Wow All That OWM Work Down the Drain
March 24th, 2010 | 
Author: Look what I got this morning:
Hello,
Your blog at http://beardeddragontips.blogspot.com/ has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: SPAM. In accordance to these terms, we’ve removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible.
For more information, please review the following resources:
Blogger Terms of Service: http://blogger.com/terms.g
Blogger Content Policy: http://blogger.com/content.g
-The Blogger Team
Wow. I posted unique content and a sprinkled of EZAs with full credit back to the author. Not sure how that’s spam, but I sure wouldn’t create anything on Blogger and I’m kind of annoyed. I suggest if you’re following One Week Marketing, you ignore her advice on this and buy in a domain that you own.
What a complete pisser.
tiff
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Posted in Career
This happened to me not long ago.. I was posting some good articles and the blogger blog was simply deleted! Of course, it was not a spam blog, but real articles. Serious business is not made on a free Blogger blog!
There’s one thing you can do though…remove the navbar to prevent being flagged by sometimes not so honest people.
Marian
Hey Marian!
Now what do you mean by remove the nav bar? I didn’t know you could do that. I’m still not gonna use them. lol But for those who want to know how…
Wow, Tiff. That is a total pisser. I have been seeing a lot lately on forums that blogger blogs are being shut down without warning and without explanation.
I wonder if they are going to “no monetizing” like wordpress.com and just haven’t come out in the open and said it. They should at least send you a warning first explaining the problem and giving you the opportunity to buy a domain or let it go (or at least get everything saved if it isn’t already).
I agree, it’s a really pisser when that happens
Maybe it was someone who got upset about your OWM review and reported your blog? Very easy for someone to do, Google sticks the button in their face.
If you want to put more energy into it (not sure if it’s worth it) it might be worth an appeal. Do you have copies of your articles? If so you could rebuild the blog on self-hosted WP (and it would probably get better rankings!)
Anyway I feel for you.
True Isobel! Someone could easily do that – what a baby if they did. Buck up and be a grown up, I say! LOL Yes I’m going to rebuild on my own domain
Oh Tiff, that is horrible! I know you worked so hard on that blog too. I guess there is certainly a lesson learned, as you said, buy a domain name that we own.
I’ve got a blogger blog that I started just to use as my writing portfolio and now I will most certainly see if I can purchase the domain name for it.
Gosh, I feel for you dear. Try and make it a good day anyway. Thank you for all you do for us!
Deb
You had a suggestion in the email you send out: to use the web 2.0 sites for testing but buy your own realestate and pump your content on them.
One question: Even though blogger cannot shut down your site if you own the domain, what do you do if google de-indexes your site?
And yes, I would be interested in knowing how to remove the nav bar…
As well: does blogger delete just the one blog, or do they go and sweep out multiple blogs by the same user?
Hi Andy!
I haven’t ever had that problem – not on any of the sites I own. I don’t see how that could happen, either – since so many sites are e-commerce. I think the issues is (with Squidoo, HP, Blogger etc), they’re trying to build pure authoritative information pages, not sales pages. They did not delete my other blogs on Blogger – just that one.
Tiffany, I’ve heard about this happening to other people. For example, someone on the WF mentioned a two year old blog making $4,000 a month was blown away by Blogger.
This is why I consistently tell people DON’T USE BLOGGER! (Yes, I’m shouting. Apparently some of you didn’t hear before. LOL)
I always use WordPress on my own hosting – that way I know my blog won’t be blown away by anyone. It’s all under MY control.
Cheryl
Hey Cheryl!
Were you that nagging voice inside my head saying, “Don’t post this great article on Blogger, stick it on your domain?” If so, I ignored you. LOL!
Google’s out to own the world – if we let them.
Sorry to hear about the site. I agree, 3rd party free sites are a total croc.
I simply do not understand why blogger is purging like this (and why your original content blog gets scrapped while mine are still up and running): would it not just devalue blogger as a viable web 2.0 site? Do they not “fear” getting a bad rep in with the bloggers?
