First warning - to whom it may concern

Wizzleys are authors who have been around the block at least once or twice.

Yes, we're all about making money with our online efforts, but we are also very concerned with the overall quality of our site. (No need to mention Panda and stuff...ok?)

That said, here's what we don't like to see (but what's currently starting to happen on WIzzley):

• Spun content, simply dumped into a wizz, without any recognizable effort to create an attractive page, i.e. more of the same stuff that's flooding the SERPs, already.
• Keyword stuffing. Good grief...that is soo '05! Why would you want to scream at Google: "Lookey here - I'm a spam sandwich!"
• Excessive outbound links to YOUR stuff. We are NOT a link directory. If you don't stop this nonsense, we'll have to implement some hefty rules. Aaargh...I thought we were grown-ups.
• Go ahead and shower your special buddies with likes and comments. But, please, extend the same courtesy to other community members as well.

Nuff said, for now. 

Wizzley loves to have ALL of you around. Please love us back.  

It refers to articles that have been mass-produced by "spin" software, Oliver. When you put parts of these articles in Google search, you won't see whole paragraphs duplicated, but only every 3. or 4. word. 

This might be considered duplicate content by Google, at some point in the near future. We don't want to be punished for that.

Additionally, these kind of articles won't offer any unique value to readers because there are so many of them already out there.

Friends - I've gotten a bit angry about certain happenings around here, and my above post probably reflected that. Sorry for my too general rant.

We will work on a better documentation of our rules, so nobody has to feel unsure about what they can do and what not.

Currently, we're reviewing a series of questionable pages, and we are contacting the authors directly. 

So far, we're a group of incredible quality authors and friends, except for a tiny percentage of bad apples. We're dealing with that situation as we speak.

A huge "Thank You" goes out to the vast majority of our members.   

Hi! Chefkeem, I am with you in this, but gently I want to tell my opinion to be sure that  we understand each other and we don’t get in the opposite extreme. 

• I think that since the Library of Congress was put on Internet, unique subjects didn’t exist with very, very few exceptions... like "I bit my wife last night" 
• Sure cut and paste shouldn’t be our way of writing, and yes, Google is sophisticate enough to detect Bots which spin articles because they have patterns, and Google will put us on sandbox for it 
• About links to ourselves - this is branding, and if we don’t abuse them, I think it is OK.  I create today my second wizzy post, and I use 2 links for 2 lenses in which I give details about the subject, sorry, if I don’t do this I have to repeat and create duplications… so I prefer to have 2 links, this is just an example, and I consider that it is not an abuse, and branding is very important on Internet marketing 
• About the friends… using only “invitations”, we all are Squidoo friends so far, I think you are my friend, don’t you? 
• I also think that  creating strict, and long list of  rules we can kill the creativity… this is why “open source” concept is so powerful nowadays, because let people to contribute, and the free market make them going up or down, not  a list of rules

So this is just my humble opinion, and I hope I just use my open source right and contribute to the clarifications of the concepts.

Keem thanks for keeping an eye on us, fighting for quality, and basically creating wizzle which I think has great future as a platform.

By the way, I was surprised that you don’t mention posts which have only 100% selling purposes, these will be my first concern.

Regards and Have a great weekend

Michey - I agree with you on all of your points.

The first post in this thread was a warning shot in a very certain direction, and this problem has been solved. 

Our main concern is too little content (less than 400 words) and then 15-20 links to self-promoting pages with no further value for the article reader. Plus, tons of advertising.

Your articles, as I know them, don't even come close to this danger zone.   

Even a pure sales article can offer value to the reader, through personal reviews, etc. - nothing wrong with that.

What we don't want are badly spun stuff that's hard to read, has a ton of mistakes, and is nothing but a copy of a million of other spun articles on the web. I'm talking "extreme".

Currently, we still have one "bad apple" in the house. Everyone else is right on target with their work.

Don't. You. Worry.  

chefkeem: 29. May 2011, 05:41

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Michey - I agree with you on all of your points.

The first post in this thread was a warning shot in a very certain direction, and this problem has been solved. 

Our main concern is too little content (less than 400 words) and then 15-20 links to self-promoting pages with no further value for the article reader. Plus, tons of advertising.

Your articles, as I know them, don't even come close to this danger zone.   

Even a pure sales article can offer value to the reader, through personal reviews, etc. - nothing wrong with that.

