Why getting your own hosting is important
Unfortunately what just happened to my friend Angie is why free hosting is bad. Granted, I started out on a blogger blog. I fought getting my own domain for a very long time. However, since I do some paid blogging, it was in my best interest to move. I have not regretted it at all. I have made more money, because I have my own domain.
At any time, a free host can change the rules on you. Here's what happened to Angie:
She had written on her blog about going to her grandmother's funeral and commented that she may give her “daughter Benadryl during a long car ride (as a substitution for her daily non-drowsy allergy meds and as a way to curb her anxiety and car sickness – as suggested by my pediatrician, BTW).” The person hosting her blog for free decided that they did not like what she wrote and took her blog offline. This person also disabled her logins to her other blogs.
Supposably this is just a 2 (aff) week suspension. However, Angie is a paid blogger. This means she will not get paid for a lot of her paid posts. Angie is also a single mom, so this money is needed. I am not going to name who the host is just yet in case this person decides to give her control back. Trust me, once everything gets fixed, I will name names. To quote Angie again: “I would have gladly removed a single post if the owner of the domain had an issue with it (or even accepted the suspension to write further entries if the blog would at least be left online), despite the policy of removing posts, deleting blogs, or suspending blogs not being part of the TOS.”
This is why anybody on a free service needs to get their own domain. Whether you are a paid blogger or not, you do not want your work pulled out from under you. I know, some of you are saying that I'm on blogger, I have nothing to worry about. Wrong. I know of people whose blogs were pulled off there for no good reason. It took a long time before they got Google to reinstate them too.
Who should you go to? Well, that depends on your needs. Personally, I use BlueHost (You can see their badge in my sidebar). I love them. They have 24/7 support, and I never have had a problem with them. I am not sure who Angie ended up going with.
Lastly, I ask that you all check out Angie's new blogs: One Clear Dot and Girly Things. Even with all this crap going on, she still has her “voice”. Her blogging style has not changed. Her blogs are still a great read. Go check them out and show her some blogger's love.
26 thoughts on “Why getting your own hosting is important”
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That is nuts. Your host should not tell you what you can and cannot write. And the host was wrong to block her blog access.
I know. There are just so many ways this could have been handled better. The host in question won't answer her emails either.
i'm fortunate enough to have hosting free until 2010
This situation is beyond ludicrous.
It's atually defied description for me and borders on
making me want to become the blogging sniper.
In all seriousness, I want to support Angie as much as possible, so let's get some traffic going for her.
Taking food out of her daughter's mouth is no joking matter as far as I am concerned.
I'm going to blog about it as well.
Dew, she's trying. At this point though, she doesn't really know if she'll even get access back. It's just sad.
I know she will thank you. This is just a crappy situation all around.
Angie and I have been friends for a long time.
We've talked about it.
I am incensed about it.
What a bunch of cruel nonsense.
Blue Host rocks, btw.
I feel for your friend. I have just migrated to my own domain although I did not have any kind of problems with my wordpress.com free blog. But we'll never know what's down that road called blogging…so I advice some friends who wants to take blogging seriously (paid blogging) to get their own hosting as early as possible.
While people say they shouldn’t be able to shut you down for not liking what you write about, if you are on a free host, they can do whatever they want. You are right, a paid host is so worth it. I started out with a free host (as pretty much everybody did), but quickly moved to a shared server, then finally to dedicated servers (complete control over everything about my site). I learned my lesson many years ago on free hosting
I have my own favorite host, won’t mention it here, but almost any paid host is better than a free host. Hopefully your friend will be able to a least get backups of her site, and move along. I wouldn’t stay with that host for a second.
Even a paid host can suspend your site for no reason, it's in the TOS. I know we all do it (Benadryl), but you should never admit to drugging your kids to keep them in line 😛
Lisa, I have one blogspot blog that I will keep once it is PR3, I have two own domains but hosted on blogger using the blogger platform.
In your opinion, should I get my own hosting and change to WP platform? I'm not familiar with WP so I'm kind of worried to change everything.
I went from blogger to WP. I love WP 10 times better than blogger. There is just so much more that you can do. If you want to, I think you can still keep the blogger platform and just host elsewhere too.
I didn't know I could keep my blogger platform elsewhere. I'll check it out. I also would like to have all those plugins I hear WP has…they seem great.
My question is: is it risky to host free on blogger? Should I change to a paid one?
Well, at any point, google could decide to pull the plug or not allow ads on their site. That's what vox and wordpress.com did.
I know you do paid posting. You will make a ton more money on your own domains. I walked away from a PR4 blogger blog.
did a linkback to this article here, that gal really needs busted…BIG TIME
I am thinking of getting my own domain..but is it possible for me to keep all my posts from blogger to the new domain? please help me..i am really at lost here.
Yes, there is way. There is a feature within WP that allows you to import those posts.
These were my blogs. I am so the poster child for why you need to have your own hosting, ASAP. I know, as Amy said, even a paid hosting account can pull blogs/posts, but in those cases they have extensive TOS. They would perhaps have the right. The TOS I was blogging under were pretty much wide-open, in favor of the blogger I might add.
I'd migrate my old posts off my old WP if I could login to get them? Silly me for not backing up since like May.
not only we need to avoid free hosting company, but also free domain (subdomain), sometime they banned and took our site/domain name without notice. imagine that all our hard work to build the site and make it stand in the google crowd vanished in one night when our free domain taking over by the site owner.
Free hosting is evil. They don't care about clients as they aren't paying!
Warning, Warning, Danger
Niche Simple hosting which is owned by a self proclaimed guru – Willie Crawford is a total scam!!!Two times over the last 6 months their servers have been totally down. Not a big deal if it were like other providers and the outage was for a few hours or so but their servers go down for weeks at a time. This not only kills the time but the rankings you have built up. Google will drop your sites from listing all together after three weeks.
Never go with a company that doesn't have a 24 hour service contact via phone regardless of what it costs.
My advice is steer away from Niche Simple like the plague and as far as the owners so called products… Well Willie Crawford looks like he is no better than the service his hosting company provides… beware!!!
Scott