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ng as hosting and saw that they had some snazzy, new, and sophisticated editing and hosting available. It came with a big price tag.</p><p id="caf3"><i>Well, I had my lifetime free WordPress option, so why would I start paying?</i></p><p id="c4f3">Fast forward to this morning and it was gone. All gone. In its entirety.</p><p id="0764">I have no idea if I can recover any of it because I can’t log in to WordPress. My account no longer seems to exist.</p><h1 id="6a79">A valuable lesson learned</h1><p id="f011">Am I upset?</p><p id="458a"><i>Actually, no. Not in the slightest.</i></p><p id="88f7">Mainly because I was hardly using it anyway and was mostly making the most of simply having a free option still available. But, in recent times, I hadn’t invested a great deal of time or energy there and had no content on there that wasn’t backed up elsewhere.</p><p id="9374">The truth is that I knew that, when the time was right and I would want a good website to offer more, I would be paying for a good hosting package. Clearly, the time has been decided for me. And that’s totally cool.</p><p id="d0a2"><b>But, it has given me a valuable lesson, and that is that nothing that is free in the online space can be relied on.</b></p><p id="7c89">Most of our social media channels are free or very low cost, and none of it is owned by us.</p><p id="40f7">I know many people who have had their Facebook accounts and/or business pages frozen or closed, YouTube channels removed, and even Medium accounts put on hold because the bots flagged up some possible infringement of community standards. If you are relying on the subscribers, followers, and contacts via your social media channels for your business then you are risking everything.</p><h1 id="a452">What you can do to avoid losing content and followers</h1><p id="a02d">Email subscribers are invaluable and the best thing you can do is to back up everything.</p><ul><li>Re-post your articles and blog content on various platforms, such as Vocal Media, your own blogging site, and even back it up on an external storage device. That way you will not only never lose it, but you can repurpose it as and when you need to.</li><li>If video is a big part of what you do, re-post your most important videos onto other platforms. You can also download and save them, however, this will take up a lot more memory than written content does, and so it may not be the best use of your storage, since videos can become dated and obsolete more quickly than written content.</li><li>Get as many of your followers from every social media channel to give you their email addresses. This can be via subscribing to your newsletter, opting in to receive a freebie from you, be it an eBook or a free video course, or joining a live challenge. Back this up by downloading all your contacts as a CSV file and saving it to your hard drive or an external storage device.</li><li>Keep a list of any subscriptions that need renewing regularly, such as domain names and hosting packages. Add these into your online calendar, whether you use Googl

Options

e Calendar, Apple Calendar, or both. I also use the Reminders App on my iPhone because these remain on your lock screen until you actively go in and delete them.</li></ul><h1 id="9525">Closing thoughts</h1><p id="ea05">It’s one thing to get into the world of content creation, product sales, and affiliate marketing, but it requires a certain vigilance and forethought to ensure that your efforts won’t, one day, unexpectedly get lost in the black hole of the internet.</p><p id="2804">While, as I said, it wasn’t a huge deal for me to discover that I had lost my blog, it was still time and hours lost. And it was a little bit of a shock in the moment.</p><p id="88f0">But it could have been a lot worse.</p><p id="3003">So, this is a word of warning to not be complacent about your digital property. Take care of it as you would physical property, and stay in control.</p><p id="1ecf"><b>Thanks for reading. <a href="https://sallyprag.medium.com/membership">Subscribe to support me and other writers</a> and get unlimited reading (affiliate link).</b></p><p id="9bb2">More from me to feast your eyes on:</p><div id="7311" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/is-it-a-waste-of-your-time-to-write-and-publish-daily-c4217639a948"> <div> <div> <h2>Is It A Waste of Your Time to Write and Publish Daily?</h2> <div><h3>The results tell the answer</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*F1JTyitSXiq-EUeJ)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="ba55" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/celebrating-80-years-in-style-with-family-surprises-and-dolphins-6ee853addf40"> <div> <div> <h2>Celebrating 80 Years in Style: With Family, Surprises, and Dolphins</h2> <div><h3>Coming together to honour a birthday has never felt more special</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*tGeeHz7I1Q8k6J5c)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="981b" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/with-all-the-complaining-what-remains-on-the-barren-landscape-of-medium-a24c0de2a583"> <div> <div> <h2>With All The Complaining, What Remains on the Barren Landscape of Medium?</h2> <div><h3>The opportunity to learn and grow — that’s what!</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*Zi59N3DtMiXfiISQ55W0Jw.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

My Blog of 5 Years Has Disappeared and is Gone For Good

A warning to not be complacent about your precious content in the online space

In early 2017 I started a blog.

