Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.
Some of my favorite blogs are with the Today.com network, and they make up a good percentage of my Entrecard friends and droppers. Entrecard is rather unstable these days, deciding one day to commence monumental changes to the community (like forcing bloggers to accept advertisers on the widgets), and the next, completely turning around. It’s extremely difficult to keep track of where Entrecard stands at any given moment. This instability makes it a very unpleasant experience.
The redeeming factor for Entrecard has been its bloggers. It has been a wonderful place to discover new blogs, new friends, and improve traffic. I’ve loved my particpation in the network for this.
I do still intend on keeping my membership, until the day comes where the Entrecard people decide to implement advertisers ad-hoc, or charge me for the service. That will be going too far.
Back to teh Today.com blog: I’ve been saying for a very long time now that if you haven’t considered getting your own domain and your own webhosting, there is NO time like the present. I was a Blogger blogger, but quit in 2008, after hearing rumors of Google deleting blog content. I now own most of my domains and host all my blogs with Hostgator, whose service has been SUPERB. Please know that clicking on that link and creating an account with Hostgator helps me earn money– I get $50 for the affiliate referral! It would be great if you would consider me if you decide to order a Hostgator account. And I do mean it when I say they are the best around.
As a blogger, if you have any questions about my experience, or desire to hear my reviews or tips, please feel free to email me or leave a comment here with your question. I am no “pro” tech, but I’ve assisted a large number of people with obtaining domain names, getting web hosting, transferring blogs from one host to another, and solving MySQL database problems and such. I’m happy to help others.
My sympathies to the bloggers at Today.com. But it is expected– Today.com and other free blogging platforms essentially have control over the content on their servers. They reserve the right to ban networks that they feel threaten or thwart their policy. This is why it is best, if you are a serious blogger, to part ways with the controlling companies and get your OWN blog.
March 24, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Stupid question, but when you switched from Blogger to WordPress & Hostgator, did you completely lose things like formatting and design? I’m guessing that you did. I’ve been thinking about switching, but I’m not really looking forward to redesigning my site, especially now that I have it the way that I want it, or having to reformat anything. I like Hostgator because it’s one of the few hosts that will let you pay by the month, but if you choose that option, you have to pay more per month, like $8.95 or $9.95 instead of $4.95, which is what you’d pay if you paid for a year in advance. I don’t have a job at the moment so money is pretty tight, and I have to take that extra cost into account.
Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to ask is how hard was it for you to switch over and learn a whole new platform like WordPress? If it wasn’t that hard and the switch would benefit me in the long run, that might outweigh the $10 a month that I would have to pay. However, if it takes months to catch onto WordPress, I might do better to just stay where I am for awhile longer.
March 25, 2009 at 5:12 am
I agree — these flip flops on Entrecard’s part do the service no good. I know the owner is young — his youthful indecisiveness is showing through!
The best blogs are those which are hosted separately from Blogspot, WordPress.org or some other site. Hostgator is a good host, I use GoDaddy.
I take blogs a lot more seriously when I see that people have invested a few dollars to have them hosted as that ensures that someone else will not delete them.
I don’t blame Today.com for their decision, but I personally would not blog for them given that they don’t pay all that much either.
March 25, 2009 at 11:21 am
Hi Mrs. M — I wish I read this post about 4 hours ago, since I just spent the $10 to get my custom domain name from Google. I hadn’t done so previously because I thought it would be more expensive, but I feel okay with the $10! I feel like my little blog is a grown up now!
Now reading your post, I would have looked into your recommendation before I made the change. Sorry!
I was wondering if you could advise me on one question — now that I have changed my domain name off of blogspot, do I need to update my feedburner feed or will it come along naturally? I understand that Blogger will redirect people from my old blogspot account, but wasn’t sure about the feed.
Could you offer advice on that topic?
Sharon
March 26, 2009 at 7:05 am
Thanks for sharing about hostgater. Right now, I am on today.com and I am affected by this move – will soon after April 1st remove my entrecard widget and my traffic to my site – vast majority of traffic comes from EC. I will check out hostgater, but right now, I am not interested in paying for a hosting service as my blog is not a revenue generating blog to support paying a hosting service. If things change, then I will check out hostgator. I am now bookmarking blogs that I would like to continue to support and visit, this being one of them. Thanks
March 26, 2009 at 9:05 am
Hi Mike. Thanks for reading my blog! It makes all this typing (I do a LOT of typing all day) worthwhile.
When I started out blogging with my personal blog, I felt the same way: why pay for a blog when you can have one for free? I would still feel the same way if I was maintaining only a personal blog. But I am pro blogger, and it is very much worthwhile to have my own domains and blogs.
Even so, a little effort can reap some profit. Signing up with one of the pay-you-to-blog companies, or inserting affiliate links in your blog, can help pay for the cost of maintaining a blog. Most sponsored posts pay around $5, so one or two a month would pay for your hosting bills. I know you said you didn’t want to go that route, but for others’ sake I mention that.
I wish you success with Today.com. It is a real shame that they are banning Entrecard. Do they ban CMF Ads, as well?
March 26, 2009 at 9:08 am
Hi Sharon! Honestly, I am not sure about the Feedburner issue. I do know that when you change a domain name, it follows that you must change the feed. But Google recently took over Feedburner, and there have been a lot of changes. Since Google owns Blogger, too, they may have something in place where they will redirect everything. I really don’t know about Feedburner’s new policy, now that they are with Google. I just changed my feeds over to them (I had to). That may be something you will need to look up in the Feedburner support forums.
March 26, 2009 at 9:09 am
Hi MattK. Yeah, I can’t blame Today.com, either. But it goes to show you how free-hosted blogs are becoming more limited in what bloggers can and can not do.
