Reality check. Google’s Blogger blogging service, after 10 years, just shut down tons of Blogger blogs. Granted, these were blogs with tags labeled “Adult,” Google can and probably will shut down other blogs on Blogger. Google’s notorious for axing many of their free services. Anyone using a free blogging service like Blogger (owned by Google) or Tumblr (now owned by Yahoo!) is at the mercy of these corporate owners.
Here’s a story for the Tumblr users. Yahoo! Recently bought Tumblr, but it’s already not looking good. Deja Vu? Deja Vu? In the ancient history of the internet in the 90’s, Yahoo! Also owned the biggest free website service GeoCities. I had a free GeoCities website, Other people did too. What has become of GeoCities? Visit the historical ruins here:
Who used GeoCities? Same as what you do on Blogger and Tumblr. Anyone who wanted their individual presence on the internet. Many built small online businesses such as simple stores, design or photography portfolios, and content expertise that allowed them to write books or do coaching. Most of these businesses went to the grave overnight as an executive decision somewhere turned off the lights at GeoCities.
Are you at risk of the same? Is your online presence dependent on a free service, whether if its Blogger, Tumblr, or even Facebook and Twitter? Yes, that means all you Pinterest users too that use Blogger!! It doesn’t even have to be an executive decision. If you’ve used one of these services, including MySpace as many bands did, you’ve been frustrated. Many of you have already been totally destroyed once, twice, maybe thrice by some weird design change by one of these services. Fool me once? shame on you. Fool me twice? Um yeah. Facebook Pages were great for marketing promotions until Facebook decided to switch everyone to the timeline layout. How fun was that? Not at all. All these free services are great marketing tools, but don’t play Russian roulette with your online livelihood.
If your online presence is even slightly important to you, get your own self-hosted website. A web address (domain name) costs less than $1/month and web hosting costs about $5/month.
A grand total of $6/month!!! to fully own your online presence, business, brand, and influence. You can set these up yourself or contact me for help.
I leave you with my 2 cents:
Remember GeoCities. Don’t get MySpaced.
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