I can't decide whether I want to keep my blog at wordpress.com or move it to my own website using wordpress.org. I've had people give me conflicting opinions on this. Can anyone give me good reasons for using one over the other? Thanks.
Have you read the differences between the two: http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/ Do note that on wordpress.com, they run their own adverts. It's not mentioned on that page. There are also hundreds of free wordpress hosts out there setup like wp.com, some of them quite a bit better than wp.com. Where you lookjing for a specific feature that you needed?
Does wordpress.com allow affiliate links and adsense? Even though you can put commercial links (?) they could always change the TOS at any time.
Officially no unless you get into their VIP program at $500-600 a month. They unofficially allow a single affiliate link within the sidebar though as long as that link isn't the whole point of your site. They will also allow you to promote your own works (ie an actual book, not an ebook) if you're the author or creator. They have also allowed review sites with affiliate links if the reviews are legit. (An actual thousand word review for each album on a cd review site will probably pass. 50 words won't.) Some other wordpress hosts do allow such though which is why I was asking what features the poster was looking for.
WOW...seriously? I've never heard that before, but I am not a fan of wordpress.com anyway...it blows my mind why anyone on earth would put serious effort into a blog or website, and NOT download the software from wordpress.org and host it themselves.
I used wordpress.com for months. So easy to set up and update. UNTIL I realized how relatively limited it was compared to a hosted wordpress.org blog. I migrated everything over (very easy). The opportunity to employ plug-ins alone is reason enough. But also from an SEO perspective, I believe .org blogs offer more potential.
I wanted to know if there was any SEO advantage to using .com or .org. I guess you would get backlinks from the .com wordpress blog.
I have read that .org blogs have an advantage. First of all, there are SEO plugins you can add that make optimization really easy. You can also have updates automatically ping any number of directories. .com blogs can't do any of that. They say that they are "SEO friendly," and that posts are pinged. Maybe someone here more experienced and knowledgeable can really explain the difference.
You get backlinks from their sitewide tag system but the penalty for that is all of your category links on your blog go to that system instead of your blog.