Tiff,
This stinks but one thing everyone should remember is to put your best content on the sites you own. The problem with web 2 and free blogs etc is that you don’t own them. It’s a real shame you see some of these free blogs that are clear spam and yet they remain. Good advice on setting up your own domain. Thanks for the tip.
Bill
I am so sorry this happened.
I wasn’t aware of this TOS clause either!
It seems that some of our best “learning”
experiences comes from finding out that we fouled up somewhere—without any knowledge that a foul-up could occur.
I loved that blog!
OK. Let’s re-group and go back into battle armed with new knowledge and information.
Thanks so much, Tiff, for sharing your experiences with us!
Hi Tiff,
Gosh, that’s such a shame. I really feel for you after all that hard work. But of course there’s always the silver lining, eh? Having the blog on your own domain gives you more leeway and freedom any way you go. Plus the URL looks so much more professional.
Here’s wishing you 100 times the link juice from your new one!
Cheers,
Bruce
Thanks for the heads up Tiff – I’m in the middle of a challenge where we are just being asked today to set up a Blogger blog to link to our affiliate site. I’m going to stick that content on my own blog instead!
WOW! I have never liked the idea of blogger blogs. I try to buy my domains always but this really is bad news:( SOrry Tiff,
Belinda
Wow,
This is news to me. Most all traffic courses I have taken gave instructions to create a blogger blog to drive traffic and provide a backlink. I think Google is getting a bit greedy. They are worth billions and growing daily. Why do they have a problem with the grassroots people trying to make a living on a budget.
I just saw today that Google now has Google TV ads a service you can submit a video commercial and Google makes arrangements for it to be aired on cable TV.
People will begin looking for alternatives to the Big G and it will come back on them. Kharma
I have a few blogger blogs, all with an rss feed in the sidebar to my money making blogs. Guess that would be seen as spam too, no? Oh well, we’ll see how long they can stay online
Tiffany, I agree with you, shell out the bucks to buy the domain. It does not matter if you’re doing affiliated marketing or search engine optimization you need to have control over your business.
Look at it as a warning, because sites such as ezinearticles and hubpages want original content posted to their sites first, before you spread it all over the Internet. The definition of spam has changed to meaning duplicate content, because of spammers. If you want to use the same content on various website, my advice would be to spin it.
Once again, buy the domain it is an investment in your business, you can always sell it later, use it for testing, or find new ways to monetize it such as selling ad space.
Very interesting. I think this may be new at blogger. I know they also have this TOS at wordpress.com ~ which I encourage marketers to stay away ~ but I’ve never run into this at blogger. I’ve gotten a couple of similar messages but they said we “think” it’s spam. I emailed them back and they left my blogs alone. I think your right Tiff, more and more it’s looking like your best/only safe bet is to host your own, even if it’s going to be a small link blog ~ the downside of that is your site has no authority at the beginning to help push your money site up the ranking.
Sorry for your loss.
Wow,so frustrating
but I have to say, getting your own domain as you say, is the only thing I preach. I hate being at the disposal of someone else.
Tiff,
You know you can look at Google’s cache of your site and get the content off that way?
Hey Clara! Yes that’s what I’m doing
Happened to me also. There is a complaint procedure you can follow. Go here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?fid=19568a50cafadc2e00048021994ac901&hl=en
The bottom line: use Blogger lightly. Don’t use Blogger for heavy lifting.
The reason why Blogger shuts down domains is not obvious. It has to do with piracy. Pirates come in and steal domains, which makes them look spammy. It has nothing to do with you spamming or not spamming.
Anyhow, read and follow the link I supplied.
I use usfreeads for testing with affiliate links all over the place and never had a problem. Even ranked on the first page for some fairly competitive keywords. It costs $10/mo but I feel it’s worth it.
Just remember the words of Robert Schuller, “Tough times never last, but tough people do!”
