The risks of hosting your blogs on a free blog hosting site.

[Sunwalker]

The first risk I know exactly is that they can delete your blog anytime. I just found that Blogger deleted my blog for violating their terms (about spamming, I guess). It's a PR-3 blog! OK, it's their solely discretion to delete my blog, but at least they could warn me first, so that I could fix it (mind you, it's not an adult blog  ). Have you ever experienced the same thing? 

[dave]

I have heard the same thing from a few customers that decided to use our services so that they wouldn't have that issue in the future. The truth is that any free services like Hosted Blogs, forums, email and potentially dangerous because the service agreement favors the provider and you do not own the domain name. They can and do on a daily basis shut down people locking them out of the services that they have come to rely on.

[ResidentGeek]

I have also heard of several people who have had similar experiences with photo and video hosting websites as well.  Sometimes, "You get what you pay for" is very true

[abender]

So what can we do for our blogs to be secured?

I know that they own the website that the blogs were hosted on but why are they doing this wherein they get their income from the services of the people who are doing blogs?

[dave]

If you want your blog to be secure:

1. Own your domain name, you can always move your blog and keep your traffic if you own the domain name.

2. Use a service that allows you to backup your blog to your home computer.

3. keep your blog software up-to-date

The reason that sites like blogger shut down bloggers is typically due to a terms of service violation or a particular view on a topic.

Here are some quotes from people who have run into this situation:

My website, which has to do with mortgages, was shut down by Blogger because they thought that it was a spam website. Everything is related to mortgages, so I don't know how and why they are considering it to be spam

I only just realised that Blogger are closing down ftp webhosting blog support on the 1st of May. That means, this blog will no longer function!

This is a big one, there was a big political uproar over a blog and google shut it down:

A few weeks ago I started receiving ‘Google & Blogger warnings’ from my technologically savvy friends and well-wishers, who encouraged me to have a mirror site as a back up and or cease using Google’s Blogger all together. I did take these warnings seriously and started looking at alternatives and other options.

Google told Edmonds her blog is considered “a potential spam blog” and it would be deleted in 20 days. Google admitted its “automatic spam detection” is “fuzzy” and occasionally blogs not involved in spam are “flagged incorrectly.”  123 Real Change, however, was not “flagged incorrectly,” the same as Alex Jones’ videos posted on YouTube were not erroneously singled out to be deleted. Google works directly with the government to remove content.

The problem with using free services is that you have no rights and in many cases no recourse. With a blog service like blogger you can't even make a traditional backup of you blog to restore at another location.

[FrankSpencer]

What about ownership rights? When using a free service do you still retain full ownership of the material that you publish through their site, or do you in any way lose out by using them?

[Sunwalker]

That's a good question, FrankSpencer. I think at least morally we still own the rights. And when they made my blog unavailable to internet users, of course I am free to republish the content I posted there anywhere.

[Taz423]

I agree with you, they could have warned you and at least gave you the opportunity to correct the problem. Running a blog can be time consuming. I can only imagine the amount of information you had, and for them to delete you without warning was not right. 

[Sunwalker]

Thanks Taz for supporting. Lesson learned and now I blog on my own domain and paid hosting server, and I will stick with it. Actually I have been running the blog with my own domain for quite awhile. I started it before Blogger deleted the discussed blog.

[Jay]

That's a good question, FrankSpencer. I think at least morally we still own the rights. And when they made my blog unavailable to internet users, of course I am free to republish the content I posted there anywhere.

Not just morally. What you write and publish remains your intellectual property. As far as I'm concerned, Blogger is only a medium for publishing your works. I prefer WordPress over any blogging platform. The only downside is maintenance. If you don't know what you're doing, you could end up royally screwed.

[kandy]

Since this seems to happen so often is there something that the consumers can do about it to bring about a change? 

It always pays to do your research and find the best company for what you are doing no matter if it is a free site or a paid site. It does seem though that a paid site would have more to lose by having the above mentioned practices.

[Sunwalker]

I prefer WordPress over any blogging platform. The only downside is maintenance. If you don't know what you're doing, you could end up royally screwed.

I also use Wordpress platform to run my blog on my own domain and shared hosting server.  It's the best free blogging software I ever found and I will stick with it.

[Lilly8]

I sure am glad you posted this about them deleting your blog.  I had been looking into Blogger for starting a free blog, but I hate to think they would delete it without giving you any notice at all.  This makes me lean more towards trying a paid hosting server with my own domain.  Thanks for the warning!

[Sunwalker]

You are most welcome.  That's a right decision, Lily. When it comes to publishing your websites/blog on the net, paid hosting service it the way to go. For a few dollars a month (depending on the web host and the package you choose), you have much better chance to monetize your blogs without worrying about your blog getting suspended due to their content.

[Lilly8]

Is paid hosting for blogs as easy to use as some of the free hosting sites?  I had to make a blog back in high school on Blogger once and I remember it being really easy to use.  Do paid sites offer similar tools to create your blog?