I am torn between continuing to publish Squidoo Lenses or finally becoming serious about owning my own site. I've had several domain names that I started and never finished. It all just became so overwhelming. There are so many plugins and updating and security issues. I just want to create, get traffic and make sales. I want to be on the first page of Google, and I know I can do that with Squidoo. Not so sure about my own domain, and no traffic equals no sales or clicks. However, I read a horrifying story today about someone's entire library of 900 lenses being locked and the lensmaster banned. All that hard work for nothing. That is what I'm afraid of. I want to own something and have total control. I don't want to wake up one morning and have my income completely wiped out, but I also would like to earn some money. After Google's algorithm updates, I heard of several people's sites losing rank in Google and losing all their traffic and income. So, what to do? Suck it up and write for the man and help to build Squidoo's business, but get traffic and sales relatively easily, or spend a lot of time building my own site (again) and risk never making a dime with it, but owning something? Help! I'm so torn as to what to do, I'm paralyzed and not getting anything done. Any advice? TIA
Easy answer for me, get your own web property! Anything else like Squidoo, Blogger, etc. can be gone in an instant. Sure income is going to go up and down when working on the Internet and I would still keep doing what you're doing on Squidoo but there is nothing better than having your own web property. Especially when you will have the opportunity to sell ad space, get paid for sponsored posts, work with brands, etc.
Happy to help you brainstorm what niche might be best to start. You definitely don't want to try to build more than one blog until one is in full profit mode! But Squidoo lenses are quick and easy (from what I hear) and you can still be earning that $ on the side. PLUS it will be good for linking once you have a blog up and running.
I would not worry about Google's algorithm. It changes ALL THE TIME. Just keep focus on adding good optimized content, do your social media connections and you won't have a thing to worry about.
I agree with Angie - build your own site. But, that doesn't mean you have to toss out your lenses or stop creating new ones. Perhaps you can even use them to drive traffic to your new site as well.
Technology is always getting better and making things easier. It now takes me 2 clicks to update wordpress and all the plugins on my site (I love that!) I use a plugin that backs up my site so security is less of a concern for me now. It is pretty easy to get distracted and sidetracked with all of the available plugins, themes, etc. I haven't figured out a solution to that other than making a plan and *trying* to stick to it.
Thanks, guys. Waking up to sales really puts things into perspective. The advice you both gave is pretty much what I had decided, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to my site. I already have a domain registered that I really would like to develop, but my time is really limited right now. With homeschooling and babysitting, not much time is left for me. I try to get up early enough to work on Squidoo before I have to babysit. I would like to get both Squidoo and my own blog site going good. Just thinking about the future and how nice it would be to have some passive residual income. I imagine the guy who had his 900 Lenses deleted was doing something against Squidoo's TOS, not something I plan to do. So, I think my worry is wasted energy, unless Squidoo goes belly up.
Sounds like a good plan! I would start working on your new blog as you have time because ultimately THAT will bring more income for you. Definitely keep doing Squidoo if it's working but don't put off your own web property for much longer.
I had my domain hosted on HostGator right after I registered it, but load time was so slow, so I took it down. I wanted to move it to HawkHost, but there are still sites with a clickable link to my site saying it is hosted on HostGator. If I go ahead and purchase hosting from HawkHost and start building my site again, will it matter that I once had it hosted on HostGator? I'm worried search engines will frown on that.
Also, Bob, what plugin did you decide on for backing up your site? Thanks.
I'm really surprised to hear about Host Gator. I have been using them since I started online back in 2001 and have never had any issues. There should be no problem switching though.
Not sure what you mean about clickable links to your site saying it's hosted at Host Gator.
I'm not familiar with that issue either. I host with HostGator as well and no links were inserted. Perhaps you used one of their templates where that was built in? As for load time, I would just call them and see what the issue is there. They have great customer support!
Great advice in this thread already, and I agree. Keep the lenses, and start building out your own property too. There's SO much more to traffic than just Google as well.
It was painfully slow, but I know there's a lot of variables that go into how a site loads. For example, my PC, plugins, and the theme I chose. It seemed that the more I built up and added to the site, the slower it became.
Sites such as thewebsitearchive.com, wsdata.com, and netorginfo.com, just to name a few. They list newly registered and established sites with a link back to the site and where the site is hosted.
I'm Torn...Help Me Decide!
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