Why Squidoo sucks...

Ranked #14,699 in Computers & Electronics, #295,206 overall

Don't believe the hype, Squidoo is not the greatest thing since sliced bread.  You won't make any money with it, and the world really doesn't need another lens crammed with cookie-cutter modules.

List of reasons why Squidoo is useless:

  1. You can't make any money of Squidoo. I've seen $2 per day mentioned in the FAQs, but you would need at least a couple of hundred daily visitors to make that happen. Not to mention that the Squidoo interface is slow and buggy.
  2. Squidoo doesn't have good content. Unlike wikipedia, which is maintained by volunteers, Squidoo invites you to make a lens in the hopes of making some cash. You end up with a lot cookie-cutter lenses made up of pre-fabricated modules.
  3. Other user driven content sites like YouTube, Ytmnd and Flickr feature a content portal on their main page, thereby attracting a large viewer base. Squidoo doens't give you a great reason to look around. The main hook is, make a lens, start making $$. As a result, the only people looking around Squidoo are other lensmakers.
  4. Squidoo lenses basically rely on other sites such Amazon, YouTube, Flickr, etc, for their content. There is little original or meaningful content on the site.

But don't take my word for it...

Here's what others are saying about Squidoo:

Why Squidoo Monetization Sucks
A much more in depth discussion about what's wrong with Squidoo, and it's not just monetization!
Is Squidoo becoming a massive, dirty SEO back alley?
An internet publishing heavyweight weighs in on the spamfest Squidoo was bound to have become.
Squidoo, Edgeio and the "F-Word"
Another industry pundit predicts failure for Squidoo because "the revenues haven't been great and the amount of work required is far higher than the reward."
Squidoo: Seth Godin's Purple Albatross?
Yet another web tech blog, TechCrunch.com, predicts failure and doom for Squidoo and it's founder.
Does Squidoo Suck?
Another fellow lensmaker expresses angst over the pros and cons of Squidoo.

Proof that Squidoo sucks...

Loading

Great Stuff *cough* at CafePress

As if Cafepress didn't have enough junk on their end, Squidoo decided to open up a swag shop. Somebody make some "Squidoo sucks" tees quick.
Loading

Another Useless Module

The town where Squidoo headquarters are located.

How much does Squidoo suck??

We really want your your expert opinion here...

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Reader Feedback

Let's talk about how much Squidoo sucks here:

  • freepcgeek May 29, 2012 @ 12:57 pm | delete
    so since i have a JFK quote in my lens it may be the reason my article isnt showing up? stupid - i also quote the author like any other article requires. If I remove the quote will my article "show up" or do I have to rewrite/retitle it?
  • freepcgeek May 26, 2012 @ 3:17 pm | delete
    I'm new to the program but I can't even find my lenses when I search for by article heading. but my site is new and I'm up for any advice on where I can get legit backlinks.
  • AnthonyGillis May 14, 2012 @ 12:17 pm | delete
    Yeah I loved having two of my three books, with covers I designed, flagged as spam the day I put them up and locked, while, without explanation, the other one got through. And now I get to wait "1 to 20 days" to find out whether the gods will hear my pleas to be brought back into the light.
  • Visitor May 29, 2012 @ 12:50 pm | delete
    I agree, they even lock your article if you quote a source with a few lines of quotes and the 1-20 day wait ... well why bother!
  • Princessa84 Apr 14, 2012 @ 10:24 am | delete
    Squidoo really does suck. I'm a newbie here and leaving to go to hubpages. Every lens I've written gets locked for so called plagiarism then I find it freshly published by another squidoo user within hours!! Its happened To every single lens ive written! This site needs some serious moderators.
  • visitor May 29, 2012 @ 12:51 pm | delete
    Same here, I spent 8 hours on one article, all my own work and had the same happen ... locked!
  • Amyrawat Jan 31, 2012 @ 11:51 pm | delete
    really they are flagging my all original content posts and publishing the bullshit of others.
  • domainblitz Apr 4, 2012 @ 11:49 am | delete
    Me too!
  • Visitor May 29, 2012 @ 12:52 pm | delete
    Too right they are, it's bad news!
  • khakigirl Jan 29, 2012 @ 11:46 am | delete
    Oh, I also use it to write about random junk that I like but don't want to put on my blog. It's a creative outlet for me and the few cents I make off each lens is cool.
  • khakigirl Jan 29, 2012 @ 11:44 am | delete
    First of all, kudos on making a lens about how bad a site is ON the site you're bashing! I think that's hilarious!

