Squidoo Alternatives #10 - Xomba Review

Continuing my series of alternatives to Squidoo (i.e. sites where you get paid to write your own content and where you have the opportunity to link to your own site) brings me to Xomba. I signed up with Xomba months ago, but never got around to doing anything with it. So I thought it was about time that I checked it out. There are 2 types of content that you can post. The first they call a Xombyte, which is an article about anything you want to write about. The second is a Xomblurb, which is a review about other sites, much like social bookmarking sites except that you are expected to write at least 50 words.

The interface is straightforward enough - basically just a blank box to type into. There are no fancy modules or anything here. The earning ability from Xomba comes from Adsense which you share with the site - 50% of the impressions are yours. The good news, however, is that you can use affiliate links on Xomba so there is some potential to use Xombytes for internet marketing. The downside is that links are nofollow so will not be of great value to you if you are looking for get more links to your blog/website to increase Page Rank.

Overall, Xomba is worth putting some effort into as an opportunity to gain a bit more Adsense income (although the 50% revenue share is a bit low) and their pages rank very well. The fact that you can use affiliate links is a definite bonus.

Here is the definitive list of alternatives to Squidoo

Qassia is Dead! Long Live Qondio! - With Even Better Revenue Sharing

The revenue sharing site, Qassia, has been going through some changes recently. Most notably its name - it is now Qondio. Why the name change? Well who knows! I have reviewed Qassia previously, but just to remind you what it is about, it is (yet another) site where you can add your own content and you can earn from a share of the advertising revenue generated by your content.

It has a slightly different look about it now - the rather dodgy washed out pink has been replaced with a rather more tasteful olive green. As a result the site just looks that much better.

The real change though is in the revenue sharing model. It has always been the case that 100% of the revenue generated by the ads on your Intels (the name they give for your content pages) and on your profile page is yours. However, now you can specify which ads you want to display - so you are not limited to Adsense, you can put in the codes for whatever ad network you like! Setting it up is a little bit fiddly to begin with (it is all done via uniQlicks) but once this is done you don't need to touch it again. The only downside is that you can't seem specify different ads for different Intels - or not as far as I can tell anyway. So you will need to find ads that work with any content rather then being content specific.

So far I have only briefly dabbled with Qondio, but with these changes I definitely intend to put more effort into creating more Intels and hopefully making some money from them!

Squidoo Alternatives #9 - Infobarrel

With the changes in Squidoo's policies this seems like a good time to have another look at what alternatives are out there. I signed up with Infobarrel several months ago, but never got around to doing anything with it. So, mostly with a view to getting more links to various projects I thought I would look at it again. The site allows you submit your own content (it has to be original content) in one of four formats:

1. Blank article template - basically a blank page to fill as you like
2. Video article - page that contains a video. This can contain several videos
3. How-to article - step-by-step article describing how to do something (much like e-How)
4. Review Article - review of product, service, movie, etc.

If you are stuck for something to write about there is a long list available of suggested titles, although it has to be said that some of these are quite obscure.

The money making aspect of Infobarrel is from Adsense and Ebay's partner program - basically 75% of the impressions are yours.

You can include include links within your articles and it would appear that these links are do-follow, so valuable for promoting your website, blog, etc.

But...... you cannot include affiliate links within your articles. Or that is how I read the terms of service anyway. This is what is says:

"........InfoBarrel will remove from the Materials any links that link/refer to advertisements or any other content of promotional/advertising nature. "

This obviously limits its usefulness in terms of internet marketing - it may provide useful links into a Squidoo lens, or to a niche site, but no opportunity to directly market products.

Overall, I like Infobarrel. It has a good look to it and the templates give a range of options, and the "How-to" template is a particularly good one for quickly writing a structured article. I am intending to use it more to gain more links to my blogs and maybe to some of my Squidoo lenses, and to niche sites when I get to the stage of constructing them. And, of course, to boost my Adsense and Ebay Partner income!

Here is the definitive list of alternatives to Squidoo.

Definitive list of Alternatives to Squidoo

Over recent weeks I have been reviewing a number of Squidoo alternatives. Not that I think that there is anything wrong with Squidoo, it's just that sometimes it's good to diversify and to have options. So, in order to make the list the site concerned must satisfy the following criteria:

1. You must be able to publish your own content
2. You must be able to include a link back to your own website, blog or whatever else you want to promote
3. There must be some opportunity for making money - either directly through revenue sharing or via affiliate links.

