by Bruce Carl

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 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. My experience with the WordPress blogging platform

2. WordPress.com stated they had over 70 templates available

3. I could add widgets and plug-ins

4. Ease in tracking site visitors

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 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.

I was able to insert HTML into widgets. This allowed me to place small banner ads in the blog’s sidebars. Not as lucrative as Google Adsense or Amazon may be but it was something. This type of advertising does require you to manually change the code to show a different ad. I was not completely turned off. WordPress after all is a great blogging platform.

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 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.

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.

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”

I only saw one potential problem. I had posted about products where I included an affiliate link. My recommendations were not meant to cause anyone pain or harm. They were products that I had found useful and wanted to share them with readers. My review included an offer to prove I used the product.

Every story has two sides. I e-mailed Wodpress’s customer service. I wanted to hear their side of the story. I was hoping that it was a simple misunderstanding. A misunderstanding that could be worked out. I was very polite in the email. WordPress has the right to refuse service. It is their business. I waited for a response.

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.

About the Author:
You can find out how to work from home for less than $2. Visit blogging for dollars to learn the tools necessary to explode your income. Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.

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