Computer and Web Articles

I’ve mentioned this before and I now have reason to mention it again: if you care at all about your company’s blog, do not keep it on another company’s website. Don’t keep your business blog on Blogger. Don’t keep it on the WordPress.com website. Don’t keep it at Blogspot.com or Blog.com or Macpress.org.

First off, this practice is just straight unprofessional. It makes you look cheap. Yes, you were able to set up your blog for free—but everything from the URL that’s different than your main site’s URL site to the blog design that only vaguely resembles your main site’s design—well, it makes it pretty obvious you set it up for free.

Looking cheap, however, is not the main reason you should refrain from using a free blog service to host your blog. The main reason is: as long as the blog doesn’t live on your server, it’s not truly owned by you and you don’t have full control over it.

Last week one of our clients who had previously opted to use one of the free blog services mentioned above  learned this lesson the hard way. One afternoon she sat down to update her blog… only to find it was… gone. Poof. Nowhere to be found. The blog service hadn’t warned her that it was shutting down her blog, and she in fact remains in the dark as to why her site was taken down. The blog service hasn’t returned her communications. Her blog is gone—most likely for good.

Imagine how you’d feel and how your company would be affected if this happened to you. Imagine if all the time you’d spent updating and maintaining your company blog was thrown out with the trash.

If you have a company blog that you truly care about, I strongly recommend that that you house it on your own server. If at all possible, integrate it seamlessly into your company’s site so that it doesn’t feel like an awkward added appendage. Consider hiring an expert if you’re not sure how to do this on your own.

I’m well aware that the vast majority (if not all) of you will ignore my recommendation. Just keep my client’s recent experience in mind. Similar to the act of setting up a backup for your computer’s data, the effort involved with taking preventative steps to protect your blog seems like a waste of time…  And it will seem like a waste of time up until the morning you wake up to find that your blog is gone for good.