Facebook Smacked Me [For Sending A Link To A Family Friend!]

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When my daughter was a little girl she received an enormous teddy bear who giggled and exclaimed with glee or complained in pain when you squeezed different parts of his body. One, our favorite for some reason, said "Ouch, that hurt!".



That is exactly what Facebook made me say when it blocked me from communicating with an old family friend! Can you believe it, Facebook Smacked Me [For Sending A Link To A Friend].

OK, granted, it was my WA affiliate link, but it was in response to questions from her which were the result of a post I shared (and asked many people to like, share or comment on by sending them the link via Facebook Messenger). The difference between the links was this:

  • The link I sent to a whole load of people was to my post on Facebook
  • The link I sent to my friend in a conversation was my WA affiliate link

What was I thinking???? I do know better than that!

AAARGH!!!

So How Did Facebook Smack Me?

They blocked me from communicating with my long time family friend! I have appealed and requested that they unblock me. of course, but I lost the momentum of a conversation with someone who was very interested right at that point.


OUCH! THAT HURT!!!!





It emphasizes the importance of strategy too though, we need to ensure we are not

Lesson Learnt

I will forever remember not to share any affiliate links on Facebook ever, ever again. Some lessons we have to learn by experience - clearly this was one for me. Some lessons we have to learn more than once - please don't let this be one of them, Facebook may shut me down. Aside from being a great place to post for business, Facebook is also a lifeline for me to many friends and family members all over the world. Makes me think of an amazing song by Johnny Clegg, a SA musician, "We Are The Scatterlings of Africa". Have a listen if you never have.

Two Additional Lessons

  1. As a "Scatterlings Of Africa", the last thing I should be 100% dependent on for contact with those near and dear to my heart is Facebook. We could be disconnected in a heartbeat! I shall be collecting phone numbers and email addresses asap!
  2. As an online business we have to ensure we are not 100% dependent on one social media source to promote our wares. What is the alternative? Build your email list - this is the one and only thing that no-one can take away from us.

Gratitude

I have to be grateful though, i still have access to my Facebook profile and all the pages I have. For now I shall tread more carefully on Facebook, and enjoy the feeling of gratitude flowing through me right now.


Gentle Reminder

Take this as your gentle reminder - never, ever, ever, ever share any affiliate links on Facebook!!! They absolutely will penalize you!!!

Not so gentle I know, but if I had headed this "Harsh Reminder" would you have read it?

So, it's back to the grindstone for me folks - have an awesome day & don't be like Louise, Remember Facebook Smacked Me [For Sending A Link To A Friend]

Blessings always

PS Happy 4th of July to all my American Friends!


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Recent Comments

63

In March, I sent my affiliate link on Messenger to 2 separate people, no problem.

Facebook should have nothing to say about our private conversations. If the other person wants to complain then that's how it should be handled. Not by Facebook.

I already deleted my FB pages because FB will arbitrarily ban pages and we have little recourse so I decided to delete them.

Social media companies are abusing our data, our privacy, controlling what we can see in search..etc.

It's a sad time indeed.

Mel

Hi Mel
They must have new bots in play, the block was so quick I can only think it must have been a bot.
Personally, I love Facebook, I see a LOT of good happening there too, particularly for my part of the world. Hopefully, they won't ever ban me completely, I'd be very sad.
I guess the data issue is a compromise we make for using the platform - an interesting take on how you see things.
Blessings
Louise

I'm confused are we not allowed to link from Facebook? Is that just our WA link for referrals or all affiliate links? I post on there all the time linking to my websites?

Got the answer further down! xx

Hi Sara

I post my blogs and articles to Fb all the time too and have had no problems with that at all. The reader then follows the link to the website where the article is held and from there can click on the affiliate links.

My understanding is that Fb is opposed to the raw affiliate links being shared on Fb.

I stand to be corrected but at this point in time, I will not be posting raw affiliate links again. The risk is too high for me. I do know that other WA members have been blocked from Fb, in fact, Little Mama (aka Grace who is also an extremely successful affiliate here) has been banned from Fb - all of her pages, but she still has a group in Fb.

Hope this helps you.

Blessings
Louise

Don't understand this at all. One thing is clear
all the Social Media sites are getting above themselves which means we need to start looking at the alternatives. However, they are all for-profit businesses and they deal with loads of free stuff which can't be very attractive to them. I have never had any bother but I do run ads from time to time.
Alister

Thank you for stopping to read and comment here Alister.

