But just to reiterate. First, do NOT panic. Do NOT give up on Squidoo. Just be aware of the changes and make sure you are producing good quality informative lenses and stay clear of the ‘banned’ topics.

Here’s an acid test for ya…

Strip out the promotional part of your lens…

Yep! Just look at it again and imagine it without any kind of promotion on it.

What would be left? If it’s nothing… then you have no lens… at least not in Squidoo eyes and I have to say I support that 100% because if you are not adding value yourself to the reader, not only should you not be there but you are doing it all wrong.

HTH

Same crap is happening right now on Twitter.

The main thing is I think Squidoo should have acted on it a lot sooner. The problem they created by letting too many spammers and junk lens creators run wild for so long, is they now end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater and canning a lot of good lenses too.

I think Hubpages did the smarter thing by clamping down early on with some anti-spam measures. It keeps them from having to take more extreme actions later.

It’s a good reminder though for people to always keep in the back of their mind that any 3rd party site can ban anyone or change anything at any time for any reason…which of course can also create new opportunities.

I’ll be happy to see these ‘lowlife’ spammers and junk site-makers shut down. The only problem I see is that they’ll simply move on and pollute the web somewhere else like they always do!

Your own site and SEO promotion – YES – always
(if you want to build a better biz) and have something
to sell if you wish!

Overly promotional – look at Squid pages, EA pages and other
so-called Web 2.0 properties – do they squeeze each of our pages
with enough “promotions” to have some sweet FREE juice
from our hard work on these pages? You answer.

Now, what’s stays what goes – flip a coin – that’s at least
what it sounds like so far.
Risky?
Still unsure about building your own sites?

And even on wrongly locked lenses – no answer from SQ
bunch even after multiple AND polite emails.
Rudeness and indifference towards lens-cast-ers?

Now: WP vs. SQ – which one will you keep if you are
in charge (or you thing you are in charge).

Flip that lens – Maybe?

No Voodoo or Hoodoo – just a good sign to reassess your
efforts and REALLY focus on what you can control
and what gives you back what you want for all your
combined efforts.

Need a drink of water after that much talk…;)

Lew

Steven – all lensmasters did get an email.

Well, I did get a mail. In fact I got several as I have several Squidoo accounts.

But it’s still not absolutely clear IMO what will be regarded as ‘overly promotional’ for example. That could mean different things to different people.

You’ll only really know if your lenses are OK if they don’t lock ‘em.

I’m certainly not just giving up on Squidoo but as I’ve said it is just one string to your bow. Make sure you have some others.

And the fact that they are openly going to have a two-tier system is wide open to abuse IMO.

I’m certainly NOT saying affiliates should abandon Squidoo but rather use it (as it’s always really been intended for, from a marketing point of view) as a supplement to your campaigns or to test them out.

Once you make some sales in any niche you should be expanding anyway.

NEVER keep all your eggs in just ONE basket.

As far as using squidoo in the future. Why? If it takes as much effort to build a lens as it does to build your own site then why use squidoo? There are way to many other web 2.0 properties then to rely on just one.

They made their bed, now they can lie(pun intended)in it.

Should be one rule for ALL. And they keep changing the rules… as do other similar Web 2.0 sites… Hubs, Knols,etc.

Just kinda reinforces the whole ‘do your own thing’ argument.