Clarification of overly promotional, please

1. 84

   Marisa Wrightposted 12 years ago

   We all know you can't have more than 2 links to the same domain in a single Hub.   However, there used to be another rule - that if you linked to the same domain over several Hubs, that was also overly promotional.
   
   I think we need to know if that still applies, because some of us are handing out that advice to people but it's no longer stated in HP rules, so we may be telling people the wrong thing.
   
   Here's the current definition:
   
   "Purely promotional offers and Hubs designed only to promote other sites or businesses are not allowed. In particular, the following actions are likely to get your Hubs identified as overly promotional:
   
       - including more than 2 links to any one domain
       - linking to the same domain in the body of the text AND in an RSS feed
       - short "teasers" with links to "read more" at another site
       - linking to sites/pages/Hubs that are unrelated to your Hub's topic
       - including links to a page that contains largely the same content as your Hub"
   
   Here's the old version:
   
   "Purely promotional offers and Hubs designed only to promote other sites or businesses are not allowed. In particular, the following actions are likely to get your hubs flagged:
   
      - linking repeatedly to the same site within a hub or across many hubs
      - including links to a page that contains largely the same content as your hub
      - linking to products or services unrelated to a Hub's content
      - including more than 2 links to any one domain
       - short "teasers" with links to "read more" at another site"

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   1. 88

      WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Neither of those definitions show up, Marisa. It's just a white space?
      
      But I did see Jason mention just the other day mention that linking to the same site across all hubs is allowed, will try and dig up link.
      
      Edit:: In here, somewhere. You might have to open up the thread to find it if you're on threaded.
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/91297#post1951969

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      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I put them in quotes.  I can see them in my OP but not when you quote them. I've changed it - hope you can see them now.
         
         
         
         I know, that's why I was asking.  But Jason points out that he's not a moderator so he doesn't really know.

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         1. 88

            WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yep, can see them now, thanks.
            
            And ok. There have been misunderstandings before from people not in the same department.

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         2. 95

            wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Jason commented that he would check with the moderation staff and find out which one is correct now.
            
            Perhaps he will see this thread and follow through.  Like you, Marisa, I would like to know the answer as I have advised them that they cannot link to the same site from every hub.  If that is now incorrect I would like to know that.

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   2. 0

      Norah Caseyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The old rule was specifically targeting people who posted their promotional link to many of their Hubs, not just several of them. In practice, I only enforced the rule when the entire account promoted a single domain.
      
      There are two main reasons why we no longer use this rule. First, it was difficult to fairly enforce and secondly, the sort of rules violations we were concerned about are now covered under our post-Panda rules.
      
      What we were aiming to eliminate with the "across many Hubs" rule was affiliate marketers posting links to their scammy MLM websites across 120 unsubstantial Hubs. When those Hubs were moderated under that bullet point, the marketers would in turn flag Hubs by authors who included links to their creative works within their poetry Hubs or links to their cooking sites in recipe Hubs. Clearly, this was not the sort of content we want to unpublish.
      
      The new rules restrict these sorts of spammers, making the "across many Hubs" rule redundant.
      
      You can safely inform new Hubbers that linking to a promotional site across all their Hubs is not in and of itself grounds for unpublishing. However, I generally tell such newbies that if their only purpose on HubPages is to promote a specific website or service, they should post their content elsewhere.

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      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for that great explanation Norah!

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         1. 95

            wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Second the thanks.  That makes things quite clear and understandable.

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2. 68

   Michael Willisposted 12 years ago

   I also want to know about the using a link across several and up to all hubs. I had one unpublished last year because I was told I linked the link to "too many hubs." Removed the link and used a different one and hub was republished.
   There needs to be ONE Rule and ONE rule only to keep hubbers from having issues.

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   1. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Michael, I've always understood that you can link across several Hubs, provided it's not the majority of your account.
      
      For instance, all my belly dance Hubs link to my belly dance sites, all my flamenco Hubs link to my flamenco site, and all my ballet Hubs link to my ballet site.  I've never had any trouble, but I always thought that's because none of those groups is really huge.
      
      However, I've known several newbies get canned for linking all their Hubs to one domain, and I notice Greekgeek's profile mentions getting some Hubs unpublished for that reason a while back:
      
      http://greekgeek.hubpages.com/

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      1. 75

         Kangaroo_Jaseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         From what I recall Marisa, and I will have to look through the TOS on Squidoo to confirm, but linking to a single site from multiple Lenses is OK on Squidoo.
         
         You will most likely find many Squidooers using that process here on HubPages (not realizing the difference)

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3. 71

   relacheposted 12 years ago

   In my experience here, linking to the same domain on every single one of your Hubs (even if it's just a single link) will result in your overall author score taking a steep dive.
   
   Linking to the same domain from multiple Hubs has no effect, but admin has always kept silent on giving an actual number or percentage so as to not encourage people to push for the maximum.

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