Do you user Blogger as you blog platform of choice? If so are you also prepared to loose the content and or the branding effort that you have put into the domain name that your blog has (eg. yourname.blogspot.com)?
You may be lucky and never have any problems with you account but then again you may be like some of the hundreds (or possibly thousands) that have had their Blogger-based blog hijacked or closed.
Reg Adkins is one such person that has very recently had his Blogger-based blog, Elemental Truths, hijacked. My friend Rosa Say brought Reg’s Blogger issue to my attention -
In what I sincerely hope will be a temporary fix here for him, I have replaced the links here for Reg Adkins’ Elemental Truths blog with links to Faith Based Counseling, where Reg had initially begun his blogging adventures.
Earlier today, Reg found that his Elemental Truths site had somehow been high jacked! When you follow links to his site, they take you to something that looks like a political advertisement written by someone other than Reg!
Reg has contacted Blogger (and their parent company Google to get this situation rectified but the last I had heard there had been no response back from them).
Another client and friend Pete Aldin, was concerned enough to comment -
Unbelievable. What can he do to fix this? (What can we do to avoid it?)
Unfortunately Reg is not the first (just search on the phrase “hijacked Blogger account”), and probably not the last, to loose the result of all the effort he has put into his blog, Elemental Truths. Blogger is very attractive to many people due to its free nature. But with free you handover all control over what happens behind the scene.
A few years ago when many people started using Blogger it was the only low-tech, low/no-cost option available. Many people worked out that to move away from their Blogger account also meant that they lost the domain name and any branding that had been built up in that name (and also the link love that was pointed at the blog). So they stayed.
To Reg and the many other blogger’s whose business or professional image relies on Blogger my advice is to start developing a plan to take more control over the content, branding and the investment of hours that you put into your blog.
Start now with some simple steps -
- register a domain name, that you own, that can be used at the URL for your blog
- investigate other blog platforms that are available that will provide a blog platform from the point of view of security, flexibility of content delivery, reliability and support responsiveness.
- backup your current blog content on a regular basis (the same as you do for your computer … you do backup your computer don’t you??)
Reg, you deserve better than what has happened to you and I hope that it all resolves for the better.
For everyone, be careful of the company that you and your blog keep. I know that most aren’t ready to loose at that you have invested in it.
[tags]Blogger, hijacked, Rosa Say, Reg Adkins, blog problems, Pete Aldin [/tags]
8 responses so far ↓
1 Pete Aldin
// Aug 1, 2007 at 8:58 am
Thanks Leah. This is sage advice. Glad you recommended I go with Wordpress.
2 Marc Lehmann
// Aug 1, 2007 at 8:59 am
Good post, not enough people worry about this issue. I feel for Reg. It’s real and its not just blogs, its email accounts and other services. When these pond scum get access they can see more detail about you which in turn could enable access to other services you use. So it’s critical to immediately work on preventing the chance of hacks to other services by changing similar passwords, changing secret question to be different to the one in the hacked application etc.
OpenID and others will become more popular in my opinion as it provides a mechanism to have one password and thus you’re more likely to go to a little more effort in creating a strong password rather than an easy one.
3 Rosa Say
// Aug 2, 2007 at 3:43 pm
An update Leah: Reg got his blog back, but still with no contact from Google or Blogger; it just “reappeared” for him when he followed a link to a new comment left there. Kind of strange; every trace of the hacker gone, and as if nothing had happened.
Now maybe I’m just too gun shy, but if I were in Reg’s shoes, I’d be a bit nervous about just resuming where I’d left off knowing someone had been in there … sort of like returning to your house to find a burglar has ransacked it, and not being able to sleep there anymore not knowing what may still lurk in some corner. Of course I’m not in his shoes, but I still think I’d just ctrl-c a few of my favorite posts and move up and out.
What do you think?
4 Leah
// Aug 2, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Thanks for providing the update Rosa - I’m glad to hear that Reg got his blog back
The “magical reappearance” is very strange and I agree with you that going back to using Blogger again would be difficult - I would never trust it again.
I would be doing more than just the ctrl-c of a few posts and would be backing up the blog with Greg Duncan’s Blogger Backup utility on a regular basis - http://www.codeplex.com/bloggerbackup
And as you say and as I recommended in the post above, I would be moving to another platform (I’m a little partial to Wordpress these days).
5 Nicole
// Aug 18, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I feel for Reg and your post Leah is definitely a good reminder to everyone to be selective about their blogging software.
My Blogger blog wasn’t hijacked and it was a personal one for family and friends back home but I deleted it by accident and couldn’t retrieve the information.
With this in mind, I started my business blog using Wordpress and now host it through my website.
6 Mel
// Sep 13, 2007 at 4:10 am
On topic……………
That’s a little scary. I use blogger and and quite happy with it. From what I have seen it has more flexibility than Wordpress. I do own the domain name.
Off topic………….
I believe that by just being a part of “Priscilla Palmer’s Personal Development list” suggests that each of us post this list. You like me (Killeris at “Attitude, the Ultimate Power”) are on this list. If you have already posted it, THANK YOU. If you have not posted it, I am officially putting out a challenge that you add additional sites that fit the theme and post the entire list. This is my opinion only. If you disagree I respectfully understand.
7 Pete Aldin
// Sep 18, 2007 at 8:29 am
I had the same comment from Mel. Guess he’s taken the Linklove 101 class.
8 Reg Adkins
// Dec 22, 2007 at 1:07 am
I don’t know if you are still interested in the ongoing saga of that which is “Reg” but here goes. I did in fact recover my Blogger website. I really think the hacker was so shocked by the outpouring of support for me left in the highjacket comments section that he/she just walked away from it.
I did continue to “hear noises from the closet” and as a result purchased the domain name http://www.elementaltruths.com and am running it from the WordPress platform.
My readership was decimated. I don’t know if it will ever build up again.
I like WordPress ok but it isn’t as easy to adjust and change as blogger was.
Anyway, come over and visit.
Thank you for your suport.
Reg Adkins of http://www.elementaltruths.com
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