Avoid Squidoo at all costs!

Sorry Squidoo, but you should be avoided!

Some of you might have read my articles on my Squidoo-page in the past. Unfortunately they have been unpublished since they supposedly aren't original and "spammy" according to Squidoo's terms of service (TOS). Not only that, I can't even log into my account to either copy or edit my contents to follow their TOS!

I agree with Squidoo that articles - or lenses as they're called - should be original and reflect the author's thoughts and opinions; in other words - no plagiarism. I also agree that lenses shouldn't only be about promoting affiliate programs where authors ask their readers to use their referral codes. But how is it possible to know that a certain text is original or not?

Sometimes it's very easy to see that a text has been copied or quoted without the original author's permission. But how can you as an author prove that your text is your own work - especially on Squidoo?

After my experiences of Squidoo unpublishing my lenses, I would say it's impossible. It took me 7 hours to write an article about Loot Palace. It was accepted and featured on my page. But now all of my lenses have been taken down and I can't do anything about it. Several hours of work down the drain...

I have also written e-mails to Squidoo regarding this matter. But their policy is that if they don't reply in 30 days, that means my unpublished lenses still aren't approved and will be removed after 60 days in total.

This is one of the reasons why I started a "real" blog instead, here on Blogger.

So if you plan on starting a Squidoo-account to write articles, I strongly recommend you not to do it. Even if you write lenses of high quality (according to yourself), Squidoo will unpublish them if they think the articles violate their TOS. And Squidoo change the TOS very often!