Squidoo, Blogspot and Related Services are Overrated!
January 19th, 2009 | 106 comments
That statement probably shocks alot of people 
Just browse around some Internet Marketing blogs, forums and sites in general and it won’t take long to hear people talking about how great Squidoo, HubPages etc. is. People love these services because Google LOVVVVES them, right? Wrong! That’s what people believe, but it’s not true at all.
Google ranks every single page on the Internet separately. Read any article on the Internet from Matt Cutts (Head of Google’s Web Spam team) and although people love to twist what he says into what they want to hear, you’ll notice that he always comes back to that basic truth.
Google doesn’t care what root domain a page comes from. Among many other small things, Google primarily cares about how many links are pointing to that page (not the root) and how much authority those pages that link to the page posses. So if a new page from a service like Squidoo, which allows anyone and everyone to create their own page (lens) tends to have more authority than a basic new page on a new domain, it’s not because Google “likes” squidoo.com it’s because the pages that you create are getting some authority from within Squidoo.com (internal links) which will obviously give them a little boost in rankings when targeting long-tail phrases.
So, I’m not denying the fact that some of these services do indeed allow you to create your own landing pages that possess a little authority from the start. And I’m not saying these types of services are completely worthless, but I am saying they are highly overrated!
Why do I say this? As a clever member of my Internet Marketing Coaching Forum pointed out the other day, services like Squidoo, HubPages etc. provide something very similar to what article directories provide, which is basically a landing page with a little preexisting authority.
Obviously I’m a big fan of article marketing, which means I certainly don’t think Article Directories are overrated.
The answer is very simple. In my experience, and I have alot of it in this area, article directories convert much better than services like Squidoo because although article directories serve ads that do not benefit you, the author, they are generally more focused on YOUR content.
That alone doesn’t offer much reason not to create a squidoo lens (for example) for each phrase you want to target, just as you would with an article being submitted to article directories and you can do that and you’ll probably see results.
But, is it a good time investment? I’d rather use a good article submission tool (a new article submitter coming soon, stay tuned) and get my articles to the best article directories quickly and easily so I can move on to my next phrase than spend time creating a new lens, HubPage, Knol etc. The top article directories are going to provide the same result, if not better, so why waste time on services like Squidoo?
If you’re creating Lenses (for example) just for the existing authority I wouldn’t say you’re making a mistake, but if you’re actually promoting a squidoo lens, you’re making a mistake! For one thing you’re sharing the advert revenue. WHY promote something that is going to earn you 50% of the overall revenue when you could be promoting something (your own page) that earns you 100% revenue? Just because it starts off with a little authority? It doesn’t take long to get a brand new pages authority up to that of a new Squidoo lens!
This post was somewhat of a rant and I probably went off point a few times, so I apologize for that. This is just something I’ve been wanting to get off my chest for a while. I hope it helped clarify a thing or two.
image credit: andraspfaff
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19th January, 2009 at 7:08 pm
You’ve put into words what I was struggling towards Josh.
You have also, dammit, pushed me more towards article writing and syndication – rather than running around Hubs, Weeblys etc.
I still find Article writing hard work!
Yes I do have your book!
Alex
19th January, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Glad to help, Alex. It’s not fun at times, but you have to write content for those lenses, hubs and weeblys too, so not much of a difference.
19th January, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I’ve dabbled a little bit with Squidoo and the results were really disappointing. I think the lenses are too busy and don’t convert well at all.
19th January, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Josh,
From an SEO perspective…I agree with you…Squidoo is overrated.
From a marketing perspective…I only partially agree…I am not a believer in sharing revenue with Squidoo…but you can include Squidoo as part of an overall marketing plan that does include other “fingers” of marketing.
I wouldn’t use Squidoo as a sole source of promotion though.
Joe
19th January, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Wow all this time i’ve been hearing that squidoo and hubpages are important tools in your internet/social marketing strategy. I’ve started article marketing as well and have found it really helpful to drive people to your site over time. Are there any published case studies to validate what you’re saying Josh?
thanks,
Carlos
19th January, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Great info. I have a few squidoo lenses. I can’t say they have ever done a whole lot for me.
I think I would rather spend my time creating a new article or building new web pages.
19th January, 2009 at 7:18 pm
@ Joseph – Well I’ll partially agree to your partial agreement, how’s that?
I’m sure there are certain models that would somehow benefit from a good lens, but the average lens”master” spends time and resources on something they should be spending elsewhere.
@ Carlos – I have no idea. I’m not worried about whether or not people believe me. I say what’s on my mind, which is derived from experience. You can believe me or not, that’s your choice and either way is fine with me
19th January, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Wow, Josh. I have always loved reading your posts, but this one…. well, let’s just say I don’t agree.
Squidoo IS an article directory. It just looks different and gives the creator MUCH more control over their own content than any “normal” article directory does.
Have you used Squidoo, Josh? With all due respect, I am pretty shocked by this post.
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
19th January, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Hey Josh,
Nice post and yes, I was a little shocked at the title mainly because I’ve been watching quite a few videos from Howie Schwartz and he was saying that in order to dominate Google, you need your own sites ranked and web 2.0 sites as well…
…what I mean is, get your own pages ranked (of course, very important to have your own asset), but also create Lenses, hub pages etc that point to your money pages on your site (gives nice link juice). Then, you can link to these squidoo pages so that they pass on more link juice to your money pages AND hopefully you can get the Squidoo lenses and hub pages ranked as well!
…all leading upto having your own pages, hub pages and lenses on the front page of Google for the term that you want!
But I agree with you, too many people focus too much of their time on Squidoo, and sometimes only Squidoo! We’ve always got to get our own assets (sites) ranked over these web 2.0 properties…
Nice one Josh,
Alex
19th January, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Josh, you hit the nail on the head with this one!
I have created a lot of lenses and have had a lot of success with them, but after doing some testing I decided to focus on creating content on my own sites first, then rewrite it and post it on Squidoo, linking back to my original content.
The main point is not to spend too much time promoting content that is on a website not owned by me(squidoo).
Great post, Josh!
Josip
19th January, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I may be crazy but most of the time I create Squidoo lenses just because they’re, well–fun! I tend to make lenses on things that I like and it usually provides a nice break from some of the other projects I do online. If I make a little money or get some additional traffic to my websites, all the better.
19th January, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Hey Josh,
that’s point to think about. Thank you for posting it. I was thinking about Squidoo and so on for a while. Good to hear another opinion on that!
19th January, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I agree and disagree. Hmmmm – sound like a politician.
I have about 16 Squidoo sites. So far I have to say making money on Squidoo itself isn’t paying off. However, it seems it is bringing more traffic to my websites, as I noticed when I checked my stats.
Not a tremendous amount, mind you, but most of these lenses are less than a month old. One of them ranks number 8 in MSN under a good keyword.
I would agree article marketing is probably a better overall strategy, but it is quicker and easier to put up a Squidoo site than to write an article.