I’m glad to see you are another satisfied Hostgator client. I have tried other companies, but I am an adoring fan of Hostgator! They have been so great.
March 26, 2009 at 9:21 am
Hi Staci– it’s not a stupid question!
Yes, when you move from Blogger to WordPress or any other blogging software, you lose your specialized Blogger design. There ARE some WordPress themes that look very similiar to Blogger designs… that probably doesn’t help you in your case, though. I had the same hesitation– when I was with Blogger, I had these highly customized templates. It took me a little while to be convinved that WordPress is the way to go. But WordPress has many more and much better themes, I think.
As far as learning a whole new platform: it was hard. I won’t fool you. The actual WordPress software wasn’t too hard, but learning how to use the cPanel and FTP programs to manage my own blog at the hosting server was hard. You sound like a cautious person, like me. I did a lot of reading before I leaped in. Do a search and read around, to educate yourself about it.
You can get a free blog at WordPress.com and try out WordPress a little, to get an idea of what it’s like. Of course, the self-hosted WordPress platform (WordPress.org) is more complicated, and you are able to tinker with the theme code and add specialized plugins with it. But the free version can give you an idea of what lies ahead and how WordPress.com works in general. And WordPress is faaaaaar better than Blogger.
As far as Hostgator charging– most web hosts are going to charge about $7-8 a month. When I started my own hosted blogs in 2007, I went with a company that charged $1.50 a month! But there was NO tech support (not even a working telephone number, which was scary), I could only have one blog on the account, etc. By the way, Hostgator has promotions constantly. They have a sale right now where you can get 20% your first order.
It’s tough shelling out all that dough in one big lump sum, I agree. I do it because I have a writing business; but before, I couldn’t afford it. But is it worth it? Yeah, I love having my own blogs. And it has become lucrative for me.
I wish you success in whatever you choose!
March 26, 2009 at 9:37 am
Thanks for the help with my Blogger Feed. I think it might be happening “behind the scenes” like you suggested. I have been posting on the new domain name and I’m getting my RSS to my inbox as always. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll see a Daily Update come through.
Thanks for your help!
March 26, 2009 at 11:14 am
Honestly, it’s not even the cost so much as worrying that I’ll lose everything, including my measly PR, in the transfer or that I won’t be able to catch on to WordPress as quickly as I would like. I’ve actually thought about signing up for the one domain one so I could have a test blog and play around to see if I’m going to like it. Then if I do, I can upgrade to the unlimited domain and move the real blog over. That way, if I hate WP or WP hates me, take your pick, I can cancel the HG account. Believe it or not, I’m not completely technically challenged. I’ve taught myself a lot of the html and hacks for Blogger. I know a lot more than I did a year ago. I’m just assuming that Blogger does a lot of the hard stuff for us, and the html tricks that I know are just cosmetic, if that makes any sense. I guess I can always run to the bookstore and buy WordPress for Dummies if I have to.
You’re right. I do tend to be cautious. I’m one of those people who researches everything to death, asks a million questions, and always assumes that there is a catch or a loophole somewhere. I would like to blame law school for it, but truthfully I was that way before law school. I also like to root for the underdog so when people start blasting Blogger as nothing but spam blogs, I feel the need to stick up for it, even if what they’re saying is true. I’ve found a lot of great blogs on there lately thanks to EC, but I’ve also come across my fair share of splogs. Nevertheless, I’ve seen quite a few WP splogs as well so paid hosting doesn’t necessarily equal quality.
Anyway, thanks for answering my “stupid question.”
March 26, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I agree, EC is a bit odd right now and with the changes comes outages and stats that don’t work. I hope they get it worked out, but I know we’re losing a lot of good bloggers who use Today.com.
March 27, 2009 at 7:25 am
Mrs Mecomber
Thanks for your comment to my comment.
You asked: Do they ban CMF Ads, as well?
I don’t know because I do not know what a CMF Ad is. Please explain. Thanks
March 27, 2009 at 8:52 am
Mike– CMF Ads is similar to Entrecard in that it is a social advertising network, and uses 125 graphic cards. You don’t necessarily have to visit other blogs, and you do not “drop” anything. You can check it out here. http://www.cmfads.com/about/ I am new to the group, and I don’t know how successful it has been for me yet. But it’s free to participate.
March 27, 2009 at 8:56 am
Staci, you have a great blog design, and I see why you’d hate to lose it. Believe me when I say I am fussy like that, too!
I saw going to WordPress as a challenge, so I was very motivated. I spent a lot of time in the forums and reading posts about WordPress…. it has been worth it for me. Yeah, there have been pros and cons, but I do like WordPress because I am a fussbudget and I like control over my own content.
Whatever you choose, I wish you success!
March 27, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I am one of the today.com bloggers that is effected by all the entrecard changes.
Love your blog BTW and adding it to my blogroll so that I don’t lose touch.
I had been considering starting my second today.com blog before this all started and am looking at other options for that now instead if I do decide to do it. In the future I might leave today.com with my From Huskies to Husbands blog but right now the pay per post and such is just too good to pass up on.
March 28, 2009 at 1:45 am
I agree with you about Entrecard – it seems the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing at present and the slowdowns, outages and poor admin are really annoying.
And while I agree that having your own domain, with the ownership of your blog and its content that that brings, is the thing to do, I have a lot of sympathy for Today bloggers, because Entrecard, even with its faults, is a good source of traffic. Here again, you have to question Entrecard’s policies, because why would they wilfully lose blogs?
It seems likely that Entrecard will eventually make one bad decision too many, because its management is clearly inexperienced and inadequate.
March 28, 2009 at 10:16 am
I hate to see big changes like this, because of the loss of great blogs. I’m hanging around for now. We’ll see how it affects me. I have seen a drop in my visitors from EC, already, though.