    Secondly, I would like to point out that the real money that you make on Squidoo isn't from their rev share program. It comes from getting quality traffic to your other online ventures. I too thought that Squidoo sucked and I left for several years but I came back after realizing that I could very easily get more traffic to my blog and other sites I want to promote just by making a Squidoo lens. One of my lenses brings 10 clicks per day to one of my sites and I didn't pay anything to create the lens. It's FREE advertising. That's the real value of Squidoo for me.

    Also, I would point out that Squidoo seems to get more traffic than Hubpages or whatever the other similar site is (Wizzley, I think?). When I searched Squidoo vs Hubpages, Squidoo was the top result. I also believe that Squidoo just looks better than the other content creation sites out there. The modules make the page more lively and interesting and I think that makes people more likely to come back. That's just my two cents though.
  • Visitor May 29, 2012 @ 12:53 pm | delete
    It SUCKS! Simple!
  • Disgruntled Dec 24, 2011 @ 1:17 am | delete
    Squidoo totally sucks, after many lenses published I recently experienced many of them being locked without any reason. These were lenses squid liked and "blessed" by squid angels (top lens masters) with hundreds of lenses in their accounts and years of experience and getting comments from them like "excellent lens", "first rate delivery", "well done" and so on. They were NOT spam or over promotional at all, both in content and delivery, nor the topics were "forbidden" or spam.
    I smelt a rat and suspected that such flagging was a deliberate dirty way from the management or competitors to knock you out of competition and rank better for their own lenses and even steal content from you once your lens is gone.
    After reading this tread, particularly Destroyer, my suspicions are confirmed and I have decided first to transfer all my content from Squidoo into another platform and then delete my Squidoo account.
    If you are reading this, do not waste your time in this unreliable, time wasting and cheating platform. Bye bye Squidoo.
  • domainblitz Apr 4, 2012 @ 11:50 am | delete
    I want to delete my Squidoo account - what platform are you using now?
  • Visitor May 29, 2012 @ 12:54 pm | delete
    I agree, it sucks!
  • Disgruntled Dec 24, 2011 @ 1:17 am | delete
    Squidoo totally sucks, after many lenses published I recently experienced many of them being locked without any reason. These were lenses squid liked and "blessed" by squid angels (top lens masters) with hundreds of lenses in their accounts and years of experience and getting comments from them like "excellent lens", "first rate delivery", "well done" and so on. They were NOT spam or over promotional at all, both in content and delivery, nor the topics were "forbidden" or spam.
    I smelt a rat and suspected that such flagging was a deliberate dirty way from the management or competitors to knock you out of competition and rank better for their own lenses and even steal content from you once your lens is gone.
    After reading this tread, particularly Destroyer, my suspicions are confirmed and I have decided first to transfer all my content from Squidoo into another platform and then delete my Squidoo account.
    If you are reading this, do not waste your time in this unreliable, time wasting and cheating platform. Bye bye Squidoo.
  • TheHealthGuy Sep 9, 2011 @ 1:08 pm | delete
    Destroyer has a pretty good handle on Squidoo. If Seth the magic man legend and Megan his "tonto" side kick invested their time getting rid of the REAL turds on Squidoo and learning the correct meaning of terminologies such as "spam" this glorified article directory might become worth something again. The dumbshits have deleted over 10 of my lenses for "spam" issues. TOTALLY absurd because a lens can NOT spam anyone. It takes a &^%*^$@ person to spam! But the idiots at Squidoo don't seem to get that concept and of course they like their ass kised by those who are ass kissers (you know those in the forum who blindly bow and praise anything the 2 idiots dream up as far as censorship and "spam." LOL they don't even get the MEANING of the word spam! Total airheads.
  • Visitor May 29, 2012 @ 12:55 pm | delete
    I agree totally!
  • johnnyflex Sep 6, 2011 @ 9:09 pm | delete
    Squidoo SCUK Bigtime!!! I have 30+ Lens before. They all just deleted it with no reason. Now, I can even publish a decent Lens!!!! Am now publishing my content to Hubpages!!! Suck it SQUIDOO PEOPLE!!!!
  • Visitor May 29, 2012 @ 12:56 pm | delete
    I think I will give Hubpages a try, thank you.
  • Cathereine_Night Aug 25, 2011 @ 8:04 am | delete