I am testing this and Hub Pages at the moment and will probably give both about 6 months and see what the results are.
But if you plan on making Squidoo lenses and plan to earn a living from them – I don’t think that is feasible.
19th January, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I’ve been wondering about this issue myself. When someone suggests adding ezinearticles pointing to squidoo lenses — what is being tested here? Squidoo authority or Ezinearticles authority? Are they additive?
All these sites do have one advantage: they’re free.
19th January, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Good stuff Josh and great perspective on the situation. I does seem to be a better use of time to use article directories and let them roll instead of building and promoting tons of squidoo lenses.
I guess it all depends on what you want to do, but this is definitely something worth thinking about.
19th January, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Josh
Sorry but I completely disagree and think that your posting is just plain wrong and misleading. I do wonder whether you have actually tried using Squidoo?
The major problem is that lazy internet marketers try to fill Squidoo with spammy, poorly constructed and broadly targeted nonsense. They then start bleating because their attempts to game the site do not produce the results they want.
However, if you build lenses properly without a view to making a quick return before moving onto today’s latest craze then you might find the real benefits of Squidoo.
Regards
Paul
19th January, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I kind of agree with you but disagree in the same breath.
I think that to some degree you get what you give. In other words, if you throw together a self serving squidoo lens for a new product launch (what every other marketer does it seems), with content that mimics the sales page, then chances are great you won’t get great results. And yet, some people tend to do this so often without getting results.
On the other hand, if you use the Squidoo page as a vertical or hub for residual traffic (not talking SE position), then you could PERHAPS have a steady flow of visitors coming to your site, especially if the lens is quality.
BTW, I absolutely hate hubpages and think that it is one of those sites that leech content for themselves, giving very little benefit to the writer of the content…(ok…now I am off my stump…)
19th January, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I can see both points of view. Personally I’ve had some lenses do very well on Squidoo and have made some decent passive income there, while building up a good series of links for my other blogs, sites, and projects. I think Squidoo might be overrated from the point of how much it gets hyped up now, but I’d say there are definitely benefits to using Squidoo, especially as one part of a multi-pronged strategy. Good post, though, and I can see the point, especially if you take into consideration what “overrated” means.
19th January, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Why use Squidoo and Hubpages?
One word, Josh…
Backlinks!
No, by themselves they won’t drive a ton of traffic to your web sites or sales pages but, by building a small network of hubs or lenses all pointing back to your money site and in concert with directory submissions and social networking, they help improve page rank and SERPs.
Just think of them as another piece of the traffic generation puzzle that, when used properly with other methods can get you higher rankings and free traffic.
MikeRogers
19th January, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Squidoo is just another SEO channel to get your site higher ranking. So if you use a combination of article marketing, Squidoo, Hubs, etc. you are likely to create backlinks and a strong web presence for your site. A squidoo page on its own is typically not worth much. It should be used as part of the SEO strategy, to promote anoter site. So, right, it is just another tool….
19th January, 2009 at 7:44 pm
So Josh, or everybody, If you treat squidoo as an article directory, then compare total views of an article that you submit to squidoo to the amount of views you get for that articles in Ezinearticles (assuming you submit it to a few different locations). Which one has been better in your expirience?
Also, Josh, is squidoo a part of the article directories you submit to? Is it a part of the top 5?
19th January, 2009 at 7:44 pm
I just created my first Squidoo lens last week and it was great fun. I liked it because it was easy to get a landing page up. I have been afraid to create a landing page. But I did bite the bullet and created one Sunday.
So everything you said made sense. I agree 100%. But sometimes you must crawl before you walk and creating the lens was my first step. It gave me the ump to create my landing page where I will be directing all articles.
Dianna
19th January, 2009 at 7:46 pm
@ Jennifer – Nothing wrong with disagreeing. I would love to hear exactly where I’m wrong. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m wrong, but so far I haven’t heard anything but “you’re wrong” I’m looking for “you’re wrong because this, this and this… I have used Squidoo, but not heavily… don’t need to, I know exactly what it is and how it works.
@ Alex – If that is what Howie Schwartz is saying, Howie Schwartz is wrong. Too many people forget how many business models there are online and the like to say “THIS” is how to get traffic, make money etc. There are many, many, many different ways to do just about everything. Maybe Howie has a special way he does it and maybe Squidoo is part of that, it’s possible. But Squidoo is certainly not “mandatory.”
@ Amanda – Nothing at all wrong with that
@ Bob – In regards to this comment “I would agree article marketing is probably a better overall strategy, but it is quicker and easier to put up a Squidoo site than to write an article.” What are you putting on your squidoo lenses? blank space?
@ Paul – Yeah, I’ve tried it. But you don’t need to try something. If you have a certain amount of knowledge in an area you can come up with a pretty accurate assumption of something by analyzing how it works.
I’m not questioning whether or not there is a benefit. I clearly state that there is some benefit, the initial authority a new lens possesses.
My argument is that if you’re lens is targeting long-tail phrases, you’re going to get more traffic with articles. For those who disagree with that I would be happy to have a little one-on-one competition and show them before their very eyes!
And if you’re using a squidoo lens to target competitive phrases the small about of initial authority isn’t worth giving away a large percentage of the ad revenue.
So, with that being said, I would love to hear what particular statement I have made that is “misguiding.”
@ Leo – Sure, nothing wrong with putting one up, it just depends on your reasoning.
19th January, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Squidoo’s a convenient platform for testing out a new niche. It’s a lot easier to set up a lens to see if the fish are biting before I dedicate a wordpress blog to the niche.
Most of the money I make from squidoo are from affiliate links rather than from the adsense, so a LITTLE promotion to get some traffic flow makes sense. There are a lot of modules available to provide for a rich visitor experience and its kind of fun.
But you’re right about it being so much easier to submit a bunch of quality articles to the directories than it is to build a quality lens if only because building a lens involves a lot more steps.
19th January, 2009 at 7:54 pm
@ Iowa – Some excellent points there. btw, take a look at my comment policy when you get a minute
@ Mike & Meirav – There you go, I agree and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. I just think many people see Squidoo as more than just one of many ways to build a few extra backlinks.
@ Ben – “So Josh, or everybody, If you treat squidoo as an article directory, then compare total views of an article that you submit to squidoo to the amount of views you get for that articles in Ezinearticles (assuming you submit it to a few different locations). Which one has been better in your expirience?” There you guy. It will be article marketing, guaranteed!
And to answer your second questions, no, it’s not an article directory and isn’t a good time investment.
@ Dianna – That’s a good point there. Nothing wrong with using it as a “baby step”
19th January, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve built several lens and and hub pages with not much luck on either. I have had a bit more luck with hub pages as far as being able to get a brand new site crawled and indexed quickly. But I’ve never understood the attraction.
