Thanks to Joseph at WordPress! My blog is restored. All the comments that didn’t make the move to this blog are there. Since I hardly blog on it I don’t think Google had a chance to discover that it was gone. Happiness and peace on earth has returned. I deleted all the ads and will comb through to see if I missed any affiliate links. I will use my MySpace blog for testing now. I better read their terms of service first though

From a student today: “So, now I do want to leave you with this until our next session. I really want to thank you for your very pleasing personality. I look forward to my sessions with you.”

My favorite though is still:
“You’re a really good coach, but you’re an even better person.”

Anytime you work with people it can be a roller coaster of excuses, progress, setbacks, and other ups and downs. I find great satisfaction in seeing success with those I work with. Sometimes I get glimpses into lives of people who inspire me with their determination and hard work.

I didn’t make the presentation on business blogging last week. I was so jealous when I heard he was featured in the newspaper. I have interviewed many people but rarely had articles written about me. Most of the articles about me have been about work I did in my community, not about internet marketing or blogging.

Here it is – the local newspaper article about the presentation he did about blogging. Paul and I blog for other companies and supervise other business bloggers.

Paul and I are presenting at the Utah New Media Conference in October. It’s free and you can sign up on their web site. Hope to see you there.

My friend wrote a post on TheShipper’s blog about how you can get the most out of Digg. Digg let’s you vote on stories you find. He got on the first page of Digg just last week. That means a lot of exposure. He is experienced and shares his secrets. You must read it: How to get the most out of Digg.

Update Feb. 2012 – I wrote this about 5 years ago. I never got the blog back permanently. Joseph got it back and then it got deleted again. I gave up and hosted my own blog. Read the comments – more than ONE affiliate link is all you need to get your blog deleted. Wait, you didn’t read the terms of service either? You’re taking your chances. Just to be obnoxious I put an affiliate link in this post. If I were really obnoxious I would’ve put two in. Yes, free has a price.

I don’t know if WordPress is cracking down lately or I’m just having bad luck. I’ve had this wordpress hosted blog for over a year: www.newspapergrl.wordpress.com. It took on a life of it’s own so I left it. Some of the comments were excellent and I didn’t want to lose them. Now, everything is gone. I didn’t back it up. It had a higher pagerank than this version. All those broken links, heartbreaking.

WARNING: WordPress will delete your blog with no warning and no recourse. I would remove all ads if I’d known. That’s no excuse according to WordPress. No mercy. They should have a big warning that says if you put advertising on your blog it will be deleted.

I advise anyone using WordPress to host their blog on their own servers so this doesn’t happen to you. Especially businesses. You can’t afford to take the chance.

Here’s what greeted me today:

This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service. They say: “We take complaints seriously, but please be aware that unless a blog clearly violates our Terms of Service we will not disable it.” I don’t believe it.

This is maddening. How do I get my blog back?

Get your own blog WordPress can’t delete (not the free version hosted by WordPress)! That’s what I finally did. Bluehost will help you install your blog and host it for about $7 a month. They have someone there if you call day or night 24/7 – amazing customer service:
Reliable, Affordable Business & Blog Hosting from Bluehost.com.

Allegiance is a company that measures loyalty. I read an article about them and it had this stat: “What they found was that every time their employee loyalty went up or down, 90 days later their customer loyalty followed the same direction and 90 days after that, their profitability followed that same direction.”
- Allegiance, Inc. CEO Adam Edmunds

This was from a case study of one company: Mountain America Credit Union (conducted in 2004). I wonder if this is similar in other industries. 90 days to see an impact. That is fast. I wonder if the inverse is true. Also, money is usually important to people – to a degree. But loyalty is about much more than salary. What I’ve seen kill loyalty really fast is to expect a lot more out of employees with no additional benefits or reward.

Fast Company did a piece on HR and how they contribute – or don’t contribute – to company culture. They probably affect loyalty also. If HR isn’t responsive or isn’t helpful that can really sour employees quickly. They can make things more difficult at work.

From limited exposure, I think Doba, which I have written a bit about recently, seems to have very high employee loyalty. The employees I know quickly defended the company and are quick to point out the benefits. And these are from two very different departments. That impresses me. At the same time, they seem to be doing well financially – they just made the Inc. 500 list.

I’d like to get your comments on what you’ve seen work for companies you’ve worked for. What have they done that has increased your loyalty? What ideas do you have that haven’t been tried but that you think would be effective?

