Anyone here get their Scribd account Deleted?

[xDennis]

Woke up this morning to an email that says my account was flagged for posting advertisements.

At the bottom of my doc's I always put my link. They said that if I try to make a new account under a different IP for advertisement purposes they may take legal action against me lol

Kinda sucks, I got about 30 daily's form my scibd :-/ I only used it hard for one of my niches though. I had 40 articles posted.

They said you can't have ANY links in your documents. So I search my keword phrase to see if any other doc's were deleted and sure enough 3 pages of documents were deleted

they must be cracking down?

[Giggle]

My scribd account was also deleted about 5 minutes ago. I had about 43 documents linking directly to clickbank products and also my own websites
================================================== ================
Here's the info
Subject:Advertisement take-down notification

One or more of your public documents has been flagged as an advertisement by the Scribd community. It is strictly against the Scribd terms of service to upload public advertisements, and your account has now been terminated and your IP address has been blocked. Attempting to evade the block and continue to post advertisements is in violation of Scribd's terms of use and may cause us to pursue legal action against you.

Generally, anything which promotes or links to a company, product, program, or website may be considered an advertisement. We've worked very hard to create a nurturing community at Scribd, which we offer to users free of charge for noncommercial purposes. Advertisements on Scribd do real damage to this community. Therefore, we employ a zero-tolerance policy for users who attempt to use Scribd as a free advertising platform, and this ban is permanent and not subject to appeal. We suggest you find another place on the internet to post your advertisements.

-The Scribd Team

[MarkH45]

Yes, it's official they cracked down BIG TIME... for over 2 years I've held several large accounts with hundreds of documents and now they are all gone.

Now I know how all those people with Squidoo lens that got shut down feel...

I still have all the content though.. Docstoc.com and Slideshare.net are 2 other places to go with your documents.

edocr.com may also have some potential, although the site is young it has a PR 4

[timpears]

I just bought a WSO a couple of weeks ago on how to get lots of traffic via Scribd. I hadn't used it yet, but I guess I will file that under not to do now. O well. From what I read in the fellows report, it was a real good way to generate traffic. Operative word is WAS.

[MarkH45]

Originally Posted by timpears

I just bought a WSO a couple of weeks ago on how to get lots of traffic via Scribd. I hadn't used it yet, but I guess I will file that under not to do now. O well. From what I read in the fellows report, it was a real good way to generate traffic. Operative word is WAS.

That was my WSO... http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ce-closed.html

Right now, I'm testing the same methods out with
Docstoc... (I will also see what I can still do with Scribd documents) Everyone will get a copy of the updated report...

I remember when I bought a Squidoo product and a couple weeks later they put the smack down on that...

[TheRichJerksNet]

Ha! Sorry guys do not mean to laugh (might want to go check my account before I post but anyways)...

You know there is a difference between advertisements and informative documents. By creating beautifully crafted pdf's that look more like a news release or a series of newsletters with no adverts in it at all will go a long way for example see attached partial image..

No direct adverts, no links to affiliate products, just a normal newsletter type pdf...

James

[MarkH45]

At this point, you could post the secret to the universe in a beautifully crafted PDF but if it has one link chances are it will be deleted...

"Generally, anything which promotes or links to a company, product, program, or website may be considered an advertisement."

So what is the point to uploading documents when you can't have a link to even a normal website or blog?

I'm not into wasting my time creating information rich documents and/or articles if I can't get something in return... (traffic and money).

Scribd will find out soon enough... policy changes suck... but it's always something you have to deal with when you're pulling traffic from Web 2.0 sites...

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

At this point, you could post the secret to the universe in a beautifully crafted PDF but if it has one link chances are it will be deleted...

"Generally, anything which promotes or links to a company, product, program, or website may be considered an advertisement."

So what is the point to uploading documents when you can't have a link to even a normal website or blog?

I'm not into wasting my time creating information rich documents and/or articles if I can't get something in return... traffic and money.

