If Making $ is Important To You; Read the Fine Print
We are all here, I think, because we want to create and build profitable online businesses. Yet, all too often we are not taking the time to understand the rules that we have agreed to follow. We agree to follow rules when we signed up for WA, social media accounts, the Amazon associates program and a number of affiliate programs. We sign up for these accounts because we want to make money. Yet, I don't always read the rules. After reading a bunch of blog posts over the last couple of years, I know that a LOT of people don't read the rules.
The result is that people find themselves getting banned, temporarily or permanently, from programs. They do not get paid commissions they thought they earned. Or, posts they spend a lot of time writing are removed.
In each case, even if you can protest the matter, you are losing valuable time taking care of problems that could have been avoided. Violating SPAM policies seems to be the most common cause of these bans.
How often do you make the time to read the fine print at the end of agreements that you agree to abide by every time you join an affiliate marketing program or social media platform? You know, the policies, rules and notices. The lines and lines of boring stuff.
I don't think that most of us realize how many important little details are tucked into the fine print that directly impacts our usage of the platform and our ability to get paid. When other people get banned, I tend to think, "Oh that will never happen to me." What about you? Have you ever thought that?
I am trying to get better about reading the rules. The fine print. They are just so long.... and boring.
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Today I signed up for the ShareASale affiliate program. Their rules on SPAM was up towards the top. They addressed the spamming issue, in a sort of fun way. So, it grabbed my attention.
I have cut it and paste it here. The formatting is exactly as they had it.
"You cannot SPAM. You cannot SPAM. You cannot SPAM. We will terminate your account on the first offense of SPAMMING. Do not send email to lists or groups that you do not have permission to send to. We cannot stress this enough, we WILL terminate your account on the first offense"
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If your account gets terminated because of SPAM:
- How much money in future affiliate commissions could you be losing?
- How much time are you wasting trying to get a second chance?
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Wealthy Affiliate Policy on SPAM
This made me think about Wealthy Affiliate's policy on SPAM in our WA blog posts. I see people violating the rules almost every day. It is usually done by new members that are just excited to be sharing their new websites. Other times, it is people that are adding links to their signatures like is acceptable in other online communities they take part of. Or they are excited about some accomplishment and want you to be able to see their site.
More often than not, I try to just ignore the matter. I don't want to be the SPAM police. I've already spent years as an auditor. I was paid nicely yet after a while, I got tired of pointing out people's mistakes. I don't want to do that anymore.
Most people that inadvertently break WA's SPAM rules are just learning about people are most about blogging and participating in the chat room. They do not intend to violate any policies. Yet it is clear they have not taken time to read the WA rules. Granted, some will push the limits to see what they can get by with.
Yet, people that take the time to point out the SPAM rules are really helping these people learn to pay closer attention to the rules. Every affiliate program has different rules and they can have different ways of defining SPAM.
Wealthy Affiliate Policy on Spam
see the summarized rules, all a person needs to do is click on the blue "About blogging at WA link."
If you do so, this is what pops up this is what you will find:
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Before you blog here, we want to clarify a few things as people do get confused as to what they are allowed to blog about and what they aren't.
Here are some simple rules for blogging here at WA:
- Please don't spam or promote anything here at WA. That ain't cool. We are a spam free community and we want to keep this a safe place for everyone to interact and get help. Promotions are to be left for your external websites.
- Keep religion and politics out of your posts. Everyone comes from different walks of life and you know how fired up people can get about these topics. It is best to stay away from posts like this for the better nature of the community.
Again, on your external websites is totally cool for these sorts of topics.
- Keep the conversation on topic. Your blog here is to share your experiences within WA and with creating your business online. Your website is for posting "niche" related content, so keep anything that is relevant to your niche there. You don't want to waste your awesome niche content by posting it somewhere other than your site.
- Don't copy and paste content from elsewhere. Copying content from other sources, even if it is your own, isn't of benefit to the community.
- Be nice, play nice. Do to others and speak to others as you would want them to speak to you. Should be easy enough right?
If you want the full "policy" spiel, you can get our formal posting rules here.
Click here to read the full rules
Wishing you a fun, exciting, and interactive blogging experience here at WA and we look forward to reading your posts!
Your friends,
Kyle & Carson
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If we want to succeed in the world of affiliate marketing and earn every dime possible; it is important that we take the time to read the fine print.
It would be a shame to build an awesome website, Facebook account, Pinterest account or whatever only to lose your hard work and efforts because you SPAMMED people. Remember, each site potentially has a different definition of SPAM. It would also be a shame to lose sales because your customers didn't fit their definition of an allowable customer. (Amazon is really bad about this...)
Well, I hope that each of you have a great weekend that is both fun and productive.
Sondra
Recent Comments
103
Sondra,
I would think that if I did something wrong a friend would stop in to tell me about a mistake, if he/she could.
At least, that's my way of doing things.
But, people do things in many other ways.
