Thanks Jennifer for your analysis and helpful suggestions. Keep swimming, squids!

Lidia

It’s a shame that topics like ‘how to make money’ or ‘weight loss’ is inundated with ‘less than honest ‘ information’ – people really need help in those areas.

The changes at Squidoo will not affect the affiliates who are providing quality information as a selling tactic.

Google’s strength is not in ‘selling/advertising’ but in ‘providing relevant information’ when someone enters a ‘search inquiry’.

Thanks for OWM Jennifer. You are wonderful!

~ Sharon

First off, thank you for taking the time to come back and comment again =)

I agree with you completely about free speech – it IS precious. That’s what I love about the internet… Anyone can come online, start a site, and say anything they want.

I think I get what you are trying to get my little pea-brain to absorb tho…

Squidoo says, “Hey come here and make a web page on ANYTHING…. except…..this, this, and that”

In short, make a web page on anything THEY approve of.

I think we also agree that they are completely within their rights to do that. Plus, when we sign up with Squidoo, we agree to abide by their TOS – regardless of what they are at any given moment.

I do wish that there was some middle ground on these topics that Squidoo now does not want on their site. There ARE people who are looking for quality information on those topics, but sadly, the spammers and abusers ruined it for everyone else.

Thing is, from a business/site-owner perspective, I totally get what Squidoo is doing… and WHY they are doing it.

Sadly, too MUCH freedom of speech on Squidoo could very well cause the site to end up in the gutter.

Again, thank you for coming back… and thank you to ALL for your feedback and insight!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Every person trying to make money with affiliate marketing needs to be prepared for things to change drastically. It may be Google making changes (oh ya, they just did), perhaps Yahoo is changing the way which they find sites (which they have recently done as well by making meta tags more redundant) or maybe it’s Squidoo deciding that their links are no longer “do follow” links (I sure hope not!).

The bottom line is that the industry is ALWAYS changing and you must diversify in everything you do. Different niches, different sites like Squidoo (there are other sites than Squidoo which you should be using regularly) different domains, different products… You must be prepared for the inevitable.

Yes, it stinks. I’m not taking away from how this has hurt some really great marketers… I’m just saying that there is no point to dwell or get upset with Squidoo. All you are doing is burning energy that could be put to better use.

My thoughts,
Jodie

You said…..

“Initially I was baffled and confused about Jennifer’s apologies and acquiescence to Squidoo’s Big Brother censorship policies. However I realize that Squidoo is a big part of her internet marketing efforts so it’s understandable that she would paint the rosiest picture of what is essentially another example of a social site stomping on free speech, including commercial free speech.”

I’m a bit baffled myself…lol!

Why is it that the owners of Squidoo.com HAVE to allow anyone to say/write anything they want?

I think a site owner (or owners) have the right to decide what content is found on their site.

For example, PotPieGirl.com is MY site. I allow comments (by choice), but I do not allow any and all comments. I believe it is totally my right to choose what others post on my site.

I also have other sites that are open for people to join and post their content. I believe I have every right to delete posts there that I do not want.

Why is Squidoo not allowed that same right to choose what is found on their site?

Thanks to ALL for the feedback!!!

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

Thanks for the heads up! I think these changes are long overdue, and actually, I’m surprised that they are not more restrictive. I know – a bunch of rotten tomatoes are coming my way from those who disagree! However, ever since Squidoo received the infamous Google slap a few years back, Squidoo has not been the same – unfortunately, those who build quality lenses also get slapped around when an entire domain takes a hit.

For the past year, I have been using Hubpages. If someone wants to talk about rules, read theirs. Hubpages is a quality site though, and it’s super simple to get a good, quick ranking in the search engines. Rules are not always good, but Squidoo only stands to benefit from taking these steps – and as far as their rules are concerned, they are still fairly liberal in what they will allow their users to post.

this may sound familiar, but OWM was my last ditch effort in IM before I gave up in frustration. I’m so glad I didn’t quit! I applied some OWM techniques to existing campaigns and less than a week later – an actual sale!

now I feel like all I have to do is scale up and repeat repeat repeat to reach my daily $$ goal! such an awesome feeling!

let this be inspiration and proof to others who are looking for it! get OWM, read it, use it!

thanks a million, pot pie girl!

I am sick of Acai ads so thank you Squidoo! And I’m am very happy they are getting rid of X rated lenses as I really don’t my content associated with a site that supports that kind of material.

So, you go Squidoo!

Who will be locking lenses? All of squidoo: everybody can report a lens that’s violating the guidelines. That’s already true and will stay true. That doesn’t mean any lens that gets reported is locked: it takes several people reporting a lens for it to get locked.
However: most of the locking will be done digitally – as it is now. Squidoo staff will be reviewing the lenses that get flagged digitally – that is: those that filed a reinclusion report of some kind. (going to be a massive job – better to be proactive and work with the new rules than against them).

This will only help us learn to dig deeper into longtail keyword, and write good content, which is the real deal anyway…..

And, good IMters don’t keep all their eggs in one basket anyway, right? So, scramble your eggs people and all will be well.

I was kinda concerned about some of the issues but you answered my questions so beautifully and I can now relax again.

Thanks!

I was recently very put out by the fact that I had worked very hard on a squidoo lens on forex trading ( having read several other forex lenses) only to find that forex is no longer allowed. I would have been grateful for the heads up when I chose my very obvious url and keywords rather than leaving it until I had spent several hours putting my lens together