In the mid-1990s, those of us who were brave enough to risk our lives and reputations by using this thing called the World Wide Web found a little web community that allowed us to set up our web pages for free. It was really nice.

Actually, it wasn’t. But it was free, which made it seem really nice. And if you had any technical know-how, and most of us didn’t, then it was really good because you didn’t need any. Geocities had all the tools you needed to set up your own website. And since there weren’t any search engines not to get found in (well, not many anyway), it didn’t really matter how good you were at building a website. The few hundred other website owners at Geocities might find you anyway because you might have been smart enough to list your little website at Yahoo!

Back then, Yahoo! was a directory and not much more. It was the leading place on the Web to find information because website owners themselves submitted their sites in the categories they wanted to be found in. Google hadn’t even been thought of yet.

One year after a little start up called Google turned its lights on – 1999 for those of you with no fingers – Yahoo! bought Geocities. We were all in awe of Yahoo!

I was one of those Geocitizens with a presence in the little community that came to be owned by Yahoo! The year was 1997. I thought it would be cool to publish some of my poetry on a website so Geocities was a nice place to stack my pens. It really didn’t last long. I went on to buy my own domain name and built an actual website using HTML (though I won’t reveal what that website is because it’s just too much an embarrassment). But I was cool for about a year.

Imagine my surprise when I read the other day that Yahoo! was shutting down Geocities. They weren’t even selling it. Or replacing it with anything. Not even a plan to revamp it. Just killing it. Splat!

I wasn’t really surprised, but I feigned it for a second. I’m not making this up.

Get Your Own Poetry Blog Now! (Before It’s Too Early)
This just goes to show you can’t say never and you should never rely on free hosting.

So why should I mention this? Because it seems that the majority of poets publishing a blog today are doing it through another free host – Blogger.com, owned by Google. The largest search engine on planet earth. (Drumroll please: This should really be dramatic!)

Do you really think Google will be the biggest and baddest forever? We thought that about Yahoo! Do you think that Blogspot (Blogger.com) will be around forever? We thought that about Geocities. Today, Yahoo! is threatened with extinction and Geocities is studying to be a paleontological discovery. And me? I’m just looking forward to Armageddon.

So anyway, short story long, what will happen to all of your blog content if you are hosting through Blogger.com and Google decides to abort the baby? Well, you’ll just end up scraping little pieces of placenta off the pavement (if you can bend down that low) and wish you had listened to all of those fire and brimstone preachers warning you about the end of the world. Hell hath no fury like a blogger forewarned!

Ah, digressions aside (and indiscretions too), if you really want your blog to be a lasting document (like a will and testament or a Supreme Court decision) then you should spring $10 for a domain name. No, really, that’s all it costs. $10. Of course, you’ll have to have a host for your domain, but that usually costs about $3 per month if you go with the shared hosting plan at one of the least expensive hosts. And the benefit is this: You’ll own the blog. Lock, stock, and gunny sack. And no one can shut you down.

My One And Only Offer For Salvation (Baptism Optional)
I realize not everyone has the technical know-how to install blog software and set it up properly. I bet you could teach yourself. It really isn’t hard. But you may not want to. No problem.

If you want a poetry blog and you are willing to buy a domain name and pay for the hosting, I’ll install and set up your software for you. WordPress is very easy to use. It’s almost intuitive. If you can type a letter using Microsoft Word then you can write a blog post using WordPress. It’s free, just like Blogger.com. Except that you can keep WordPress forever, like concert tickets. (In fact, I have the latest copy of WordPress and I’ll let you have it.)

This offer is only good if you set up a poetry blog. No charge. I’ll install WordPress and set it up for you, including ensuring that your settings are set to the best optimization standards. The only thing that I ask in return is that I put a link back to World Class Poetry Blog and my sister site, World Class Poetry, in the footer of your blog. Nothing auspicious or conspicuous, just a little attribution link for doing the work (I normally charge $200 for WordPress setups).

I’m limiting this offer to five poets or poetry-related blogs. Your blog can be for a blog on poetics, a blog on which you post your own poetry, a blog for a poetry journal, or any blog that is poetry in nature. You can’t take advantage of this offer for any other type of blog. Exclusively for poets. Plus, I’ll add your blog to the World Class Poetry Toolbar.

To take advantage of this offer, send me a request through my contact form (be sure to let me know in the comments that you are responding to this offer) and I’ll get back in touch with you about your poetry blog. Wouldn’t you much rather own the property and not just the content?