Are You Following the Rules on WordPress.com?
Have you heard the stories on social media about bloggers that have been shut down by WordPress.com?
WordPress.com says they can’t post book blog tours…really?
How dare they….but wait….did you read the rules or the ‘Terms of Service’ when you started your blog?
I know that I didn’t 
Too often when we are signing up for accounts, we are asked to agree to a massive list of rules. Rather than read all the legal mumbo jumbo, we just click on OK.
Even if we did read SOME of the rules – do you actually get beyond the first paragraph before you start scanning? Here’s the first paragraph from WordPress.com:
Even if you did read the first paragraph, you probably knew that you wouldn’t be involved in publishing spam, viruses or hate content…if you are like me, you just want to share about books. I mean, really, spam is that stuff that appears in your comments from idiots who have nothing better to do. Isn’t it? Do you actually know the definition of spam?
According to the dictionary, the word Spam used as a verb means: send the same message indiscriminately to (large numbers of recipients) on the Internet.
More on that in a bit.
Let’s look at some more rules.
Frankly, I got to this rule and started thinking about some of the books that I read. Some of them are pretty racy. Do they qualify as pornographic…there was that issue with some erotica books being removed from various retailers some time ago…hhhmmm…let’s leave that one for a bit also.
If you continued to read, you would have found the above comment. Although I’m familiar with the Reblogging function available on WordPress.com, I’ve never been totally comfortable with it. It smacks of copyright infringement to me. But…if you decide to have a WordPress.com blog you have agreed to this function – people will and can reblog your posts without your consent. Hhhmmm.
A bit further down you will find WordPress.com’s paragraph on Copyright infringement.
This paragraph actually comforts me. If someone infringes on my copyright, they will be shut down. I’m still uncertain about the re-blogging function, but if someone out and out copies my material, WordPress.com will take action.
Onward down the page of rules…
Did you know that WordPress.com will and can advertise on your blog? Here’s the part of the Terms of Service that states that rule:
To stop WordPress.com from advertising on your blog, you can pay them $30.00USD/year. (or you can purchase a larger package that has no ads as one of the features)
Towards the end of the list of rules is the paragraph about Termination.
Pretty harsh. WordPress.com states that they have the right to terminate the access to any or all part of your website and any time – with or without cause, with or without notice.
But they wouldn’t do that, would they? I mean, it’s your blog, right?
It’s my impression that if you follow the rules and mind your Ps and Qs, your blog will chug along without ever attracting the attention of WordPress.com.
Being the overly cautious person that I am…I back up my blogs religiously…I don’t want to look all my work! And besides…I don’t break any of the rules…
Let’s go back to the top of the page of rules and look at the second paragraph:
Isn’t that just cheeky! They give you a link to the types of blogs that are not welcome on WordPress.com and then make the assumption that you won’t look.
Let’s look and see what they list:
There it is….last one on the list – Book Tour Blogs. Bummer…..
To repeat the rule – Blogs that consist primarily of pre-written publicity material, as opposed to original book reviews, for the purpose of promoting books and driving traffic to other promotional and giveaway sites are not welcome on WordPress.com. It seems that WordPress.com considers many blog tour posts spam.
What’s on your book blog? Do you host the odd tour and mostly post original content that you created? Or do you post blog tours the majority of the time?
If the majority of your content is supplied by blog tour companies or PR people, you might just find your blog deleted. Because, knowingly or unknowingly, you have just broken one of the rules that you agreed to follow when you opened your WordPress.com blog
Are you getting to this point and saying to yourself…”I have a Worpress.org blog….or I have a Blogger blog so this doesn’t apply to me?” Come back next Sunday and we’ll discuss WordPress.org!
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