Clarification about section 2, bullet 5 of TOS (selling)
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I have been considering opening an Etsy shop (an online place to sell handmade items) and have been searching the FAQ and forums to see if it would be allowed to mention or link to such a thing from my blog.
I found reference in another thread to the second section, fifth bullet of the TOS (http://wordpress.com/tos/) which says:
“the Content is not spam, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing)”
I know Adsense, Yahoo ads, etc, are not permitted nor are things like PayPerPost. But often I mention a book or song or product I like not for any kind of compensation but rather just because I like it, and I’ll put the link to Amazon or wherever else it can be found. Is that a violation? It’s not necessarily done to help drive traffic to those sites but to help readers find the items if they want to, because if you blog about something you like, the next logical question from others is “Where can I get it?” I do a lot of book reviews just because I like to talk about the books I read, so Amazon or Christianbook.com would be the sites I would most often link to in that way.
In a sense any link to anywhere else has the potential to increase traffic to the site linked. But I am supposing/hoping that such links that are a matter of shared interest and not for commercial gain are ok.
Back to the question of the mention of selling items…this bullet point mentions “unwanted commercial content.” Unwanted by the reader? Or by WordPress.com in general? Is it the general position here that any commercial content in unwanted?
Also in my search I found a FAQ about AdSense at http://faq.wordpress.com/2005/12/08/adsense/ which includes the sentence “A discreet link to your business in the sidebar or an About page is permitted.” I have seen several craft bloggers with their Etsy shop listed as a link in their sidebar. So I am assuming that would be ok? But it’s not ok to say in a post on the blog, “I have some new items for sale in my Etsy shop” with a link to it, or post pictures and descriptions of items I have for sale directly from my blog?
I am just trying to make sure I understand all of this while I am considering getting into it.
Thanks.
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I know for a fact that blogs that feature their Etsy stores have been deleted or suspended till the Etsy content was removed, if that clarifies. Further clarification will basically have to come from staff directly, so you should contact them.
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“unwanted commercial content.” Unwanted by the reader? Or by WordPress.com in general? Is it the general position here that any commercial content in unwanted?
I’ve always found that phrasing vague as well. I read it as: Automattic want commercial content that is making them money (e.g. snap.com popups, their own Adsense units, and anything by VIP bloggers) but if they can’t profit from it they don’t want it.
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@opalescentwords
The one people who can make tell you whether something is OK or not is staff. I would suggest contacting them on Monday when support is open and detailing out what you want to do and get the yes or no directly from them. I would then suggest keeping the reply safe in case there would be an issue later on. Just good practice. -
Staff have specifically said that a Paypal donation button is okay. If goods or services are involved, though, that’s a whole different question.
Also: take it from someone with experience, you will not make any money selling things that way.
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