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What is "unethical or unwanted commercial content"?

  1. scribblesws
    Member

    I had a support question a while ago that was answered (not through the forum), but at the end of the email I was warned that my blog was in breach of your Terms. I asked why and heard nothing back. I recently asked another question and was given an answer, but also the same response at the end of the email that my blog was in breach of your Terms, quoting a section of clause 2 "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)".

    In the same email I was told that you did not allow any blog that has anything to do with SEO and SEO Services because of Clause 2 above.

    I was a little shocked as my blog is about my services as a Copywriter. I create text for websites and to promote those websites through the creation of articles that they can post on other websites. Because of the nature of my role I have to consider SEO in the copy that I create, and article creation is considered to be the most ethical and effective way of promoting websites to search engines. Surely the above clause is designed to prevent link farms and other unscrupulous means of enhancing other's websites through the direct use of your systems, not to prevent Copywriters from creating text.

    As I have not heard back from Support on this matter even though I specifically asked for a confirmation one way or another I thought I'd throw this one out to public opinion, or if anyone from Support is watching it would be useful if you could let me know.

    Richard
    http://sws-copywriting.com

  2. judyb12
    Member

    I could be wrong, but it might be because you are using the blog to sell your services.

  3. scribblesws
    Member

    Nope that can't be it.
    I've been through the Terms and Conditions with a fine tooth comb and nowhere does it say that you cannot use a WordPress Blog as a Website to promote a service. For that matter, it also does not use the words SEO or SEO Services anywhere within it!

    Richard

  4. andrew
    Member

    Your site seems more like a billboard than a blog. That seems contrary to what wp.com is set up to host. Of course, each of the two preceding sentences contains the word "seems," meaning "seems to me," and things may seem different to others.
    At the risk of violating terms and conditions myself, I'd like to offer you my services in copywriting and in SEO. In particular, we can improve on the following aspects of your page (as of the time of this reply).
    - "If you have to be a needle be a ten foot needle, then people wont need to look so hard to find you." However big your needle is, it helps if you can spell "won't."
    - "HOME" is a lousy page title. It shouts, but not in a way that will capture the attention of any search engine trying to find pages relevant to copywriting and SEO.

  5. raincoaster
    Member

    You cannot sell items or services using your blog. Your blog can be used to promote yourself as an expert, or to blog about your business, but not to make an offering. It's routine that blogs which do that are deleted by the staff, as they are in breach of the TOS.

  6. scribblesws
    Member

    Thank you Andrew for your note on my spelling mistake, very embarrassing!

    Raincoaster, as I've already mentioned there is nothing in the TOS that says that you cannot use a blog as a means to promote a service, I'd be interested to see where you have seen this.

    Anyway this is a little off topic as WordPress Support at no time mentioned the fact that the blog was promoting a service. They specifically said that using a blog for SEO or SEO Services was in breach of the section of Clause 2 of the Terms mentioned above... which it does not as copywriting cannot be deemed as illegal or unethical, spam, spoofing or phishing, nor does it resemble any of these. Therefore the question is still unresolved.

    Richard

  7. trent
    Member

    Send in another feedback Richard as Staff are the only ones who will be able to solve this particular Policy issue for you and/or send an email to support at this domain (again). I am sure they will be happy to discuss this with you on that medium.

    Trent

  8. scribblesws
    Member

    Trent
    Is there any possibility that you could give them a nudge in my direction as I have sent two emails to Support and one on a Feedback form and I have had no response as yet. The only reason I'm asking is because I would not want to be doing anything wrong and as it was suggested that I was, though no action was taken, I need to have this point clarified as their argument made no sense.

    Richard

  9. dreamnepal
    Member

    Scribblesws,
    If you use the website to promote your services, you are being commercial out here. Whether you carry out the transaction offline or online, it is the website from which people come in contact with you and the end of your website is to earn income for yourself...

