I own several domains. I host a couple of sites. I have my own site at sessum.com with extra space on the server.
And I keep my blogs on blogspot.
I pay them too.
Chris Pirillo finds the fact that a large population of legitimate bloggers live on blogspot unfathomable. He says that's because Google's spam problem is out of hand. I appreciate that problem, believe me. I have to deal with it for my clients too.
But the splog deluge has nothing to do with who's "LEGITIMATE" on blogspot.
Chris has said he thinks blogspot hosts 99% crap. Even in what Ev says in defense of blogspot residents, you can hear a hint of the prevailing attitude among some that the po-folk need a home too.
In case you don't get what I'm saying, I'll put it this way: The opinion among the big guys is that blogspot squatters are the undesirables of the net. We are also-rans. Not needed. Part of the problem. And, you're no one if you don't have your own blog.com.
I've known this for a long time. I've heard it first hand. In email. At an Atlanta blogger's gathering. I've heard it over and over again: "Jeneane, what are you doing on blogspot? No real blogger stays on blogspot. Why don't you move off that sewer?" Try this tool. Try that tool. At least host it someplace else. The blogspot domain pulls your readership down. They're not trustworthy. on and on.
Well-meaning people have been trying to pull me off blogspot for years -- some because they care about this blog, others because they can't believe a "legitimate" blogger would want to live here. I appreciate that. But stop.
Thank you very much--I have no intention of going.
The subtleties beneath the discussion over Splogs (the spam blogs littering the blogosphere--especially prominent on blogspot) offer some interesting attitudes and perceptions among the blogerati on blog real estate. If the old location-location-location adage works, then blogspot is the ninth ward of New Orleans. It's the ghetto. Take Pirillo's approach and pave it over.
Well news flash folks:
More than 50-percent of the blogs worth reading are on blogspot. And 80 percent of people who want to test the blog waters (some who stay, some who don't) take their leap of faith on blogspot.
THAT'S why this place is so important to me.
If you want to make blogging a place for professionals only, then get your own sandbox. You don't own this one. You want a place without splogs? I WANT a place that's free, and a tool that's easier than any other tool on the market so that Aunt Sophie and Barbara and Stanley and Joey and Leroy and Tarnjan and Stella and Martin and Martina can all play around and maybe Sophie posts a poem that makes me weep and Martin writes about his baby girl who died from SIDS, and maybe they stay and maybe they go, and maybe in the mean time you're pissed off you have to wade through VIAGRA VIOXX XANAX, but fucking fuck you.
Halley is on blogspot.
Tom is on blogspot.
Jessica is on blogspot
Blog Sisters has been on blogspot for four years.
Will's on Blogspot.
Every fourth or fifth blog on my blogroll is on blogspot.
So Google, hear what these guys are saying about the spam problem and fix it. It's not all henny penny, but it's really important. And yes, I'm willing to type in an authentication code for each post. That's not a bad idea from Chris Pirillo
The rest of blogland, hear the subtleties of what's being said about blogspot, and don't buy into it.
