Using Affiliate Programs

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   Kathleen Robertsposted 13 years ago

   I hope this hasn't been addressed someplace. If so, I apologize but I can't seem to find the information.
   
   I know there are affiliate programs through HP, such as AdSense and Amazon (which I cannot use since I am in Colorado). I am wondering if we are allowed to use other affiliate programs. For example, sometimes I refer to certain products in my articles. If I have signed up as an affiliate with one of those companies, can I add my own affiliate links? Since I can't use Amazon and won't have much use for eBay in my articles, I thought it would be nice if I could make it up with other affiliate programs.
   
   I hope that makes sense.
   
   Thanks for the help.

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   1. 70

      tritrainposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It would very likely be flagged as overly promotional - http://hubpages.com/faq/#overly_promotional
      
      Don't forget about Ebay though.
      
      Your best bet for using other affiliate programs is via Squidoo, Blogger, and InfoBarrel.

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2. 95

   wildernessposted 13 years ago

   You are only allowed two outgoing links to any one domain in a hub.  In addition, you are not allowed to link all or even most of your hubs to the same domain.
   
   This is explained, I think, in the link given by tritrain.

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3. 65

   theherbivorehippiposted 13 years ago

   Why would it be over promotional if the link is related to the hub and as long as there are under two outgoing links? I have them on some of my hubs that go directly with the hub content...no flagging.  Just don't go overboard.

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      recommend1posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      you can promote what you like as long as it does not interfere with Hubpages revenue stream or Google regs.  The restrictions are common sense really - the only 'other' issues come from prohibited advertising that conflicts directly with the Hubpages selected advertisers policies - and I guess this would include directly competing affiliate programmes. Check out my affiliate site hubs.

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4. 59

   Kathleen Robertsposted 13 years ago

   Thank you all for your responses.

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5. 59

   TLMinutposted 13 years ago

   I can't really tell about overly promotional either yet. I'm going to write about my experience with a product I like a lot. I went to the website to find out something and see they have an affiliate program and don't want to ignore that if it's allowed to use it! It sounds like I can't or maybe I can... I'm not writing the article "solely to promote another site or a business" but HubPages can't discern my intentions, only my actions. Does that make it a "no-go"?

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   MyMastiffPuppiesposted 13 years ago

   There are some really good affiliate programs available that can be added as intext links. Just remember as stated earlier by Wilderness to use only two per hub. I have some of my outside affiliate programs to work very well here. As long as they are good programs, it should not be a problem. Ebay is a good option as well.

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7. 59

   TLMinutposted 13 years ago

   Darn, mine would have been about e-cigarettes but apparently we can't write about them here. Too bad, I'm really, really happy with them.

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   MyMastiffPuppiesposted 13 years ago

   How did you find out about topics we can't write about? That would be very helpful, I am not sure I have seen it. Maybe I overlooked it in TOS?

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   1. 59

      TLMinutposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I sent an email to the team to ask if I could use an affiliate link from the e-cigarettes I've started using; here's their reply:
      
      Affiliate links are permitted at this time, however we do not permit content that sells e-cigarettes.
      
      I've seen hubs about e-cigarettes though, so perhaps I can write about it, just not use a link. Hard to say.

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