    Now, it should be obvious to you that your website is commercial in nature. You do not have to offer services or goods (which have the same economic implications) right then and there...
    Got it?

  10. drmike
    Member

    Just for reference, we will not debate policies here in the forums.

    You may want to reread the ToS:

    the Content is not spam

  11. dreamnepal
    Member

    drmike,
    What if someone doesn't understand it? You can obviously see that this person could not understand the terms even after getting the feedback and resorted to forum.

    In any case, I was clarifying what can be a commercial content and what not...May be Automattic attaches different meaning to the word-commercial.

  12. scribblesws
    Member

    dreamnepal seems to be getting a little agitated.
    Shame he has neither read my previous posts on this subject nor has he actually pointed to anywhere in the TOS where it says that you are not allowed to use a blog for commercial purposes. In fact it does not say this anywhere in the TOS which is why I am surprised that people have digressed off my actual question into nonsensical rants.

    drmike I shall respect your request to not continue this discussion on policies, but it would be appreciated if you could get someone from Support to actually return one of my emails and clarify this matter.

    As for dreamnepal, take a chill pill and read what's written, don't just rant about it.

    Richard

  13. dreamnepal
    Member

    "We have a very <b>low tolerance<b> for blogs created purely for search engine optimization or <b>commercial purposes<b>, machine-generated blogs, and will continue to nuke them, so if that’s what you’re interested in WordPress.com is not for you."

    http://faq.wordpress.com/2005/12/08/adsense/

    So, is your blog for commercial purpose? Have a look at this rather than rambling again and again and blaming others for digressing and failing to read...yes read...

  14. atthe404
    Member

    To try and elevate pay per post spamming as legitimate *copywriting* is farcical. The guys running WP have about a billion years of blogging experience and they know spam, and spammers when they see it.

  15. drmike
    Member

    And this thread is finished. I would close it but since that doesn't work...

    Any more posts will be deleted.

  16. scribblesws
    Member

    Thank you dreamnepal.
    The words "commercial purposes" were indeed seen in the article you linked to, buried in an FAQ created more than a year ago that seems to have nothing to do with my particular question, within a sentence that has nothing to do with my service, but the words are used I admit. It's a shame though that it has nothing to do with the TOS that you were referring to earlier. I never suggested that my blog was not for commercial purposes, it would be obvious to anyone looking at the site that it was, however if you'd read my earlier posts you'll see that the commercial nature of the site was never questioned by WordPress, and was not my question to the forum, though you seem a little like a dog with a bone with this. If my objective was to deceive in some way I would not have sent 3 emails to Support and posted a forum request. My objective was to gain clarification.

    I'm not entirely sure what atthe404 is on about. If you're talking about the adsense FAQ dreamnepal pointed to then yes I agree, there is never anything legitimate about spamming, but you used the word 'copywriting' which was not mentioned in the article which leads me to believe you were referring to my copywriting services which have nothing at all to do with spamming. I create text for websites and write articles for companies to post in article directories and on other websites that have requested content. What I provide are ethical and legitimate copywriting services that are accepted by search engines as such and I would be quite offended if anyone thought otherwise.

  17. dreamnepal
    Member

    Hey!
    Where did I write TOS? Look back at my post. I said "terms" in my second post and if you look at the meaning it should be obvious that terms doesn't just refer to terms of service...

  18. raincoaster
    Member

    scribble, you're not helping your case.

    We've explained the issue; you have the option of removing the specific offers of services from your blog or facing the blog's suspension for terms of service violations. Continuously increased wordcount in the forum will not alter those options.

    Commercial blogs have the option of using commercial services, including independent web hosting of WordPress software blogs, through WordPress.org. They have the option of remaining here at WordPress.com for $500 setup fee and $250 per month. WordPress.com as it exists offers free blog hosting for noncommercial blogging purposes; it's not inappropriate to expect that businesses using their blogs to do business will do so in a professional manner, which includes paying for services.

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