Remember all those conversations we’ve had about not putting all your eggs in one virtual basket when it comes to online income and content publishing? Things like this are exactly why we have that conversation so often. Never put all your income eggs in one basket.
After almost two years of constant changes and ongoing updates, it was announced that Squidoo is closing their virtual doors and they’ve sold everything to HubPages. You can read the announcement from Seth Godin here if you haven’t seen it yet. There’s also a detailed FAQ about making the switch on a separate page.
There are some things to note with this change.
Not all of the content is being moved. If you have content on Squidoo right now, it may or may not be moved to HubPages. Once it’s there, it may or may not meet HubPages requirements, if it’s not up to their standards it will be rejected and removed. If your content doesn’t get moved from Squidoo to HubPages, it will be deleted, as in gone forever. If there is a page you want to be sure to keep so you can relocate it somewhere other than HubPages, you need to go make a backup immediately.
The other thing you need to be aware of is that this is happening right now. You have about a week to make up your mind what you want to do. If you don’t want an account set up at HubPages to have your content transferred you need to go to your dashboard in Squidoo and click the big button to delete your account before August 29, 2014. Make sure you back up any content you want to keep first.
Squidoo pages will stop being visible in the next few weeks. If the content has been moved, there will be a redirect in place to take the traffic to HubPages. If the content hasn’t been moved, it will just be gone *poof* and remember, there are no guarantees that you content will be moved or accepted to HubPages.
This also means there isn’t going to be the annual Halloween rush – Squidoo’s best season by far, most lensmasters found higher conversion rates and bigger commuissions during October and Halloween than they did during December and Christmas, due to a combination of Halloween shoppers and early winter holiday shoppers. The announcement page said they are hoping to have everything in place and working well by October 1st, so that means any Halloween content you had planned will either happen at HubPages or you’ll need to find a new place to publish, whether that’s your own website or another web 2.0 platform like weebly or bubblews.
What to Do Now
First, decide if you want to go to HubPages. Check out their site, look over their Terms of Service, see if it’s a place you want your content to live. If you do, go to your Squidoo dashboard and the start the process. If you don’t want to go to HubPages, backup the content you want to keep and delete your Squidoo account.
Second, start brainstorming. Is it time to build your own website? Do you want a niche blog? Do you want to simply contribute your content somewhere else? Do you want to pick up some freelance writing work elsewhere? There are lots of other ways to earn a living online that include content creation, decide what’s right for you.
Third, let me help you. I know this transition isn’t going to be easy for everyone and a lot of people are feeling overwhelmed and going into panic mode right now. I’m here to help and I want to help. Let me know what you’re looking for online, what kind of resources you need, what questions you have, I’ll always do my best to point you in the right direction, just leave a comment below. Even if you just want to email chat about the changes and how frustrated you feel, my inbox and is always open.
Whatever you do, I hope you won’t give up on your content creation efforts. Everyone has a voice, everyone has experiences to share, and it would be a shame to throw in the towel just because Squidoo is going away. You can totally do this internet thing with or without Squidoo, I know you can.
One last thing about Halloween content….
Before I heard this announcement I already had an idea brewing in the back of my mind for a big Halloween project that I was hoping to invite several Squidoo lensmasters and content publishers to join me on, I was thinking I would get started on it after the kids went back to school the first week of September. But the project was big, huge, a lot of work, and I was feeling unsure if I wanted to make such a leap. This announcement sort of gave me a kick in the pants to get moving on it and see if I can make it a reality. I’ll keep you updated on that (you can subscribe to blog updates in the form below this post to get an email notification when I start adding details if you’re interested)
Transcriptionist, passionate cross stitcher, writer at heart, wife, mom, and finder of lost shoes… Loretta Oliver, married to the comic book geek of her dreams and mother of four amazing young men, has been working from home full time since 2001. With a busy transcription service business, a few niche sites, and a handful of other internet marketing projects on the go, the computer is always fired up and the ideas are always flowing.
I would love to hear more about your Halloween project, what your plans are, be sure to share them with us. I think its very kind of you to offer to help out people, that’s very thoughtful.
I’m not shocked by any of this because Squidoo has been surprising their loyal writers with bad news for two years. I’m just glad its finally over and people can move on.
Be sure to read up on some things going on Zujava as well, they have lost their Amazon Affiliates so people need to change out those links before the holiday season as well.
I just moved my stuff off Squidoo a couple months ago. I’m glad I did now, so I at least have a copy.