Scribd will find out soon enough...

I agree but my point was maybe do not make them sound so "marketing" you know what I mean.. If they was to remove any docs that have links then they would not have a site at all.

I can see their point, if it is being abused to the point of all you are posting is marketing messages then it is abusing the system. Knock on wood my account is not gone yet but even if they do them fine I will just find some other place.

Many are tired of the down right spammers especialy when they have invested money, time and effort into building a popular community. Not all people that market products are "spammers" but it just takes one that can ruin it for everyone...

By the way that document took me 10 minutes to create and it is 4 pages....

James

[MarkH45]

I'm just waiting for the big EzineArticles smack down... (I know how much you like EZA James ) ... when you place your content on 3rd party sites there is always a risk involved.

That is why you should always make copies of all of your content... that is one thing I learned from the whole Squidoo thing... (even though I didn't use them that much) and now from Scribd...

[TheRichJerksNet]

Ha Ha Mark .. Well this is very true though, always make backup .. 3rd party sites you just never know..

James

[Paul Hancox]

This contradicts the policy they have on their Support desk:

Scribd Support Desk :: Can I use my content on Scribd to link to other sites?

Can I use my content on Scribd to link to other sites?

Yes. You may add clickable links to content that you upload to Scribd, but you may not link to malicious sites or to URL shortening services. Malicious sites include, but are not limited to: advertising sites, link engines, affiliate marketing sites, fake search engines, phishing sites, and file sharing sites.

Linking to a malicious site is grounds for immediate suspension of your account and removal of all content from Scribd.

While links in iPaper are clickable, they are not indexed by search engines

So I'm not so sure they're against links altogether... but I guess they are against what they consider to be spammy content, together with links.

In fact, if you check this related question...

Scribd Support Desk :: Can I publish re-branded affiliate marketing (PLR/MRR/RR) e-books?

... it will give you a good feel of what they DON'T like.

[DavidO]

I probably shouldn't gloat but I've just checked my account and there's no problem. I've been using Scribd for at least two years and I have a dozen or more articles all linked directly to my sales page. No problems (yet).

The difference is that my articles are extremely informative and non-promotional and my sales page doesn't look like a sales page. Otherwise I'd probably be gone too!

[yves]

Oh well, there are plenty other web 2.0 in the sea.

[WritingMadwoman]

This is why I've held back on using Scribd! It's hard to tell what they'll consider advertising and what they won't. Ironically, someone else once stole one of my articles and posted it to Scribd, without credit to me. Nice!

P.S. James, off-topic, that's a nice looking document! What program did you use to create that?

Wendy

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

you could post the secret to the universe in a beautifully crafted PDF but if it has one link chances are it will be deleted...

I did. It was. And that was everyone's only chance. I'm not telling anyone the secret to the universe now. They had their chance and they blew it. Yah-boo, sucks.

[BigRedNotebook]

I wonder if this has anything to do with The Thirty Day Challenge. They've been advocating the use of Scribd and that may have led to a rapid influx of documents generated by newer marketers who may lack the subtlety necessary to fly under the radar there.

Some of you might remember a Tumblr crackdown a year or two ago that appeared to be inspired by 30DC activity.

Carson

[pink sapphire]

One of my Scribd accounts was deleted over the weekend too - the email said one of my documents had been flagged as an advertisement. In reality they were just purely informational articles with a single link to my own site at the end. I had read the ToS & genuinely didn't realise you couldn't even include one non-affiliate link - guess I didn't read closely enough! I have a couple of other accounts with similar articles in other niches which are unscathed (for now), but I won't risk posting to them again. It's a shame, as they tended to rank well. I can totally understand them not wanting marketing stuff or spam on the site, but it seems unrealistic to expect people to provide them with great quality content with not even a single backlink in return. Their members are meant to write purely for the love of it, while they make all the money from their ads? Hmm...