Some blog, use live chat and ask questions without ever going to the friend they are actually talking about.
I am happy to be just as I am making mistakes or not, ranking well or not.
One thing you can count though is If something pertains to a friend, I will come to the friend personally without fear of reprisals.
Sorry! I have lived as a senior for many years and my values are set.
Spam is a no-no is very well advertised by Wealthy Affiliate. They didn't leave any of us in the dark.
People just love to do their own thing and pay for their actions later.
Not everyone spams on this platform.
If you feel that it is being done, help the person to understand their mistake by a simple one on one conversation.
You will be very surprised on how much the friend will appreciate you for taking the time to help them.
Helping a person can make a significant change in their life.
Maxine
Hello Maxine,
I think you have an amazing set of values. It is extremely important to take care of our friends.
I have lost count of how many times that I do contact people privately to help them if they misunderstood a rule. Yes, sometimes they get mad at first.
It would be a full time job to point out to every new person on WA or other social media platform's mistakes that came from their not reading or understanding the rules.
Thankfully, that is why we have communities.
The WA community is especially strong. If each person helps one or two people a day, we can all do our work and still help.
This post is not in response to a recent action by any one person.
It was in response to my thinking about ShareASales's spam rules. Their rules are different from WA rules. WA rules are different from the real estate blog network that I participate in. Pinterest has their own rules. Same with Amazon and Facebook. So many different rules..... That is why I want to encourage people to read the rules.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
What a terrific (and much-needed) post, Sondra!
For me, the most annoying spammers here are the repeat offenders who know better.
-Laurie
You are welcome Laurie.
At the end of the day, maintaining integrity is very important in business. Some people that think they are getting away with things end up hurting themselves in the long run.
I hope you have a great weekend.
You are welcome. The better we can understand the rules, the more time we can focus on our websites and other enjoyable things such as our families.
Hi Sondra
Thank you for this blog - I agreed to terms just yesterday after skin reading the terms 👀 Guess what I'm doing real soon! Yup, backtracking to read the fine print.
Thank you again.
Blessings
Louise
Hi Louise,
I agree with you. Backtracking to review the rules sounds like a wise thing to do.
As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
How funny is this. I signed up to ShareASale just 30 minutes ago myself lol. And I read that exact same policy of theirs you copied and pasted. I might inbox you at some point to ask clarity about their policy on where banners etc. may be shared. It was not clear to me if the banners are only to be shared on your website or whether you could post their banner in a FB post for example on your FB page. Thanks for taking the time to post this!
That is funny! Since I don't plan on using banners, I did not read the banner section too closely. (My focus is getting organic searches via content.)
Be sure to read the Facebook rules. It seems like I hear a lot of people in both WA and another real estate blog community mentioning getting suspended.
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You have taught me the need to read program policies. We tend to miss these due to lack of sufficient time to read them. Better I read them than be sorry.
Thank you.
You are welcome.
I'm actually reading many of the policies on different platforms myself tonight. As I have learned more on WA, I think I am gaining a better understanding of what they are not wanting us to do. At first, it was just too boring to read.
Best wishes.
Can I say they have the same format? Do they put the important points in a particular section? If there are any shortcuts you can share.
After all of the research that I have done this evening, I am thinking about doing a post for each program to share some of the tips. And have notes for myself.
I've been attempting to skim the policies & terms. Then I've tried to read articles that other people have written about what to avoid. Then I go back and try find the specific rules for myself.
Amazon's is fairly easy to find by looking in help section under Associates program policies and the operating agreement. It helps that I've heard many people on WA talk about what to avoid also.
I think I've already spent 3 hours on Pintrest trying to figure out their rules. They have tried to make it easier to read by not having everything in one huge block of words. The problem is that it is even more spread out. If you forget to click on a box or circle, you can miss out on a bunch of stuff. Plus, it sounds like they do not always provide specific details on why people get banned. Sometimes it is obvious like nudity or drugs, violence type of stuff. Other times, it could be more ambiguous.
A risk for WA people is to be careful to not make it sound like you can make lots of money in a unreasonably short time. Or that using some product will cure a medical problem. They do not like bitcoin either. Or guns - even antique ones.....
Great question on your part. I'll try to let you know when I get my post or maybe I might do it as a training done.
I have learnt useful information from your comment. I am better placed now.
I look forward to your post about the tips. Thank you
That is good. I am sorry it was so long.
Sondra, I actually did a post on how to use Pinterest ethically coz it was at some stage also quite difficult for me to understand what the rules are e.g. on copyright infringement on Pinterest etc. coz Pinterest encourages you to pin other peoples' pins to your boards etc. So where to draw the line with copyright infringement etc? Is it for example ethical to repin someone else's pins and then link it to your website or to an affiliate offer? So I decided to write a post to address how to use Pinterest ethically and how to make sure you stay out of trouble with Pinterest. So interesting you mentioning Pinterest here and that you spent so much time trying to understand their rules because it certainly is not just black or white.