Sorry to hear of your loss but, we know the new version will be better.
Best wishes,
Tom
Bummer, Tiffany!
this is another example of google’s being-a-big-bully-and-there’s-nothing-we-can-do-about-it situation.
Isn’t it fascinating that these mega sites which once were nothing more than a computer on a sub-let office and have become mega-sites because of individuals like you, are, now that they are big, turning on the hand that fed them?
I think that we internet marketers need to push back and start using our own resources and try to get google off its high horse. Not that it will happen anytime soon, but here’s hoping it will, though.
One thing that I try to do as often as I can is to post to a site and create a backup posting on my own sites and that seems to help because the two posts/articles, or pages, are slightly different but equal to avoid situations like this.
I do think that having a backup of those documents is also a good business practice, specially if you paid good money and spent a good amount of time on the process.
Hopefully the rest of your day goes well and I’m sure I won’t be the only one that will tell you how much we appreciate your tips and suggestions and encouragement and we all know that there is more than one way to find your good work.
Wishing you the very best today, in spite of it all
joe
Tif, this is terrible, but thank you for sharing it so the rest of us can avoid the same fate. This may be really elementary, but someone mentioned using Word Press on your own domain. How do you do that?
Hey Barbara – Craig Desorcy has a great free step by step guide on this – go to http://www.idiotproofblogging.com and download it. Shows you how to install it
Sorry to hear this Tifany, but it just confirms what I always tell my design clients – go get your own hosting and domain name. I’m not entirely sure just getting the domain will protect your site, you never know what tools they have in the back at B.
Another tip is: Download the back up from your B blog often. Then you can just transfer it to a new blog easily even if the blog gets deleted. At least you’ll have the content.
Tiff I am real sorry to hear this happened. It is strange because Google sure like the earnings we all make them from Adsense.
Why they didnt contact you first is beyond me, and besides i read the blog in question and it did NOT appear spammy at all.
Tiff – I’m sorry to see the beardeddragons site go. You’re right it was good. It did have original content and it sucks that google TOS considered it spam.
I saw several people ask about how to remove the NavBar in Blogger. After checking that they haven’t changed their terms of service, I’m no lawyer though, so again use the following at your own risk, I’ll post instructions here.
Log into your blogger blog and go to Layout –> Edit HTML. Download a copy of your existing template in case something messes up.
Enter the following code directly directly above where you find the first # sign in the html file
#navbar-iframe {height:0px;visibility:hidden;display:none}
The nav bar will no longer display.
I’d still suggest, like Tiffany, owning your virtual real estate, instead of squatting – because essentially that’s what you do on the free sites. Yes they are good as a testing ground and are helpful for other things but ultimately you don’t control them.
You can loose them overnight.
Hi,
Yes, this is terrible. The Google people think they own the Web. I’m currently working with multiple small search engines to sidestep Google, to some extent.
A simple search on deleting or removing the Navigation Bar in Blogger, will give you the information on how to do it.
So sorry that your blog was deleted.
Regards,
Laurie
To remove the Blogger Bar/Header go into your layout tab. Then select Edit HTML. In the begining of your HTML you will see something like this:
———————————————–
Blogger Template Style
Name: Minima
Date: 26 Feb 2004
Updated by: Blogger Team
———————————————– */
On the line after that enter:
#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}
That’s it, no more Blogger header or easy way to flag your post as spam!
Jeff C
Thanks Jeff and LaShae and Charles – I read these right after I Googled it and posted it on the blog. LOL
Here’s how to remove the Blogger navbar. Login in to your Blogger dashboard, select “layout”, click on “edit html”. Under the tag look at the source code right after the template information. It will look something like this:
<
Buck
Not you Tiffany,
You usually have such great useful content, it is blogger’s loss. Yes we must protect our work, I was using a free site ten years ago, ranked #7 for keyword motivation, making money then poof gone. Learned my lesson….
