SquidU

I only skimmed it...

Let them boycott...there will be less junk to wade through.

SilverBlueRose wrote:

... about boycotting Squidoo?

http://www.potpiegirl.com/2009/08/shoul … t-squidoo/

Is she just letting off steam or is she serious?

I always have problems trying to figure it what she is trying to say.
Can anybody digest it and post the results?

Cinetech wrote:

SilverBlueRose wrote:

... about boycotting Squidoo?

http://www.potpiegirl.com/2009/08/shoul … t-squidoo/

Is she just letting off steam or is she serious?

I always have problems trying to figure it what she is trying to say.
Can anybody digest it and post the results?

Hopefully that's what I have just done LOL - those speed reading and proof reading courses come in useful now and then :-)

I think the new policies left most of us highly frustrated. Indeed, I personally prefer writing on things I'm comfortable with and  LIKE instead of writing about things I don't like or am not comfortable with. I think it would be dishonest to write on things I don't mind or don't like or ignore! So, for instance, I'm comfortable with business, weight loss (sharing my personal experiences) and holiday season.

History is my passion but I know French history and study it in French and it's hard to translate old vocabulary into plain understable and especially "English-English". That's the reason why I don't write a lot regarding French history. It's almost impossible for me to build a lens with proper English about history.

Ok, what's left to me now? Holiday season. But there's a problem: I don't celebrate holidays like a crazy and can't write 100 different lenses related to whether Halloween, Xmas, Easter or Valentines. I won't be writing on 4th of July as I'm not American; I did one lens on Thanksgiving but once again, I'm not American thus not really interested into this celebration. Here again, I prefer talking about holidays I KNOW and celebrate and not talking about holidays I don't mind, or dislike or prefer to ignore.

Many other people are frustrated because of this. Especially those that bought Jennifer's OWM. It's normal for her to feel vulnerable.

But I've read her post and never understood she would tell people to boycott Squidoo - she remains faithful to the program and that's what makes her a great marketer.

Apparently some people at WealthyAffiliate forum are not happy with Squidoo's updated SquidDon't list and the fact that they're blocking lenses on WealthyAffiliate now. PotPieGirl's thoughts on this make sense though (this part is about there being 14,000 lenses on "wealthy affiliate" on Squidoo):

Now, applying that thought process to Squidoo… do you really think Squidoo.com wants another page that targets the phrase “wealthy affiliate"  or “wealthy affiliate scam" Really? And trust me, there are LOTS of phrases - especially product names or ‘product name scam’ - that are OVERLY covered on Squidoo.com.

They don’t necessarily want the ‘garden snail’ lenses as much as they want UNIQUE content on UNIQUE keywords and topics.

And why would YOU, the marketer, want to put yet another page on the Squidoo site that targets ‘product name’ or ‘product name scam’? With thousands of pages already in Google from Squidoo.com, why put yourself in such a saturated query space with no hope of being found?

I see nothing wrong with marketers using Squidoo to promote their products, businesses, etc. But that's only if their idea of promoting is not "cut and paste ready-made articles"

Last edited by Chadrew (08/09/2009 2:25 pm)

I think some people are misunderstanding her post. It was written in response to recent discussions on the Wealthy Affiliate forum (of which I'm a member), where some people were talking about boycotting Squidoo in response to the latest tightening of the rules (they were in niches like weight loss etc, and have had lenses locked). PPG isn't agreeing with them - she's saying that it's understandable why Squidoo are cracking down, and is just suggesting that if people want complete freedom to write about whatever they want without risk of getting their content deleted, they should have their own site. She's been very supportive of Squidoo when responding to the detractors, and certainly isn't suggesting a boycott : )

Last edited by musocat (08/10/2009 5:39 am)

RickPhillips wrote:

The Hub article in this thread is the most interesting of all.

Yup, eye-opener wasn't it?

I still don't know what potpie girl said - I'm never sure what she says at the best of times
However,  if the wealthy affiliate cast of thousands are boycotting squidoo, I can only breathe a sigh of relief and look forward to getting some time to work on my own projects instead of wading through the same junky lenses from them (well, from MOST of them)

Let me say upfront that I really like PotPieGirl's OWM and think it is a great value for the price, with lots of excellent SEO info & she also gives lots of free follow-up info every week...

But... I also see way too many terrible, copy & paste, spammy lenses that are very obviously made by people who are following the OWM plan...

I personally never actually followed the plan... I use my OWM info for the SEO & promotional info... not for the plan itself, which If I'm totally honest, just seemed way too morally questionable for me personally...but I have honesty issues...I can't personally live with myself if I do dishonest or even questionable things... so I guess I was never cut out to be a good affiliate marketer... because I just can't lie & try to get people to buy crappy get rich schemes that don't work,  just so I can make money....

