Writing on Squidoo - Linking to Other Websites

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Topics You Can't Write About on Squidoo

The article sharing site Squidoo will accept a wide variety of articles for the most part.   

You can write about nearly anything as long as you behave as a good citizen, meaning that you shall not spam, and you shall not plagiarize another writer’s work. 

But there are some topics that the Squidoo site just won’t accept.   

If you do submit an article on one of these topics, the article will most likely get unpublished, and repeatedly submitting articles along these lines will get you banned from the site permanently.

Today we’re going to take a look at a sample of Squidoo’s Do Not Write About List, or what they called the SquidDon’ts. 

This list below is meant to give you a few ideas of what to stay away from when writing for the site, and is in no way a comprehensive compilation.

Here we go.

12 Areas to Avoid When Writing an Article for Squidoo

1.  Don’t write pharmaceutical/ drug/diet aid reviews.  Don’t write about diet pills.  Don’t write about fad nutrient drinks or miracle fruits/nuts/berries.  Some examples of topics not allowed would be : Viagra, Hoodia Gordoni, Penis Enlargement, acai berries, PE, snoring, hair loss, augmentations, asthma miracle cures and so on.   

Don’t link to one of these topics through an affiliate program using Squidoo.  Don’t link to e-books on these subjects either. 

2.  Don’t write about MLM programs, get rich quick programs, or projected earnings and such.  Don’t write about network marketing, pay per click projects, or internet traffic exchange sites.  Search engines punish these marketing schemes and the Squidoo website does too.  There are even some affiliate programs that are rather scammy that can run you into trouble on Squidoo. 

3.  Don’t write about websites that offer help with your love life, sex life, dating websites, etc.   Don’t write about revenge websites. 

4.  No gambling articles.  No poker articles or how to win the lottery stories. 

5.  Don’t write about how to copy DVD’s, video games or television programs.  Don’t write about scamming the satellite providers or using illegal sharing sites.  If it’s against DMCA laws, Squidoo is not going to accept your article on the subject. 

You can link to products like Hulu and Amazon, but don't mislead people to think something is free if it's not.

6. Don’t write about work at home scams, companies that offer to consolidate credit card debt, mortgage brokers, currency trading, Forex, Regenesis, or topics of this nature. 

While there is some room to write good articles on avoiding scams in these fields, Squidoo will clamp down hard if you’re offering tips on firms to use or spam baiting readers.

7.  Don't be a hater.  No vile hate articles.  Don’t write ugly.  Yes, you can write a negative product review but if you cross the line by directing hate towards a person or a group, you will be unpublished.  

8. Don’t write about free downloads.  None.  Zero.  They don’t want articles about free ringtone downloads, Mp3 downloads, or movie downloads. 

9.  Squidoo will not accept adult content articles.  No porn, X-rated reading, mature content, no violence.  Reconsider if you’re thinking of adding images of scantily clad models or any type to your article.

10.  Be aware of copyright issues when quoting lyrics, books, movies, poems, etc.  Your article needs to be reviewing the work or adding something substantial to the mix, not simply reprinting prose, in order to pass muster.  Quote correctly, and credit where due.

11.  If you’re submitting an article on coloring pages or displaying computer wallpaper, you must be the person who designed the work you’re showcasing, otherwise you’re probably violating copyright laws.  If it’s your work, make sure you say so.

12.  Do no harm.  Squidoo is not the place to publish information about extreme diets, abortion information, or legal drugs.    

Squidoo is trying to keep their website “family friendly”.

A Final Thought

After years of encouraging writers to submit reviews on every product in the marketplace, Squidoo is now unpublishing writer’s reviews of products that they see as not enriching an individual’s quality of life.  This is a pretty vacuous idea, so I can’t really explain the Squidoo theory behind the rule

Squidoo Headquarters writes that it wants writers to submit reviews of music, literature, movies, and collectibles because they add to our general quality of life.  They in turn state that reviews of shower curtains and tablecloths will be unpublished because evidently these items no longer add to the quality of our human lives.* 

Go figure. 

*This policy Reprinted From "The SquidDon’t Content Policy" by SquidTeam:  No “Mundane product lenses. This includes lenses that solely focus on products that serve little purpose like shower curtains, tablecloths and garbage bags. Squidoo is about reviewing the things that enrich your life like music, books, movies, collectibles, etc”

 

How to Promote Your Squidoo Lens or Article

You’ve heeded the call to action, written a few articles, and then published them on Squidoo. 

How do you now promote your new articles efficiently?

There’s basically two ways of getting readers to your work.   

The first is by advertising your article, and the second is through networking.

When I speak about “advertising”, I’m not suggesting you spend money on ads.
Advertising, in this sense, means to let the world know your article exists and to invite others to find and enjoy your writings.  

