Earlier this afternoon I received a message from google like many adult bloggers that use and once used the platform. Good is updating it TOS and has decided that is will not host blogs with adult ads. I can’t say that I’m too shocked I expected an announcement like this right after google put an axe on adult apps for the upcoming google Glass.
All bloggers that did the responsible thing and listed their content as adult received a short email.
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The email doesn’t give a lot of details and there isn’t much help on getting specifics of what Google considers an ad. The content policy on adult content is changing to this:
Adult Content: We do allow adult content on Blogger, including images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity. But, please mark your blog as ‘adult’ in your Blogger settings. Otherwise, we may put it behind a ‘mature content’ interstitial.
There are some exceptions to our adult content policy:
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Do not use Blogger as a way to make money on adult content. For example, don’t create blogs where a significant percentage of the content is ads or links to commercial porn sites.
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No incest or bestiality content: We do not allow image, video or text content that depicts or encourages incest or bestiality.
Do they include links to toy stores pay sites or cam networks? Will your niteflirt call buttons count? Or even your streammate widget? If I put a friend’s blog which is attached to her pay site does that count as an ad? What do they mean by content?
Luckily for me I took down all the ads from my blogger site when I switched to a self hosted WordPress site. Of course the posts up until 2010 are up and I didn’t want to look through a year of posts to delete every link so I’m talking a gamble. It is terrifying to think that my content could be deleted or even more terrifying my entire google ID. If that is deleted I would lose my adsense account, Google+ , contacts in my phone and my main email.
It was my fear of losing those services that made me switch platforms to begin with many in the sex blog community do toy reviews and without hosting banner ads on our site will not be able to receive review items or be able to afford toys to review. Many of us have erotica and made our own banners pointing to stories on our sites there’s no telling if those are now in violation of the TOS.
It seems that Google doesn’t want to support adult blogs but doesn’t want to specifically tell us to get out. So we can continue to exist as long as we don’t profit from our blogs. Its not like we have a choice in the ads we display. Most vanilla ads don’t want to be placed in adult spaces.
My humble advice is to get the fuck out of doge. I know its scary because blogger is by far the easiest and cheapest way to get a blog up and running. There are other options Tumblr has proven to be adult friendly even after being bought by Yahoo!. I think the best option is getting a self hosted wordpress blog. I would avoid GoDaddy.com because they really try their best to be terrible. The service I use is cheap, has no restrictions on content and also has a wizard that will convert all your blogger posts to your new blog. They also let you register your frist domain for free, but to make your information private cost a small yearly fee. Its called JUSTHOST.COM
Just remember there are many hosts out there and you should do some research to make sure the one you choose is right for you.
