Squidoo

I keep a folder labeled “Compliments” in my email files. When I get a message where someone says kind things about me, I save a copy in that folder.

Now and then when I need an ego boost, I browse those messages. Some date back to my time on the Squidoo website. We had some great networking there and I still keep in touch with many of the great people who wrote there.

Kind Words from My Squidoo Pals:

- Diane Cass – “Virginia is a constant source of inspiration and encouragement for me.”
- Heather Knight Schulte – “I also agree Virginia needs a trophy (or a crown) for all her helpful advice and encouragement.”
- Lisa Auch – “For sharing all your wonderful information to making great pages! And for sharing your journey and motivation you give to others! It sure is a pleasure knowing you!”
- “Virginia, thank you so much for all that you have done and continue to do to promote Squidoo and engender a feeling of community amongst the writers. I also want to personally thank you for all of the encouragement you have given me to stay with Squidoo, the helpful tips that have made my lenses better, and being my biggest fan. The great thing is that you do this for everyone…not just me. Thank you so much.”
- Wordstock – “You, my friend, are the most helpful and the best cheerleader a person could hope for. Thank you for your help in the past and for, I am sure, the help in the future. Without you, I would still be floundering on the beach. Now I am not afraid to swim in the deep water.”

lensmasters work

Four months ago, my 595 web pages transferred over from Squidoo to Hubpages. Within a few weeks, the site was slapped by a Penguin update with Google suppressing Hubpages in its searches. This resulted in very low traffic for everyone there. Long-time hubbers quickly blamed the Squidoo content for the attack. I think it was just poor timing and not necessarily directed at former Squidoo pages.

Being used to ranking in the top 20 lensmasters on the Squidoo site, I had expectations for doing well on Hubpages too. I figured that after learning the ropes and making required adjustments to my pages, that I’d steadily regain traffic and sales.

Alas, this is not to be. Hubpages only seems to like my stodgiest pages and has hidden about 50% of the ones it considers low quality or lacking in engagement. Many of the low traffic ones are holiday topics, but it will require much work to get those back in service. Given the shunning from Google, hardly any traffic is finding its way to hubs.

It seems lately that any featured hubs with red skulls that I correct the issues, immediately go to unfeatured for quality. When the ones lacking engagement get updated, they do the same. I’m not sure what guidelines the reviewers are using but I’m not on the right track with my fixes.

Enough is enough. It appear from the forum discussions that a batch of old-time hubbers are brandishing flaming torches and vowing to report all sub-standard hubs. They needn’t come around trying to burn down my barn, I seem to be doing a fine job on my own getting my hubs out-of-commission.

On the brighter side, I’m just about finished with the prep work on my first ebook. It contains the content from 5 former lenses, now hubs that I’m deleting. Onward and upward.

Red Skull & Crossbones Sticker by yarddawg