The other day I came across this news item that was in my Alexa toolbar. It was about U.S. authorities shutting down a WordPress host with 73,000 blogs. The thing is this.. The host was shut down because of the number of blogs on that server that shared torrent links for movie downloads. I understand that those sites would be shut down for having illegal content. What I don’t understand is the thousands of blogs being shut down just because they are collateral damage. Those blog owners didn’t know they were hosting their blog with a company who attracted illegal file sharing sites. All of these bloggers were simply shut down, and they are unable “by law” to recover their files and databases. Read the entire story about it here.
I am a professional blogger that teaches constantly the need for a self-hosted wordpress blog. You cannot rely on free hosts like blogger, and others to have your best interests in mind. You can even be shut down on a self-hosted blog if the server it is on is in the same situation. I also teach you to make regular backups. I backup my blog a couple of times every single day.
Unfortunately, here in America where it is turning into a military state fast, you cannot take the chance. Your rights can be violated in the name of the law and they will prevent you from getting your content back. Then you start from square one all over again. Do you know how much work it is to build up a successful blog? If not, sign up for my newsletter and get my ebook with the details.
‘Operation In Our Sites‘ targeted several sites including TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net. In almost unprecedented action, the domain names of 7 sites were seized and indications are that others – The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload – narrowly avoided the same fate.
Umm, ok. That explains the illegal sites that needed to be shut down. But I am curious to know the urls of all of the innocent blogs that were affected by this “operation”. I also believe that a collective effort to sue the United States Government might set these “above the law” types straight. The massive amount of blogs being taken offline, and the blog owners’ hopes and dreams being shattered… It’s too much to think about. The host in question is named Blogetery.
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Hi Brandon
Great article. Scary too. Living in a sister country with laws copying yours, it’s a scary proposition to think everyone’s hard work is instantly gone due to someone else not playing by the rules.
Definitely a reason to backup and often (something I’m guilty of not doing often enough – bandwidth restrictions by my ISP being one major reason).
Then again, the powers that be have the right to “shut down the Internet” for reasons of “national security”.
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
Hello Rebecca. It is a scary thing isn’t it? The problem with this one is that nobody said that there was no collateral damage. They did not say that all 73,000 blogs were hosting illegal content. Besides, what’s the chances of that? Only a handful of that total were even illegal. I am dying to see a list of those affected comment here so we have a collective database of everyone who was hurt by this.
Do you live in Canada Rebecca?
Twitter: blokube
says:
Hey Brandon,
That’s why i don’t like blogspot or blogger blogs. I think it’s better to have own domain & hosting instead using any free blogger or blogspot blogs.
Anyways, Thanks for sharing the news.
Dev – Technshare.com´s last [type] ..How To Improve Your Alexa Ranking
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
Yeah. Same here. I used to think those services were convenient. However, I quickly wised up as soon as I saw reviews of others who had major issues like this. Did you have those issues with being shut down before? Or did you start with a self-hosted solution?
Twitter: TrafficColeman
says:
Howdy Brandon,
Boy I have been preaches these words to my members for yrs now, they ask “hey Antonio..should I use free blogging sites” and I gently say yes..if you care nothing about one day waking up and all your content is gone.
So why not spend that $12.95 per month to get your own hosting where you control every aspect of your blog. Don’t let your hard work go to waste by being cheap..
TrafficColeman �Signing Off�
TrafficColeman´s last [type] ..1-000-000 FRee Visitors In 30 Days
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
Hi Antonio, did that happen to you before? I have had a legit blog on blogger before and found the next day it was marked as a splog which came as a complete surprise to me. Good thing the blog was two days old and I only wrote a couple articles.
Twitter: RyanBiddulph
says:
Hi Brandon,
I read about this piece of news the other day too. Pretty crazy what the government can do, and all the more reason to stick with a domain and hosting. Yes, it is worth it.
Even if you only have a few bucks I say invest it in hosting. Your content portal is what’s most important.
Thanks for sharing your insight.