Within the list I have included links to the sites themselves, links to my reviews and an indication as to whether links are "dofollow" or "nofollow". So, in no particular order, is the full list:

1. Hubpages [See Review] -links are nofollow initially, then become dofollow once your hub has reached a score of 75.
2. Knol [See Review] - links are initially nofollow, then become dofollow after a while.
3. Oondi [See Review] - links are no follow
   
4. Bukisa [See Review] - links are nofollow
5. Zimbio [See Review] - mixed - links in your articles are nofollow, but when republishing blog posts as articles, then link to blog is dofollow.
   
6. eHow [See Review] - links are nofollow
7. Qassia [See Review] - links are dofollow
8. Launchtags [See Review] -links are dofollow (if you can get it to work!!)
9. Infobarrel [See Review] - links are dofollow
10. Xomba [See Review] - links are nofollow
    

So there you have it! I am sure there are more out there and I will add to this list as and when I find them. Do you know of any others? If so, you could let me know and I add to the list and will review.

Squidoo Alternatives #8 - Launchtags

This is the last of my series of alternatives to Squidoo for the time being. Launchtags is yet another site where you can write your own content, link back to your own site/blog and earn money. The interface has a similar structure to Squidoo and Hubpages in that you have various modules to construct your own "Mini-Page" (as they are referred to here). This includes text, images, video, and affiliate banners/links. You can also earn money from Adsense on your Mini-Pages.

This all looks absolutely great and should offer a number of flexible opportunities including using Mini-Pages as landing pages for an affiliate marketing campaign. Except, THE DAMN THING JUST DOES NOT WORK!!! I have spent ages trying to put together a Mini-Page, but every time I hit the Publish button everything disappears except my introduction and thumbnail picture. I thought it was just me, but if you look at other recent Mini-Pages they look look the same. It seems that it was not always this way as the older Mini-Pages seem to be just fine.

I have e-mailed via the "Contact Me" tab to make this point, but had no response. I have also left a message on the forums, but again, no response. In fact the forums look pretty much dead - the "Help Me Please" forum has just 8 threads on it and 2 of those are mine!!!

Launchtags feels like it has been abandoned by its owner. Either that, or someone is working away behind the scenes to get it working and they are just far too busy to respond to queries. But as I posted my Mini-Page several months ago and the site still isn't working properly, this seems unlikely!

N.B. If at some point in the future I should find that Launchtags is functioning properly, then I will of course amend this review accordingly.

Squidoo Alternatives #7 - Qassia

Continuing my reviews of alternatives to Squidoo brings me to Qassia. Remembering that this series focuses on sites that where you can post your own content, include a link back to your own site/blog and where there are opportunities to make money, I will cover each of these in turn. Qassia allows you to create your own content (known here as "Intel") about pretty much anything. The only things that are not allowed are adult content or duplicate content. People participating in Qassia can earn Qassia Dollars - this is not real money, however, this is actually just a rating system relating to the visibility of your Intels. The interface is pretty basic (text and images), but is easy to use.

Associated with each Intel is a link back to your website, blog, Squidoo page or whatever else you are looking to promote. In fact, Qassia promotes itself on the basis of being a means by which you gain useful backlinks, and all links are "dofollow". You can't, however, use Qassia to promote your affiliate links or indeed any dubious looking money making schemes.

In terms of making money, Qassia offers a revenue sharing model where you can receive 100% of Adsense revenue from your Intels, although you do not receive any revenue from any other pages.

In conclusion, Qassia offers primarily a useful means of building backlinks to your website or blog. There is some opportunity to make some additional money from Adsense, but unless your Intels receive a large amount of traffic you should not expect to make large sums.

Squidoo Alternatives #6 - eHow

My series on Squidoo Alternatives has concentrated on Web 2.0 sites that allow you to submit your own content, provide useful backlinks to your own site or blog and also provide the opportunity to make money. EHow looks and feels completely different from Squidoo, but the essential premise is very similar. The main difference, however, is that eHow concentrates entirely on How-To type articles which are very structured point by point type. This structure makes the articles very easy to read and extremely easy to write, as much of the work is done for you. Some might find this structure a little restrictive. You do have the option to add pictures to your articles.

The articles have a resource box in which you can place a link to your site, or indeed affiliate or referral links. EHow is a highly rated, high traffic site, so links here are valuable.

In terms of earnings, eHow allows you to opt-in to the Writer Compensation Program where you receive payments according to how popular your articles are. Payments are by Paypal and the payment threshold is $10. However, the big, huge drawback of this program is that it is only open to U.S. residents!!! So for people like me (I live in the UK) the only earning opportunities eHow offers is through placing affiliate links in the resource box.

In conclusion, eHow is extremely easy to use and the structured format make the articles very direct. The articles provide useful links to your blog or website and certainly help to enhance your reputation as an expert in your subject. I have read that many people have made good money on eHow, but unless eHow intend to extend their program to non-U.S. residents then a large proportion of internet users will not be able to participate.