What we don't want are badly spun stuff that's hard to read, has a ton of mistakes, and is nothing but a copy of a million of other spun articles on the web. I'm talking "extreme".

Currently, we still have one "bad apple" in the house. Everyone else is right on target with their work.

Don't. You. Worry.  

Thank you for clarifications, I wish you a great long weekend, I'll take it easy as well.

Regards

This is SOOO off topic, I am ashamed of myself...but Keem...My hat is off to you. I had no idea you were the founder. Now I KNOW I will like Wizzley!

Thanks so much, veebeee.   However...

I'm just a little old co-founder together with Anne (Squidster), Ron Passfield, and...

Simon and Hans, two German kick-ass developers.

The true quality of Wizzley comes through our quality authors, of course.

When I look at our brilliant member roster...I oughta wear 

The rules sound reasonable and good to me. I just registered here and haven't written anything yet -- thinking about what to start with -- but I'm so happy to have another great (free) platform to write about subjects that interest me AND to know who's behind it.

To tell the truth, I'm reassured by the rules in place. It's a lot easier to build a quality site if you demand the best from your writers right from the start. I'm seeing no shortage of people rising to the challenge and producing work everyone here can be proud of! 

Well said, Veronica. You're a true literary creme anglaise.  

Sorry to bring up an old post but it raised concerns for me. Right now I'm writing my 5th wizz. It's basically a "where to find Othercat" wizz so it contains links to my Squidoo bio, my blogs, my social networking profiles and a few of my articles. There's plenty of other content (I actually wrote so much, I had to erase some. lol) but how do I figure out if there's too many links? 

Just don't make it a pure link directory, so it still has some value as an article. Then you should be fine. I'm sure you can offer some tips and recommendations along with your links, Cat.  

Okay. I'll go ahead an publish it. I'm sure you'll let me know if I need to change it :)

You have got me worried now.  Only because I am new at this and hope I have not done something wrong out of ignorance.  eeeek.. Just paranoid about all of this since it is so new to me. 

Angel,

I have read through all your articles and solidly re-read about 6 of them. You are not doing anything that would constitute breaking any of the OP's written statements,

So you don't have to worry.

I love you!  Thank you so much for doing that.   Just newbie nervousness I guess! 

I know I have not done anything intentional.  I get worried about things that maybe I just don't know about yet.  There is so much to keep up and so many things that Google frowns upon....whew.  Hard to keep up with all of it.   Thank you again, I value your opinion.  

Angel: 26. Jan 2012, 02:01

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I love you!  Thank you so much for doing that.   Just newbie nervousness I guess! 

I know I have not done anything intentional.  I get worried about things that maybe I just don't know about yet.  There is so much to keep up and so many things that Google frowns upon....whew.  Hard to keep up with all of it.   Thank you again, I value your opinion.  

I think what ChefKeem meant in his original post is exactly the opposite of what you are fearing ;-) He spoke about people that know exactly what they are doing when trying to ¨'game the system' and that are trying their tricks on Wizzley. Nobody here, at least I hope so, will punish a genuine newbie or other human mistake. After a while in this business you can 'sniff' what is genuine and what not and the Wizzley team surely can do that ;-) Just continue to write great articles, learn what there is to learn and don't worry to much ...

Sam - that makes complete sense.  I will keep on doing my thing.  I welcome any suggestions if you guys see something that I do that shouldn't be done.  Seriously.  Keep me straight!  Appreciate your comments...

Angel,

Just got done visiting and commenting on your fantastic ODD page. Like you, I tend to write in first person. Part of me does this because of the topic of this thread - I feel that even when I'm trying to make a sale to put food on the table, keeping it real and speaking in my own, goofy voice still gives me authority with a reader...and I'm much more at ease, feeling that I'm staying within acceptable guidelines. Never have to worry about duplicate content when creating an article.

My pages do link to my blogs and other content, but if you went to my blogs and other articles out there, they also link back to Wizzley, because Wizzley is a big part of my success and I want to see my pages thrive, in addition to my blogs.

It's funny but I have one blog that is all about sales, which is hard for me because I am so not a salesperson. But it has taken off, not because I'm an expert on every product, nor pretend to be, but because I share stories on why we would love the product, etc.and add humor into the mix.

I know this method couldn't work for everyone's content and, granted, some pages I create feel super and some not so much on a bad day...but being "real" has really paid off for me. Fortunately I chose a niche dear to my heart, so I don't have to look for material on the web...I live it everyday! :)