This morning I received an email from Giant Squid headquarters, it was not such a happy email to receive. The email stated that too many of my lenses were not original enough, or contained too much “duplicate content”, otherwise known as content that could not be found anywhere else online.
I’m thinking that what they are referring to is the amazon reviews on my Squidoo Christmas cash lenses. The email went on to say that it would be likely that lenses with such duplicate content would be locked within the next few days. I have gone through my best lenses that are ranking well, and making me money and taken out the review module. I suggest you do the same.
I’m pretty sure this change (or crackdown as it were) is due at least in part to Google’s changes over the last couple weeks.
As I was looking into this a little bit I came across a new blog post on the Official Squidoo blog that would be worth your time to read. The Scroll of Originality.
I will be working on revamping the Squidoo Christmas Cash Blueprint, but wanted to give you the heads up before you found any of your lenses locked.
This is just my interpretation of the situation, I could be right on, or totally off, but I did want to let you know. I will continue to bring you updates as I hear them, but for now, make sure you continue to write original content on your lenses, and take out any of the reviews from Amazon that may be considered duplicate content.
I followed a few more links to the new Original vs. Duplicate Content lens and found this:
Q: Can I post other people’s Amazon reviews on my lens?
A: Let’s look at an example. Here is the list of Amazon reviewer comments about the Marx Brothers DVD collection. No, certainly you cannot copy and paste full reviews that other people have written and post them on your lens as your own content. But yes, if there is a review you particularly agree with, I don’t see why you couldn’t quote a sentence from it, attribute it to the Amazon reviewer, and link to his or her post. Just do this very sparingly.
So there you have it… that’s a no no. Everything changes, and as times and policies change so must we. I’ll see what I can figure out as a different strategy to create social proof, and maybe rethink the entire process of the Christmas Cash lenses… until then, if you have questions please feel free to ask. I have no idea if I’ll be able to answer them or not, but I’ll be glad to try.
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Oh no! Loads of work to do. I haven’t had any of my lenses flagged as yet, but I think it’s only a matter of time. In fact there are couple that I surprised I got away with after the last changes.
Mark´s last blog ..Monthly Earnings for February 2011
Thanks for sharing this information with us. I have alot of work to do, most of my lens have Amazon reviews. It means I can’t write any new lens today because I will be busy removing the reviews.
Thanks again for the post. It has saved me.
Ndasika´s last blog ..Canon EOS Rebel T2i 18 MP CMOS APS-C Digital SLR Camera with 30-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f-3
I just started going down my list of lenses to add more content to some of my sales lenses and to take some time on my Christmas Cash lenses.
It’s not a bad idea to do this once in a while anyways, I almost always get more traffic after an update and I don’t think it’s all social traffic.
B
Bcarter @ Packers Super Bowl 2011´s last blog ..Packers Super Bowl 2011 Champions updated Wed Feb 16 2011 6-07 am CST
Thanks Jackie for letting us know, I have taken my review module off my lens.
I completely agree with your earlier reply about Squidoo being a great place to start. I have learnt so much since I started taking action over a fortnight ago it’s unbelievable, and I am already starting to think that the lessons I am learning in every area will give me the confidence to set up my own blog or website.
Jackie,
On a couple of lenses I have included the Amazon module where Squidoo pulls in other Amazon products based on my search criteria or I can pull in specific products myself. This content is constantly rotating based on what is available in Amazon. How about using this module instead of the Review module we have been adding on the Squidoo Christmas Cash system? The content is constantly changing and is pulled in by Squidoo and the end result is that it still gets our readers over to Amazon to possibly make a purchase. The only downside is that we split the commission with Squidoo, correct? What do you think?
Jane @ Favorite Christmas Gift Ideas´s last blog ..Fire Engine Ride On Toy
It’s a possibility, but the purpose of the reviews was for social proof ~ to show your reader that other people had bought the product and they were happy with it. the amazon module doesn’t really serve the same purpose… but it would be a squidoo module, which they seem happy with.
And yes, you would end up splitting the commission with squidoo.
It’s definitely an option, and worth trying.
