Free stuff is always risky, especially free hosting and domain. I’ve been telling my friends and my readers about the same thing these days, “If you’re serious in online business, you must having your own hosting and domain, that’s the first step of being an online marketer!“. I believe that you know about MoneyMakerInfo.Blogspot.com, it WAS a blog which ranked #1 with the keyword “make money online” and other related keywords, the blog had PR5 and Alexa Rank less than 30k as well. It was recently removed by Google, no reason stated by Google and no one knows the reason Google removed the blog.
Alan Liew was the owner of this top ranking blog, he had been managing the blog for 4 years, he used to update the blog with interesting write up based on his experiences in daily basis, he also accepted guest posts on the blog. Google reviewed the blog 2 years ago and Google was okay with it. I didn’t see Alan Liew did anything wrong with the blog. He made a lot of money from the blog by selling banner ads, text links, and sponsored reviews. I believe that Alan Liew has a lot of other websites and online income, but this might be a big smash for him.
Here is a quote from Alan Liew in Acme-People-Search-Forum :
Very bad news. You know what the Blogger team did. They have set their system to permanently delete my blog. Yes, this is what they done to me. This means my blog will not be able to restored and this is the end of moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com.
I built the blog using 4 years. 3 years in top 3 rankings in Google. I post unique content, No gambling, sex or any other non family-friendly content. The blogger team has reviewed by blog about two years ago and they are OK with it. But yesterday, suddenly my blog was deleted by them permanently. Seems like they see the topic ‘make money online’ is spam now.
What they are doing is totally ridiculous.
Thanks,
Alan Liew
I contacted Alan Liew and asked what happen to his blog and here are some words from him :
The blog has been deleted by the Blogger team without given a valid reason from them. It seems that they don’t like it and just call it as spam and then permanently delete it.
It’s the blogger team that deleted it purposely I guess. They don’t like it.
I’m taking a rest first. See what can I do next.
I wrote a few guest posts for Alan before and I just sent him one recently, also we did a link exchange at the sidebar, with that said I lost a few strong backlinks from his blog, that was a sad case. Alan Liew paid so much efforts and he didn’t do anything wrong on the blog, but ended up this was what he got from Google.
Getting Your Own Hosting And Domain Now!
If you’re serious in making money online or being an online marketer, you should get your own hosting and domain name. Getting your own hosting and domain doesn’t cost you much, I’m pretty sure that you can earn back what you pay for the hosting and domain fees if you pay a little effort in building your blog and website. I bought my hosting and domain since the first day I started my online journey and I earned 10x extra from the money I paid for my hosting and domain fee in the first few months.
I’m hosting my blogs and websites with Hostgator, I’ve been using Hostgator for a few months and I highly recommend it to you. Hostgator is giving a 20% discount for anyone who signs up their hosting plan, I would recommend “Baby Plan” if you’re really serious in make money online because you can host unlimited domain with this hosting plan. I have a deal with you if you’re going to sign up Hostgator hosting plan, I’ll give you an extra $10 discount if you sign up Hostgator under my affiliate link.
Now you see Alan Liew was losing his top ranking make money online niche blog which was hosted with Google, but I’m pretty sure he will be having a big plan soon as he is a full time online marketer. As I mentioned earlier, you can’t rely on any free hosting and domain name even it’s Google. We don’t know what Google will do next, it’s like swimming in a crocodile pool, you don’t even know when the crocodile will bite you.
A self-hosted wordpress blog is the best choice for you right now!
What’s your opinion on the Alan Liew’s issue? Are you still hosting your main blog with Blogger.com?
About Lee Ka Hoong
Oh my goodness! That’s really bad news! This is why I always buy domain names and never rely on using Squidoo and other free platforms. I hope Alan can get his business back.
.-= Raymond Selda´s last blog ..Wealthy Affiliate Review – Approaching My First Year Inside Wealthy Affiliate =-.
Having Self hosted wordpress blog is always recommended. You can have lots of plugins and tools to make your blog better in every aspect and don’t have to worry when blogspot come up with new policy.
.-= Whiztechy´s last blog ..Blogspot to WordPress Import Problem Solved : Blogger to WordPress Migration =-.
Hi Lee
A Word of Caution:
You mentioned about a link exchange program with Alan. Recently I discovered that Google is against link exchange programs and classifies it as a Black Hat SEO tactic. So you may want to opt out of it to prevent your Adsense account from being canceled.
Similarly on http://ShoutmeLoud.com, Kurt has revealed, though only partially, the rates and earnings from CPM and CPC. This is also against Google Adsense policies. In our effort to help others we could end up losing our revenue source. So just wanted to say – tread cautiously.
Coming back to the post discussion: Google is very protective of its advertisers’ interests. And I can think of a few reasons why his site was taken down:
(1) If a site is listed first in search results yet does not convert visitors, it suspects foul play. So when a site, such as Alan’s, is receiving the best traffic from the search engine it expects greater conversion. However, below avg conversion (by conversion I mean people who actually click on the ad or buy a product) implies uninterested visitors. And if the visitors are uninterested it means that the site’s search engine rank is manipulated with spam content, keyword stuffing or Black Hat SEO tactics.
