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.
I began blogging with three blogs hosted by Wordpress.com. I have used many blogging platforms and found Wordpress to offer a large number of features, while being user friendly. One of my first blogs was Bruce’s Money Rants. While Bruce’s Money Rants is still available, it currently is in its second incarnation. My first blog was squelched by Wordpress.com.
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. Built on the Wordpress software that I already liked
2. Stated that they had over 70 templates available
3. I could add widgets and plug-ins
4. Ability to track daily stats from your main dashboard
5. Having an address of “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.
Wordpress.com does allow some monetization. Small banner ads can be utilized by placing HTML into widgets. There are some downsides. Changing the ads requires manually changing the code. Not a deal breaker for me. I loved the ease of Wordpress that much.
I reached a point where I was happy with my blog’s look. It was not perfect but was the best I could reach without paying Wordpress.com extra money. I was not trying to get something for free. I was more than happy to pay for Wordpress.com’s extra services. I just wanted the blog to be self sustaining. I began posting links in different blog directories and posting everyday. Within a week, I was seeing some results. My Wordpress.com blog had a high day of 12 unique visitors and was already indexed in Google.com. I was pretty pleased.
I began focusing on writing posts to assist readers in making money online. I wrote about making money blogs and resources that I found useful (i.e. ZacJohnson.com and e-books). I also wrote about products, courses, etc. that had helped me learn about internet marketing.
My knowledge was growing along with my readers. My next step was to continue advertising. I obtained the addresses for 50 blog directories. Over the next two days, I registered with these directories.
Then disaster hits. I posted a review about Blogging for Dollars. It offered quality information and a 30 day all access preview for $1.97. Readers could cancel within 30 days and pay nothing else. I had signed up with their affiliate program after I had purchased the product. I am happy to show a receipt.
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.
I did not write anything bad. Every time I quoted someone else, I stated the author, site I quoted, and linked to the source. I reviewed Wordpress.com’s Terms of Service. Of course, Wordpress.com’s Terms of Service is a couple of pages long. I was looking for restrictions that could be relevant to the posts I had made. Here are the ones 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”
There was the culprit. I had included affiliate links in my reviews. So I could tell people about products, whether or not I had used the product, as long as I was not an affiliate. It did not matter that I had bought the product, offered proof of the purchase, and had found it useful.
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.
Throughout the day, no answer from Wordpress.com came. It was not in my spam filter. Nope, no answer there. In checking my other two Wordpress blogs, I realized that my login was now suspended. Well, I guess Wordpress does not believe in customer service. Just shutoff your account with no explanation. They have this right but a little customer service might avoid articles like this.
This article is not an attempt at revenge. Just as my blog, I want to provide useful information to other affiliate marketers. Maybe someone can avoid the frustration I have been through. If by some chance, Wordpress.com’s technical support sees this article, I would love an explanation. You can reach me at Bruce’s Money Rants.
Nice info & good tips..can you share more information please?
Didn’t understood the last part :s could you explain better please?
True words, some true words dude. You rocked my day!!
Your site was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.
I’m Out!