Article marketing does the same job and is quickly and simpler.
thanks for the post Josh
joe
19th January, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Josh
There is also something that you and a number of other commentators are missing. Squidoo and other communities of a similar ilk are precisely that. Communities, advocates, believers, followers, supporters and any other word that suggests collaboration that you can think of.
You see any activity where we are trying to position ourselves as an authority or leader requires community engagement. If you think only in terms of making the sale, earning the commission, generating another click then you are thinking too narrowly.
Yes you can do all of that through your own site(s) over time but Squidoo, HubPages, Twitter and any other form of engagement with a “community of believers in you” offers great opportunities to enhance your brand awareness.
I give away so much information for free on Squidoo – but I see the returns in so many other areas of my activity.
Maybe I should have agreed with you – then it would dissuade others from making use of some of the best free resources on the net
Regards
Paul
19th January, 2009 at 7:56 pm
I’ve never understood the attraction of Squidoo and such.
It seems more sensible to put effort into writing stuff for my own blog and not someone elses. I’ve just never understood the attraction.
In brief: I agree.
19th January, 2009 at 7:57 pm
The people that disagree seem to have business models that are founded on teaching others how to bank with Squidoo. It seems like it should be pretty easy for one of them to provide a case study with some hard numbers to demonstrate. I can certainly do that when someone asks me if Adwords Marketing is effective.
That said, I’m not on Squidoo, but I think it would probably be worthwhile to have some feelers out at Squidoo. Just a couple pieces of good content to help contribute to the ‘This guy is everywhere!’ effect.
I love Seth Godin and everything he does but in this case he’s cashing in on your content.
19th January, 2009 at 7:58 pm
@ Paul – No, I’m glad you disagree. I’m never opposed to a good, friendly argument
I agree, community and brand building is important. But if you want to go that route I can name at least 5 other platforms that are far more powerful and much more beneficial to the “creator” of the “lens” group or whatever it is in that case.
P.S. Remember, I’m not saying Squidoo is worthless, I’m saying it’s overrated.
19th January, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Josh
My comment about “misleading” refers to the very points I have just made about community. I think it’s misleading to ignore the real benefits of Squidoo and other community type sites.
BTW it just goes to show that a contoversial posting generates interest! I don’t think I have commented at this length on someone else’s blog in quite a while
Regards
Paul
19th January, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Words been out for awhile now that Google will stop counting links from social networking sites. Even as far back as last summer when I was using the social networks aggressively I found no benefit in page ranking. The only benefit was that I got some extra eyeballs to my website.
The search know you can create links of your own with social networking. So why would they even count them?
19th January, 2009 at 8:02 pm
[quote]I have created a lot of lenses and have had a lot of success with them, but after doing some testing I decided to focus on creating content on my own sites first, then rewrite it and post it on Squidoo, linking back to my original content.[/quote]
Similar for me, too. Although I’ve ONLY used Squidoo lenses as “slaves’ to serve my OWN sites.
What would be a slow and silly plan to attain an internet income is relying solely on squidoo or ANY web 2.0 network site for a web presence. Talk about having to work three times as hard to get anywhere…
I am highly successful using Squidoo as part of my ‘backlink’ building plans. I’ve been doing it for some time and it works GRRR…8!
I get a decent amount of extra traffic from Squidoo , my Squidoo eBay feeds get registrations and winning bid revenue, my money pages get signups and make sales from my lens traffic – forever and beyond, as long as Squidoo lives.
I’ve always just used Squidoo to further the REACH of my main site or network, for off-page seo and autority boosting. Even though I don’t mind sharing the revenue with Squidoo for the use of their hosting, web storage space, and initial boost in the SEs – because I use my OWN monetized feeds and ad code in my lenses instead of using Squidoo’s EZ modules that are ‘revenue sharing’, Adsense is the ONLY thing I share with the Squid.
I own and administer 3 article directories (2 now, I just sold one) and I’ve NEVER gotten the same fast traffic boost and lasting PR from article submission that I can get from placing content on Squidoo, Hubs, or free-hosted blog networks like WordPress.com.
So Josh, I guess I’d have to say that based on my OWN experiences, I don’t agree with your take on Squidoo being over-rated.
19th January, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Josh
Tsk I just finish posting and you respond!
Yes there are a number of other sites that I use (some without talking about them a lot
) which are equally good and in some cases better.
I guess part of the issue is that I don’t think of myself as an Internet Marketer
I see myself as someone who builds relationships, creates interest and generates income through the internet.
Regards
Paul
19th January, 2009 at 8:05 pm
They are all valuable services in the grander scheme of things. Whoever it was mentioning linking from these services to your money pages… hit the nail on the head. That is what makes these services valuable.
It isn’t really a big time killer. I would spend all day on it… I would just outsource the creation of these funnel sites. Even if the site is worthless… at the very least you got another link back to your site.
Even if one of these sites only sent 10 people per month to your site… after 100 sites are setup, then that is 1000 per month. Now to some that may sound like a lot of sites, but these sites are set it and forget it sites.
If you outsourced that work, you could do 100 sites in a month easily. After a year, you have 1200 sites pointing back to your site. Now it may sound crazy but 1200 sites is bound to send you a decent amount of traffic. But they are just like Article Marketing sites. Put up junk content and you won’t get much traffic at all.
It boils down to basics. Relevance of content and quality backlinks.
19th January, 2009 at 8:06 pm
“@ Jennifer – Nothing wrong with disagreeing. I would love to hear exactly where I’m wrong. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m wrong, but so far I haven’t heard anything but “you’re wrong†I’m looking for “you’re wrong because this, this and this… I have used Squidoo, but not heavily… don’t need to, I know exactly what it is and how it works.”
Excellent! I would love to continue this conversation =) Thank you for asking.
I would like to ask for some clarification on this statement you made in the comments above…
“My argument is that if you’re lens is targeting long-tail phrases, you’re going to get more traffic with articles.”
More traffic to WHAT?
If you could answer that for me, I think I will be better able to expand on my comments from the same perspective that your post was written.
Thanks, Josh!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
19th January, 2009 at 8:06 pm
How about this concept Josh…
every one looks for the “magic bullet” for backlinks but if you combine Squidoo and article marketing now 2 for the price of one!
What i mean is ezine articles allow 2 linking in its resource box- why not set up a focused content page on squidoo – and point on of the links in your article to the Squidoo page?
The squidoo page points to your “money site” – the squdioo links increase- PR increased- link power to your money site increases -
Hows that for a concept?
Paul
19th January, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Hey Josh,
A refreshing point of view and nice to hear. I kind of agree with most of your points actually and as long as these kinds of sites are piked by marketers, they’re only going to become less effective. Remember the Tumblr disaster thanks to the Thirty Day Challenge?
However with this comment about article directories…
“they are generally more focused on YOUR content.”
…I humbly disagree. Have you seen ezinearticles lately?!
