Squidoo & HubPages

Squidoo's guestbook module lets the lensmaster set it for immediate approval of entries or approved postings only, as well as whether or not the lensmaster wants email notification of new postings. Approvals take place in edit mode of the lens. The display is also adjustable, with a continuous thread of comments that will form new pages when the postings reach the selected display limit. Lensmasters can chose to accept comments from anyone or Squidoo members only. They can also now ban other lensmasters from commenting on their lenses if they feel another community member is being abusive in their use of comments (spam or otherwise).

The HubPages' comment capsule is very similar. The author can chose to approve messages before they appear, they can request email notification and they can accept comments from registered users only. As with all capsules, this one scales to either be a one column or two column layout. Approval of comments and moderation takes places from the live hub, or from a comment panel in the author's lens account area. They finally changed the permissions so that comments can be accepted, denied or marked as spam. If enough authors mark someone's comments as spam, they will automatically not be shown publicly, but it won't stop that person from leaving commments.

My fave: I've finally decided that I like the Squidoo guestbook better. The addition of the feature to block HTML in comments has been great at stemming the flood of lensmasters leaving unrelated comments just to create backlinks within the system and the ban button has been nice to stop the truly annoying and bad players.

Squidoo also has created their "Duel" module, where you can take comments in a pro/con format for discussions. This is a nice variation or addition to general comments.

Both sites have a features that let you incorporate photographs with your pages. However how that is handled is very different.

Squidoo has a photo module tied to the Flickr photo service. If you have an account there, you can link to your pictures. That service is owned by Yahoo and comes with free and pay versions. This can suit both the casual or professional photographer. There is also a Text/Write module that lets you upload one picture and automatically scales it down, setting it in the upper right of the module. After that, some modules will accept HTML, but you need your own photo hosting online somewhere to link with your pictures.

HubPages has a photo capsule, but it's not tied to any photo service at all. It's for uploading and hosting pictures within the hub. And it's configurable to display one large double column photo, or a single column one, or a vertical strip of pictures, or a click-able gallery with navigable thumbnails. And you get a 4MB upload allowance on each image. Because you can scale the size of this capsule and put as many in as you need, you can visually add images to any of HubPages' other capsules in your layout. For those of you wondering how HubPages picks the summary image for a Hub, it's the first image in the hub that is greater than 80 pixels high and wide. If you don't have one in the Hub, your user picture is used instead.

My fave: The Flicker module is nice when a specific set of pics is built into a lens, but as a stand-alone photo function, the HubPages photo capsule is the hot one.

Squidoo has the Text/Write module that lets you enter up to 10,000 characters. It does take some HTML, which allows for a lot more customization and you can also use this module to show pictures you are hosting yourself. However this module will not accept code to create lists (you have to use another module for that).

HubPages has a text capsule and it incorporates the list making feature too. It doesn't have a character limit, so if you have a lot to say, you can. It also can scale between a one and two column layout so you can make it look like it includes pictures or mix it with a retail module in a side-by-side arrangement. HubPages also scans the content of a hub to see how original it is, and obviously copied content or content that is just tons of keywords will cause a hub to have a very low score.

My Fave: This is where it really depends on what you're trying to do with a page. You really have more flexibility with Squidoo in terms of subject matter (they do allow adult) and customizing the look of your text via HTML and CSS. What HubPages has that makes them interesting is incorporation of filtering for copied content. Cut-and-paste pages on their site fall right to the bottom. On Squidoo, such lenses are a huge source of lensmaster complaints and aren't dealt with unless the community reports them multiple times. Depending on what your web page purpose is, one or the other site might serve your needs better.

Squidoo has spent a lot of time on making retail modules. They offer major brands such as Amazon and eBay. They also have modules for popular sites and services such as NetFlix or CafePress. There are also a variety of Commission Junction sellers who have spin-off modules. Users don't need to sign up for anything, but sales via modules will be split with Squidoo 50/50. Modules have slots for custom titles, descriptions (no character limits here and some modules will accept limited HTML) and customizable product listings.

HubPages again requires that users sign up for their own accounts with Amazon and eBay, the only two retail capsules offered at this time. Impressions are shared with a 60/40 split, meaning 40% of the time the affiliate ID is HubPages and 60% of the time it's yours. Whatever sales happen when your code is active, you get the full commission.. Capsules can only have custom titles entered and searches and displays are fixed. You do get better product tracking via Amazon's sales tools, but it takes a creative hub author to be able to use the product capsules really well.