    Random Lens deletes... de-listed 90% of my lenses on stuff like pine straw and live oak trees... oh and Moderator locked my thread in the "Share Your Lens" area saying asking for likes is illegal.. All I said was.. If you like.. hit the thumbs up Button. Shame on me!
  • Jun 24, 2011 @ 1:21 pm | delete
    I agree, I'm not liking squidoo too much lately. A lot of time spent for little gratification!
  • Traci Apr 30, 2011 @ 4:39 pm | delete
    I completely agree with you. In just two days, with only 3 hubs, I started making money. After nearly a month with six lenses, nada! I just canceled my account on squidoo. This was a total waste of time.
  • LewisSlime May 26, 2010 @ 9:42 pm | delete
    By the way, MrLewisSmile down there. I remember him ripping off at least one of my lenses, and in the meantime he always went around the site posing as the innocent Squidoo suck-up. I'm sure he worked his way up to "hall monitor" and can freely flag and lock up all the lenses he ripped off. DOUCHE!
  • Destroyer May 26, 2010 @ 9:32 pm | delete
    Squidoo absolutely sucks and always will. I was here the first year and hat lots of lenses in the top 100. I did make money, and I still get a little off of old lenses. But, here are the problems: 1. Your popular lenses will get ripped off by every jerk on the site, and there are many of them. 2. Your competitors are every other "lens master" on the site and they will go around flagging your lenses to get them locked just to eliminate your competing lenses. They used to also downrate lenses, but now I see you can only give thumbs up. 3. The same a55wipes who go around flagging your lenses are the same people allowed to masquerade as moderators on the site. Let me give you a personal example of all this garbage coming together for one colossal waste of your time and effort working on lenses that make this site and your competitors money: I got two emails from Squidoo yesterday that two of my lenses were locked because they were flagged as Adult or X-Rated. They were deliberately misflagged a long time ago. One lens is about a musician, the other is about a movie franchise. Neither was adults only stuff. I responded that the lenses were misflagged and today I got two exact same canned responses from Squidoo's idiot feedback douchebag squad. The email bogusly suggested the lenses were flagged for being belonging to affiliate programs or topics that attracted spam to Squidoo, so the lenses would remain locked. Here I am four years later with lenses unjustly locked, probably because the jerks who flagged and locked them ripped off my lenses and are also moderating the site. Juvenile stuff. This is junior high for affiliate marketing cannibals. DO NOT USE SQUIDOO. You're better off taking your ideas and creating content anywhere else, and there are plenty of other free places to do it. Today I own domains and build my own websites, I have not bothered with my lenses in years. Additonally, when was the last time you came across a Squidoo lens when you searched for something with a real search engine? I search all the time, and I will stumble across someone's one-post blog before I get a result from Squidoo. This site is garbage. Have fun ripping off each others Page Rank 2,000 lenses and misflagging them for your 50 percent of two cents from your monthly Adsense click, Squidiots.
  • Uo Mar 23, 2010 @ 9:46 pm | delete
    Lol, lets hope they don't lock this lense like so many others :)
  • Danny235 Feb 9, 2010 @ 8:59 am | delete
    i totaly agree,squidoo sux->hubpage lover :)
  • Vusal Nov 23, 2009 @ 10:28 am | delete
    You see? How many views you got from this lens?
    I searched for Squidoo Sucks and found your lens, you want the reason why? Because one of the keywords I was searching for is in the domain name (squidoo.com).
    Lately, squidoo lenses takes so much time to load, I don't know why, probably they are using some kind of other scripts.
    Anyway, I was squidoo lensmaster a long time ago (before I deleted my account).
    Wish you luck!
  • gamelinxx Nov 4, 2009 @ 1:44 pm | delete
    I made a few nice quality lenses with good content, and the best I got was 3 views. I even optimized my lenses for SEO, but it still sucks. I put so much time and effort into my lenses, I get a sigh if frustration when all my hard work falls to the bottom the the search results.

    They say this site can boost a page rank, and traffic... How, if nobody wants to look at a lense?
  • danielb25 Oct 16, 2009 @ 12:54 pm | delete
    My first lens ever locked...so sad...
  • Load More

by

shiznaught

This lensmaster has been a member of Squidoo for just under a month, but that's seems like plenty of time to find out how much Squidoo sucks. more »

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!