19th January, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Josh
Squidoo by itself is overrated – I do agree with you there. But if you use Squidoo as a part of a large marketing promotion like the guys at Traffic Kahuna show you then it’s definitely worthwhile.
It’s just a small building block but worthwhile if you use it correctly.
Ciao
Josemi
19th January, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Hi Josh,
What I am reading here seems to be about effective use of time and the results you get from that time. So if someones tried squidoo and got the results they wanted-fantastic.
Im y view everything on the net comes down to test test- and then think will I continue.
As for me squiddo is somthing i use but I do not give too much of my limited time to
19th January, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Hi Josh,
I’ve never built a lens but my reasons were probably far more simplistic than most.
As a free service they seemed to be quickly overrun with spammers and idiots hoping to get rich overnight. Just as Blogger blogs are abused, just as most free services with any kind of business application attract a certain kind of user really.
I’m sure some Squidoo lens masters do well, but I decided not to be associated with it and from what I’ve read above it wasn’t a bad decision. Sorry but I just think they look tacky. I’m with you and think article marketing is time better spent.
As for SERPS and the like, I think you would do better to focus on submitting to the top social bookmarking and social media sites.
19th January, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I think the biggest problem with squidoo is that to make it worthwhile, you need to spend time on it – building it, making it relevant, marketing it. So I’d rather spend my time on my own website, or like Josh says on article marketing.
19th January, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I say as I said in the CWJ forum that article directories and free web 2.0 is “same same, but different”.
Creating content on squidoo, wordpress.com etc is just another part of the link building campaign to a money site.
Just do more than Your competitors, from more sources including as much links pointing back to Your money site, and You will outrank your competitors in the SERP.
It is the overall mix that is relevant, as I see it. You can spread Your incoming links over a lot of places, from different locations, different ip-net (wich also is overated and not that necessary) etc.
I can agree on just using “only squidoo”, “only wordpress.com” or “only article marketing”, isn’t worth the time spent. But combined togheter You can build a strong link building campaign.
19th January, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Good point, Josh…
“If you’re creating Lenses (for example) just for the existing authority I wouldn’t say you’re making a mistake, but if you’re actually promoting a squidoo lens, you’re making a mistake! For one thing you’re sharing the advert revenue. WHY promote something that is going to earn you 50% of the overall revenue when you could be promoting something (your own page) that earns you 100% revenue? Just because it starts off with a little authority? It doesn’t take long to get a brand new pages authority up to that of a new Squidoo lens!”
I agree that building authority on your own domains is the best way to secure a long-term income online.
However, I will say that I’ve never made a dime directly from a submission to EzineArticles.com (after 100′s of articles that drive traffic to other pages), but I’ve made $10,000′s directly from Squidoo.com using affiliate links (By the way, who cares about advertising revenue when you can promote products relevant to the terms? I’ve been using Squidoo since the 2nd week it was live, and I’ve made less than $500 from the advertising…).
Lastly, I want to say that while this purely-SEO perspective is interesting, considering “Web 2.0″ sites allow for multimedia like embedded YouTube videos and stock images (“hero shots”), polls and more, which have all greatly increased my profits, and none of this is possible with a text-only article.
Point being, when choosing an article or a Squidoo lens, I will choose a Squidoo lens any day of the week. Even after trying 6 of the top article submission services (Article Marketer, Article Post Robot, Unique Article Wizard, JetSubmitter, etc.) and analyzing the results I achieve from them, nothing has worked better than creating one high-quality Squidoo lens to drive more traffic and create more links for the pages on sites I own.
Either way, articles, lenses, hubs & knols alike should be used to create more authority for pages we own, not the authority of the social marketing giants.
Thanks for an excellent discussion Josh,
Kyle
19th January, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Josh, As usual, you hit the nail right square on the head. BTW, I have been thinking about getting my own blog… Do you mind sharing where you gout this platform from?
And the GREAT graphics!
Thanks Josh! You’re absolutely the BEST!
19th January, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Josh,
You are thinking big picture – and are dead on!!
I will be the first to buy an effective (good site) article submission tool.
Please inform me when it is ready!
Dan
ps – I heard about you through Tim Gorman and the systems seminars.
Are you going to attend?
19th January, 2009 at 9:00 pm
I agree that squidoo is overrated plus I think that most people can see the marketing hype on squidoo a million miles off.
Article and Video promotion wins every time in my book
cheers
Tony
19th January, 2009 at 9:06 pm
If you just put up a Squidoo lens and forget it, I think you’re right.
But if you do some other stuff for it, for example join Squidoo groups, start groups and do other things that only take a few seconds to promote your lens, I think you can get more juice out of a lens than an article.
Also, you can use graphics and videos which make your lens more interesting, and give people more of an impression of how expert (or not!) you are on your subject.
I get a lot more traffic out of my lenses, and a lot more conversions than I do from articles.
I’m not an expert on either, but I wouldn’t say one is necessarily better than the other.
I like ‘em both!
Brian (a.k.a. Professor Homunculus at MathMojo.com )
19th January, 2009 at 9:40 pm
@ Paul Duxbury – I never said to ignore the benefits, I just said it’s overrated
Overall I agree. I think we have a similar mindset, we’re just both assuming the other means this and that.
@ Guy – I don’t think they are ignoring them, I think many of these types of sites are just adopting the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
@ Deborah – Is the email you used to leave that comment a good one? I’ll go ahead and generate some proof and send it to your inbox
@ Dennis – All true statements. Now spend all of the outsourcing money and time on article marketing and I guarantee a bigger result.
@ Jennifer – To your money page on YOUR site of course.
@ Paul – You could use it for the same purpose of an article directories, but you can’t use software to speed up the process, so it’s a large time investment. Is it worth it, maybe, but the payoff isn’t going to be so significant that it’s worth my time.
@ Matt – It’s a close call and yes I’ve seen EzineArticles lately, but have you seen a typical squidoo page lately? Very few have a clear focal point.
@ Lee, Maurice & Kris – Very true, I agree.
@ Patrik – I agree, minus the statement about article marketing. Tens of thousands of dollars over the past few years that I’ve earned via niche marketing using article marketing says differently. It all depends on your business model.
@ Kyle – You’re doing something horribly wrong then! 100′s of articles, seriously? Get with me via email, you did something horrrrrrrribly wrong!!! Using article submission services is your first problem.
@ Janet – Glad you enjoyed it. The platform is from http://www.wordpress.org/ the theme is custom built by http://www.wpcreations.com/
@ Dan – That’s the only picture I see. The new article submission software will be available soon, created by my friend Milan Kosanovic. I’ll be announcing it to the blog and to my list when it’s available.
Tim’s a good guy and smart marketer. I’m not much of a seminar guy, but Tim keeps trying to drag me to one
He’ll probably succeed in 2009.
@ Brian – That may be true and as soon as someone proves that to me, rather than saying they “think” it’s true, I’ll be the first to give it a shot and admit that I’m wrong.