My fave: Hands-down for retail selection and presentation options, it's Squidoo. Earnings-wise, if HubPages continues to grow, and if they fix their Amazon capsule to be stronger, it might even out. Squidoo dropped one of their major retail modules in 2007, the Superstore, but kept some of the stand-alone spin-offs built on the same platform. If you had a Superstore module in a lens, it's been grandfathered in, but no one can now add that module to a lens that doesn't have one already. I've still got a few lenses using it, and it still is a bit of a pain to configure, but it also still delivers items unique items for sale. On the HubPages front, you do have to sign up for you own accounts, and there's a bit of griping about authors that if sales only happen during the 40% of the time when the Hub codes are showing, then they get nothing.
Curious how both shape up when comparing referral statistics?

Squidoo has over 400,000 lenses. They came out of beta in early 2006 and I discovered them on their first "public" day from an article in the NY Times. I clicked over to the site in mid-article, and wound up building lenses for almost the entire rest of the day. I read the rest of the article later that week. In the summer of 2007, in response to a lot of spam lenses, they have changed their internal search to not show undeveloped and WIP lenses. And the latest addition to this is if a featured lens drops enough in lens rank, it will fall back into WIP status, thus offering an incentive for lensmasters to keep tabs on lenses and make sure they get refreshed and updated from time to time.

HubPages is a little over 80,000 hubs now. I learned about the site on Squidoo when they were mentioned by another lensmaster. I had access to the site during the beta period but didn't really get into it. In December 2006, when they had a contest for building hubs that paid cash prizes, I got more involved to see if a hub seemed as viable as a lens.

My fave: To be honest, most people I know still have no idea what you are talking about if you say anything about lenses or hubs. However, Squidoo has always really driven the community angle, they won the community award at SXSW 2007, and they were the 14th fastest growing site on the internet for that year too. If you want more eyeballs and users and platform flexibility, Squidoo is still delivering more of everything at this time.

Curious how both shape up when comparing referral earnings?

*lens and hub volumes described in this module subject to change over time.

With Squidoo, a star "ratings" from 1 to 5 stars is possible, with registration required to vote. These are displayed for the visitor and the lensmaster, showing how many votes and what the average star rating is.

HubPages only asks the visitor if they find the hub helpful, yes or no. These votes are only for the Hub author to see. These count towards HubScore, but Hub visitors don't get to see how many thumbs up or down a Hub has received and it's just a part of the formula.

My fave: this one is almost a toss-up. I think in both cases, the average viewer can't be bothered with a rating feature, and most of these probably come from other lensmasters/authors on each site. However, in the end, I think the simple yes/no of HubPages has been used less maliciously and with less cases of favoritism voting than the Squidoo star system so I like it just a little bit better.

So, those are how the individual pages are rated. But each site also ranks the lenses/hubs. See how these two methods differ.

Squidoo has Google AdSense running on the site and it selects ads based on the primary tag and other lens content. The advertising runs over on the right-hand side of the lens in a three column layout. Lenses can accumulate money from the ads shown on their lenses. Monies are pooled first, split with the business side of the organization and then paid out to the co-op via PayRank-designated earnings.

HubPages is still experimenting with AdSense and with their ad layouts so what you see can great vary with repeat Hub visits. Their Google ads are running in with the content and with larger ad appearances and shifting color schemes, it can be disruptive to the overall look of your hub sometimes. To get AdSense earnings, a Hub author must sign-up on their own for AdSense. Earnings from ads on your own hubs are split 60/40 between the Hub author and HubPages. You also earn a share of impressions from folks you refer. Recently, HubPages added support for Kontera ads and those can pay off strongly if you've got a topical Hub and some hot keywords.

My fave: The battle of the ad-earning dollars has been one of my faves to watch. And as of October 2008, the winner per hub/lens has turned out to be HubPages. As if being able to use all the Google tools for AdSense, there's no dollar cap on what you earn with a Hub. Your affiliate code is on the page 60% of the time and you get 100% of whatever clicks happen during your impression time. The most any lens has ever earned from AdSense was $11 and change. My personal AdSense best for a Hub is just over $168. If you want a real stab at some ad earnings, it's HubPages.

Try building a hub of your own and compare!