Hey, thanks for visiting.
I’ve got 2 very important things to share with you today…
- The Squidoo Replacement
- A Quick Rant…
I highly recommend you read my rant…I think it’s important, in the big scheme of things, it’s definitely more important than the Squidoo Replacement…
Read to the very end of the page and let me know what you think (questions/comments etc).
Let’s dive in…
The “Squidoo Replacement”
Squidoo have been getting harder and harder to work with in the past few months. Squidoo lenses are getting disapproved without warning, and some are even being deleted altogether.
I started searching for an alternative to use and I eventually found “Instructables”.
The video below walks you through how to use Instructables. You’ll see me open my account, and build an “Instructable” for my CDLTrainingHub.com website.
Click Here To See This Video On YouTube
WARNING…
So far I’ve found that all my Instructables have been published and remained published.
You can’t add crappy content though, if you do, your Instructable WILL be deleted. Be smart and create something good…it’ll pay off in the long run.
Build A Business You Can BANK On…
If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you’ll know that I’m a fan of diversifying my internet marketing business.
- I don’t just do eCommerce.
- I don’t just do Affiliate Authority Sites.
- I don’t just do Adsense.
- I don’t just do Kindle Marketing.
- I don’t rely on paid traffic.
- And I don’t rely 100% on SEO for my traffic either.
I do a mixture of ALL of the above.
I add diversity in a smart way…not a shut-gun “spray and pray” approach, but smart, calculated diversity.
GUARANTEED “Inevitable” Income…
If you take Google out of the equation, and you focus on JUST Non-Google tactics, you can guarantee lasting traffic.
I’ve spoken about some types of Non-Google traffic in the past…Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc…
And lasting targeted traffic is the holy grail of internet marketing.
It’s the fuel that keeps your websites IMMUNE to Google changes and takes all chance out of succeeding online.
It makes online income INEVITABLE.
Play By Your OWN Rules…
If you want SEO traffic, fine. But Google DICTATES how your website needs to be.
You need to fall in line with what Google says, or your site won’t rank and you won’t get traffic.
Use SEO, leverage Google traffic, but don’t RELY on it.
When you start to focus on Non-Google traffic sources you begin to discover that you’re FREE to build websites in ways that earn you more money.
You can focus on conversions…something that Google makes difficult.
You can split test your pages WITHOUT fear that your pages will be de-indexed (because it no longer matters!).
Earn $1 Per VISITOR…50 Visitors/Day = $50/Day…
You can earn $1 for EVERY SINGLE VISITOR who comes to your site…
Imagine that…50 visitors per day = $50. A simple blog with 150 visitors per day can earn $150 per day.
This isn’t a fairy tale…this is REAL.
It becomes a REALITY when you remove your reliance on Google.
It really comes down to one thing…
Control Your Own Destiny.
I strongly recommend you think about this.
Don’t be Google’s puppet and don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Remove risk. Control your own fortune. Build a business that’ll stand the test of time by REMOVING your reliance on Google.
I’ll have more for you about this in a couple of weeks time.
Resources:
My Demo Instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Main-Steps-to-Getting-a-Commercial-Drivers-Lic/
Let me know what you think by clicking the link below, and leave a comment if you’ve got anything to say:
Aidan,
Thanks for sharing the Instructable process. It looks like a good replacement for Squidoo Lens. I plan to create a couple of them for my authority sites.
Looking forward to learning more about making $1 per visitor.
It is refreshing to read your tips and information on SEO without being charged a fee.
Keep it up!
Larry
Thanks for the feedback Larry – I’m sure these will work well for your niches 🙂
Thanks Aidan.
I will definitely be putting instructables to the test. Squidoo seems ok for me in some niches so I will do both and if a Squidoo lens gets deleted then no problem. 🙂
Squidoo has also been fairly okay for me…I know a LOT of people have had issue though. Hope your sites are performing well for you Rob, I think Instructables will work well for your projects 😉
Great stuff Aidan
I decided earlier this year to stop worrying about Google, so I’m liking your rant on that subject.
Haha – thanks Robert 🙂 I definitely have a love-hate relationship with Big G!!!
Lol that’s funny you say that, some of my sites might not rank on google, but yet they get 5k visitors a month without trying.