You can use graphics and videos on your own sites too.
19th January, 2009 at 9:45 pm
@ Josh
Very good point. I wish everyone would be good critical thinkers like that!
19th January, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I agree on this point – Squidoo is not the be-all and end-all that some “gurus” try to tell you. Yes – because Squidoo is spidered so frequently, you can get a link to a money website indexed fairly quickly. But no, simply creating a lens pointing to your money site is *not* going to get you a ton of traffic. Nor is it going to automatically sell tons of eBooks.
I did a test a few months back. A WordPress review page vs. a Squidoo review lens. Same review “spun” for each page. I did the same amount of promotion for each (same # of links in). The Squidoo lens got ranked quickly and beat the WP page for a couple weeks. But then the WP page passed it up and hasn’t looked back since. I think it was a matter of authority vs. relevance, and in this case relevance won.
19th January, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Good post, Josh. You still know how to generate a healthy debate.
And when you can get Paul Duxbury to comment this much, well…
But, just for clarification, could you elaborate a little more on the “over rated” comment?
By whom, do you contend’ that squidoo is being over rated and in what context?
Most people realize that sites like Squidoo, HubPages and the article directories are all inter-related parts of an overall SEO strategy.
So, are you suggesting that marketers disregard certain parts of that overall strategy and concentrate on just one aspect, such as article marketing?
Mike
19th January, 2009 at 10:29 pm
@Josh
I will be doing just that. Besides, nothing wrong with doing both. Use all available sources for traffic generation. But if you are limited on time or resources I am sure article marketing would fare better than squidoo and the like.
19th January, 2009 at 10:34 pm
“@ Jennifer – To your money page on YOUR site of course.”
Ah, ok… you are saying the Squidoo is over-rated for those that are using it to drive traffic to their own sites.
But what if someone doesn’t HAVE their own site? I do believe that we both have a large percentage of blog readers that are new – perhaps they don’t have the money to HAVE their own sites, yet.
These folks might be trying to break into internet marketing using Squidoo and other free sites like it.
Your post just told them that Squidoo is over-rated and that they are wasting their time.
I am proof that nothing is further from the truth. I started with no money and started by making pages on Squidoo.
I don’t share the revenue earned on these 100′s pages/lenses with Squidoo. Other than the 2 Adsense ads, that revenue from anything in the content on my lens is 100% mine. I can put an affiliate link right on my lens – unlike article marketing via directories.
Because of Squidoo, I was able to turn nothing into a very respectable something.
Yes, I DO have my own sites now – now that I have earned income using free sites like Squidoo and can now re-invest those earnings into my online efforts.
Better yet, now when I create a new niche site, I have 100′s of pages already on Squidoo that I can use to drive traffic or for back links. I can edit my lenses at any time – unlike article marketing.
The traffic I receive via my Squidoo lenses is very high-quality traffic. It has just about the lowest bounce rate of all my traffic sources.
I could go on an on about the benefits of Squidoo, but I’ll end with this.
Because of Squidoo.com and some other “free to use” sites, I was able to begin my journey making money online and I was able to create my own funding for my online business needs.
When you know very little about internet marketing (as I did) and when you have very little to invest into internet marketing (as I did), Squidoo is NOT over-rated.
For many people (like me) Squidoo is a blessing as it provides a free opportunity to learn a new skill – and a new skill that very well could change your life…. as it changed mine.
Thank you for letting me clarify.
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
19th January, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Hi Josh
I just started making Squidoo lenses, so I am glad you alerted me to the truths you wrote. I am going back to writing articles, as I have been neglecting them lately.
Thanks for your tip Josh.
19th January, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Hi Josh,
I reached a similar conclusion myself a couple of weeks ago.
John
19th January, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Well, this serves as a light bulb moment for me. I’ve intended to create lenses for some time now, but never got around to it.
I’m not saying I never will after reading your post, Josh, but it has given me a new perspective on Squidoo. For example, I didn’t realize that they split the ad revenue. It makes sense that they would, but like I said, I never got that far with them to know that.
19th January, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Check out the last question -
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/11/10/google-answers-some-tricky-questions
19th January, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Hi Josh,
)
Wow, this is only my second comment here but either you are extremely popular or you’ve touched on a touchy subject here. 56 comments in a single day. Wow.
Let me make that 57. Although it’s been said above, a benefit of hubpages is that you control your page and you can change the content and links. I don’t think you can do that with an regular article. I think they both have their strengths and weaknesses, but you raise many good points.
~ Steve, purveyor of fine portable trade show booths (and part-time hubber
19th January, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Gee, Josh you seem to have hit a note with this post.
I find that so much time can be had on the likes of Squidoo. I prefer to write articles and get them out there. In the time I spend on a site like Squidoo I can write an article and have it on a lot of different article sites.
19th January, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Sure it’s overrated and wastes your time – but not as much as twitter! :p
And I still believe that content on authoritative domains does possess an advantage in the SE’s, albeit short and over the long term I suppose negligible – it definitely gets ranked faster for long tail keywords and if you build links, has more sticking power. But that’s just me.
Thanks for a great post!
20th January, 2009 at 12:12 am
Squidoo is a feel good place and lets you warm up to the reality that if your serious, you will need to start article marketing with more serious services.
20th January, 2009 at 12:33 am
[comment deleted] To the publisher of this comment, from Josh. There is absolutely nothing wrong with disagreeing, but next time how about doing it without a biased opinion and without plugging your own Squidoo service!
20th January, 2009 at 12:35 am
@ Mike – When I say it’s overrated, I’m referring to how it’s spoken of over and over and over and over again day after day after day by so many Internet Marketers. Yep I very rarely hear of a squidoo lense that earns someone hundreds of dollars a day. I see, hear and have some sites (not lenses) of my own that do though.
I think it’s more complex than to answer that questions with a direct answer. Article Marketing is just the closest related “model” that I know of and it beats lenses hands down.
@ Dennis – A full-time Internet Marketer’s time is ALWAYS limited, ALLLLLLLWAYS!
@ Jennifer – That’s a good point, but my I still stand behind my statements. For those who are brand new to Internet Marketing it’s true, Squidoo would be an easy way to get going without as large of a learning curve, but if this post persuaded them NOT to go the Squidoo route and instead learn to create their own site I did them a favor! They need to learn how to get a basic HTML website up anyway.
@ Lawrence – That question was posed by someone who knows nothing about effective article marketing and the answer is a classic generic Google answer. lol If you know the true value of article marketing you know there’s much more to it than spamming your article across hundreds of sites and if you know anything about Google you know any questions they’re asked is going to be answered to the tune of “well, does xyz make the user happy?” WebProNews is the biggest instigator of this worthless crap.
@ Steve – How about both
Of course you control the content and links of your own articles. True though, there are pros and cons to both, just more pros to article marketing and cons to squidoo 
@ Kaye – You’re “picking up what I’m throwing down,” good job! Not many others are!