Squidoo Alternatives #5 - Zimbio

Regular readers of Extra Cash Challenge will know that my Squidoo Alternatives series focuses on sites where you can submit your own content including backlinks to your own website or blog, and where there are opportunities for making money. Those people who are already familiar with Zimbio may wonder why I am including it in this series when there is no intrinsic way of making money from it. But more of that later. I will also tell you about neat trick you can use with Zimbio to promote your Squidoo lenses.

Zimbio is a site which describes itself as an interactive magazine the readership of which is apparently around 15 million people per week. It is broken down into hundreds of "wikizines" based around a wide variety of themes. All you need to is write an article about anything you like (including a link to your website/blog if you wish) and submit it to one of the many wikizines. The interface is fairly basic - no modules or anything fancy, but very easy to use.

If you have a blog, a further option to you is to submit your blog RSS feed to Zimbio, which then gives you the option to submit your better posts to one of the wikizines - this will automatically feature a link to your blog and increase exposure for you and your blog!

A word of warning though - if your blog is on one of the paid blog networks (such as Today.com) then I suggest you do not do this. The reason for this (as I have learned recently to my cost) is that your original blog post is likely to be flagged as duplicate content and you will not be paid!!!

Now - for the Squidoo trick......what you can do to increase exposure for your Squidoo lenses is to submit your Squidoo profile RSS feed to Zimbio. You have to submit it as a blog - Zimbio doesn't differentiate. The result of this is each time you publish a new lens, the Introduction module will find its way through to Zimbio which you can then publish to a relevant wikizine. As you can only publish your introduction you need to make sure it's a good one to grab your readers' interest enough to click through to the actual Squidoo lens. You could, I guess, do the same for you HubPages or Bukisa profile, but I wouldn't recommend it as you are likely to be penalised for duplicate content.

In terms of earning potential, there is no revenue directly attached to Zimbio, but you can use affiliate and referral links within your articles. This includes your blog posts that you re-publish to Zimbio wikizines (i.e. your original links remain intact). You could, therefore, use a Zimbio article as a landing page for an affiliate marketing campaign.

In summary, Zimbio is really easy to use for publishing articles, but its strength for me is in re-publishing blog posts and potentially gaining a larger audience for your blog.

Squidoo Alternatives #4 - Bukisa

Bukisa is another site where you can post your own content and earn money. In this instance your content can be text, or slides, or video, or audio. You can add text to your audio or video uploads, but the expectation is that this will simply be a transcript. The interface is extremely easy to use. In terms of text articles it is pretty basic: text, pictures, links and that is it, although there is the option of using HTML.

You can use links within the content that you submit, so it can be part of a strategy to promote your website, blog, Squidoo page, or whatever else you want to promote. What you can't do is include affiliate or referral links, which obviously reduces your options.

In terms of earning money, it is very simple: you get paid according to how many times your pages are viewed. The rate you are paid at depends on how well Bukisa advertising has performed (this is indicated by the Bukisa index on the site). As a general indication, at the time of writing I have 4 articles which have received 107 visits and my account stands at $0.43. This may not be much, but these articles have assisted with traffic to my various projects and I have done nothing whatsoever to promote my Bukisa articles. Payout threshold is $50 and is paid by Paypal.

Bukisa is still in Beta and has been suffering a few glitches over the last couple of weeks, so if you are submitting articles you might be better off writing it in Word or Notepad first, just to be safe!

Squidoo Alternatives #3 - Oondi

Continuing my series of Squidoo alternatives, Oondi is another site where you can publish your own content, link to your own site/blog and earn money. Similarly to Knol there are no affiliate modules, or any other modules come to that (as there are with Squidoo and HubPages). You are basically provided with a blank page to work with. The interface is pretty basic - the emphasis is writing content rather than incorporating fancy gadgets, so no YouTube videos or other gadgets here. You can write about pretty much anything you like provided that you do not submit duplicate content.

There is, of course, the opportunity to link to your own site/blog if you want to which may help with traffic to some extent. Other links are also permitted.

Opportunities for making money are primarily via Adsense and unlike some other sites you receive 100% of revenue (with HubPages you receive income from 60% of impressions). You can, of course, add any affiliate links you like, so you could use an Oondi page as a landing page for an affiliate campaign in the absence of your own website.

In conclusion, while Oondi pages do not have all the gadgets available to you with Squidoo and HubPages, it is very easy to use, provides useful links to your website/blog and good way to top up your Adsense account without having to start another website or blog. Oondi is still currently in Beta and Oondi pages currently do not rank that highly on Google. Membership is still quite small, so now might be a good time to join before it becomes monopolized by a few active members.