I’ve been tutoring someone in blogging and today when I logged in to WordPress, it says the account has been suspended. I’m getting flashbacks from Google. In other words, there is no explanation or mercy. It’s just gone.

My friend has a lot of information on her various blogs. I can’t see how it might be violating the terms of service. We ran no ads. Anyone have a suggestion?

Here’s what they say:

Blogs are suspended if they are found to be in breach of the TOS.

We do not contact you first to ask that content be modified or removed.

You cannot have that blog name back.

You cannot have the blog content back.

Matt, what gives?? This is unduly harsh – it seems you should know what term you are violating and be given an opportunity to correct the problem. I haven’t seen this problem and it’s tough to swallow that all that work can just vanish with no warning and no recourse.

ADVICE: Don’t use a WordPress hosted site – get your own domain name. I was new to blogging in 2005 and didn’t know how to host my own. Now I use Bluehost, one of my advertisers. They have an easy blog installation using simple scripts that makes it easy to do. It will cost about $7 a month in addition to $10 for a domain name. They will also walk you through it if you call them – open 24/7.

In this case, WordPress is a dictatorship.

UPDATE: Nov. 11, 2008: My blog was restored and about 6 months later, deleted again. For one spam link that I put in a post when the site was new and not considered spam. I was able to log in to get the backup file because I know Joseph Scott. But I couldn’t remove the link (which I don’t know) or keep the domain.  I gave up. All my search engine results now say that the blog was deteled because it violated the terms and conditions. For ONE LINK. Ridiculous. I love WordPress — except on this issue.

I couldn’t resist this one. I have taken my newspaper subscription down to just Sundays. A flight isn’t a flight without reading the newspaper while you wait. This blog post questions if newspapers offered free music downloads with a subscription would it help them stay afloat. It’s an interesting idea. I think music is being prostrated all over the place. However, being a fan of newspapers I want to see something work for them.

I wonder how come with all the quality content how come newspapers can’t support themselves online with ad revenue? Would SEO help? Such as optimizing pages for local businesses – like I do on my blog for Utah Business (because I live in Utah). Or, in the entertainment section rank high for Utah restaurants.

Anyway, read the article about if music downloads can help save newspapers.

Jeremy Palmer the super affiliate is offering a new service – coaching. I talked to him a few days ago and he didn’t mention it. In fact, it seems like CJU would be the perfect place to tell people about his plans.

He says he’ll reveal every program and tool he uses to be a million dollar affiliate. As you may know, the people he’s coached have been very successful. One is Justin Bowen, who just won a Commission Junction award for greatness. One thing you might want to know going into affiliate marketing as a search affiliate you’ll need thousands of dollars to invest up-front. That was somewhat of a shock to me when I was new to this.

I don’t see a blog post with details but I’m sure that’s coming. I don’t know if there is an affiliate program attached. I’m not sure how long the program is but it starts September 25, 2007. Not a lot of lead time! However, I’m sure there are people who will jump to learn from a super affiliate. He’s teaming up with Anik from Affiliate Classroom.

eComXpo is an internet marketing conference that is entirely online. It covers various aspects of the industry from affiliate marketing to email marketing. It’s well-attended and the speakers are usually excellent. Plus it’s free.

I’ve attended on and off for the past few years. You can listen while you’re at work and it’s free while it’s live. Otherwise you can pay $50 to access all the sessions to listen to later.

The biggest challenge of a virtual conference is not getting distracted. So plan time away from distractions for the speakers you really want to listen to. If you’re at work, go to a conference room. Or, buy the transcripts.

The conference runs October 9-11 – that is a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Here are some highlights. Mat – they ask for speakers. Please apply and talk about Social Media Optimization and how to utilize web 2.0 Strategies on your Site.

* Bryan Eisenberg from Future Now will speak about web site conversion
* Geoff Ramsey from eMarketer will talk about digital strategies
* Anne Holland from Marketingsherpa will deliver great data as she usually does on Search engine marketing, Email marketing and Landing Pages

* Seth Godin on Blogging: How Blogs and Web 2.0 Can Change Your Business Forever – DON’T MISS THIS ONE

* The New Realities of Online Life: Lee Rainie – Pew Internet and American Life Project

Don’t put off registering because if you’re like me you’ll forget. They send you reminders. Seriously, no travel expenses and you can learn from the best minds in the industry.
Click Here To Register Now!