@ Andrew – lol well I agree with your thoughts on Twitter. As a niche marketing tool it’s worthless. But as a networking tool it’s very valuable.
You and Leger both believe that and I won’t say I KNOW I’m right, but I’ve yet to see proof on that.
20th January, 2009 at 12:55 am
Sorry about that Josh, but nothing biased about it. If your lens is ranked high, it is very possible that a Squidoo lens, can outdo BUM marketing.
Just like a normal page, a Squidoo lens also needs to be SEO, but with Squidoo it is much easier to get backlinks.
Also I believe you get indexed a bit quicker too.
Also there are always people roaming around in squidoo, and it is far easier getting traffic with a lens then a normal page.
Ohh, and nothing wrong with, article marketing and making a Squidoo lens is there?
20th January, 2009 at 1:12 am
Much better
but you still need to read my comment policy.
True, just like most article directories. The more views, the more exposure via internal links.
Bum Marketing isn’t article marketing. Article marketing is one of the techniques used in bum marketing, but they are 2 different things.
What do you mean it’s “much easier?” What makes it’s much easier to build authority?
An article in a good article directory will be indexed the day it’s published. Whether a squidoo lens is indexed quicker or not is irrelevant.
What do you mean it’s far easier to get traffic with a squidoo lens? Why, what’s your argument here?
Nope, nothing wrong with doing both if you have all the time in the world
20th January, 2009 at 1:24 am
I agree squidoo is overrated. I am doing as a few people suggested above and simply use it for backlinks. I don’t have a lot of them, and I don’t spend a lot of time on them, either.
I will add a text module occasionally to link to an article I wrote or deep link to my main site.
20th January, 2009 at 1:31 am
I agree that squidoo is overrated and their interface is quirky and slow.
20th January, 2009 at 1:54 am
Intereresting article. But even though I agree that Squidoo may be a bit overrated, I think that Google Knol has lots of potential, probably a bit more than article directories.
As soon as Google Knol is available in my language I shall submit an article and compare with article directories to see which one brings more visitors to my site.
20th January, 2009 at 2:20 am
I gotta agree Squidoo is overrated. I even wrote two posts on my blog questioning the usefulness of Squidoo and got a reply from the man himself SG. Like Marco says the site is slow and frustrating and the benefits are difficult to see. Article marketing hopefully is more use, as I am just getting started down that particular murjy alleyway.
20th January, 2009 at 3:01 am
@ Deborah – Is the email you used to leave that comment a good one? I’ll go ahead and generate some proof and send it to your inbox
Josh, of course it’s a good one.
20th January, 2009 at 3:23 am
Hey josh, I started of with Hub Pages and looking back it was a good place to get your feet wet in writing, structuring and some good constructive criticism from members. I still post occasionally to test some subjects, but the members have a different mentality compared to anybody into marketing.
20th January, 2009 at 3:34 am
Hey Josh,
Its logical and it does make sense in everyway. Much like MySpace, Squidoo is like a trend that will last maybe a year or so before it slowly sizzles out. Perhaps it will work for new IM products being launched and will help create a ranking around the buzz already existing within the niche or set of keywords but not a real long term solution.
I’d say articles work best because its so versatile and its even more dangerous when say, someone wants to build a list and truly build a business in a certain niche using article marketing.
That being said, I’m pretty interested to find out about the new article submission tool that will be coming out soon. It should be good looking at your past experiences in submitting it at the time. I’ve invested in a few but none seems satisfactory at the moment so I stuck with EZA submission only.
Also, I’m not really that big on keyword research so most of my analysis is done via Google KW tool which is petty standard for my own reference nowadays.
So, Josh what do you think about the pros and cons to running your own article directory? I mean the real purpose of running an article directory?
Thanks for some advise and hope others can benefit from my feedback.
Vern
20th January, 2009 at 3:52 am
Hey Josh,
Gotta say I agree with you for the most part as Squidoo is nothing like it was in the beginning. I use sites like that as small, quick spokes in a really big back linking wheel that works tremendously well although you must do it correctly these days to avoid leaving “bread crum” trails to your site.
Like everything else online you gotta roll with the punches and using sites like Squidoo, Hubs etc. your marketing scheme must evolve. When you do that successfully you will see a ton of great traffic to your MAIN site…which in my case is never a web 2.0 property.
Great post Josh…keep us all on our toes!
Barry
20th January, 2009 at 4:35 am
hi Josh,
I can’t believe how this post is growing. 74 comments. Wow! Anyway, you replied to me:
@ Steve – How about both. Of course you control the content and links of your own articles. True though, there are pros and cons to both, just more pros to article marketing and cons to squidoo.
Just to clarify, I was saying that with hubpages you can change and/or add a link AFTER the page is published, like if you decide you want to go after red widgets instead of blue widget. I’m not sure if you can do that with an article. I’ve used ezines, and come to think of it, I think you can edit the article, but then it needs to be reviewed again… Hmmm… maybe my point is mute.
~ Steve, purveyor of trade show booths
PS. Thanks for replying to my comment above!
20th January, 2009 at 4:43 am
“However, I will say that I’ve never made a dime directly from a submission to EzineArticles.com (after 100’s of articles that drive traffic to other pages),
@ Kyle – You’re doing something horribly wrong then! 100’s of articles, seriously? Get with me via email, you did something horrrrrrrribly wrong!!! Using article submission services is your first problem.”
No, actually I’m not. =)
However, I did say that in a confusing way. I HAVE indeed made plenty of money from articles, but I said DIRECTLY.
Because article directories do not accept affiliate links, I do not earn income directly from them like I do with Squidoo. Thus, the traffic that lands on my Squidoo lenses is less diluted, and can be pre-sold without an extra click.
Lastly, how can you say article submission services are a mistake when you said this in your post: “I’d rather use a good article submission tool (a new article submitter coming soon, stay tuned)”?
Anyway, like I said, you’re right in that Squidoo and other sites should all be used to build the authority of our own sites.
20th January, 2009 at 4:46 am
I made a couple of Squidoo lenses about a year ago when someone suggested that they’d make good backlinks to one of my main sites.
I’ll have to admit I never pursued the follow up with them. They’re still “there” but neglected completely. They seem to beg for attention, but I would rather put my time into building my own sites.
If I write an article, it doesn’t really need “maintenance” like a lens does.
Sure, I guess they may be a nice place to start for those who want a free method, but I’m glad I didn’t get started that way. I don’t think I would have received the grounding in proper keyword research and site building that I did elsewhere.
I understand what you say about Squidoo being overrated and why you say so. I agree because I hear/read all the hype and push that it is given in various forums, etc. That’s all great for the makers of Squidoo, of course, but I think it is a disservice to those who are starting out to be mislead into thinking that Squidoo is a fantastic way for them
to build an online business.
