Well Bob was a corporate whore for all of 40 minutes yesterday. This past year I’ve fielded several requests to feature paid advertising links on my blog. Since I’ve now built my traffic up to about 10,000 hits a month I was ready to bite the corporate bullet and sell out.
I had the plan created, set up a PayPal account, and actually went live yesterday with the announcement. Then the WordPress police shut me down! (They actually flagged a “spam possible” link in my announcement post. Then after a few e-mails I learned the whole plan violates their TOS.)
Apparently due to problems with spammers WordPress does not allow for such a plan.
Now I wasn’t going to sell ad space to any old schmo but I guess that doesn’t matter. In fact, you can almost figure all this out if you read their poorly worded TOS. It’s a little clearer if you find their FAQ. And to be fair Blogger TOS has similar rules.
Interestingly, you can apparently have a “business blog” but I’m guessing you can’t sell anything. Then again, WP rules are somewhat cryptic on that topic so who knows?
Professionals ranging from realtors to lawyers and stock brokers are using WordPress to share their expertise, and companies have discovered the power of blogs to more directly and personally engage with their customers.
And of course, “the man” has gotta eat…
From time to time, we display text ads on your blog to logged-out users who aren’t regular visitors. Doing this allows us to keep bringing you the free features you love. However, if you’d prefer your readers didn’t see ads, you can nix them altogether for $30/year.
Concern for spammers or worried about cutting into their profits? Hmmm…
Saying is one thing, doing another. We must consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart. ~Montaigne, Essays, 1588
Not don’t get me wrong… Search my archives and you’ll see that I’ve quite literally raved about the WordPress.com free blog service. Overall I’m still pleased with it but dang! You’d think they could work out a way for top bloggers to earn a little cash!
In true Patterson fashion I’ll be expressing my concerns to WordPress. After perusing the internet I discovered that I’m not the only person who’d like to be able to feature ads. Moreover, I’m still not clear on what I can or cannot review. I am certain I can’t be paid to review a product/service/website but what if it’s a free review? What if they send me their product etc. for an honest review?
Sheesh believe it or not in the real world I have a professional degree and actually have written book reviews and website reviews. In fact, they sometimes tell me I know what I’m doing! Really, I’m not just ANY schuck in lounge pants who has a penchant for good vodka!
So is there an alternative? Possibly. I need to dig deeper but it looks like TypePad may fit my needs. Granted, I’d have to pay $4.95 a month for their service.
Honestly I don’t want to ever self-host again but I would not be oppossed to paying a little money for a little more freedom. I guess we shall see. Anyhow, mostly since I’m annoyed at all my work going down the drain I think I’ll close with this video:
Call that the virtual equivalent of ol’ Bob chaining himself to the doors of WordPress Corporate, as a sign of protest!
~BCP
If you host you blog on your own website why would wordpress have any say over what you add to your blog?
If you host they cannot. However, I’m not hosting. I’m using their free blog service. I used to host and got tired of it.
Wow, that sucks. I’m using Blogger and they aren’t giving me any difficulties over the AdSense ads. Maybe worth a try?
Just host through somebody like BlueHost(www.bluehost.com). They are decently priced. That’s who I currently host Martial Thoughts(www.martialthoughts.com) through and I’ve never had any problems with them.
If you think you’ll make a decent amount from ads/reviews, the low amount it will cost you to host it yourself will be well worth it.
Yeah Google owns Blogger and Ad Sense.
If I do anything it might be a move to Typepad.
Zyaga – Thanks for that. I used to self-host with Dreamhost. I’m really too lazy to do that again.
No: not Typepad! Their comments section sucks; it’s ugly and not easy for commentors to navigate. And, inevitably, you’ll run into more The Man problems.
Yeah and I don’t have the time, energy, or desire to self-host. Overall I like WP. I guess I’m stuck.