I was quite surprised to see the site acquiring Squidoo lenses and was also a bit frightened. After all, becoming the best online writing platform on the Web didn't happen overnight and HubPages was sacrificing themselves and many writers to keep their site online and in Google's good graces.

Why would they take the risk of acquiring content from a sinking (almost totally sunk, actually) site? Hm... It is something we'll probably never know. But at the end of the day, I'm happy of this action and enjoy being a Hubber. Now if their admins decided that I'm not a good asset, they may kick me off... and I would surely whine on here like I did when Squidoo was sinking.

But I know HubPages for long and know their leaders are smart...

Former lenses look good turned into Hubs

To be honest, I was worried a bit about how my lenses would look after the transfer. And even more scared about what to do to them to make them look good. Not perfect, but at least, acceptable.

And I must say that I'm agreeably surprised to see that I could turn a fancy Squidoo lens into an attractive Hub. Now comes the best part... I will add that I love my Hubs more than I loved my lenses.

Whatever I added to a lens was lost in their fancy design, which I liked a lot, don't get me wrong.

However whatever I do not add but just modify a bit, turns my Hubs into something I'm proud of. While it took me time to craft a lens and make it acceptable, I find out that just a few fixes and removals of excess links and other fancy stuff, turn my Hubs into something that is more than acceptable.

This is because of their clean design I think. Anything you add to the Hub (video, picture, Amazon product, recipe capsules, etc.) pimps up the Hub and doesn't disappear between multiple ads and fancy stuff.

No, frankly I won't miss Squidoo, I won't miss my former account, I won't miss my multiple Amazon modules... I already made sales on HubPages with this new account. How could I regret anything that happened these past weeks?

One thing, though. On 8th September, when I saw HubPages email saying my account was transfered, I felt a bit sad... Never again will I log into my Squidoo account, never again will I edit a lens, never again will I check my stat tab, never again will I see my lens traffic. I have to say goodbye to a 7+ year membership and a community I knew so well...

Ah well, it's for the best :D

HubPages' forums atmosphere

The atmosphere in their forums isn't the best these days. Indeed, the arrival of 175,000 live (plus those that are currently unpublished) lenses along with their owners doesn't seem to please all Hubbers. And so, some need to post their worries, show their knowledge... and let those they call "Squidoo Refugees" that they know how to run HubPages and that Squid's productions aren't welcome or as welcome as they should be.

While I understand them, because I've beena Hubber for so many years, I also feel for my Squid fellas, who I know for so many years. Some I like, some I detest... One can't please everyone. But what I dislike even more is that my former Squid fellas aren't at ease and confronted with some disagreeable comments, patronising, etc.

Some Hubbers did wonders to warmly welcome former Squids, some Hubbers did wonders to make them feel unwanted. Still my fellas shouldn't pay too much attention to what is said in forums. Actually the ambiance makes me think to the atmosphere in SquidU and the soon-to-be former official forums that one could find on Squidoo. 

Whenever there was a change, you could see everybody rushing to the forums and fight who would agree with HQ; who would disagree with HQ. We could also see fights because of the poor quality of tier 1 lenses in the past, or because of the blatant favoritism that was one of HQ's specialties... On SquidU we were more or less allowed freedom of speech - though limited. But in the new and soon-to-be former official forums, we would have been simply banned, without any way to defend ourselves for speaking our mind.

I know, I was banned!

I was even removed my Giant status because of a post I did on here... See the copy of the email I've received:

Hi Holly,

This blog post ended up on my desk: http://angel-on-squidoo.blogspot.com/2014/03/deleting-low-performance-lenses-these.html and I'm sorry that you feel this way about Squidoo.

However the Giant Squid Pact clearly states:

    2. Don’t lord your access or power over other lensmasters, or use it to do harm. This means on Squidoo, SquidooHQ, and elsewhere on blogs or even offline. If you flame or harass or malign other human beings online, that’s not in keeping with the spirit of Squidoo, and    certainly not the Giant Squid program.

So we're removing you from the Giant Squid program. My hunch is that you really don't want to be a Giant right now anyway.

Sincerely,
Bonnie
 

Talk about freedom of speech!

Well I wasn't frustrated nor did I feel offended, I didn't care at all. My traffic was already next to nothing, coming from lenses with 40,000 visits/week/lens to almost zero... Why on Earth would I have been worried to lose my giant status?

Moreover I've got only 5 locked lenses in total even though they removed this status that didn't protect me at all.

On Squidoo, once attacked, you couldn't defend yourself, nobody could do it either, you just had to shut your mouth and accept to be bullied like you'd be at elementary school.

On HubPages, instead you have freedom of speech and liberty to defend yourself when you're attacked. That is all what matters to me. And then again, we can't agree with everyone, we can't be friend with everyone, we can't prevent those that have knowledge or need to show it off, to do so. We have to accept everybody as they are or ignore them.

One thing, however, from now on, I'd like Hubbers to never name former Squids otherwise than... Hubbers. Because it's what they have become. They're now entire part of HubPages and I know for a fact that many really enjoy the change.





Posted by Holly Day a WAHM who is able to turn any day into a holiday.