Amazon, facebook, some real instructional videos on youtube, and web 2,0’s, like instructables (use instructables pdf as a free non kpd book hint hint..) Put on smashwords then tell Amazon you have for free on smashwords. You get a free price listing that you can send to a funnel.. Syndicate 🙂 it works.. wait I should do this post on my blog lol 😀
Yeah I stopped worrying about rankings about a year ago, if I rank good it’s not my number 1 source. 🙂
Hey Mario, awesome ideas about the Instructables PDF…I also thought that it could be used as “bait” to get people opting in to emails lists etc 🙂
Yeah you can do that, but if you syndicate through smashwords for example you can leverage not just kindle, but itunes etc. for additional traffic. Then funnel them back to an opt in sequence with maybe another instructable not published in kindle, That might be an option 🙂
Just a thought
Gr8 info Aidan.
Thanks for sharing the squidoo replacement. I’ve been waiting for this one.
But in the end you started a new story. I hate and love these loops at the same time.
Looking forward to hear from you soon.
Keep up the gr8 work.
All the best!
Hi Anant, thanks for the comment! You’ll like what I have for you in a couple of weeks 🙂
hii adian
i think instructables is a good replacement for squidoo as they are unpublishing lenses without any reason.Instructables seems to me like a wiki site wherein you can write about some topic step by step and best thing is that it has PR7 but we have to play safe to pass the link juice to our sites.
Adian i didn’t understand the $1 per visitor concept,are you talking about other search engines here(non google dependence).Please throw some light on that.
Thanks for letting me know about it
Dipesh
Hi Dipish,
I should re-emphasize that you still need good quality when using Instructables, just be a little bit careful with that.
As for the $1/visitor, I have several sites that earn at that level and don’t rely on Google…I don’t want to give details away now, as I can’t really do it justice in a comment – I’ll have more info for you soon though.
Gr8 content Aidan. I only discovered your site and fb page last week and I really like both!
I wasn’t using Squidoo as a SEO tool, but rather just as a means of trying to generate income through making affiliate sales on their pages (Amazon). Without real success though. My total sales in 4 months on about 8 pages (a couple were meanwhile deleted by them) is no more than $11, not even enough to get a check from Amazon 🙁
On your rant, I totally get the point, but do you have a good resource (yours or other or both) that lays out a good strategy to get to a $50 a day blog? How would you convert 1 visitor to $1? Through advertising? Affiliate sales, both? Do you promote physical or info products? As an affiliate or your own? I’ve been trying myself since mid 2012 as an Amazon affiliate now, but with no success to speak of yet.
Looking forward to your future content.
Hi Francis, thanks for visiting, and I’m glad you’ve found this website and my FB page! Squidoo monetization can be done, but it’s not the very best option in my opinion.
Getting to $50/day on a blog is very very doable, I recently launched a program called “Your First $500 Online” which walked people through the process. There are other options available as well…as for the $1/visitor concept, you’ll have more info about that in 2 weeks 🙂
Aidan, thanks for the post. I’m a victim of a Squidoo knockout, and I couldn’t believe how technical they’ve become. I used some content from an affiliate review site that I had created. The content was all my own, and all I did was use some of it on my lens. Plus one link back to my affiliate site. Smash! Gone.
There are far better ways to get backlinks than Squidoo.
I’ve known about Intructables for a while but haven’t done anything about it, so thanks for the reminder. I’ll head on over there asap.
Hey Des, I think it’s definitely time for you to try Instructables, I really like the way they build an “open end link wheel”, kind of by default – it seems to be helping a lot with rankings. I’ve also had about 50 visitors to my CDLTrainingHub “instructable” in a week, so the traffic COULD be good as well (still testing that though!).
Thanks for commenting Des 😉
Aidan, what a refreshing and interesting post. I alway seem to open your emails FIRST as I know they will motivate and educate me with PRACTICAL stuff. It always seems to circle around to Quality content no matter what! THanks for reminding me of that!
Looking forward to what you may have for us in s couple of weeks.
Scott
Thanks for the feedback Scott, and I appreciate the fact that you take the time to open my emails amongst all the others that I’m sure you get – THANK YOU!
Thanks, Aidan! I’ve never thought of Instructables (I thought it was a members-only site.) I already have a bunch of Step by Step ideas to publish!
Look forward to your 1 visitor = $1 post (heck, I look forward to all of them!
Hey Chris, I’m sure you’re going to put your own spin on Instructables…let me know how you go 😉
Thanks Aidan. Very timely, as we just had a Lens deleted for a slight “infraction” that we weren’t allowed to edit or fix. Will definitely be using instructables this week Getting started on the content now. And looking forward to your next posting. Thanks for all your help.
Sorry to hear about Squidoo – best of luck with Instructables!!
