Squidoo

[peterb6001]

Hello,

I write pages on Squidoo to make money. You have to follow there rules as they are very strict but a lot of people make a full time living out of it. If you've never heard of it you build a page about a topic with original content. They are affiliates with Amazon and eBay so if you sell use you their modules you can make commission from sales this way by selling stuff. They also have a tier lens system where by the adpool that squidoo earns is 50% divided by the pages in the top 3 tiers.

An example of my help and tips page on online surveys can be found there (it's not a survey affiliate page) if you'd like to see an example, and some of my other pages using more Amazon modules. It works for me. If you search on Squidoo for online surveys the truth you will find it, by peterb6001.

Although setting up a page is simple, there is a lot to be learn't about SEO, image attributions, plagiarism etc, so it will take time to get sales and traffic but is great fun.

Hope you found this helpful!

[ksedwar]

Word to the wise! If you visit a Squidoo website/web page then be very vigilant! There is a mix of good, bad and unethical pages and links found at Squidoo including referrals to fake antivirus software, links to known (and unknown) browser attack sites and many other shady scams including links to altered free software to make it paid software. Squidoo, LLC is only out for money and they do not do enough to protect unsuspecting users. There is a healthy amount of fake reviews promoting rouge software and services as well.

It only took me a few minutes of searching to find links to shady websites promoting software that is considered to be rouge/scareware. I will not link to these websites here as I see no reason to help them with SEO. If you want the proof I found send me a PM.

I also quickly found a link that tried to start a download for rouge software. Again I will not mention the name here, PM me for details.

Note: I do not suggest just going to shady websites and clicking links to see if you can find what I did. There are precautions to take before hand that keeps my computer safe. I also know what to do in case something does get through my defenses.

[idylatoo]

Word to the wise! If you visit a Squidoo website/web page then be very vigilant! There is a mix of good, bad and unethical pages and links found at Squidoo including referrals to fake antivirus software, links to known (and unknown) browser attack sites and many other shady scams including links to altered free software to make it paid software. Squidoo, LLC is only out for money and they do not do enough to protect unsuspecting users. There is a healthy amount of fake reviews promoting rouge software and services as well.

It only took me a few minutes of searching to find links to shady websites promoting software that is considered to be rouge/scareware. I will not link to these websites here as I see no reason to help them with SEO.

Note: I do not suggest just going to shady websites and clicking links to see if you can find what I did. There are precautions to take before hand that keeps my computer safe. I also know what to do in case something does get through my defenses.

I think you mean rogue, not rouge. Rouge is a type of makeup!

At any rate, Squidoo is a content mill and as such, it's not good for use as a primary source of information. I think the best advice when researching anything online is to use multiple sites to verify the information. Much like English teachers used to lecture, it's best to use multiple sources to ensure the veracity of what you are reading - and most certainly before choosing to download and install a program!

I do some content writing on the side, but I've never written for Squidoo so I cannot speak personally as to whether it's worth the trouble or not.

[ksedwar]

Just like there are good and bad survey websites there are good and bad content writing websites. IMO Squidoo falls in the bad category.

Rouge, rogue..

[peterb6001]

Hi,

As the category is about other ways to make money online Squidoo is a good way to do that if you like writing about unique content and niches, Google favours Squidoo so it is slightly easier than starting a website from scratch to get good rankings with keyword research.

I've never come across pages as described above. Most of the pages are aimed at selling a product through Amazon or eBay to get commission and apart from that get paid monthly for their tier system.

There are about 3.5 million pages on Squidoo so yes there are bound to be some dodgy pages as it's 100% free but I think they are doing a good job at regulating it for a small team.

I'd like know about the pages mentioned. If the higher ranking Squids found this to be true I'm sure they would deal with it very quickly. If you'd like to send me the URL's I'd be grateful.

Thanks for the heads up.

[ksedwar]

The issues I have pointed out with Squidoo have been the same for years. My main presence on the Internet is helping in online malware removal on various computer help forums so I know the damage that some of the information found at Squidoo can cause to a computer. Squidoo refuses to change their position. As long as the pages generte traffic they don't care how accurate or unethical their users content is.

I'll PM you the links.

P.S. Please don't take this as a personal attack on your suggestion. I just think it's important to warn the unsuspecting and less computer savvy users.

[idylatoo]

I just think it's important to warn the unsuspecting and less computer savvy users.

I agree with this, but it's best to warn against the BEHAVIOR as a whole rather than a specific site. As there are lots of sites with dodgy links it's better to say things like "I found dodgy stuff on Squidoo, but it's best to not click on random links to download stuff you aren't familiar with on any site.", for example. Just pointing at a site isn't nearly as helpful as the 'less than savvy' might just do the same thing on a different page when it's not smart to click on links and download programs from ANY site without researching it first.

[ksedwar]

As there it's better to say things like "I found dodgy stuff on Squidoo, but it's best to not click on random links to download stuff you aren't familiar with on any site.", for example.

I sort of touched on that in my first reply.

Note: I do not suggest just going to shady websites and clicking links to see if you can find what I did. There are precautions to take before hand that keeps my computer safe. I also know what to do in case something does get through my defenses.

[peterb6001]

Thanks ksedwar, I didn't take it personal. I don't think you assumed I was writing those pages.

When a site has that many pages it's bound to have some dodgy ones. I'd personally like the site to be as clean as possible as I've invested a lot of time there so the links would be greatly appreciated.

I wasn't aware of this issue before so thanks for the heads up