The ad says "Place Ad Here FREE!" and links to the ad coop with an affilite link in there. I have three problems with this ad: 1. People think that they can get an ad on my site. My paying advertisers might wonder why they bother when they can get a free ad. Viewers might think my site is cheap. People might contact me about the "free ad". At best the ad is very misleading. 2. the "FREE" in all caps is ugly. 3. The affiliate link does not match the theme of my site. I don't put affilaite links on this site. Please remove this ad from the coop.
1. Agree to a great extent. 2. Agree. 3. You could have done without mentioning that since it's pointless. It's like someone else saying 'I don't link to pages within subfolders, it doesn't match my theme - I only link to homepages.'. Plain nonsense. What's the difference between an aff link and a catalogue.php?product_id=36 link? It's got a variable in it, so what?
I will also chime in and agree with the first two points and that the third is a bit of a stretch. I suspect the all caps with a ! part wouldn't be accepted if submitted today as it violates the TOS but it probably doesn't have a lot of weight so flew under the radar. I suspect Shawn will bounce it but I am not sure about #1 or not even though I agree
I agree with you on 2, I agree with T0PS on 3 but I don't agree with you (or T0PS and yfs1) on 1, you are offering free ads on your site to members of the Co-op. If you don't want people to think thay can get free ads on your site then don't display free ads on your site. If somebody asks you about the free ad link you can also send them your referal link
The difference is that this one is an affiliate link and not a product link. Many people avoid affiliate links; I'm one of them. I prefer if people think I am not making money with my site. If you don't care, that's fine. However, it's not pointless to me.
1. is an awkward one indeed. I can see how it's misleading though. And where do you draw the line? Will "The Owner Of This Site Sucks" (or similar) be accepted? There has to be a clear distinction between ad content and site content and the fact that both are largely unrelated. Making it 'personal' as in offering ad space on this particlar page via this ad is borderline.
dc -Are the ads really free though. Also, I think he has a point because the ad is implying their are free advertisemnts available on his site (the HERE in caps). I think that alone creates a pretty fuzzy line and the Coop would benefit from disallowing this kind of confusing ad. <<added>> I can tell T0PS is back. I can't type nearly as fast as him <<added>>
How can you tell that link is an aff link. s?xxxx could well stand for the variable $s being short for statistics or the variable could be a template thing. Only because you know it's aff of some sort you don't like it. But that doesn't make it principally different from a product_id and variable serving up a product. They are the same in looks and functionality so if you don't want this you imply you have something against all dynamic links. I (and staff) can tell by the noise of my keyboard in the office. Typing text is a lot noisier than typing PHP and maintaining and building marketing campaigns.
I've already disagreed with the CAPS, I think we all agree that is wrong. From a financial cost (as free is often interpreted) the ads are free (yes you need to have your own weight which will involve an indirect cost). If the link is followed you are taken to a page which explains how it works, I can see both sides to this but I feel advertising the Co-op is to all or our benefits, and what better way to advertise it than with the Co-op it self, it just proves it works.
Like Kramer when he moved to LA and got a part on Murphy Brown Jim- you would probably be better suited to push #1 and #2 and save #3 for another day as its a whole another subject. It will be rare to see an affiliate link only because people aren't looking to put weight towards others sites at this point. Ads for the Coop are the exception at this point.
For the most part I agree with you and I wouldn't suggest that all ads for the Coop with affiliate links be removed. However, I and I'm sure others would like a clarifying rule that prohibits ads for the coop written in the first person. (Prohibit words like here,etc) It is a tough line to draw though.
I agree with you on the second point. The first point is tricky! By joining the coop ad network they will also have a chance of getting a free link on your web site. I disagree with the use of the work free when refering to the network. The ads are not free you have to pay for the ads with advertising space. I agree with your point: This ad and similar ads must be booted. New idea: Why don't we just remove the referer weight bonus? I don't think people should be rewarded for getting new signups at this point, the network is already wellknown and large and will probably grow bacause of the benefits of sharing ad space.
That would be very unfair, there is nothing in the rules saying you cannot advertise the Co-op on the Co-op, but not giving the referal URL the bonus which IMO they are entitled to would just be wrong. If I used some of my weight to advertise a product that I was proud to be associated with and then was told I wouldn't get any commision for it I would not be a happy chap.
I beleive that the coop will grow even with no refer bonus. The removal of the refaral bonus will remove all the spam ads for the network both in the network and elsewhere.
I think we all agreed on that point, CAPS is against the rules I am sure Amazon will continue to sell the odd book or two without my referals, but when one of my referals buys a book I expect to get a commision as stated in their agreement with me. How do you define a spam exactly, would you class "Get 1000s of Links quickly" a spam ad? BTW the ad that started this discussion is not one of mine but I am interested in this thread.
Shawn, While you are removing ads, you may want to take this one out too: I'm pretty sure that was accepted Pre - TOS
Was it ever stated that links were being removed? Though calling somebody punky is not as ad I'd approve of.
I suspect the FREE! will be removed - I'm not implying all coop ads, just the one that clearly doesn't follow the TOS punky!