Thanks for this info Aidan,
The instructables looks good for quality linkbuilding, but you have to wonder how long it takes to get all that unique content, images & video ready to go. Setting up the instructable page is surely the fastest and easiest part of the whole process.
We’re battling against the clock all the time.
Hi Kat,
I agree…the longest part of this IS getting the content…but keep in mind, my demo “Instructable” is about 400 words long…you could probably write 400 words in about 15 minutes if you put your mind to it.
Alternatively, outsource….OR, experiment with LESS content…I haven’t tried it yet, but a 200 word Instructable would probably be approved if the content was up to scratch.
Hey Aidan, your content ROCKS! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve received 7 different emails already today, all PROMOTING something – yours is the ONLY ONE providing content – as always, you stand out from the crowd.
I can’t wait to hear more in 2 weeks – Non-Google traffic would definitely be a big help for me right now…
Thanks Jenny!!!!
Hi Aidan, this is my first time visiting your blog – found it through your Facebook page.
Quick question: How much content do you need for the Instructable (minimum)? Also can you insert videos as well ?
I’m thinking of re-using some YouTube videos that I already have…
Thanks buddy!
Hi Brad, welcome to my blog, glad you found it and I hope you’ll return again in the future!
So far I’ve been using 400 words as the minimum…I THINK you could probably get away with 200-300 though, if the content is good. Best thing to do would be to browse around and see what’s working for other people, and make sure you focus on QUALITY. I don’t think Instructables.com will have any issues with a short post if the content is good.
As for videos, YES, you can use them, great idea!
Aidan, Do you have any idea why the Squidoo lenses were deleted – was it a poor quality, copyright, or spam issues or does it seem completely random?
TNX
Hi Kat, it could have been due to any one of a number of reasons:
– too many affiliate links in the Squidoo lens
– duplicate content
– a niche Squidoo doesn’t like
– poor quality
– links to poor quality websites
– etc etc etc
When I’m using Squidoo, I make a deliberate effort to go above and beyond what most marketers do, that way I’m normally pretty safe and know my lenses won’t get removed. I focus first on great content, then make sure I have only 1 link to my site…and it’s disguised amongst other links so Squidoo would never really know it’s my site…
Hey Aidan,
Great post, I have been looking for a replacement for squidoo myself. I have tried different web 2.0 sites, but I liked how easy it was to create a lens. Too bad they had to change their rules. I will check out instructables today. I have also been looking more toward social media traffic sources. I have tried some plugins, but they tend to slow down my site. Outsourcing has been very expensive also. It definitely is the future of free traffic and maybe site ranking also.
Good thoughts Randy 🙂 Your experiences with Squidoo will help you a lot with Instructables…just think about ways you can break content up into a few different steps…
Thanks Aidan for this recommendation of an alternative for Squidoo and on which we can create high quality content that will give a power back link to our main websites. I like the idea of having a site that incorporates steps into it – so much easier to convey information in this way and for readers to learn from as well. I like your recommendation of Instructables so much that I have written a short post on my site referring my readers to your post here. Thank you.
Glad you like it Moira – nice website, thanks for linking back.
I like the idea of something being another option to a program, Squidoo Lens, that seems to be slipping in popularity. I haven’t used Squidoo Lens myself but it is one of my priorities to learn how to use it, so having another option if it doesn’t work out is great, so I thank you for that.
As for Google, I do not blame them for putting the screws to a lot of marketers who find a reason to fudge and mess with a system, due to greed, laziness, the need to find loopholes in everything they touch, and any number of other reasons that feels dirty and unethical, however for Google to try and put themselves above God as to either their behavior in destroying people’s income, without notification or warning, and then put you through a dog fight to get a second chance with them, is not a company I have high regard for, because the idea behind what they are doing is monopolization of the Internet. Thankfully there are still people who are creative, who come up with ideas that are secondary to Google but still good methods for building our businesses, so that we are not owned heart and soul by Google.
Hey Paul, great comments – thanks for sharing. I know what you mean about Google, and I think along the same lines as you do. It’s just frustrating when you do everything RIGHT, create a GREAT site with lots of useful info, and somehow you manage to fall “out of favor” with Google. Thankfully, Google is only ONE of many sources of traffic 🙂
Thanks Aidan, Yep I got 2 lenses from Squiddo smashed a few weeks ago because I had pointed about 20-25 links to it and they said I was a bad boy… Plus, they didn’t allow real estate or legal/attorney lenses to be created. Besides Instructables, would using Hub pages as the main tier to point to the money page/main site be ok?
