Recently, I was doing some reading around on some various topics related to making money online and blogging when I came across this post “Why Free Hosted Blogs Suck” (http://www.ginkgoconsulting.com/blogging/why-free-hosted-blogs-suck/) by Lara Kulpa at Ginko consulting. It was an intriguing article where she makes some pretty bold statements with one in particular that I really disagree with:
I can almost say with 100% certainty that you can’t come up with a phrase that will have a free hosted blog in the top 5.
Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, what really upset me was that I took time and effort to leave a comment that had an opposing view on a blog that encourages comments – only for it to sit in moderation and then get deleted. I gave several examples of phrases that rank in the top 5 that are on free hosted blogs:
- mc hammer
- cupcakes
- cooking blog
- make money online
- cool pics
- recording industry
and there were a few others that I mentioned as well that I can’t recall off the top of my head. She goes on in her post to say that free-hosted blogs have:
Limited income opportunities, if any.
Both of these statements I completely disagree with. Further more, since she is trying to leverage her status as a moderator at the newly-launched Problogger.com forums – I find it particularly insulting to her visitors. In the opening paragraph of the article she states:
Over the past month, I’ve been working as an admin in the newly launched ProBlogger Forum. It started as part of the 31 Days To Build A Better Blog Project which ended last week (but you can still sign up for the course and take it at any time, or you can wait and buy the ebook), but the forum is still open.
and
Darren Rowse has been called “The Godfather of Blogging” and is a dear friend and client.
I understand moderating comments that contain vulgar or foul language or don’t follow your comment policy. However, I wasn’t impolite, rude, attacking, spamming, defamatory, or otherwise, I was simply stating that I disagreed with her statements and gave some examples to back up what I was saying. Here is someone trying to position themselves as an authority on their blog and trying to appear knowledgeable, yet she’s not open to contradictory viewpoints. If this is the case (which it appears to me to be) she should simply state her comment policy on her blog with something along the lines of “This blog does not accept comments that disagree with ours.”
You must understand that I really hate calling people out (I think it’s crude , unprofessional, and tacky), but here’s someone trying to leverage another successful blogger (Darren) to their own benefit and misleading a lot of people in the process, many of them who are completely new to blogging or trying to be successful online.
It’s a private blog and to each their own, but when you put yourself in the public eye – you ought to be open to valid opposing viewpoints. If you only allow comments from people telling you what a great job you’re doing and how great your post was, then what’s the point of having comments at all? But… that’s just my opinion.
My comment policy on Big Manta is very open and I welcome opposing viewpoints, just as long as they aren’t off-topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy.
What do you think? Feel free to disagree with anything I’m saying here (or on any of my other posts) by leaving a comment 
Hmm that is a bit awkward.
In my honest opinion i think if i get comments on my blog with people disagreeing with me, I wouldn’t delete the comment, because i think comments that disagree can start a really interesting conversation.
Firstly you took valuable time and effort to post a comment and then getting deleted. I’m in the kind of same agreement with you because I also would’t be too happy if i did the same and then the comment got deleted.
Nice Post.
When you allow a blog/forum,etc. to have comments, its a known fact (or at least it should be) that someone, eventually is going to leave a comment that you (the author) will not agree with.
However, I think it’s very unprofessional for the author to delete it. Having a comment like that, as Teen Blogger stated, can start an interesting debate and can open up ideas for a new topic/post.
Although my blog is still brand new, when I start to (hopefully) receive comments, I don’t plan on deleting them, just because I disagree with them. Not only have you upset the person that made the comment, but you’ve probably upset a few other people unknowingly as well.
This also worries me that Lara Kulpa did this personally because one of the first things that I planned on buying once I started to make money through internet marketing was a membership to the new problogger.com community. But now it makes me wonder (since she’s the moderator there) if I make a comment to a post that she doesn’t agree with, will she delete it? Hmmmm……
P.S. – Blogs that are on a free hosting account, CAN and HAVE made money, and I don’t mean $5 LOL. Although it may be more difficult, it is far from impossible. I use to have a list of blogs that have done well on free hosting accounts, if you want the list Manta, let me know and I’ll see if I can dig it up.
Teen Blogger & Bunni,
Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
I think the thing that was the most disheartening is that this is someone trying to help other people out who are just beginning and getting started who really don’t know any better. I am a member of the Problogger.com forums and it is somewhat unsettling to see the type of action she took on her own site, like Bunni said – will she delete posts of ours if she disagrees?
Bunni, I appreciate the offer – I may be putting together a post here soon about succeeding with free hosted sites and I’ll let you know.
I think the whole point of having open comments is to keep the conversation open to all with an opinion whether they agree with the author’s particular point of view. If one doesn’t want to hear what all readers have to say then the comments should be left closed.