I haven’t read OWM, but I know she promoted the use of Squidoo…and I can’t figure out why anyone would want to use anything other than their own real estate
I understand the cost of a domain…but when you lose a certain amount of work, say 4 hrs worth, now that $8 doesn’t seem so bad
Further, you can’t sell a blogger blog(that I am aware of)
Please start building your own virtual real estate and quit relying on other peoples sites to house your content
Well, that was quick.
I read this post, give two comments, all of a sudden I get an email from blogger saying that my garden blog is spam and they are gonna delete it but I can ask for a review within 20 days.
I write one more comment here, ask for a review and wham-o.
My six post blog (six post!) with links going to other sites but none my own was nixed sometime while I slept last night.
Before submitting the request for a review, I went and re-read the tos and all the links going out from there. Honestly it was not a spam blog and should not have been tagged as such.
Chuck this up on: What did you learn online today.
Hey Andy! Hope you don’t think it was deleted cuz you posted here LOL! I heard from a slew of people yesterday whose blogs got deleted this week – apparently there’s a Google Slap happening of some sort – a house cleaning!? Scary
Sorry to hear about this Tiff, and yes it’s a very common situation nowadays.
I too have been telling people for a long time now to forget all about using “free” sites as part of long term business model, and as someone mentioned above, for a few dollars you can create your own WP blog and know that your content and hard work is safe.
I totally appreciate that sites like Squidoo and Blogger are ideal for people who maybe need to get their foot in the door, but it’s time to start educating people so they fully understand the potential consequences.
I had similar problems with some Squidoo lenses, they changed the rules and did a Squidoo slap, even though my lenses were still within the new rules. Locked for 30 days, they never did the review and didn’t get back with me, so I finally deleted every Squidoo lens I had and closed my accounts. And then Squidoo had the nerve to send me emails asking why I deleted my lenses and my accounts. I had purchased the Pot Pie Girl program and followed it to build Squidoo lenses even though I had my own web hosting. Bad move. Byebye Pot Pie Girl. It takes a lot of work to build a blog or a lens — so now everything I do is all on my own hosting. Live and learn.
All that hard work! My heart goes out to you – total downer.
Digressing a tad, in your email you say “Fork over the $10 or less (I like dot info domains for $0.87) and
own that domain, people!” Most gurus (including IPK I think) seem to advocate not using .info domains as they don’t help with ranking. Am I behind the play on this?
I had dot info domains do just fine before Ian but I’ll let you know…I’m going to be doing more.
Yikes, that is just crap. Sorry they trashed your content, but glad you shared the info so others can just skip that step and use something else instead.
Maybe do some guest blogging instead of blogger posts in that phase of the program. Better variety of links that way anyhow!
One last remark here, Tiff…
I just wanted to let you know: they told me that the ONE garden blog (with a total of 6 posts and NOT spam and totally in compliance with the tos etc.) was spam, I could appeal. I asked for review and they scrapped the blog.
All they ever wrote about was that ONE blog. I had 4 blogs under that email registered. All public and the other three were considerably larger.
The whole account has been deleted. This means all blogs are gone.
Now, just to let y’all know: go and save any relevant information before you ask for any revision to your blogspot stuff. If you have ONE blog flagged, you might consider opening a new account and transferring any unaffected blogs (created under the same name) off to your new persona and *then* getting them to do a revision of your site they question the content on.
Because it is evident that they DO not actually revise anything. They just dump it.
Might as well save your content and decide what to do with it (migrate to your own URL or another web 2.0 site) in the mean time.
Tiff, I doubt it was scrapped because I commented here, the blog I have listed here is not associated with blogger. However, it could be that I raised a flag myself by removing the navbar. If I were to go back to blogger, I would do that before dumping any content into the page to begin with.
So there you be. My friend google and my friend blogger… I don’t talk to them any more… LOL.
Why is it that some people are having their sites shut down by the way I’m sorta new the
internet marketing thing,is it because what
they’re posting isn’t related to the topic of
that site?
[link edited out]