15 million blogs deleted. New proof you need to own your web sites!

I think as a long-term business model you're right. However, many a newbie has gotten their start on these free Web 2.0 platforms and learned to hone their writing and their marketing skills during the time that they're there.

The key is knowing when to jump ship --or at least move the majority of your eggs into your OWN basket instead of someone else's.

But just like keeping all your money stuffed in a mattress, there is a risk with that as well -- should your own site get de-indexed, hacked, etc. Using these platforms as a back-up source of revenue can be a prudent way to diversify and keep at least some income coming in, should a worst-case-scenario happen to your own site.

Did you read the article?

This wasn't some 3rd party company piggy backing on the twitter service or breaking the ToS. Posterus was a legitimate company that curated publicly available content.

Twitter didn't sue them or DMCA them to death, Twitter bought them. Twitter owns Posterus. Now they are shutting it down (after saying they wouldn't) for unknown reason. Probably because they will morph the technology to their own 'better' solution.

If you owned Posterus and built your business on these 'unstable' platforms you don't own, then you walked away a multi-millionaire.

Mahlon

Hi Ralf,

That's so sad but true. Owning your very own website is what will make you survive this business and build your brand. How can you make people believe and buy from you if you don't have a strong online presence?

It is definitely suggested that you own your website among others.

But for beginners I don't think they have options or they should definitely have some money to invest in domain and hosting.

I checked it in compete and it has but about a million visitors per month - not super. However I agree not to do your work on other people's property. I myself lost dozens of articles in Wikidot - Free and Pro Wiki Hosting some 3 yrs ago For violating some tos.

Good post, Ralf - and sound advice.

Another thing to point out is that even if the hosting site doesn't close, there's still a danger of losing your account through a change in the TOS. Either way, it's months or years of hard work gone in an instant.

The only sensible, long-term strategy for making a good living online is to run your own website on your own domain - no one can take that from you.

If you're not a designer or progaming type, just get hosting with a one-click install of WordPress (like HostGator or Bluehost), spend a bit of time learning WordPress and get building an authority site that'll last.

Certainly true about not really owning your business, if you're using it to piggy back. That said, these public blogs are handy to create a following by just getting started. What I found when I did run my own site, is that it sort of incapacitated me in the marketing of it. I was continually want to push it further. Add more content, generate buzz, get comments, create controversy for shares and a ton loads more.

Using free to use sites, there's not much marketing involved. They rank strong (when used correctly) and already have a community.

That's what you tap into.

If I were to use them to get back into my "own" site, I'd be using it to my advantage. I'd build up momentum and attract followers from the site structure. Then when I am ready to go it alone, make the announcement I'll be moving to my own website, with a blog, where people who are interested can find me. Here's the link...that sort of thing.

Basically, they're ideal for starting out without you having to pay for hosting. Hosting is cheap and affordable, but it's still an overhead, and it forces you to push for returns to cover that. If you're starting out as an Amazon Associate, that's a lot of sales you'd need just to pay for hosting. There's no pressure and it's easy enough to log in, make a post, acquire comments and generate your own following.

I don't have a website of my own just now. I do have commissions steadily racking up from Amazon, which are generated using Squidoo. That's a risk, for sure. However, without the internal site structure of Squidoo, I wouldn't have the conversion rates that I do. I'm by no means tied into it and rely on their site to generate revenue. My business is as a freelance writer. Squidoo helps contribute to my earnings and those help me to keep my rates competitively priced.

Basically, it takes away the pressure for accepting low paying jobs, as I know I've still got x amount coming in. It's temporary security and a way to boost earnings I use it for. Not as a long term solution, that takes my sole focus to generate revenue.

Now, if Elance on the other hand were to go out of business, I'd be royally screwed as that's where I've focused on and not my own site.

Certainly inspiring thoughts.

Robbie

Well, it is not smart to blame a simple blogging pattern after all the years of using it. They have been doing the right thing, when it about to get down they tell their customer that they are able to get their space again later. When they don't want to wait, the customer service tell to back up everything in the previous blog and use your own harddrive to save the data until further notice.