Yikes, thanks for the heads up on this Jackie! I had no idea, but I guess it makes sense. I have a lot of work to do today!
Hi, Jackie!
Thanks for the info. I’ve managed to forget to include reviews in lenses. Then I thought about when I take the screenshot and edit the image, it includes the ratings of reviews. Would this be considered original content? My computer, my screenshot? Just a thought.
-Holly
Holly´s last blog ..I can seealmost!
not sure. is it an image you’re including in the lens? If it’s just the image of stars I wouldn’t worry about it. If you’ve taken an image of actual reviews I might.
It’s the screenshot of the savings value that also shows the little gold stars ratings.
To me that would represent the good reviews the product has.
“You save 66%” blah blah and the stars are there somewhere. I have always made sure I included that in my screenshot.
Holly´s last blog ..I can seealmost!
no I think that would be fine.
I’d just like to throw in here that one of my lenses that I was trying to edit was flagged as spam even though it had previously been a featured lens.
I felt there was enough original content that I deserved an explanation and requested a review.
Less than 24 hours later, I was told that my lens had been erroneously flagged and given the green light. A few hours after that, I was given the Scroll of Originality. So, if you get flagged for whatever reason, it pays to open a constructive dialog with the Squid Rangers.
Excellent point Edie. I appreciate you bringing that up.
Hi Jackie,
How are you and your family doing?
We are so sorry to hear about your Squidoo lens.
You probably remember this!
About 2 years ago, another similar incident occurred with all of our Squidoo lens. We had great lens with TONS of informative, helpful content. Yet, a Google change made Squidoo nervous and they began deleting many of our lens.
The same thing happened to us using USFreeAds. USFreeAds decided to not allow any ads with Amazon affiliate links.
And now, it is happening again with Ezine Articles and other authority sites!
Because of these incidents, we made a very wise decision and began creating great quality WordPress blogs with unique content. We now have Amazon physical products blogs and Clickbank digital products blogs and we are extremely happy with the results! And best of all, Google and the other search engines loves us and rewards us with many high rankings!
Therefore, whenever we get a chance, we literally SHOUT it out from every mountain top that (1) if you want to always control your content, (2)if you want to sleep peacefully at night, (3)if you want to go on vacations knowing cash is constantly flowing into your bank account, (4) if you want to build a Virtual Real Estate Empire to keep or sell and (5) if you want to truly be a successful internet marketer for many years to come, you MUST own your own websites and have full power over all of your unique content!
This has been our winning formula!
Wishing you the best!
Hi Tony,
I totally agree with you as a business philosophy, however, I still think Squidoo is a fantastic place to get started, and learn all the pieces of internet marketing without having much risk. I think once you get a handle on things at squidoo the best thing you can do is as you’ve suggested.
Hi Jackie
Don’t you think that the scroll of originality is a bit wider than just the Amazon modules?
Google stated that they won’t be indexing any content that is found in multiple places, this implies content that we published all over the Internet.
As for Squidoo there’s a chapter in the FAQ that relates to your own content published on multiple places and that you have to rework before publishing on Squidoo.
To be honest and, although I’m sure I have never published my lens content else where, neither published else where content of my own on my lenses, I made a point, these last days to rewrite some of my best performing lenses; just to make sure…
Because I’ve read more than just the Amazon chapter
Good luck in your spring clean up, we’re all in the same boat, I think…
Holly Day´s last blog ..Valentines Day Poems
I’m sure it is about every module available. I brought attention to the reviews I have previously recommended people use ~ because that’s the only place I’ve suggested people use duplicated content. Otherwise the blueprint has always said to write your own unique content related to your blueprint lenses.
Yes, you’re going to need unique content in all your modules.
So, do I understand that right now as you are interpreting the email, we should go into our lenses and just delete the module with the reviews entirely and that should help?
Jane @ Favorite Christmas Gift Ideas´s last blog ..Fire Engine Ride On Toy
that is what I have done.
Wonderful…
Jane @ Favorite Christmas Gift Ideas´s last blog ..Fire Engine Ride On Toy