Most promoters of Squidoo marketing materials are not promoting it as a viable way to raise money to eventually build your OWN business, but as an end in itself. That’s what bothers me about it.
I’d rather see someone put all that energy and angst of learning a new skill into their own business rather than someone else’s.
20th January, 2009 at 6:14 am
@Josh
The idea is to not be the one doing the marketing busy work. Delegate marketing tasks to others. It is better to be focusing on the ideas for the business rather than the actual tasks of driving traffic, managing outsourcing, etc. That way when you come up with an idea, it is as simple as saying “make this happen” to setup another stream of revenue for your business.
Dennis
20th January, 2009 at 6:43 am
Thanks for this wonderful article Josh. I feel that you have been very honest in your review of Squidoo Lens. I always thought often as to why this thing (Lens) got so much attention when it can only provides a basic authority linkage that can be gained through Article Directories also. Thanks for coming out with this truth about overrated ‘Squidoo’ obsession of many marketers.
20th January, 2009 at 6:54 am
Hi Josh
Thanks for that update – I have done a squidoo lens but it seems to take just as much work to promote it as I need to do with my site, so I would rather put the work into a resource which has more pages, and more monetization opportunities. And articles seem to lead to lots of traffic without needing to do extra marketing.
Thanks again for your great insight!
Rob
20th January, 2009 at 7:00 am
Josh, looks like you have really hit a nerve here. I think this whole discussion just goes to show that there is nothing wrong with having Squidoo as part of your business plan. Just don’t put all your eggs in that one basket. I do use Squidoo, but I don’t concentrate on it. I it just one more tool in my arsenal. Thanks for a thought provoking post.
20th January, 2009 at 9:45 am
I do not agree, first a backlink to your main sites from an established relevant lens is strong, second, I have several lenses that make me several hundred dollars a month, because I build them as an affiliate, so while the revenue sharing on Squidoo is pocket change, the income that my affiliate links bring is not.
Most of my lenses sit on page 1 or 2 of SERPS, because I build them properly and partially because they do piggy back on Squidoo rank,
No way can you build a website and have it sit on page 3 of SERPS a few days after launch, but I have seen my Squid lenses do it several times, it’s all about the right KW and properly building a lens for SEO. I have written a detailed guide about this on my blog and have gotten positive reactions from readers who have used it.
In reality, there are tons of bum marketers using Squids as landing pages and they are making money!
20th January, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I agree with you 110%.And I have reasons to agree with you. I have tested by using the exact same article to submit to ezinearticles and create a lens at squidoo. I received more traffic from ezinearticles.
20th January, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Hmm… “Is Squidoo over-rated?”
As a stand-alone, money-making website then yes it is – most definitely. (Although there will always be successes with it i.e. Potpiegirl’s efforts helped her enormously.)
As an ‘entry’ into online business? Sure there are possibly better platforms to use (As Paul Duxbery says – he won’t talk about them!) but, since so many ‘followed’ people spout about them then their followers tend to try them out – with or without success.
As a part of a ‘mini-net’ or ‘maxi-net’ [my term] then they are extremely useful in PR juice (squidoo.com’s current PR is 6), backlinks and traffic generation.
To end: I agree (in part)
Thanks Josh for a stimulating post!
Regards
Dominic
20th January, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Completely and utterly agree with you Josh. Created a lens at Squidoo a few weeks ago, packed it with good, strong keyword content, ranks overall under 20k, business category well under 1000 and the lens receives minimal traffic to the point that it is absolutely pathetic – complete waste of time using them – definitely to be avoided in the future, this Squidoo and services like it. Can think of many more productive uses of my time than using systems such as these.
Again, great advice as usual.
Top of the day to you!
Mark
20th January, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Josh: You have made a really good points here. I tend to agree with you that squidoo, hubpages and blogspot page are quite overrated.
At the same time interlinking in these sites is MUCH better than others. Squidoo and hubpages seem to have much better and unique content (blogspot has all type of content)
20th January, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I initially created my first Squidoo lens to promote my blog, then I realized Squidoo’s potiential in earning affiliate revenue (maintaining a lens is a bit of work, but if you connect with the Squidoo community, you can see your lenses getting more popular, plus Squidoo is really good fun!).
It’s easier to create a Squidoo lens than a whole new blog if you want to promote various affiliate products (especially if they’re not related to each other); I still think that writing articles pointing to a Squidoo lens that promotes one affilate product can work and to prove this, my second Clickbank cheque is on its way to me and it refers to sales made through 2 of my lenses (it won’t pay all the bills, but I’m still happy since I haven’t done an ounce of work on my lenses for the last 2 months!).
you might prefer article marketing, I think that a combination of both is even better, but that’s what works for me!
I think that everyone should find what works for them and focus on that instead of blindingly following someone’s method. That said, I still appreciate all the advice I get from you but on this particular point I’m not “going with the flow”!
All this to pinpoint that we’ve all got brains, so let’s use them (sorry if this comment is starting to turn into a whole new blog post/long-winded ranting, I should probably just copy it on my own blog)!
21st January, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Like the old adage says; “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” I semi-agree with what you are saying Josh. You can’t live on Squidoo pages like you can’t make it with Twitter alone either. But Squidoo does have a place in SEO and that is to create a credible backlink. Why try to make it more than what it is. I have made sales using Squidoo and a traffic genereation co-op where people would go to my lens and rate and fave it for me going to their lens or whatever. I sold two memberships in 3 days using nothing but Squidoo. But I still don’t spend much time with generating traffic to my lenses. Squidoo is just another backlink for me.
21st January, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I have made some sales from Hubpages and the hubs I have built have rated well. I do agree that the time I spent building the first few of them was a little much. I have only built a couple of lenses and I never got them to rate. The hubs I built have gone to the top of google quickly and stayed there for over 6 months. You can not put more than two links in a Hub page and keep it dofollow. You can add your rss feed to your hubpage and it will be dofollow even your hub rating falls too low to be dofollow.
21st January, 2009 at 7:31 pm
@ Everyone, I decided to start a little ezinearticles.com vs. Squidoo case study today. I’ll have that published on the blog sometime in the next 1-2 weeks.
@ Deborah – Thanks, email sent.
@ Ric – Nothing wrong with that. See, there’s a benefit right there.
@ Vern – There’s a thread in the forum in regards to the new tool. It’s being developed by Milan. In regards to article directories, create a new thread in the forum, I have alot of advice on that topic, more than I care to write in a blog comment.
@ Steve – Correct, you can edit them, the changes just have to be approved before the changes take affect.
@ Kyle – Why does it matter if it’s direct income or indirect income? Most of my income is indirect. A dollar is a dollar, right?
There is a big difference between an article directory service and an article directory tool.
@ Angie – We’re on the same train of thought
@ Step-by-step – Please read my comment policy — Nothing wrong with disagreeing
If you think a link from a typical squidoo lens is “strong” I would hate to see your example of a weak link! I guess that depends on your definition of pocket change. I know of mannnnnnny different techniques and platforms to bring in a couple hundred dollars a month. That doesn’t mean Squidoo isn’t overrated.