Mike
Hi Mike,
I think HubPages is another great option. With all these kind of sites, they are definitely preferring high quality content, so I think that should be the cornerstone of whatever you’re putting together. Perhaps you could 4 an “Instructable” about the “4 important real estate considerations”…or perhaps the “4 part home buying guide”…something like that.
Aidan, This is great info, as always. I very much appreciate how detailed you are in sharing the strategies that you are currently developing and having success with.
I had occasionally read some pages from Instructables that I found through Google when researching various topics. The site comes across as very authoritative and sophisticated, offering quality content, especially when one compares it to the look and feel of Squidoo. I can see how publishing pages there would help greatly for getting visitors, aside from the link building advantages.
I agree about reliance on Google. We need to diversity. I have been doing more with social media — primarily Twitter and Facebook — while also observing that I do get a decent amount of traffic from Bing and Yahoo where it is still easier to rank.
So I am very much looking forward to what you will be sharing about non-Google traffic sources.
Thanks again!
Great to get your feedback Elaine! Thanks for continuing to visit AidanBooth.com!
Lol, my timing is truly impeccable. I start doing IM and Google releases cute, cuddly animals to attack. I start building lenses to make sales after your post and Squidoo goes no-follow, start unpublishing or making it hard to publish. Even if you don’t violate their new terms, it seems there are so many less topics that you could actually get published now. Forcing lensmasters to write everything in a “personal” style only is very limiting also. It doesn’t seem worthwhile to be jumping through all their hoops anymore. I’m not liking calamari much these days.
I asked the Blueprint guys to complete my project by getting the lens published, but they said they fulfilled their requirement. Initially, I was not happy with that response but they offered to rebuild the link with Instructables. I like this alternative!
Anyway, looking forward to your next post on non-G traffic.
Haha – I can relate to what you’re saying Kai…I think the important thing is to see the pattern…I think more emphasis on Non-Google traffic sources is really the way forward. Obviously getting top rankings is still a priority, but I’m not gonna put all my eggs in the Google basket…
Nice demo, looks like a great place to post good content and place a relevant link that could lead to direct traffic as well as boost rankings.
Funny that, despite how your video and post focus on putting up valuable content, people are still asking what the minimum number of words they can get away with is and complaining about how much time it might take to put the content together. Still not grasping the concept, I guess.
A minor note: YouTube traffic is not non-Google traffic, one of these days Google will slash and burn YouTube like they are search right now
I remember the days when I was trying out Ubuntu/Linux because I felt Microsoft was getting too big. You know Google is getting too big when they drive me back to Microsoft – – I actually find myself using Bing a lot more lately just to spite them! Sometimes Google is better, but all things being equal, I refuse to reward them out of habit any more. Bing’s image search is definitely more user friendly.
Hi Garth, thanks for commenting, and great points 🙂 The good ol’ days of Microsoft and Internet Explorer domination seem a long time ago!
Great Aidan!
Totally agree with your observations about Google and diversifying …. at last someone with a handle on all this stuff!
I had come across Instructables before and will now re-visit the idea ….. think it has great promise. Just hope it gets treated with due respect and not spammed to death!
Thanks.
Yes, let’s hope that Instructables encourages people to use good content, without whipping out good quality in the process (like Squidoo has done on several occasions)…
Hi Aidan –
Nice instruction on the Instructables.
It looks easy enough. I just need to re-think a few articles into some instructive format.
I think a couple of my niches might be better suited for “top Seven (ways; things; considerations or)…whatever.
Sounds good though. I now need to get busy and take action.
Nice job on discovering this for us and also on the presentation.
Thank you.
Hi Dave, I think pretty much any niche can work with this….like you say, you’ve just got to be a bit creative in how you approach the articles…
1. 4 steps to xzy
2. 5 important considerations before you xyz
3. the 3 most important xzy
4. how to do xyz in 4 steps
Let me know how you get on 🙂
Hi Aidan,
This looks really interesting and you gave me a good idea for the health niche I am in. I am going to take one of my natural remedies and turn it into a Instructable. I do have one question, are these your own photos for the CDL instructable or did you purchase the rights to them? I was curious because I never have a problem with good content but I always have trouble with getting photos I can use for myself.
