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Scoble Gets Ads on His WordPress.com Blog?

Scoble Gets Ads on His WordPress.com Blog?

Normally, someone getting advertisements on their blog isn’t a big deal. People add advertisements to their blogs every day, and the fact that it is Robert Scoble changing over to the “dark side” isn’t all that interesting to me either.

If his new employers want to re-design his blog and put advertisements on it, who am I to complain?

What is interesting to me is that the Scobleizer blog is hosted by the WordPress.com service, which usually abhors any type of advertising on their blogs.

Are VIP members able to break the “no-advertising” rule set forth by Automattic? Yes, they can! Do they deserve to break such rules just because of who they are? Is Scoble more deserving of putting FastCompany advertisements on his blog than you putting a banner from your favourite web host on yours?

While I think advertising has to be strictly controlled and moderated on WordPress.com, so as to not become like Blogger’s spam filled archives, I don’t think that people like Scoble are more deserving than anyone else to display advertising on their hosted blog.

Maybe I am jumping the gun here, and Scobleizer will be moved off the WordPress.com platform? Well, I think that is highly doubtful, as GigaOM has advertisements on it, and is a WordPress.com hosted blog.

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The fact is that I am an idealist, and I believe that the same rules should apply for everyone, at least as much as possible. Sure, Automattic might be earning a fair bit of cash on some of these VIP blogs, but I highly doubt it.

I am not questioning Automattic’s decision to let Scoble add advertisements on his blog, but instead I am wondering why they don’t make member blog advertising a higher priority? Would you be willing to give up 20% of whatever revenue your blog could make through an advertising system managed by WordPress.com? I am pretty sure I would be willing to take such a deal.

I would love to know what you all think of WordPress.com’s no advertising policy and what effect it has for you as a blogger? Truth be told, if it wasn’t for WordPress.com’s no advertising policy, I would probably push to have all of the Splashpress’ blogs moved over to their system.

View Comments (9)
  • My question is, why do you even care? The VIP Hosting option at WordPress is not free. They’re charging $600 to get set up and $300/mo currently. That’s quite a bit of dough for the ability to display ads. And they’re “selective” in who they host…but as with many high-end services, why shouldn’t a company be able to pick and choose who they work with? If I were Automattic and I’m going to not only allow advertising and serve 500k+ pageviews per month for one blog, I’d reserve the right to be picky, too.

    It would be unlikely for me to choose WordPress.com as a publishing platform due to the flexibility I get with WordPress.org. If they want to say no advertising for free accounts…no biggie to me.

    In any case, LiveJournal does the same thing with different plans–you can get a freebie account, a medium free account with advertising (not yours) displayed, or a full paid account with no ads. It’s different, but similar on a lot of levels, and I don’t see anyone complaining (then again, I don’t spend time looking…).

  • David – First off, I care because its WordPress, and I love covering what’s going on in the world of WordPress. Secondly, I’d like to see WordPress drop their advertising barrier for regular publishers through a controlled system.

    Also, I highly doubt some of their VIP’s are paying such rates.

    Everyone has their own opinions on what they like, so I am not saying you should love WordPress.com.

    Thanks for the details on LiveJournal though. :)

  • He’s paying for it – what’s the big deal?

    For the free/semi-free wordpress.com – I think it makes perfect sense to not allow ads.

    For their hosted service – what’s the big deal?

    Makes no sense to me to make an issue out of this
    Matt

  • great website! And yes, I would love to go with a fully hosted service like wordpress.com but all the restrictions prevent me from doing it. I wish they offered paid hosting options. I’d gladly pay $60 a month to have them host. As long as I maintain control over the advertisements, and had more flexibility like adding my own theme.

  • I’d gladly pay $60 a month to have them host. As long as I maintain control over the advertisements, and had more flexibility like adding my own theme.

  • So, David. What you’re saying is that WordPress.Com should allow advertising on their free sites. And turn it into another Blogger/Blogspot Splog site? Because that’s exactly what would happen.

    @Michael and wows. dodo: Why would either of you be willing to pay $60 month when you can get hosting anywhere for way less than that, and install your own WordPress site with your own ads?

    If you want free, then accept the limitations on the WordPress.Com site, or buy your own hosting. Or go to Splog City (Blogger).

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