“No way can you build a website and have it sit on page 3 of SERPS a few days after launch”
Of course I can! It all depends on the competition of the niche!
It’s not about whether or not you can make money with it. I don’t doubt you can make money with it. It’s about whether or not it’s a good time investment!
@ Dominic – Agreed there are some good uses. One point though, the amount of authority the homepage has means absolutely nothing in regards to lenses.
@ Sophie – I mostly disagree with your first two paragraphs and mostly agree with your last 2
21st January, 2009 at 10:22 pm
“Step by Step affiliate guides.” I have a question if it is OK with Josh. Why did you put the name of your site (if it is) and not put a link under it? I tried to find your site and it did not show up with a Google search on your name. I am a firm believer that every link helps. The links from this blog show up quickly in Yahoo.
You would have had another visitor to your site if your link was there.
Thanks,
Rick
21st January, 2009 at 10:23 pm
“@ Kyle – Why does it matter if it’s direct income or indirect income? Most of my income is indirect. A dollar is a dollar, right?”
Wow, you’re really reaching now Josh. I trust you know the impact conversion rates have on your profits. A dollar is a dollar, but a dollar per visitor is still better than a dollar per 10+ visitors.
Because of the interaction with visitors, the number of links allowed on a page, and the lower ad:content ratio & affiliate links placed directly on Squidoo, anyone can get higher conversion rates than with traditional “Bum Marketing” with text article directories.
Once again, it’s better to use either type of content site to build the authority of our own sites, but “Web 2.0″ sites will continue to trump text-only article directories in every way.
21st January, 2009 at 11:47 pm
@ Rick – He or she did, but the comment didn’t abide by my comment policy so it was removed.
@ Kyle – “reaching?” The only interaction I see on squidoo lenses is other lens “masters” trying to build links to their own.
Let’s put our money where our mouths are, how about that? I’m doing a little case study that I’ll be publishing with in the next week or two. I would love to see any and all results you can come up with as a response to that.
btw, article directories are web 2.0 sites as well.
22nd January, 2009 at 12:44 am
You’re right that many people don’t use it properly, and yes it’s over-rated. The key, no matter what sites we use as marketers, is to use them to benefit the visitor.
It’s obvious that we’re on different sides with this, but that’s fine. We do what works for us, right? =)
Anyway, nice post, and have a good time with your case study. That was a fun discussion.
Take care Josh,
Kyle
22nd January, 2009 at 12:47 am
True statements, Kyle. I agree
Take care.
22nd January, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Wow. This post has been impressive. Hit a sensitive nerve with people and you end up with 95 comments… actually 96 now.
What is the most comments you have had on a post to date?
Dennis Grubbs
23rd January, 2009 at 7:15 am
Awesome Josh,
I’m waiting for your case study.
As for Squidoo, I’ve been saying this for more than one year, but everybody seems to get caught in the hype.
I’m having a case study right now on my blog, and I just told my readers that if they can’t afford a domain name when they start, I recommend Blogger.com and weebly over Squidoo because Squidoo has too many links that will make you no money.
In fact, I am testing a new way integrate Squidoo and other sites in your article marketing efforts to promote your own website.
Always promote your own website.
Franck
23rd January, 2009 at 10:14 am
It depends on what you use Squidoo for. If you just want to build backlinks then yes there are better and faster ways to do that.
However if you want to build a good pre-sell or review page and then draw people to your website there are not many free places that can do that better then Squidoo.
However no matter why you use Squidoo for – reader must come first, publish good quality content and Squidoo will help you drive traffic more traffic to any site you want.
24th January, 2009 at 5:39 am
Josh
Posted your article at [removed]
24th January, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Hi ViticleDotCom,
As much as I’m flattered that you want to syndicate my content, you do not legally have the right. Please read my copyright statement then remove my content from your blog.
Thanks,
Josh
26th January, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I have worked on other domains. I worked in page maker from Google. It was very successful. A ton of people were building webzsites. There was a pretty good community for help in Yahoo groups and Google Groups. Google is dropping Googlepages. Arg.
I will only put a lot of work into pages on my own domains.
Rick
31st January, 2009 at 5:58 am
All roads lead to Rome. I agree with the rest. There are plenty of ways to boost rankings and get traffic to your site. I love to hate ezines, especially since there’s a time delay. I am not sure if you can pay to have your articles read and approved faster, but my wait time is generally 3 to 5 days.
I have never created a lens so it sounds like I am not missing out on anything. Or am I wrong?
@josh it surprises me that you would ask above poster to remove your content from his blog. Isn’t it another link for you? Well assuming he links to you that is, which brings up another interesting topic. Do bloggers have the same copyright protections as other writers?
5th February, 2009 at 9:57 pm
totally agree with you on this one, many of these so called successful sites are a waste of time. Personally I would prfer to promote my own blog than waste time building up the reputation of Squidoo or Blogspot.
9th February, 2009 at 6:30 pm
[...] had to know that I would come back with some proof after the response to my recent post where I say Squidoo and related services are overrated Did you think I was like one of those other bloggers out there who don’t have [...]
10th February, 2009 at 7:40 am
Josh, I always like the way you say things as YOU see them without fear or favor (got to be that military training) but man, you have definitely over-extended your conclusions here.
First off, Squidoo, Hub Pages, Propeller and the like are really just glorified blogging sites. They offer for free a functionality that you would otherwise have to pay for. They also do it very well – most Squidoo lenses are more attractive on the eye than any Blogger page I get to see.
As a side benefit only (and it is only a side benefit) they offer huge domain authority in the form of sitewide incoming links. If you never link to your lens THAT MEANS NOTHING. But if you do link in properly then that additional site authority will shoot your rankings up the SERPs.
Getting onto the first page for any search result is always a matter of simple math. Take a search for ‘acne cure’ for example. Why does a Buzzle article with 11 incoming page links and a PR2 come out ahead of a PR3 page on Therapeutix with 2633 incoming links? Because it has 154,614 incoming sitewide links as opposed to 2643 for Therapeutix, that’s why. And in the same search why does Amazon.com with 29 page links and a PR3 come out ahead of Getacnetreatments.com with 12195 page links and a PR4? Because it has 150,431,745 sitewide links as opposed to the latter’s 14491.
The math doesn’t lie.
If you just set up a lens or hub and leave it at that, failure WILL follow, but if you actually take the bother of promoting them just as you would your own site (which is what Howie Schwartz – and I’m no Howie fan – actually says to do) then you’ll be gold.
28th January, 2011 at 4:02 am
Well I’m a little late on reading this post but I have just started building Squidoo Lenses and I haven’t measured the results yet. I think I will before I start to many. I really like article marketing so maybe I’ll stick to that. thanks for the information Josh