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Pitfalls for Affiliate Marketers of hosting a blog at WordPress.com

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.

Brucesmoneyrants.com is the second incarnation of my making money blog. My first attempt was hosted at WordPress.com. I chose WordPress.com because of my past dealings with the WordPress software. I had tried out software from Blogger.com and several other sites. WordPress has several features that drew me in. WordPress allows users to easily extend their blog’s functionality through widgets and plugins.

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. Ability to add widgets and plug ins

4. Ability to track daily stats from your main dashboard

5. Easy to market “xxxx.wordpress.com”

My experience started out wonderfully. I developed three different blogs. One was geared towards emergency management and the other two were geared towards making money online. I focused on one of the two making money blogs. I noticed two potential issues right away. Without paying, I only had access to about 12 templates. WordPress.com also does not allow you to upload outside templates.

I also was limited in the widgets available. WordPress.com does not allow external widgets to be uploaded. They do offer some widgets. Users also are not allowed to add java script to their widgets. Java script is required to monetize your blog through Google Adsense or Amazon.com.

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.

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.

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”

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.