Quick note about a free Wordpress blog

[Shamir]

Would have thought Ed and crew would have known about this.

[jwvanderbeck]

The key here guys is essentially they are trying to prevent yet more blog affiliate spamming, the stuff you shoudl not be making anyway. Make a good quality, high value, high content blog that makes the reader happy he visited, with a discrete link or two, and you won't have any problems with WP.

[REcoach]

John,

When the word "nuke" is used in Wordpress' TOS, I think it's important to look at it

Quote: A discreet link to your business in the sidebar or an About page is permitted.

One discreet link to Amazon per blog is okay, but if the primary purpose of the blog is to drive traffic to affiliate programs that’s not allowed. If you’re not sure, contact support.

Clicktrackers and any promotion of the “I made a million on the internet and so can you” type of advertising are expressly forbidden.

We have a very low tolerance for blogs created purely for search engine optimization or commercial purposes, machine-generated blogs, and will continue to nuke them, so if that’s what you’re interested in WordPress.com is not for you. Unquote

What now? Chris

[jwvanderbeck]

Well in the end you have to make up your own mind. I've made up mine. I have used Wordpress.com since they launched and have several blogs with discrete affiliate links in them.

The key is right in your quote above "blogs created purely for commercial purposes"... My wordpress.com sites are built for providing information, FREE information with no hoops, first and foremost.

[REcoach]

If I'm confused, please explain.

In today's training we're shown how to insert an affiliate link directly into our blog post (for commercial purposes in Wordpress' eyes) though we're doing it for testing purposes.

We're shown how to insert a clicktracker, again for testing purposes, but against Wordpress' TOS.

After our experience with Tumblr, I'm questioning why we would want to blatantly ignore the TOS of another great platform, AND do it in droves? It isn't making sense to me today.

Chris

[jwvanderbeck]

I would not use a click tracker on Wordpress.com

Beyond that, well i'm not sure how to say it withouth being quite rude, so I apologize if this angers you... But if you dont' know how to make a site that is first and foremost simply about providing good content, exactly what the searcher wanted - then don't use Wordpress.com, go to somewhere else like Blogger. Because it IS a fine line and if you arent' clear on it, then you probably will end up being nuked by WP.

[REcoach]

I'm attempting to follow the instructions for today. Ed, Caro and Mike have told us to respect the host (if the host won't allow what we're doing, we should go to another platform). So I'm trying to understand why today's instructions say to put the affiliate link in our Wordpress blog post and track it.

There isn't anything in Wordpress' TOS about quality of content, though we should understand what it is from examples given by Ed, Caro and Mike. And we know blogs with great quality of content have been "nuked" before. Wordpress isn't saying I can ignore their rules if I provide good content.

And I'd like to understand the discrepancy between the host (Wordpress)'s rules and today's training instructions--good content aside.

Chris

[jwvanderbeck]

Todays training doesn't tell you to use Wordpress. It simply uses TDC's free wordpress site as an example of how to do the link. Nothing more.

[CherylW]

Oh.
Oh dear.
Fffffffffffishcakes, even.

See I actually read the Wordpress Terms of Service for my little freebie blog today; every last word. I even found the 'hidden bonus' link to a picture of food from the canteen. Gosh, if you read what you agree to properly, then you get to understand what well fed developers the company has. Lucky them.

The only rules I could see regarding this were:

(From point 1):

You must not describe or assign keywords to your blog in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and Automattic may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause Automattic liability.

(From point 2, bullet 5)

By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:.................the Content is not spam, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing)

So no pretending to be someone else,
no defaming,
no unethical or unwanted commercial content (as opposed to 'no commercial content) - ie, I thought - no in-your-face-spammy stuff that looks like the sign over Betelgeuse's grave, and promises the moon.

In other words, my little site with one or two text links per post to different products (maybe the same selling company, but different products), that have a genuine relevance to the stuff I am writing, would be OK.

Yes? No?

Sorry Fatman, that's a really great post you wrote but all its done is confuse me more.

Can anyone clarify please?

And does anyone know of a freebie site as crisp and clean as Wordpress (as opposed to Blogspot which is, well, not so crisp), that will let us put relevant links to genuine content?

[cmiddlebrook]

I actually did a search for "advertising" in their FAQ as I am so wary about this stuff which is how I found it in the first place.

Really speaking, if the site is full of really good content and then you gently nudge the visitor towards a discreet affiliate link then it should be ok but I posted the warning because having seen a bunch of the Tumblr blogs, I know that just wasn't the case.