'Promotional' vs. 'overly promotional'?

1. 67

   Tannaidheposted 16 years ago

   I know if you flood in links to your own business/products, etc., or constantly give links to the same place, you will get flagged as being 'overly promotional'.
   
   But, is it alright to include some links to other (business) sites in a genuine effort to help your readers?  Many things I might write about are relatively obscure, and people might not know where to locate them, and I would like to include links to some sites where they can find them.  Is this appropriate/allowable?

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2. 73

   Inspirepubposted 16 years ago

   The general rule is, if you are posting duplicate content, don't link out at all.
   
   If you are posting original content, you can link out to as many sites as you like, but not more than two links to any one site (per Hub).
   
   And it is up to you to make sure your tone is informational and your content is good quality and helpful. If it's poorly written and advertising-like, people are more likely to flag it as "overly promotional", regardless of how many links and to where.
   
   Jenny

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3. 0

   TiffanyDowposted 16 years ago

   Adding onto this, I have a question. On one of my Hubs, I had several links:
   
   1.) a .gov information site
   
   2.) my Squidoo lens
   
   3.) three links to different pages on Amazon.com (one for educational toys, one for motor skill building toys, and another for toys for ages 2-4).
   
   I got the old "overly promotional" email so I'm wondering - is it the 3 Amazon links in question? Should I narrow it down to 2?
   
   I was under the impression it was okay as long as it was different pages (someone else told me that) and others are wondering about this rule, too.
   
   Thanks!

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4. 60

   Jason Menayanposted 16 years ago

   Tiffany - Yes, the 3 links to Amazon is what tripped it. Bring that back to 2 and you should be fine. Better yet, replace those with an Amazon Capsule, in which you can feature as many items as you like.
   
   Tannaidhe - Yes, sure. Bear in mind what Inspirepub says, but if you limit your links to no more than 2 to any one domain, and your content is original, you should be absolutely fine.

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5. 68

   Bonnie Ramseyposted 16 years ago

   Jason,
   
   I was curious that so many people seem to be confused over the original content clause so I just looked up the webster definitions to see how they compare.
   
   Their definition of original (shortened) is work composed first hand, which could confuse someone who actually did compose and article themselves.
   
   However, the definitions of unique and exclusive are as follows:
   
   Unique: being the only one; being without a like or equal.
   
   Exclusive:  something exclusive such as a news story at first release or reported by only one.
   
   Between the three, uniques seems to be the clearest explaination of the clause intended by HP.
   
   Just wondering if maybe using the word unique in the TOS rather than original may be less confusing to authors who consider their content as original, although they may have it published elsewhere?
   Would this require some major change for HP or would it be a possibility just to switch to using unique in the description? I am simply curious since there are so many claiming the content is original since they are actually the true authors.
   
   To be honest, I misunderstood that part when I first came to HP myself. Fortunately, I rarely use links outside HP so it hasn't been a big problem for me. However, it seems to be a problem for some who do use links. I was just wondering if this may help people clear up the confusion.
   
   Bonnie

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6. 60

   Jason Menayanposted 16 years ago

   Thank you for the suggestion, Bonnie, although I'm not entirely sure a change in nomenclature would help clarify this for users. I suspect the majority of users who violate this rule don't bother to read the TOS in the first place.
   
   I clarify original as "exclusive to HubPages" here:
   http://hubpages.com/faq/#overly_promotional

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7. 68

   Bonnie Ramseyposted 16 years ago

   Thanks for the reply, Jason. You are probably right about the reading of the TOS. I guess you could explain in every detail each term and some would still violate them. It was just a thought! LOL
   
   Bonnie

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8. 59

   libraposted 16 years ago

   I just got notified that one of my hubs was overly promotional. The message was that it was "designed solely to promote another site or sites.." I was quite shocked. It was not!
   
   I looked at it to see how it might be so considered. The only thing I could find was that I had put in 3 manual links to ebay.uk. There were no other links. So could that be the reason?
   
   I had put in those ebay.uk links  because I don't have an account with ebay.com, so I cannot use the ebay capsule. Anyway, I have removed them and re-submitted.
   
   Is it allowed to put in more than one Amazon capsules in one hub?

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   1. 60

      Jason Menayanposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Yes. You're allowed a maximum of 2 to any one domain. So you can remove one and you'll be fine.
      
      
      
      Yes, you can put in as many Amazon (or any other) Capsules as you like.

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9. 67

   Tannaidheposted 16 years ago

   Just one more quick question, for clarification. 
   
   Would the exact same link in different places within one article count as one link, or two?
   
   Not a huge concern, but I prefer to understand these things before I end up getting in trouble for them   

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   1. 62

      darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      I would think yes.
      
      Because from what I gather, there have been clickbank links being used multiple times in the same hub, for the same product.

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