(2) In addition, if AdSense on Alan’s site would be setup for CPM, Google would have lost a lot of money to its advertisers as it was paying Alan for the high number of impressions due to its dominant rank, yet his visitors were not clicking on the ads. Though selfish this could be another reason for Google to remove his blog from blogspot.
(3) As I pointed to you previously, maybe Alan was involved in an outrageous number of link exchange programs and Google just had to block it.
Though I am no expert on this issue, I thoroughly read program policies and interpret their repercussions for a hobby. The points above are just some thoughts that occurred to me after reading Blogspot and Adsense guidelines. They may or may not apply to Alan’s case.
.-= Harsh Vardhan´s last blog ..Do we really care? =-.
@Harsh,
First of all, thanks for your kind opinion and comment here Harsh.
Regarding the link exchange program, I believe that if Alan didn’t link to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web, or doing link exchange excessively, then that shouldn’t be any problem, we can find this in Google Webmaster Central which talks about Link Schemes.
Perhaps the three points you listed here may be right, may be wrong; either Alan did something wrong, or selfishness of Google? No one knows the answer and only Google knows. Anyway, we have to play smart and safe, Adsense is the best pay per click advertisement, but not to put all eggs in a basket, play safe.
Thanks for your comment Harsh!
No problemo!
I have to say something on your comment. Recently my blogspot blog also deleted, well my blog was not like Alan’s blog but not very bad also,my blog used to get good traffic from google and other search engine. My blog PR was 3, alexa rank was below 100k and top ten on google for keywords “work at home blog”, “google home affiliate”, work at home affiliates” etc.
I am confused the point that you have mentioned here. I somehow agree with Lee when he said that “make money online”, work at home type keywords are now being spam type keywords, I did not make any spam on my blog but my blog was deleted. I had done everything for restore my blog, but no one listen from me.
You said that Alan had got no. 1 rank by submitting spam content, will it be possible. Again I have frequently analyze the backlink of Alan’s blog, I have noticed that he had got many natural link where other blogger mentioned about his blog.
Google is going crazy really. We have to do our work smarty, we have to update with google term and condition. Otherwise will get fall very soon.
.-= chandan@work at home blog´s last blog ..7 Best Work At Home Marketplace For Freelancer =-.
Damn shame, and he sure isn’t the first to be deleted with no explanation.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Comment Contest: 5 Days Left! =-.
@Dennis,
We can’t do anything with that. What else we can do?
Not keep an important blog on blogger.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Theme Customization 5- New Pages, Tabs, and More! =-.
Hi guys,
That’s a shame that they deleted his blog without an explanation. But I’m sure that Alan will be able to start a new website soon.
Kind regards,
Sam
X
@Samantha,
I believe that Alan has a lot of other websites and blogs. Anyway, as he mentioned in the email, he wanted to take a rest first. All the best to Alan!
That is very sad about the MoneyMakerInfo.Blogspot.com domain and truly illustrates your point about hosting your own domain instead of using blogger if you want to control your own fate.
.-= Richard@How To Videos´s last blog ..Gmail Outlook =-.
You know, the way politics are these days I believe anything. Maybe someone on the inside of Google was pissed off or who knows what other hundreds of reasons there could have been. Your point is well taken and add one more to the independent hosting list, you can sell it. You can’t sell a blogger site. Lets see if Yahoo and Bing follow suit.
@Ric,
Perhaps politics is one of the reason, but who knows? Nobody knows what Google is doing. Your point is right too, a self-hosted blog can be sold if you got no interest to maintain it anymore. So here is another advantage of getting own hosting and domain. Let’s see what happens in future.
I noticed his blog was gone too. I’m glad you could set the story straight about what happened. I would say that you should at least get your own domain name, and save your posts in a word file, if you are going to use blogger. At least this way you could rebuild and keep your backlinks if your blog ever gets deleted.
@Christopher,
Saving all the posts in a word file before publishing to Blogger would be a good idea, it might be the best solution too. Nevertheless, getting own domain and hosting is the best choice ever.
Yeap, I notice Alan’s blog is missing the other day when I was browsing for the term “make money online” and wonder what happened. Now that I know what happend I need to plan ahead. Mine is hosted on blogger too and I’ve working hard for it for the past 1 and 15 months.
As for Alan he can always made a come back with hosting else where.
Found this on blogger.
http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42639
It’s possible Alan’s blog was flag as spam because of the out bound links his site is sending out. Hope can get his appeal approved and get his blog back.
@wilson,
I believe that Alan filtered every out bound links that he linked out. Even it was true, Blogger should send him a warning email instead of deleting his blog on the spot. I don’t think his blog will be reinstated. Anyway, just be caution for anyone who hosts their blog with free hosting.
Ironically, that links appears to not be working.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Theme Customization 5- New Pages, Tabs, and More! =-.
@Wilson,
I’m sure Alan has his own hosting as well since he is a full time online marketer, he should has a lot of other blogs and websites I believe, perhaps he trusted Google and didn’t move the blog to self-hosted blog platform.
Anyway Wilson if you plan to sign up Hostgator, you may take my deal. ;)
OMG. Thanks God I started with my own domain and hosting at the first place.
I feel sorry for Alan Liew.