Let's go promote!

How Do I Advertise My Articles?

The first step is to “ping” your article every time you publish or update it.  Ping.In, Ping.fm, Ping-o-Matic, or Feed Shark are some good pinging sites.  Join Squid Utils, and use their Squidoo specific ping service.

Next, bookmark your article on Digg, del.icio.us, Reddit, StumbleUpon, RedGage and Best Reviewer.com.  These services bring readers from areas you’ll not reach using other sources. 

Use Craigslist’s Community Page to place and a short storied advertisement / link to your lens where your subject matter allows it.   Craigslist will run your ad for 30 days for free.   Keep a calendar to track your ad and place it in different parts of the country. 

Use Squidoo keywords to link as many keywords as possible to your article.  Squidoo will allow you up to 40 keyword phrases.  Make sure you use all of those spots.  You can always modify your choices later.

Update your work frequently.   Updating doesn’t have to be time consuming.  Add a date line if needed and change it a couple of times each month.  That’s enough to have the search engines revisit you.  Every time you update you can re-ping your work.  That keeps things fresh and moving towards the top of the chart.

Networking for More Readers

The first thing you want to do is engage with other folks on the site you’re publishing on, and in this case it’s Squidoo.   Read articles, check out the forum, join a club. 

But if you’re like me, you don’t always have a lot of time and some of these options take plenty of that.  So here’s how you begin to find folks to read your work by working within the community.

Sign on to Squidoo and let’s find an article to read. 

I don’t want you to choose something that’s currently running on one of the main pages.  Those are too busy. 

So let’s go to the search box and find an article on a subject you’re interested in.  Let’s say “rabbits”.   Type in rabbits and up comes all the articles where Squidoo lensmasters have used the keyword “rabbits”.   Pick one that sounds good and go check it out. 

Be sure to choose one that has been either published or updated recently.  This tells you the author is still quite active on the site. 

Now, read the work, comment on the article, take polls and quizzes, and finally be sure to “Squid Like” the article, if you enjoyed what you read.  Squid liking is important.  Do that for your fellow lensmaster where you can.  Doesn’t this feel great? 

Now pick another one of this author’s articles and do it again.  I usually try to read 3 articles that I think I’ll enjoy from each author during each visit to his site. 

If you’ve done this much, most people will respond in kind and visit your page and read your work. 

That’s why you want to make sure you’re reading articles from an active author.  In most cases, if you take the time to read 3 articles, they’ll do the same for you.  Any more than 3 and you’re probably pushing it. 

As you gain more articles, you can take this a step further and maybe read some of their less popular articles listed towards the end of their list.  Most will then do the same for you.  If you’re interested in having people read your most popular work, read and like their most popular articles.  Be nice to the world, and they’ll be nice to you.

So picking an interesting subject gets you started in finding an author to read, but after that a lot of good authors are found from the comments they leave on others’ work.  What do I mean by that?

Look at the comment section of an article you enjoy.  Do you see active commenters?  We’re talking about comments from the last 6 weeks or so. 

Those people are authors you’ll want to check out.  It’s an easy way to find active Squidoo lensmasters willing to engage and critique your work.  Go down the line and visit 5 or 10 people.  Read, comment and like.  You can also comment on their profile page which is a good way to getting yourself known throughout the community. 

Log on to Squidoo every day.  Look to see who’s visited your page.  Make sure you go back and visit that author’s work too.  They may have found you before you found them and you certainly want to thank them for their visit.  If they’ve been kind enough to read several of your articles, make sure you do the same for them.  It’s only neighborly. 

Keep a list of lensmasters whose work you like.  Visit them often.  Keep a list of lensmasters who visit your page and visit and re-visit them.  This builds valuable friendships.  Networking can be a wonderful thing!

Visit, participate, and pay it forward.   You’ll find you find friends, mentors, and interesting articles this way.

Lastly, try using social media to provide a network of readers.  Start a Facebook page for your work.  Set up a Twitter account.   Blog.  Share every article you write on these networks.  Not everyone will come on by, but you’ll find a few and you know they’ll love your work.

What Not to Do in Promoting Your Work

There are a couple things you don’t want to do to promote your writing because these tactics are against the Terms of Service of either Squidoo or Google.

First, do not pay folks to come and like your article.  Don’t hire folks from Fivrr or anywhere else to Squid Like your article.  It will get you thrown off the site. 

Second, don’t come out and ask someone to like your article on Squidoo.  They don’t want you doing that either.

Third, don’t join exchange sites.  These are sites where members visit each other’s pages to run up their visitor numbers.  This practice cheats the advertisers.  Google will penalize you and so will Squidoo.  It’s not worth the chance to do this.

@SanneCollins