Should Affiliate Marketers Avoid WordPress.com?

by Bruce Carl on July 21, 2009 in Article Marketing

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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. My experience with the WordPress blogging platform

2. WordPress.com advertised the availability of over 70 templates

3. I could add widgets and plug-ins

4. Daily stats can be tracked easily

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.

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.

My posts focused on resources to help readers make money. I only wrote about things that I had found useful or resources that were helping me (i.e. e-books, Zac Johnson.com, etc.). I included reviews of products or courses that had helped me.

My next move was to register with blog directories. I searched the web and came across a listing of 50 web directories. Each directory required you to register to submit your site. I spend two days registering the site.

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.

The next day, my blog was gone. I attempted to check the number of site visitors. I was shocked to see the blog was gone. Gone! Not just unable to login or it had been suspended…no it was GONE! There was a message from WordPress.com on the screen. It read “This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service”.

Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I tried to figure out what had happened. I knew plagiarism would cause immediate shutoff. Every source was cited with the date, author, and a link to their site. That could not be the problem. I turned to WordPress.com’s Terms of Service for some answers. Here is what 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”

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.

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.

I am not writing this article out of revenge or spite. My goal is to allow other budding affiliate marketers the chance to learn from my story. WordPress is a great blogging platform.

Affiliate marketers only need to be careful when trying to make money. It appears that WordPress.com wants to provide a great blogging platform…as long as you are not trying to make money.

About the Author:

Updates to “Is WordPress.com is business friendly?” are posted at Bruce’s Money Rants. I would love to speak with each and every one of you. This and other unique content ‘wordpress’ articles are available with free reprint rights.

Editor Comment:

The limitation mention in this article have to do with the hosting provider wordpress.com and their terms of service. It has nothing to do with the blogging software wordpress itself. As an example, this blog runs on wordpress and is hosted with hostgator.com.