This moral issue I have is why I quit Wealthy Affiliate... which in my opinion has absolutely no redeming qualities... it's just a bunch of people who get together to come up with new ways to scam people so they can profit from it... and the whole thing just made me kind of sick... but that's just me

I hear all these stories about how these affiliate marketers are getting so rich... but after seeing it in action, the way they prey on desperate people and then profit from selling tham empty "time management" ,~ "Weight Loss" ~ "Online Marketing" ~ "Real Estate"  ~ etc...programs that basically just contain the same info they would get for free from a google search... or the whole pyramid scheme of WA or even bum marketing for that matter... where the guys on top are the only ones really making any real money... and the people actually pay a monthly fee to go out and recruit more members so the guy on top can keep getting richer... well the whole thing just makes me disgusted....

Still, I do think that PotPieGirl's OWM is a good investment, just for the SEO & promotional info, that yes I could have gotten elsewhere, but it would have taken a lot longer... so it is worth the cost, just like a game instruction manuel is worth the cost to a gamer... sure the gamer would eventually figure out GTA4 on his own, but having the book is sweet when he gets stuck, or the second time around when he wants to know all the cheats and secrets...

As far as Squidoo being possibly boycotted by WA members ~ I say good, let them all go over to hubpages or whatever...I just don't see how having less spammy, copy & paste crappy "get rich" or "Lose weight magically" lenses could hurt Squidoo... no if anything, being rid of those spammy lenses will only make Squidoo a better place for the rest of us, who are actually taking more time than five minutes to copy & paste a lens together...

And please don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the affiliate marketers who are taking the time to make quality, original content lenses to sell products that they have actually personally tried and know that the product works...which is why I have no problem with OWM, because I have used the product, and it has been a big help for me, even if I don't follow the plan... which actually speaks volumes for how good it is, because to me...the plan is OWM's weakest point & the product is able to stand alone even without it

I think that with Internet growth at an all time high... & so many people trying to be affiliate marketers... that the AM market is about to crash & burn soon anyway... I mean really... after awhile it's like there really is no one left to fall for the "get rich quick" schemes... and once the guys on top of these pyramids realize that they have bottomed out... they will move on to the next thing they can use to dupe people out of money...and all of these wannabe AM's will go back to their day jobs because... hey they still have bills to pay!

I believe that the powers that be at Squidoo have forseen that the whole AM thing is on the down slide and getting ready to crash & burn... and that in their infinite wisdom they know that quality informational lenses that are well written and entertaining will survive... and that when the dust finally settles, Squidoo will still be standing strong, because they invested their energy into recruiting the best freelance writers on the web, rather than giving into the "spammers"...and the high quality of a Squidoo that is porn & spam free, will inevitably outlive other sites that are just going for the quick buck.

mysticmama wrote:

And please don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the affiliate marketers who are taking the time to make quality, original content lenses to sell products that they have actually personally tried and know that the product works...which is why I have no problem with OWM, because I have used the product, and it has been a big help for me, even if I don't follow the plan... which actually speaks volumes for how good it is, because to me...the plan is OWM's weakest point & the product is able to stand alone even without it

Unfortunately, those people are penalized too... as well as those that aren't selling anything but just teach others how to do things.

prosperity66 wrote:

mysticmama wrote:

And please don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the affiliate marketers who are taking the time to make quality, original content lenses to sell products that they have actually personally tried and know that the product works...which is why I have no problem with OWM, because I have used the product, and it has been a big help for me, even if I don't follow the plan... which actually speaks volumes for how good it is, because to me...the plan is OWM's weakest point & the product is able to stand alone even without it

Unfortunately, those people are penalized too... as well as those that aren't selling anything but just teach others how to do things.

Okay...so you got me curious, so I just had to go see your weight loss lenses...
And I'm sorry...but the Cabbage Soup diet is sooooooooooo unhealthy, my Mom ended up hospitalized for malnutrition from that one even though she was still fat!

Atkins & south Beach both have people who have actually died because of those diets

I guess my feeling is that unless you are a medical doctor, you really should not be giving people diet advice...
At least for me personally... I just couldn't make those types of lenses and still live with myself... I would just feel awful if someone took my bad diet advice and died...

I know that lots of people make tons of money selling weight loss products... like I said before it is a billion dollar industry...
but for me...I would just feel like a criminal selling that junk... which is why I'm just not cut out to be a successful Affiliate Marketer...
I also would feel like a criminal selling forex junk, or any of the other get rich quick programs & products that prey on desperate people...
I would always wonder how many people destroyed their lives or committed suicide because they believed my scam & spent their time & money on some worthless get rich quick scheme that I was trying to hawk...

I have to live with myself and I personally just couldn't feel good about myself profitting from stuff like that, but that really is just me...I'm sure lots of other people have no problem who they hurt as long as they make $$$... myself, I would rather be poor & honest

susannaduffy wrote:

So no one can actually sum up what potpie said?

Apparently not.