Technology and Business News

Knowledge is potential power. The goal of my website is to provide knowledge that assists readers in making money online and learn from other people’s costly mistakes. I recently had some business dealing with Wordpress.com. I have decided to write about my dealings with Wordpress.com. Hoping that all readers will learn from my situation. This information should allow you to save both time and frustration.

Over the last few years, I have toyed with many different blogs. I have used several different blog platforms. When I became serious, about earning an income with blogging, I settled on the Wordpress platform. I created a hosted blog with Wordpress.com. Little did I know that decision was going to come with frustration and unanswered questions.

Wordpress.com shares the same creators as the Wordpress blogging platform (Wordpress.com vs. Wordpress.org, n.d.). Several features of Wordpress.com invited me to choose their hosting.

1. My experience with the Wordpress blogging platform

2. Stated that they had over 70 templates available

3. Availability of plug ins and widgets

4. Ability to track daily stats from your main dashboard

5. Having a blog that was “xxxx.wordpress.com”

At first, I was enjoying Wordpress.com. I created “emergencymgmt.wordpress.com”, “lifeofreedom.wordpress.com”, and “brucesmoneyrants.wordpress.com”. My main blog was on money making. My plan was to develop the other two later. My first surprise came when I chose a template. I had about 12 templates available. You had to pay to access the 70 templates. Next, I found out you cannot upload external templates.

I was not concerned. I could still personalize through widgets, right? Not so fast, external widgets are not allowed. You are limited to the widgets Wordpress.com makes available. Wordpress.com also does not allow java script to be inserted in Text widgets. Greatly reducing a person’s ability to monetize their blog.

HTML allowed me to put small banner ads into my sidebars. Not the same as Google Adsense because they only pay when someone actually made a purchase, however, it was better than nothing. Using HTML, I was able to reach a level of monetization with my blog. My issue was that these ads would not change without me manually changing the code. That was going to take extra maintenance time. I continued because I did like the Wordpress software.

Finally, I was able to produce a look and setup I was happy with. I looked forward to the day the blog would pay to add Wordpress.com’s pay services. This would allow the blog to pay for itself. I started writing a post everyday and placing links to the site. I was quickly indexed in Google. I was feeling very good.

I wrote a variety of posts. They ranged from product reviews to sites and resources that I believed would help people make money. Each post was about something that I had personally either used or read. My goal was to assist readers not peddle crap.

My next move was to register with blog directories. I searched the web and came across a listing of 50 web directories. Each directory required you to register to submit your site. I spend two days registering the site.

The post that brought the blog down. I posted about Blogging for Dollars. A internet marketing course that provided ways to make money blogging. I had signed up with their affiliate program. I did this only after personally using the product.

I woke up Thursday morning and checked my blog’s stats. The blog was gone. My screen now stated that “This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service”. I was still able to sign in to my account and view my emergencymgmgt.wordpress.com blog. I also could still view stats for my World’s Dumbest Criminals blog that was not hosted with Wordpress.com but used their statistics widget.

Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I tried to figure out what had happened. I knew plagiarism would cause immediate shutoff. Every source was cited with the date, author, and a link to their site. That could not be the problem. I turned to Wordpress.com’s Terms of Service for some answers. Here is what I found:

1. “the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party”

2. “you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms”

3. “the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing)”

4. “your blog is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your blogs URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own”

The previous four bullet points are quotes from Wordpress.com’s Terms of Service. The only potential issue I saw was my posting about products that people might find useful because I had included affiliate links, however, even this was a manner of point of view. I had recommended products but only because I had purchased them and found them useful. I had offered to provide proof that I used the product and had offered links to similar products that I was not an affiliate for.

It is important to hear both sides of any story. Wordpress.com has the right to run their site and business however they see fit. I sent a note to their tech support. All I was asking for was an explanation, nothing more. Again, it is their business. But, it would be good business to offer customers an explanation. Patiently, I watched for a return email.

I went to my World’s Dumbest Criminals blog to check my statistics. The Wordpress.com statistics widget now showed “account suspended”. I went back to Wordpress.com and attempted to login. I could not even login now. I guess this was the answer to my support e-mail. Do not answer my e-mail just shut off the account.

For all budding affiliate marketers, be leery of hosting a blog at Wordpress.com. If you do not want to make any money, only impart information to the internet then Wordpress.com hosting is for you. Affiliate marketers, I would suggest sticking with downloading the Wordpress blogging platform to your own web hosting. i am happy to discuss this situation with anyone. You can find me at Bruce’s Money Rants.