Thanks again Aidan and look forward to more on “Build a Business You Can Bank On”
Hi Rich,
The photos I’ve used are taken from my website, CDLTrainingHub.com, and I’ve previously either bought them, or checked to see that they can be used. If you want to save time, just buy 4-5 images for $4-$5 on the likes of veer.com, fotolia.com, 123rd.com and move forward 🙂
Thanks for the heads-up and training on this new link building source Aidan – I’m also finding problems with HubPages being disapproved as well – I like the links to Amazon Books!
Thanks for sharing. I’ve heard of Instructables but never tried it. Seems like it has a pretty nice interface. Squidoo has gone a little out of control.
Does it get internal traffic from other instructables well? What I like about Squidoo is the traffic I get to my lenses and that they rank pretty well.
Hi Rada,
I’m not 100% sure about the Instructables traffic…whether it’s from within their own site or not…I’m still playing around and experimenting. So far I have seen some encouraging traffic to my Instructable though, so it’s looking good.
Thanks Aidan Its nice to have another resource
Aidan,
Wonderful exciting replacement for Squidoo. Just wanted to ask a question. In your video I noticed that you had an icon on the top right of your screen you used to see the page rank. Is there a specific program to do that?
Hi Nan, that’s a Google PR plugin for Chrome. Just search in google for “Google PR add-on chrome”…you’ll find something.
Your the best ever. thanks
Great Video Aidan! I don’t think anyone knew that you were a truck driver! 😉
Hey Aidan- Great post AGAIN. Will look to add Instructables to my link building plan.
I have about 5 or 6 sites i’m trying to rank and 8 high PR domains so far!
If i’m looking to target 3-6 keywords per site- what is the best way to use my high PR domains?
Should I use each High PR domain to add 1 main keyword per site and then mix up the keywords amongst all the high pr domains? Or can you suggest the optimal way to do it?
If my 8 high PR domains all have the same 5 or 6 websites being linked out to, will that not leave a footprint for the big G?
Thanks again for great content mate.
Hi Sam, great start!!
When you’re targeting 3-6 keywords, what I recommend you do is have about 50% of your links going to the homepage, and the other 50% to the internal pages (so if your target keywords are on internal pages, they’ll still get a few good links).
You can’t really have more than a few links to your site from each PR Feeder site, as otherwise Google will think it’s a bit suspicious, so in your case I’d recommend you take a conservative approach, perhaps one link on the homepage of each Feeder Site, and if you have 3 internal pages on the Feeder Sites, then on 2 of them you could also link to your main website…no more than this though.
You will need to be careful about leaving a footprint if your 8 domains have the exact same links on them…you may prefer to link a couple of your Feeder sites to other Tier 1 sites (like a Squidoo lens or Instructable if you have one).
Hope this helps!
Wow thanks Aidan for getting back to me so quickly.
There is so much information out there it can get confusing- thankfully you’re around to make it as understandable as possible.
I was told that I could have about 8 posts on the homepage of my PR site, with 1-3 links in most of the posts- not more than 20 links per PR site. Is that totally wrong in your opinion?
If I put links on my internal pages on the PR site, would the link juice not be diluted and not as strong as a homepage link?
Should I use each PR site just for one of my websites or can I have various links to many different websites?
Hi Sam, yes, the more links you put on your Feeder site, the more diluted they’ll be. I typically only have a few links on the homepage, and then only a few internal pages as well…that way the links stay nice and strong 🙂
Thanks for the tip Aidan. It’s a shame that Squidoo is no longer a good option, but Instructables looks great. I already started throwing up some content and so far so good.
Are you still monitoring this blog Aidan?
YES! I just didn’t have an update on September 1st…
Instructables may have gone no follow – I noticed my Instructables author page web site link was no follow – had been previously do follow.
Created a new account and Instructable for a different site, set up a high quality Instructable like the previous one. It started no follow but became do follow within a few hours
(it is sending me lots of traffic surprisingly, unlike the last one!)
Ted
Hey Ted, thanks for the update. I’m glad you’re getting traffic from them! The fact that Instructables is NoFollow is really a Non-Issue…we’ve known for years that NoFollow links actually do help with SEO anyway 🙂
After some more investigation, it appears you need to have a “featured” instructable to have do follow links, and they seem to have really clamped down on which ones are “featured.”
There is somewhere you can submit an instructable for community review to improve it and help get to featured but I haven’t followed up yet.
Certainly no follow links help, but I’d rather the profile be do follow
(and in related news, over $100 from Clickbank in the last 2 days – your First $500 program works!)
Hey Ted, thanks for the update about Instructables! Glad to hear you’re making money from your First $500 sites!