Get Rid of Your Connections for Good

Featuring an old blog post that still rings true . . .

Unfortunately, a lot is lost when blogs disappear. And most people don't know that this can happen until their blog - or the blog belonging to someone they know - goes missing.

It's not simply that our entries are gone. Those are easy enough to put on another blog site if we've backed them up. But all of the incoming links from other bloggers to our posts are suddenly no good.

Now granted, for the "biggies" of the web, this phenomenon of blogger/blogspot sites turning up missing may be unimportant. But for the rest of us it really does make a huge difference in our visibility. Our Google and technorati rank suffer huge hits when freebie blogs go >poof<

In her comment about blogs hosted on free platforms Manekineko brings up a great point about backing up your data. But the bigger picture is that our entries are not everything. While content is still king, connections are what make the bloggosphere more than just lists of websites - and the very vibrant network that it is.

I'm the poster child for how connections provide benefit. In the past year since I moved my blog to an improved platform Google actually points people towards the Case Notes from the Artsy Asylum blog and though it's not in the Technorati top hundred but it's not on the bottom rung of the 50 million other bloggers that technorati is following either.

It's only thanks to those links passing around the blogs that Case Notes has gradually climbed. That means more visits to the Gallery; more people see my work; more consulting jobs come in; more cards being sent.

So there's a lot to think about when building a blog. And it's not just Shelly at websource.com who thinks freebies are no bargain.

The Blogsquad builds client blogs on Typepad and have reservations about freebies. And what these folks have to say on the topic is just scratching the surface.

• BlogBloke asks Is it time to leave blogger?
• Kim Priestap says "I moved . . . to my current typepad site  . . . my blogger site was hijacked."
• Joining his voice with multiple others like Steve Rubel Philipp Lenssen describes Blogspot as More Spam than anything else
• Tadpole  has experience as well and has "been forced to ban all comments that contain links to blogspot blogs"

Lots to think about.

Comments

[Marti]

Great post! It is horrible when it happens. Blogger ate my very first blog. I was beside myself, because I had worked SO hard at marketing it and making connections. The Blog Herald had JUST named it to their Top 100 Blogs list and then POOF! It was gone. Then a miracle happened, and it came back! It was about a month later, and I had written dozens of letters to Blogger management, and moaned and sobbed at the new blog I had created, and one day, there it was on my Dashboard again! I still moved to Wordpress and my own domain though. Fool me once, etc LOL

Thank you for your lovely birthday wishes - I hope you have a wonderful day!

[gr8face]

More and more I feel it's time to make a move from Blogger.

[Susan]

Honeslty, Nickola, doesn't it just amaze you the wealth of information that's available out there? At least to me there feels like there is so much to find out about and it seems as if after over three years I'm just scratching the surface.

I'm a sucker for comments as always - and I enjoy the conversation. It's also great to know where people find blogs they read - especially when you're reading mine :^)

[Nickola McCoy]

Thanks for this very useful article and the links within it. Very interesting for new and seasoned bloggers alike and has given me much to think about for the future. (I found you through your I-Pings feed)

Nickola