It wasn’t my first, but the prior attempts had been half-hearted, and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.

This new one was different. I was learning the skills involved in blogging for income; the best practices, formatting, and how to add links, create squeeze pages and sales pages.

I put hours and hours of work into it over a 3 year period, before pulling back and focusing my energy more elsewhere. However, I hadn’t given it up and had reignited it back in May of this year. Again, spending hours building a new homepage and uploading new blog posts.

I created a nice squeeze page which I linked into some articles on Medium and had plans to tweak the homepage more while adding in a lot more content.

This morning I decided that I had the energy and motivation to make these changes and went to log in to my WordPress account…only to find that the hosting no longer existed.

No warning was given

I have to confess that it’s been over a month since I last logged in, and I have no idea how long it has been down. I had no notification from the company through which I had the hosting, and the whole thing has been a bit baffling.

What is clear is that it’s permanent.

You see, I got this hosting as part of an educational package and affiliate agreement back in 2017, which I paid a heck of a lot of money for. This hosting came with it and would be free forever…as long as it existed.

Although there were no official terms in the original contract regarding the hosting, the underlying expectations were that the hosting would only be used for a limited time until I was ready to find an alternative hosting package with more storage and capabilities. However, I never upgraded because this hosting package did what I needed and I had no need for more.

My philosophy has always been “why pay extra when you don’t need to?”

However, things change, companies evolve and, eventually, freebies get taken away.

Although, it was not exactly free — just a perk given with the educational package I had purchased.

It wasn’t a total surprise

To be fair, I was aware that the company no longer offered this hosting with new purchases, and had even thought that I may no longer have access to my WordPress account when I discovered, back in May, that I could no longer gain access to it via the company membership site.

I had a quick look at what they were currently offering as hosting and saw that they had some snazzy, new, and sophisticated editing and hosting available. It came with a big price tag.

Well, I had my lifetime free WordPress option, so why would I start paying?

Fast forward to this morning and it was gone. All gone. In its entirety.

I have no idea if I can recover any of it because I can’t log in to WordPress. My account no longer seems to exist.

A valuable lesson learned

Am I upset?

Actually, no. Not in the slightest.

Mainly because I was hardly using it anyway and was mostly making the most of simply having a free option still available. But, in recent times, I hadn’t invested a great deal of time or energy there and had no content on there that wasn’t backed up elsewhere.

The truth is that I knew that, when the time was right and I would want a good website to offer more, I would be paying for a good hosting package. Clearly, the time has been decided for me. And that’s totally cool.

But, it has given me a valuable lesson, and that is that nothing that is free in the online space can be relied on.

Most of our social media channels are free or very low cost, and none of it is owned by us.

I know many people who have had their Facebook accounts and/or business pages frozen or closed, YouTube channels removed, and even Medium accounts put on hold because the bots flagged up some possible infringement of community standards. If you are relying on the subscribers, followers, and contacts via your social media channels for your business then you are risking everything.

What you can do to avoid losing content and followers

Email subscribers are invaluable and the best thing you can do is to back up everything.

Re-post your articles and blog content on various platforms, such as Vocal Media, your own blogging site, and even back it up on an external storage device. That way you will not only never lose it, but you can repurpose it as and when you need to.
If video is a big part of what you do, re-post your most important videos onto other platforms. You can also download and save them, however, this will take up a lot more memory than written content does, and so it may not be the best use of your storage, since videos can become dated and obsolete more quickly than written content.
Get as many of your followers from every social media channel to give you their email addresses. This can be via subscribing to your newsletter, opting in to receive a freebie from you, be it an eBook or a free video course, or joining a live challenge. Back this up by downloading all your contacts as a CSV file and saving it to your hard drive or an external storage device.
Keep a list of any subscriptions that need renewing regularly, such as domain names and hosting packages. Add these into your online calendar, whether you use Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or both. I also use the Reminders App on my iPhone because these remain on your lock screen until you actively go in and delete them.

Closing thoughts

It’s one thing to get into the world of content creation, product sales, and affiliate marketing, but it requires a certain vigilance and forethought to ensure that your efforts won’t, one day, unexpectedly get lost in the black hole of the internet.

While, as I said, it wasn’t a huge deal for me to discover that I had lost my blog, it was still time and hours lost. And it was a little bit of a shock in the moment.

But it could have been a lot worse.

So, this is a word of warning to not be complacent about your digital property. Take care of it as you would physical property, and stay in control.

Thanks for reading. Subscribe to support me and other writers and get unlimited reading (affiliate link).