Leaving Edublogs
Last week I began hearing some twittering about ads appearing on Edublogs blogs. A little investigation on the Edublogs forums showed a post which, to be fair, dates back some months detailing the fact that ads will be added at random to free accounts. They can quickly be removed for $40 a year as part of the Edublogs Supporter scheme.
As you will see on the forum post and twitter link above the backlash has begun. Whilst it seems unfair to kick a free service I can’t help feeling let down by Edublogs. The service was always heavily promoted as being free and ad free. To suddenly turn on ‘in post’ Google ads without so much as an email to members informing them of this decision is disappointing. There are already tales of inappropriate adverts involving guns, dating agencies etc appearing on school blogs. The fact that these are planted inside posts makes it appear as if the author is promoting them.
I’d been thinking on and off over recent months that I should really own my own little part of the Web, so really I should thank Edublogs for spurring me on. The process of buying a domain and importing this blog was easier than I thought. I will detail the process in due course for anyone who is interested. Whilst costing a bit more than $40 a year, I’m pleased with the result.
I think it is important that we teach pupils to manage their on-line identities, and it will be increasingly important what employers, pupils and parents see of us online. If someone wants to find me then I think mrstucke.com is an obvious place to look!
So farewell Edublogs, I hope you get over this hurdle. I am thankful for getting me started so easily on this journey but I’m off to pastures new….
I have run a Blog on wordpress before but I got fed up of having to update it etc. I looked for a hosted solution but the charging structure of Edublogs and WordPress.com put me off. I decided on Blogger, since it integrated well with other sites, and google has pretty deep pockets for keeping it running.
Although I have Google Analytics running, I do miss the tool that tells you who the last visitors to your account were and how they got there (and also access to the logs).
You are right about the impression that your online persona creates – happy self hosting!
Dan,
We’ve spoken before about the process, but for your readers’ sake, I’ll just second your assertion re: the ease of migrating from Edublogs (a WordPress-based service) to self-hosted WordPress. Moving the content couldn’t have taken me more than a few minutes; I spent more time playing with themes than anything else!
At the risk of advertising, I will say that some persistent Googling allowed me to find a domain name and sufficient Web hosting from two different services for under $30 US/year combined. Free blogging services are fantastic, as they encourage newbies (like we were), but for a nominal fee, the freedom of self-hosting adds a new dimension to blogging, not the least of which is a greater sense of ownership over the project.
Thanks for commenting guys!
Rob – I don’t know what older versions were like but WordPress 2.7 seems pretty easy to manage upgrades, most happen at the click of one button. And I know what you mean about the Feedjit bar, I’m becoming a little obsessed watching it!
Damian – It was incredibly easy as you say, 2 minutes to import the old blog posts and comments – a whole day fiddling making it look nice!