As you say, they are all for-profit businesses too - if we want to leverage their platforms for our businesses, best we play by their rules.

"One day when I am grown up", I will be placing ads too :-)

Blessings
Louise

Affiliate links are allowed on Facebook and I've used them successfully often with no problems. But FB bots often make mistakes and unfortunately, Wealthy Affiliate affiliate links get used by spammers a lot who try to game the system. It's probably an algorithm that caused it when you messaged your friend. I would definitely spend time trying to contact Facebook.

Hi Rochelle

Thank you for weighing in here. I have been in contact with them and am waiting for their feedback. I have only been blocked from messaging that one Fb friend so still have full access to everything else on Fb.

I am very surprised to hear that you have been able to place your affiliate links on Facebook, I have heard from more than one source that Fb is not affiliate link friendly. Perhaps you know a trick or two that you could write training about to assist us all?

Blessings
Louise

Great article, and thank you for sharing your experience.

Only a pleasure to share.

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment, Sandikazi :-)

Blessings
Louise

Hmmmm! I've written many articles on my Facebook I use for family and friends and talked about Affiliate Marketing and how wonderful this can be. I used Affiliate links to my WA Blogs as well as others and had no repercussions,

Hence I am a bit baffled why you got penalized!

Cheers.

Edwin

Hi Edwin

If your articles contain your links and are based on your website then it means your readers are going to your website on the article link, not an affiliate link. They can then click through the affiliate link which is contained within your article on your website.

I shared my WA affiliate link directly in the Fb message, not an article link.

Hope that helps clarify the difference.

Blessings
Louise

Oh hang on this answers my question above lol Should have kept reading (sorry : ))

Every article on WA has a link that says affiliate link. I believe that when I use these if anyone clicks it and as a result signs up, I will get the credit.

These are the links I placed on my Facebook. When I tried to share my personal website, Facebook warned my friends that the website I posted was not proven and that they click that at their risk. That was something new as in the past I could post my own websites and they never said that. Worse yet, a big grey balloon appeared above their message that would scare the daylights out of people.

Wealthy Affiliate's website is well established so this does not happen.

Not sure if I am making sense of this situation. I hope you get what I mean.

Cheers.

Edwin

Hi Edwin
I also share articles written within WA onto Facebook. Those must be cloaked links, unlike our direct affiliate links. There has to be a difference, otherwise, they would not have blocked my conversation.
Anyway, we live and we learn - thankfully I am no longer blocked from chatting with that friend, though we have taken the conversation over to Whatsapp now.
My website address is on my Fb page but I've not shared the URL on Facebook - thank you for the warning on that.
Thank you for taking the time to share again, yes, what you are saying does make sense.
Blessings
Louise

Thank you for sharing. Highly appreciated

My pleasure, grace.
Cool car on your profile pic :-)
Blessings
Louise

Thanks for sharing Louise, I never thought its possible but with your experience at least we have this awareness.

Art

Hi Art
I am glad this has brought awareness for you - we have to be really careful on Facebook.
Thank you for stopping to reach and leave me a comment too.
Blessings
Louise

Hi

Thanks for sharing this vital information.

I have just recently integrated Facebook with my website promoting Wealthy Affiliate as advised in the training and soon planning to open a Facebook page.

As of now, I am sharing my posts on Facebook so that my friends and family can click that link on my Facebook and come to my website.

But if you are saying that we can't share our affiliate links on Facebook then what's the point in integrating it with my website.

So what should I do then?

Thanks

Nick

Hi Nick

Sharing your website and articles on Facebook will be fine.

If you want to introduce people to the business, share the link to your WA (or any other affiliate program) review with them. That way they will go to your website and have direct access to your links via your reviews.

Does that make sense?

Blessings
Louise

Oh Yes

I think I got it now.

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Thanks a lot

Only a pleasure :-)

I have found Facebook the most difficult of all social media sites to use in relation to promoting an online business. They seem to be far more responsive if you pay for an Adv. Jim

Hi Jim
Yeah, I agree with you. I guess that is the point though, they are a business too and are looking to make money.
Just hard on us starter businesses - perhaps we should approach them and request a starter business package offer - nice little win/win :-)
Blessings
Louise

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