Rules Clarification Question

I've noticed that most people use a two step method to promote things in the Buy/Sell/Trade section. At least they do in the Freebies section. That's the one I'm most familiar with.

I am aware that it's against the rules to put affiliate links in a post, but what about in the Buy/Sell/Trade section. Isn't selling stuff OK there?

I'm also aware that affiliate links are allowed in sigs. If it's against the rules to put a link in the post then what about pointing to the sig?

I'm thinking about creating a topic promoting a product and instead of telling people to reply or PM to receive more info through a PM I would simply ask them to click the link in the sig for more info.

Is this a bad idea or not?

Thanks for your input.

 

It doesn't matter what section of the forum you're in. Affiliate links are not allowed in posts. You can put them in your sig, but starting a thread just to promote that affiliate link in your sig will get the thread closed or deleted and you'll get an infraction. And if you have people PM you just to spam them with your affiliate links, you'll also very likely get an infraction if someone reports it. You can promote affiliate programs by linking to them in your sig - if your posts in general don't get people to trust you enough to click your sig link(s), tough cookies.