Ryan Biddulph
Ryan Biddulph´s last [type] ..5 Things I Learned As A Blogger
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
So right man. I still can’t believe that the US Government did this and didn’t even try to cover it up like Roswell or something. It is 100% against the freedom of speech rights we have to delete blogs without explanation.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ryan Biddulph, Rebecca Habel. Rebecca Habel said: You really need to read this if you have a site online – Self hosted blog, or you will be shut down! http://bit.ly/cWFctT [...]
Very informative article Brandon. We have to be careful and choose the right company for hosting. Thanks to God I’m with a good company. Thanks for sharing
Dia´s last [type] ..How to overcome fear permanently
Twitter: Earnathometips
says:
Thats scary I feel bad for all those innocent bloggers who’s work was flushed down the toilet. Thats why a self hosted wordpress blog is the way to go!
Most if not all webhosts back up your blog, or website on a daily basis if something were to happen to it. But it is always smart to do it yourself also!
Good post, thanks!
Jason´s last [type] ..Want To Earn A Living Online Get Off Your ass And Work For It
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
Me too Jason. I try to teach newbie bloggers to self host, but unfortunately even all of us with that knowledge cannot reach everyone in time. Everybody thinks blogger and other hosts are convenient just because you can sign up with a new blog instantly, and they fail to think out of the box.
Twitter: websitebegin
says:
Not to offend people who don’t use self-hosted blogs, but I feel as if ALL blogs or websites that aren’t self hosted should be shut down.
Either pay your way through it and make a powerful investment, or don’t even get started. But hell, that’s just my opinion. You’ll be more successful if you host your own blog/site.
Great post, Brandon.
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
We can’t look at it like that Joe. Not everyone who wants to start a blog knows the perils of not having one that is self hosted. You have to consider the way these platforms are marketed. Blogger for instance has a huge campaign behind it with Google footing the bill. It is promoted as a very convenient way to start a blog. Not everyone is computer literate to understand everything completely. So, most likely, those 73,000 blogs were owned by people who never knew this could happen to them.
Free hosted blogs are not secured indeed. Take blogetery as an example. I had a blog there just for link building purposes. The site is now terminated by Burstnet though they’re saying that they’re trying to resolve the issue. So there is no guarantee whether my blog will be recovered or not. Good thing is that I have a backup for all my posts in there. But the links are gone, of course.
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
Hello Jovit. Thanks for the comment. You are the first person who has been affected by the blogetery issue to comment on this. I hope they do the right think and release your content to you immediately.
Wow, this is crazy. I’ve heard of spammer sites being shut down, but to shut down an entire server, that’s ridiculous. Guess it’s going out the window with that whole “innocent until proven guilty” idea that’s long gone from the courts. I agree – you have to go self hosted and you need to have plenty of back ups and spend the extra bit per month to make sure your websites stand alone. Good post, and thanks for opening my eyes to this. Scary.
Master Dayton´s last [type] ..How I Turn Demand Studios Rejections Into Passive Cash
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
Hi Master Dayton. I see you have a blog with Google. They are notorious for shutting down blogs too. They can call you a spam blog with no good cause and they are near impossible to contact if anything bad happens. Trust me, I have tried when I paid for a new google voice number that ended up not working for months while the number was already printed on materials and in the hands of my clients. It took a class action lawsuit threat that was gaining momentum before I ended up receiving a call from a Google employee that fixed the simple problem.
Self hosted is the only way to go as you know that if something goes wrong, YOU will be quick to provide yourself with tech support.
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It is pretty shocking that the authorities are able to act like this. Where will it all end? – “oh your content is on the internet, there are things we don’t like on the Internet so we are shutting you down”…
Actually I am also shocked that you back up twice a day… seems overkill to me!
Bruce´s last [type] ..Going flash
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
Right. They are just bullies basically abusing their power. The power that WE gave them. I backup because it is necessary. A fellow blogger, Mike Roosa’s blog was hacked in July and it is still not back up on the net. With the amount that I back up my blog, I know that if I were hacked, I can be back on the net in 5 minutes.
Thats insane, surely the people should have their rights to remove all there content and have it rehosted without the torrents?
John @ Sat Nav´s last [type] ..Sat Nav’s at Shop GPS
Twitter: Brandon_Connell
says:
One would think so. But that is not what happened. All was lost regardless of innocence.