Ads on free wordpress.com site
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Are we allowed to place ads on our free wordpress.com website like Google Adsense ads. I know that you can do it on blogspot but they are owned by Google. Also the default setting has at the top of the blog, Home and About. How do we add more categories to the top?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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User advertising is, except for a couple very narrow exceptions, not allowed on wordpress.COM. For the exceptions, see the last sentence under “Affiliate marketing blogs” in the bottom set of bullet points in the “types of blogs” link below.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/“home” of course is a tab that links to your main page and the about tab links to your about page. The tabs will reflect pages only by default, but by using the custom menu feature, you can put categories, posts, pages, tags and custom links into the top navigation.
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Chuck …thesacredpath pretty much answered your question but to add another “category”, you need to actually add a “page” in your dashboard. These don’t have the same “functionability” of your home page though …as in they are static type pages.
As far as ads. You can link to certain things that you review or sell on etsy and stuff like that, but no adsense and according to wordpress, nothing is supposed to be in the widget section …although many many do have it. It is best to follow the link provided by the sacred path. WordPress is very vague on other ads and even an email to support didn’t clear up my questions entirely.
John
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@happypoppeye
Wordpress.com runs ads on our blogs and has been doing so since 2006. The only blogs that can display Google Adsense ads are those that are accepted into either the VIP hosting program, or blogs that qualify and are accepted as high traffic suitable content blogs in the AdControl Program that thesacredpath has already posted the link to.In a nutshell free blogs from and being free hosted by wordpress.COM cannot be used to drive traffic to third-party sites by means of advertising and/or affiliate programs (see next section for more clarity). E-commerce transactions via shopping carts and the like cannot be conducted on wordpress.COM blogs. No retailing or reselling the work created or services provided by anyone other than yourself is allowed.
Affiliate marketing blogs
The only exceptions with regard to affiliate links are found here:Affiliate marketing blogs: Blogs with the primary purpose of driving traffic to affiliate programs and get-rich-quick schemes (“Make six figures from home!!”, “20 easy steps to top profits!!”, etc). This includes multi-level marketing (MLM) blogs and pyramid schemes. To be clear, people writing their own original book, movie or game reviews and linking them to Amazon, or people linking to their own products on Etsy do NOT fall into this category. http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/
Advertising
I am sorry, but advertising is not allowed on free hosted WordPress.com blogs. The only exceptions are for high traffic blogs that qualify for and are accepted into the Ad Control program, and very high traffic blogs that qualify and are accepted into the paid VIP hosting program.
http://wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/
http://vip.wordpress.com/If you require an ecommerce site, advertising and/or affiliate links on your blog, you can hire a web host and get a free software install from http://wordpress.org In that case, please see the information at the link below to learn about the differences between free hosted WordPress.com blogs and WordPress.org software installs for self hosting. http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
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Timethief. You can link to reviews in your actual post. ie…book reviews, gear reviews, etc. I did email support and they said this is allowed but nothing is allowed in the sidebar section. I do know that wordpress runs ads but I was thinking that the op was talking about placing ads …I may have been mistaken…
WordPress is very vague about their definitons of driving traffic. Here is the exact wording I sent & received from support (with the actual responding persons name taken out:
“Hi there, If you write reviews for product on Amazon.com, it’s ok to use their image and add an affiliate link.Other forms of advertising (including sidebar widget with Amazon affiliate links) at WordPress.com is not allowed.
For full details, please see: http://support.wordpress.com/advertising/http://wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/ If you require advertising, you might be interested in a self-hosted (WordPress.org) installation. There are no restrictions on advertising if you setup a self-hosted WordPress.org blog instead of a WordPress.com blog, but there are some added responsibilities. Please see this link to learn about the differences:http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/ We have hosting recommendations at the following link if you are interested:http://get.wp.com/hosting/ Best,”…my original email…
> Before I get in trouble and have my blog suspended – are amazon> affiliate links allowed on my blog?> > I didn’t see anything in the TOS and all links are associated with> blog posts. I see them all over wordpress and figured they were ok but> saw a few commens in the forums that they are not. Amazon even has> wordpress specific type codes – could I get a specific answer on> this.> > Thanks> John
So you can add links to third party sites…
John -
I think the main point with affiliate market blogs is that the “main” reason is driving traffic. For most, the main reason for their blogs is not driving traffic to make money, although they do have links on their site.
I went through all the TOS and links fairly thoroughly and it is very vague.
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@happypoppeye
IMO there’s no need to create yet another lengthy thread on this topic at all. If you or any other member think it’s vague then do note that Staff state this in the advertising entry in the support documentation:If you are in any doubt, please contact support for clarification. http://support.wordpress.com/contact
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I agree, and I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
It is vague and I did contact support and posted the full email above which states that you can link to third party sites…
Thanks
John -
You can add an affiliate link in a blog post? Strange.
Hi there, If you write reviews for product on Amazon.com, it's ok to use their image and add an affiliate link.Other forms of advertising (including sidebar widget with Amazon affiliate links) at WordPress.com is not allowed. -
oh that was just stupid of me…
this is the quote I was referring to…
“Hi there, If you write reviews for product on Amazon.com, it’s ok to use their image and add an affiliate link.Other forms of advertising (including sidebar widget with Amazon affiliate links) at WordPress.com is not allowed.” -
Happy’s “book review” suddenly showed up a few days after they had to take the Affiliate Catalog links out of the sidebar – cause and effect their sudden interest in reading? Same plea to buy lots of stuff from their amazon affiliate catalog – looks like the “book review” was just done to drive traffic to their affiliate catalog –
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What???
Who is “they” and what sidebar? Mine?
The book review was done because I had in my head and figured it would be a good first review.If your talking about my sidebar and review. The sidebar links were their before the review. I contacted support and took them down off the sidebar when I saw their response. Please don’t speculate about my site and spread or write false information about it.
Thanks, John
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bats – the email I posted above was a simple copy and paste of the email I received from wordpress support with the exception of the name of that particular support person taken out. It is ok to use an affiliate link according to the email I received.
It seems there is alot of confusion on this subject and going through all the docs and forum posts I couldn’t find a definitive answer. Maybe a reason for all the posts on the topic…
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PS: I shouldn’t just say it’s ok …there are rules, or requirements on the links…
Thanks
John -
PS auxclass: If you do click on the link you will also see a review on that page from me from Oct 16, 2009 …I started the blog on Feb 1, 2011. Thus my interest in reading started before the link. If you have any other idiotic statements or accusations please let me know. If you don’t beleive that, well, as I said, the book from that particular review is in the Serena, which I was at in 2009. It does have my name in it…
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I know it’s early in the month but I’m on pace to get between 30,000 and 35,000 views this month, and the page said people normally get ads with around 25,000. Assuming I keep it up is this all I have to do to qualify for ads and does anyone know much you make? I saw it said 50/50 but it didn’t say how much in dollars.
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A dollar amount would be nearly impossible to say since it is going to vary from week to week and month to month, and depends on how click-happy your visitors are. Some subject matter and audiences are more likely to click on ads than others.
I wouldn’t quit my day job.
Contact staff about the ad-control program and see what they say about it.
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