Squidoo Alternatives #2 - Knol

Continuing my series of alternatives to Squidoo, here is my review of Knol. When Knol was launched by Google in mid 2007 there were comparisons with both Squidoo and Wikipedia. The site allows you to post your own content to a web page known as a Knol (unit of knowledge). The content can be about pretty much anything, although for some reason there are a large number of Knols about medical issues. In truth, Knol is quite different from either Wikipedia or Squidoo. Unlike Wikipedia, Google does not take any editorial control over what you post and although you can allow other people to add to your Knol, it is not compulsory.

Unlike Squidoo (or HubPages) there are no modules to help you construct your page. What you have is pretty much a blank page. For users of other Google products, such as Blogger or Page Creator, the interface will feel very familiar. The interface does allow you to incorporate pictures, YouTube videos, spreadsheets, calendar, Picassa Web Slideshow and more. The interface does feel quite basic though.

As it is a Google product, you have the opportunity to incorporate Adsense ads so that your Knols can earn you a little money. You can however, also add whatever affiliate or referral links you like.

As you can incorporate links in your Knol, you can obviously include links to your own website or blog, BUT initially your links within your Knols will be "no-follow" so will not contribute towards your page ranking. In order for your links to become "do-follow" you have to establish yourself as a trusted author on Knol. This is what Google has to say about it:

"When Knol launched we began with all pages marked with a blanket "nofollow" directive. This means that Google and other search engines would not crawl outbound links from knols, and those links would not flow PageRank to the pages to which they point. The advice Google provides webmasters is to make links "nofollow" if they represent untrusted or low quality user contributed content.

We are now at a point where we "trust" a certain fraction of authors and a certain proportion of user contributed links, and so we now use a "follow" directive for links within such knols.

Not all links are "follow". Some links will permanently remain rel="nofollow", including:

• Links found within comments
• Our automatically generated links to "similar content on the web".
• Brand new pages and recently-added authors are liable to remain "nofollow" for a period of time.
  

Beyond that, the rules determining which links and pages use "follow" vs "nofollow" will change over time as we adjust our policies to find the right balance for users and search engines."

So, in conclusion, Knol is easy to use and there are opportunities to make some money, although in the absence of easy to use affiliate modules, you will need to to be a bit more imaginative. However, in order to gain any page rank benefit from links to your site/blog then you will need to put some time in to establish yourself as a "trusted author".

Squidoo Alternatives #1 - HubPages

This is the first of a series of reviews of what I have described as "Squidoo Alternatives", basically because I can't think of another description. In order to qualify for these reviews the sites must allow for people to post their own content, there must be some opportunity for making money, and there should be some opportunity to link back to own site or blog (if you want to). Once I have completed these reviews I will post a comprehensive list.

HubPages is the main competitor to Squidoo, so this seems a good place to start. As with Squidoo, HubPages provides a place for you to post your content about pretty much anything - here they are known as Hubs. You are provided with a number of modules including text, photos, video, links, news, rss feeds, comments and poll.

Unlike Squidoo, in order for you to make money from your Hubs you will need to sign up with Adsense and sign up as an affiliate with Amazon, Ebay and/or Kontera. HubPages rank well on search engines so putting links to your website or blog (if you have one) will certainly help it get found. Nevertheless, you still need to put in a certain amount of work to get your Hubs found. HubPages has a lively community element including a forum and fan club.

HubPages does have certain rules which if you breach you will find your Hubs banned. The main issues are that your Hubs should not contain adult material, and your Hubs should be spam. What constitutes spam is, I guess, somewhat subjective, but basically your Hub should contain some sort of useful content. Also, if your Hub contains more than 2 links to the same destination then your Hub is likely to be flagged as spam. Also, if your Hub contains content that is duplicated elsewhere on the internet then your Hub will be flagged as duplicate content and will affect its scoring, meaning that it is less likely to be found.

In some corners of the internet, debates rage about which is better, Squidoo or Hubpages. For me, there are pros and cons to each, and which you use can depend on what you want to do. Squidoo contains more modules and gives you more options in terms of layout. But the interface for HubPages (I think) is easier to use. There are no restrictions on what you post on Squidoo (provided it's legal!), but the restrictions in HubPages means there are fewer Hubs and it is more likely that your Hub will be found. I tend to find that the community element on Squidoo is stronger and the forums on HubPages have a reputation for being a little unfriendly.

I haven't decided yet whether HubPages or Squidoo has the best revenue model - with your earnings being lumped together with Squidoo, you get to see your money much sooner. But having another opportunity to add to my Adsense total means that maybe I might actually see a payout some day.

So, in my view, Squidoo and HubPages are as good as each other, but the two formats lend themselves to a different style of content, so it depends on what you want to do.