Freedom Blogs is a free blog hosting service for freedom-lovers everywhere, based on the popular and powerful WordPress system and operated by Mike Gogulski.

Free?

Yes!

In exchange for allowing me to run ads on your blog, you get many benefits. While you can already get a free blog, I offer more service, support and flexibility than Blogger or WordPress.com. You can install any theme and customize it as you wish and install plugins to add capabilities — WordPress.com allows only “approved” themes, and no plugins at all.

You also get my personal attention and assistance in operating the platform for you, freeing you to just WRITE while taking full advantage of self-hosted WordPress. My goal is to provide a secure, reliable platform. You can trust that the technical stuff is handled, and focus on publishing what you have to tell the world.

Included services:

• Private WordPress installation with full Administrator access (or Editor, if you prefer)
• Your domain name or a subdomain of freedom-blogs.com, fr33blogs.com or no-state.com
• Hosting by DreamHost, an experienced, reliable provider
• Unlimited bandwidth and storage
• Local image upload and hosting
• Existing Blogger, WordPress.com, TypePad.com, etc. blogs imported for you
• As many user accounts as you need to help customize and run it or for a group blog
• Search engine optimization so the world finds you easily
• Useful plug-ins and themes available for immediate use
• My help selecting and installing appropriate plugins for specific functions
• Anti-spam and anti-virus
• Comprehensive visitor statistics
• Support via email or instant messaging
• WordPress and plugin software updates
• Announcement and blogrolling of your site at freedom-blogs.com (optional)
• Automated backup and restore or re-install in the event of problems (optional)

And the catch is…?

There’s always a catch! At Freedom Blogs, I think you’ll find the trade-off acceptable.

The deal is that you let me add a few links to my other websites and run ads on your blog. These might be from Google AdSense, text-link-ads, affiliate marketing programs and so on. I’m probably just as sick of big obnoxious advertising on the internet as you are, so I promise to make the ads relatively small and unobtrusive. Absolutely no Flash animations, pop-ups, sliding windows or such nonsense will appear. If you find something I put up objectionable or stupid, just contact me and we’ll find a solution. Just leave the links, ads and the plugins I require in place and the service remains free to you.

If you really can’t tolerate ads, I’m still happy to host you. What’s that worth? You decide! Send me a proposal and we’ll work something out.

Terms and conditions

Can we forget the lawyers and just make a mutually agreeable deal? If you’re ever unhappy, just let me know. If we can’t work it out to your full satisfaction, your recourse is to quit using the service and badmouth it and me all over the planet.

Customize your Freedom Blogs account as you see fit, but don’t mess with or remove the installed plugins or ads! If you goof, I’ll help you fix it, but leaving that stuff there is part of the deal.

Unless we agree otherwise, your Freedom Blogs content will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Freedom Blogs is for lawful purposes only, and must comply with the (easy) DreamHost terms of service. Copyrighted materials you aren’t licensed for, pornography, hacking tools, spam, network marketing and ponzi-type schemes are not accepted. I don’t allow reselling. Software, video and audio files must be hosted elsewhere, but you can link to them. Be careful with plugins and your theme’s code to avoid overwhelming the servers. Getting me in trouble is not recommended. Consult with me first if you’re in doubt. If I feel I must disable your site, I will give you the backups so you can recreate it elsewhere.

My support is limited to providing you with a platform to speak to the world, getting you started using it, and fixing things if anything breaks. I will help you install a theme and the plugins you need at start-up time, but customizing and configuring things beyond that is up to you.

Freedom Blogs comes with no warranty of any kind. I assume no liability of any kind. You will hold me and DreamHost harmless for all acts and omissions with respect to the service.

Sound okay?

Write to me and I’ll have your personal Freedom Blog up and running in short order! Just send me an email at mike (at) gogulski (dot) com, and tell me what you’re after!

I also provide similar services if you’re already running self-hosted WordPress, under even better terms, or on an hourly consulting basis. Let’s talk!