Hey Google, That Blog is NOT Spam
A new blogging services client asked me to help get her blog set up on Google Blogger (blogspot) a few months ago. I was happy to help.
This particular blog’s purpose was to provide useful information and legal tips on personal finance and debt management. The client wanted to monetize the blog through some affiliate programs and with AdSense.
I had no problem getting the content in place and laying out the pages, etc. I’ve used Blogger quite a bit so it didn’t take much time. A few weeks later, I went into Blogger to edit this personal finance blog. To my surprise, Google had disabled the blog completely as they believed it was spam. WTF??????
Now, it’s about 6 weeks later. Today, for the THIRD time I clicked the link to get the blog restored within Blogger because it was mis-characterized as spam. Meanwhile, the blog is not live, is not available to the public or EVEN TO THE BLOG ADMINISTRATOR, so even if I decided to try making some adjustments so the Goog wouldn’t consider it spam in the future, I CAN’T. In essence, then, Google Blogger has hijacked this content since it is no longer accessible. And meanwhile, of course, I see spam blogs all over the blogspot domain all the time. URGHH!!
Of course, all of this points out that if you want to have a blog, you are best off hosting it on your own domain so this doesn’t happen to you. And yes, there are countless other benefits to hosting your blog on your own domain, but that’s a post (or several) for another time.
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Hi Randy,
Welcome to the bizarre world of Google.
I too had a blog that I created about 3.5 years ago. I had about 50 posts there – of various things relating to the niche. At some point I created a “real blog” at WordPress and started to link from the blogspot blog to that new blog, which was becoming my main blog.
I too logged in to find it disabled. I said – WHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT? Are they nuts? Do they know how long it takes to write 50+ posts?
They don’t care. There is no warning. There are few guidelines. What happened? I’m still lost. I guess linking out from that blog to my other blog too much? It’s ridiculous. That’s spam? Linking from your one blog to another is “spam”?
Google has a head firmly up a warm dark place and I’ve since ceased using them for many things. Their help is non-existent… they rely on forums where nobody answers your questions. Brilliant… just a brilliant user-experience.
Today I’m going to look for articles about removing all sites (I have 24) from the Google Analytics and webmaster tools sections to see if there will any negative repercussions for it.
Google giveth and Google taketh away…
Hi Vern:
I’m finally getting around to moving the one Blogger blog of my own that’s still hanging out there to WordPress – what a piece of crap Blogger is. What I really can’t get over is that I must have submitted proof to them a dozen times that the blog wasn’t spam. Each time they say they’re “reviewing it”, but each time there’s no response and I have to go through the ridiculous process all over again.
I think most of Google’s other tools are well worth it and I have no intention of cutting off my nose to spite my face. But as for Blogspot/Blogger – no way, no how, never again. Especially not when the awesome WordPress is out there – and I’d never again recommend that any client attempt to host their blog on anything other than their own hosted domain. To do otherwise is to just leave yourself open to the whims of others. With so many cheap hosting plans out there, there’s just no reason to.
Best,
Randy