Pitfalls for Affiliate Marketers of hosting a blog at Wordpress.com
ByKnowledge 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 was attractive because of its builders. The gentleman who created the Wordpress platform also created Wordpress.com (Wordpress.com vs. Wordpress.org, n.d.). There were several features that prompted me choose Wordpress.com.
1. I already had experience with the Wordpress software
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 a blog that was “xxxx.wordpress.com”
The relationship started out well. I signed up three blogs “emergencymgmt.wordpress.com”, “lifeofreedom.wordpress.com”, and “brucesmoneyrants.wordpress.com”. I focused on brucesmoneyrants.wordpress.com. I began looking for an appropriate template. When I went to the available templates, I found approximate a dozen templates. Access to the 70 plus templates requires payment. Not a problem, there were many free templates available online. I went and found one I really liked, only to find out that you cannot upload external templates. No problem, they had one I liked.
I started adding widgets to my blog. Wordpress.com did not allow me to upload my own template but Wordpress.com could be personalized through the widgets, right? Not at all, Wordpress.com offers a few widgets but is limited on the widgets that you can add. Wordpress.com also does not allow any javascript in their widgets. Wordpress.com’s rules about java script greatly reduced my ability to monetize. Java script is required to run ads from Google Adsense and Amazon.com.
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.
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.
I was expanding my knowledge while providing information to assist reader’s in their own business. My next move was to register with blog directories. I found a website that listed 50 high profile blog directories. I spent many hours posting to 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.
My mind whirled with potential explanations. Did I plagiarize? No, I was extremely careful to cite each and every one of my sources. I had not posted anything vulgar. Well, there was only one place to look….Wordpress.com’s Terms of Service. I found a few lines that offered some insight:
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.
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.
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.
