I would like to give out a warning that WordPress is cracking down on affiliate marketing blogs. I think it is important to pass this warning on and possibly save a few people from the headaches of having their blogs deleted.
For the record this warning is for people who have a free blog hosted at WordPress e.g. username.wordpress.com. If you are using the WordPress software on your own hosting account you have nothing to worry about.
However if you have a free blog at WordPress you have to follow their terms and that is some scary reading for internet marketers – here are a few examples of what they don’t allow:
…content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost
the search engine rankings of third party sites.
Affiliate marketing blogs: Blogs with the primary purpose of driving traffic to affiliate programs.
Ouch… that just banned two of the powerful uses an internet marketer has for a blog. Even worse, most of the other free blogging platforms like Google’s Blogger have similar terms and they will suspend/delete your blog without blinking. Here you can read WordPress’ complete Terms Of Service and see the Types of Unacceptable Blogs
Blogging is an extremely potent way to achieve good search engine rankings, build your list of subscribers and generate traffic to your own sites or affiliate sites. In my opinion every serious internet marketer should be using blogs, it’s just that powerful. But if you are using blogs for marketing purposes you should not use the free blog platforms, the risk is just too high. Fortunately there are some good alternatives.
There is no doubt that WordPress is the best blogging platform out there and I wouldn’t recommend using anything else. The absolute best solution is to set up a WP blog on your hosting account and domain. That way you have full control over everything and don’t have to follow other people’s terms. The best how to guide on setting up a WP blog is WordPress Made Easy from Mike Paetzold – without it I wouldn’t be able to post this.
Mike Paetzold also has a free blogging service called MyCCBlog. You get a fully hosted WordPress blog with all the SEO bells and whistles. MyCCBlog is easier to set up than a free WordPress or Blogger blog and a whole lot better – Most importantly MyCCBlog is internet marketing friendly and you won’t have your blog suspended just because you use it for marketing purposes.
Alright now that you have been warned about the fickle nature of WordPress.com, don’t get discouraged. Using blogs for affiliate marketing is very powerful when done the right way. Here are two of my favorite blogging resources for affiliate marketers.
Atomic Blogging from Alvin Phang is an excellent course and it includes some very nifty WordPress plugins and templates you can’t get anywhere else. Alvin is a having a sale right now and until Feb. 10th you can save 60% on Atomic Blogging.
Blogging To The Bank by Rob Benwell. Rob is one of the pioneers in affiliate blogging and I’m truly amazed at the amount of content he gives away in his step-by-step Blogging To The Bank guide.
Hope you found this information useful. Please leave a comment if you have any feedback.
