Forget about what topics can and can not be written about… forget about if you previously had some money making lenses and they are now toast.

Fact is, you should only ever use third party sites like Squidoo on your OWN terms!

That means using them for testing.

And then, once you have some traction in a campaign you can breakout and grab your own domain and start building your own site. You can then return to your lenses and switch them to point at your own site.

Use these third party sites as supplemental and complimentary silos. Use them for backlinks.

Do not base your entire business plan around something you cannot fully control.

(Inside ANC we have a guide that shows you how easy it is to get your own sites up and running. There is a post about the guide here.)

People will continue to feel the pain from Squidoo until they take matters into their own hands. Even if your lenses haven’t been slapped yet, they might, as soon as you amend them. If in doubt, copy the content now so that it can be placed elsewhere if necessary.

Should you continue to use Squidoo? Yes!

But like I said, use it as supplement for your campaigns, not the basis.

OK, the guide isn’t exactly free. You have to be an ANC member to get it. I explained why on the post about the guide here.

But that wasn’t the reason we got a bashing. Lot’s of people have grabbed the guide and we’ve had nothing but positive feed back on it so far.

No, the reason we are getting bashed is people think we are bashing Squidoo!

Not the case… not the case at all!

Using Squidoo for marketing is just as effective now as it was before. You just have to change your game plan slightly. Well OK, if you have lenses in any of the ‘banned’ topics you are out of Squidoo full stop.

But otherwise Squidoo remains a great marketing tool if you use it as a supplement to your existing campaigns.

Here’s a little sneak peak inside ‘Squidoo Storm‘, one our bonus guides:-

I hope that doesn’t look too complicated. Basically what you should do is have a website as your primary base. Add a blog to it and create some complimentary lenses. Make your lenses what I would call ‘hobby’ lenses rather than ‘salesy’ lenses. Just create great content on them and link them back to your website and blog.

Link your blog and website back to your lenses.

Create a sales traffic funnel… not only is it great for marketing but great for your visitors, for Squidoo and the SERPS.

Doing it this way is a great way to spread PR juice across your marketing network.

It takes a little effort to set up but it’s well worth it in the end.

PS. Our ‘Squidoo Storm‘ guide is a bonus for anyone who buys any of the recommended products listed on the right of this blog via our links.

Anyway, there’s a huge fuss going down in the Wealthy Affilate forum and in loads of other IM forums and blogs about an upcoming Squidoo Policy Update.

More details here from the Squids themselves.

Whole topics (like weight loss) are gonna get canned. Yep! No matter how good your lens is, no matter how non-spammy you might think it is. Come mid July they’ll be gone. Poof!

So, what to do?

Well, first check out that lens about the changes and think about how it applies to your own lenses. Do it before the clampdown… and if in doubt pull the lenses. You do NOT want your whole account locked!

Next… I don’t think people should abandon Squidoo, etc… just make sure you create good quality original non-spammy content (but not in the ‘banned’ topics).

And remember the bigger picture…

The thing is, if you are making any kind of sales with Squidoo, you should already have started thinking about branching off, having your own site, getting other traffic sources…

I mean, Squidoo has got to the point where it’s almost as complicated to build lenses and get them indexed as it is to build your own site and SEO it, so start thinking about that.

Squidoo is certainly good to use in some ways, but to build an entire business and income source around it, is probably NOT a good long time plan anyway.

These so called ‘slaps’ have happened before… at Ezine, at Squidoo, at Hubpages… and they’ll happen again!

So start preparing now!

I have to say that you’re better off in the long run creating your own sites and blogs on your own domains.

It is NOT that hard to do. Even with something like Dreamweaver, if you can do the HTML stuff on a Squidoo lens you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Ditto WordPress. But with WP make sure you host those on your own domain and use Themes. There are plenty of free ones and some really good paid ones (for a one off fee).

And before you dismiss the idea of investing in Dreamweaver or some of the better WordPress Themes consider this…

How much would it cost you to set up an offline shop (or business)? An awful lot more than the cost of DW or a good WP Theme. And you can set up an unlimited supply of online ‘shops’ with either.

Check out Affilate Theme for example. Couldn’t be easier to set up a really professional ‘review style’ landing page.

Building sites is just another learning curve…

And if I can do it, anyone can.

Hell, I’ve even got a lens on it.

Oh… before I forget the vid…

Don’t panic and blunder about blindfold…

Get a plan… stick to it… small steps… Into Action!