@EliteAffiliate: True but it is impossible not to rely on third parties in any business scenario online or offline. I don't want to search for a better example...

The scary scenario everyone talks about is like waking and finding your business barred by the FBI and your assets frozen because they don't like the business you are running.

The actual story here is more like you wake up to find out your mall has been bought by a big conglomerate who are tearing it down to make a cinema and you have 6 months to move.

Yeah your address is already in the yellow pages. And you were walking distance from your regular customers. But things like that happen.

I'm just saying have a service disappear is different then being 'unfairly' kicked for something you unknowingly did wrong.

That isn't the only issue. Is anyone building secret posting tools for MySpace so spammers can grab a piece of that lucrative traffic? They have been around forever- you could have some really established pages... :rolleyes:

As I said. I am not arguing with the premise. I just think his headline and the story are misleading and bit of scare mongering.

The linked article is about 'loyal users' losing their favourite platform, not businesses scrambling to replace income.

Mahlon

Well it's certainly true! hosting and owning your domain is the best. But I guess, it's great news for the rest of us who own our blogs and have less competition now

NO offence to those who anybody who got affected

So true. Can set a basic blog up in a half hour to an hour, but refining it to get a sales funnel set up is the time consuming part. You can't test, tweak and refine your traffic, until you actually have traffic, so it definitely takes a lot of work and costs more in terms of your time invested on a site.

Let's be honest here. You don't own ANYTHING on the Internet. Your hosting company can shut you down just as quick for infringement of ToS and the domain name is leased from the registrar.

I have been telling people that for years.

If you cant afford the few bucks it takes for hosting perhaps you shouldn't be in business for yourself.

People need to pay close attention to the main point of this thread build a real business by paying for webhosting it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out

Even beginners have a choice. Hosting and a domain isn't a big expense and if they don't have that to spend there's little chance of them being able to start any sort of online enterprise anyway.

Thanks for the headsup.
Thanks to awesome Wordpress, I moved to own sites years ago and never looked back!

Oh those days of free blogger blogs! I dread having valuable sites there

I remember once Google's official blog was deleted from Blogger, lol they said, it was
deleted by Mistake by a programmer...
Google Zaps Official Blog by Mistake | PCWorld

now think if it could be their own blog, how much
care they would have for our free blogs there.. so guys never have valuable blogs there..
yes you can have free, small , gateway blogs link back to your site. But do not build your
business on Squidoo, hubpages, blogger, or Wordpress.com ... Always have your own
site on your own host, with up to date backup, so you can restore if your site gets
infected or hacked.

Regards,
Mohsin

This is about Posterus not Blogspot

Another shocking loss of a 3rd party platform you should not be using for business:

Microsoft Outlook.com to Replace Hotmail, Microsoft Throws $30 Million into Outlook.com Marketing, Including Attack on Google Gmail Advertising - ABC News

I've made a living fulltime online since the 90s, and never used free blogs or other people's sites. As one person said, it's incredibly inexpensive to get a decent hostgator account, one click fantastico WP install and there you go. I've owned over 1,200 domains and always start new sites within an hour, with my own domain names; it's so easy nowadays.

-k

Never put ALL your eggs in one basket. All of those third party tools CAN be effective sources of free exposure and used to drive traffic to and build your core business. Just like youtube and facebook etc.

If you want the correct perspective on this instead of "the sky is falling" perspective I highly recommend checking out James Schramko's "Own the racecourse" which he is now giving away free:

Own The Racecourse

James has built up an empire of virtual real estate but he also uses third party services as part of his strategy so he teaches a rational approach to the issue.

I realize many newbies start out using free sites and tools, but really, ANYONE who wants to make money online, and EVERYONE on warrior forum, should at least invest in their own site and hosting.

There are so many good and inexpensive options out there, it's really a no brainer, and if you don't do it, you are compeltely subject to the whims of others. That;s not a good foundation to build an online income or a business on.