Squidoo Lensmasters note: How not to tread on toes at Tagfoot!

The latest of AJ’s musings on Squidoo Etiquette and Netiquette

Tagfoot is a relatively new networking site, with a difference. And for this article I was granted an exclusive interview with Lensmaster Debnet, who has certainly embraced everything Tagfoot has to offer with a passion. She is also a staunch defender of the Tagfoot guidelines.

So who better than Deb to tell us about the site and, more importantly, how not to tread on any Tagfoot toes, particularly those belonging to a “Bigfoot”!

Deb, staunch supporter of Tagfoot

But first of all why use Tagfoot to bookmark your favourite sites and Squidoo lenses?

The biggest advantage over favouriting your lenses is that I find the more lenses I fav, the more difficult it is to find them again on Squidoo. Your faved lenses are stored alphabetically and it means you need to remember the title of the lens in order to be able to find it quickly. Imagine scrolling through a list of hundreds of lenses trying to find that brilliant lens on networking to increase traffic?

Now what was it called? Was it “Increase traffic by networking”? Or was it “Networking to increase traffic”?

On Tagfoot you can tag everything you bookmark. You can group your lenses into categories and then when you want to find pages saved on a specific topic you can find them more easily.

So, once you join Tagfoot, how can you make sure that you follow the guidelines? Here’s Deb to get you off on the right foot – ha ha!

AJ: How long have you been a Tagfoot member?

Deb: I think it’s almost a year now… is it really that long, guess it must be!

AJ: What is your role on Tagfoot?

Deb: I am currently a Bigfoot, a Mentor, and a Scavenger!

AJ: Briefly describe Tagfoot and how people can network?

Deb: SHORT ANSWER: Social bookmarking (on steroids).

LONG ANSWER: We like to say, Tagfoot is a no-nonsense social bookmarking, wishlisting, and tagging hangout where we find it, tag it, rate it, share it and talk about it.

All Tagfoot content is contributed and controlled by the Tagfoot user community.

AJ: What are the benefits of joining Tagfoot?

Deb: That would bring a different answer from different members. For me, it has to be the social interaction. Having said that, if you just want to bookmark your stuff and not interact, that’s fine too. Some people find they enjoy the increase in traffic to lenses, Zazzle and blogs. However, those that interact will find increased traffic easier than those who choose to ‘hit and run’.

AJ: Do you know the ratio of Squidoo to non-Squidoo members?

Deb: Not sure on this one. Initially the site comprised of a few members who were connected to ‘Support’ in some way or another. Then a Squidoo member found the site, recommended it to others and wham, the site was almost a second home to Squidoo for awhile there. Not so much now though I don’t think.

It often appears there are more Squidoo members than non members as they tend to interact more, especially when they have a new lens to promote!

[Note from AJ: A few months back Tagfoot felt that just some Squidoo members were over-doing the self-promotion and sharing Squidoo lenses was almost banned. After a few days of frantic activity on the part of “Support” (who owns the site) and the “BigFeet”, who are probably the equivalent of Squidoo Angels, the site was cleaned up, a few members were shown the door and Squidoo is welcome.

But Squidoo Lensmasters need to take note! The reason why Tagfoot is such a nice site and practically Spam free, is because Support and the Bigfeet move very quickly if anyone steps out of line.]

Tagfoot

AJ: What constitutes Spam or bad manners on Tagfoot?

Deb: Spam is anything spammy of course!! Seriously though, if someone drops stuff onto Tagfoot purely as a sales pitch such as teeth whitening, best loans, timeshare, Wow gold, etc, etc, and very little else, they are likely to be considered as a link spammer.

Sharing your latest lens (or whatever) to all your friends without using tags, is considered bad Tagfootology and you’re likely to get footed down for it… continue and expect to get a nice red shiny badge declaring you as a Spamfoot, or worse still, your account restricted.

AJ: How are the anti-Spam rules enforced?

Deb: If it’s simply a case of repeatedly spamming others by ‘sending to all’ instead of using the tag system, you can expect to have that facility restricted on your account.

If a link spammer or someone who just uses Tagfoot to get backlinks to their spammy site appears, they can expect their account to be disabled.

If a member has their account disabled, they can always write to Support to have it reinstated. The genuine members will write in. The spammers are rarely seen again after dropping their links onto Tagfoot.

Spam is not welcomed or tolerated at Tagfoot. [Note from AJ: Jahooooo!]

AJ: What can get you banned from Tagfoot?

Deb: Bookmarking porn, hate related or offensive material. Rudeness to others or name calling is also not tolerated. Forex is also a pet hate of mine and I’ll restrict an account if I see it bookmarked. Clickbank is a BIG no no too!

AJ: How can Squidoo members ensure they don’t break the rules on Tagfoot?

Deb: Play nice! Feel free to bookmark your lenses, hub pages, blogs etc. It would be lovely to see you interact with others too. Select a Mentor to help you through. The ‘help’ section – top right hand corner of every page on tagfoot – gives you more details on what you can and can’t do but basically just enjoy Tagfoot and have fun!

AJ: Would you like to say anything else?

Deb: All I can think of to add is that Tagfoot can look overwhelming when you’re new. So make sure to sign up to a Mentor when you first register and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

I have only just ‘dipped my toe in the water’ in my replies to your questions. There is so much more, there really is.

Tagfoot Rocks… Oh Yeah

And you can find out more about how to use Tagfoot on Deb’s excellent lens 100 Tagfoot Tips and you can also visit Deb’s Tagfoot profile.

AJ’s thoughts on Tagfoot?

As Deb says, there really is a lot that makes Tagfoot a great site, providing you are a Community-minded member. One of the things I like about Tagfoot is that you can become a “Twitfoot”.

This means that any bookmarks or comments on other people’s shares are immediately Tweeted with an automatic link back to the Tagfoot page. If you share anything on Tagfoot, whether it be your own lens or someone else’s and people comment on it, then that gets the lens tweeted all over Twitter.

For this reason I always try to make my Tagfoot comments meaningful. Can you imagine how meaningless “nice share” is when tweeted with a URL? Where is the incentive for people picking up the tweet to click on the URL?

Now if you tweet something like:

I found this info about how to remove belly button fluff really useful and it also made me laugh out loud”

- then it gives more info and people are more likely to check it out.

Deb has also been very modest in her answers. She fails to mention how hard she and her fellow Bigfoots work to mentor groups of members as well as help keep the site a nice place to be. No, it is not always all sweetness and light and I have seen a couple of unpleasant incidents but they were dealt with rapidly.

What I like about Tagfoot is that although its growth has been rapid, the contingencies are in place to keep the site “clean”. Spammers are like parasites, always looking for the next unsuspecting host, which they attack in swarms. However, with the Bigfeet ready to go into stomping action the minute any black hat users appear, I know who my money is on to win through every time!

Talking of Twitter, this will be covered in a couple of week’s time. Next week we are going to look at SquidU Forum Etiquette – but I don’t think it is going to be quite what you will be expecting!

[ratings]

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