[Christie01]

Originally Posted by BigRedNotebook

I wonder if this has anything to do with The Thirty Day Challenge. They've been advocating the use of Scribd and that may have led to a rapid influx of documents generated by newer marketers who may lack the subtlety necessary to fly under the radar there.

Some of you might remember a Tumblr crackdown a year or two ago that appeared to be inspired by 30DC activity.

Carson

Carson, I was thinking the exact same thing as I was reading through this thread. My next stop is going to be the 30DC forum to see what kind of drama is going on there, LOL!

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by WritingMadwoman

This is why I've held back on using Scribd! It's hard to tell what they'll consider advertising and what they won't. Ironically, someone else once stole one of my articles and posted it to Scribd, without credit to me. Nice!

P.S. James, off-topic, that's a nice looking document! What program did you use to create that?

Wendy

Hi Wendy,
I used my own Creation Mode Technology on AP to create the PDF... I have several beautifully crafted pdf's on my Scribd account...

James

[Chris Stigson]

I had my account deleted too... That sucked. Has like 100,000+ views in my account And traffic was good too What The Heck!

[David Hooper]

No problems here.

[Brad Gosse]

Yeah lost my 2 year old account too

[MarkH45]

I should have never went to the 30 day challenge website because now I'm just flat out pissed...

The forums are FILLED with people complaining about being banned from scribd. Being accused of spamming on hubpages and squidoo... etc..

I have no idea what they are teaching people, but obviously something is wrong...

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

I should have never went to the 30 day challenge website because now I'm just flat out pissed...

The forums are FILLED with people complaining about being banned from scribd. Being accused of spamming on hubpages and squidoo... etc..

I have no idea what they are teaching people, but obviously something is wrong...

It is not always what they teach people.. Although I have no idea what they did teach but as we all know it only takes 1 or 2 to start abusing a system and it will destroy the opportunity for everybody.

I have not lost my account, but I do not do blatant advertising either. Not saying anyone here did but as I said it only takes 1 or 2 and they will start cracking down.

Maybe they just have not go to my account yet.

This also could be competition that has been reporting the accounts..

James

[Fernando Veloso]

Know whats funny? My account got deleted but i solely had articles + 1 footer link to one of my sites.

No affiliate links, no nothing.

So i guess Scribd team went nuts and started banning people left and right.

Fernando

[MarkH45]

What's the link to that FML site?

[Shana_Adam]

thank god I did not waste my time creating pdfs..I had a few up there and just deleted them all today.

[Jeremy Kelsall]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

The forums are FILLED with people complaining about being banned from scribd. Being accused of spamming on hubpages and squidoo... etc..

That right there is the exact reason that everyone should be using these sites for exactly what they are.

It's actually funny to me how these sites are suddenly turning their backs on the very people that actually helped them get HIGH PR and a ton of content.

They are nothing more than link machines for cannon fodder anymore, IMO anyway.

[GeorgettaSterling]

This isn't the first "Scribd Slap." Some may recall that a little while ago, Stompernet came out with a free video touting Scribd as a method for getting high PR backlinks - you could get a live, dofollow link off the description pages for each document. Naturally, thousands of IMers flocked there, uploaded whatever in PDF form, and got their backlink(s).

Just a couple days after the Stompernet vid, Scribd nofollowed those links, eliminated new links, and changed their TOS to prevent people getting backlinks. So - was the writing on the wall even then?

I am also surprised/amused when I see comments about how you are supposed to use these sites for "what they are intended." The "intent" of Scribd is to be the biggest piracy website on the net. It is literally loaded to the gills with illegally distributed, copyrighted material (lots and lots of paid ebooks, including from all the BIG publishers). In my estimation, Scribd has met their goal - they ARE the biggest piracy site on the net right now.

They make a VERY poor show of occasionally removing illicit material from their site (although they keep removed material in their search index), but overall - they are piracy central. Folks complain about some torrent site or some little forum somewhere - Scribd is BY FAR the worst offender, and the easiest to get stolen material from. Just search, download, no waiting, no trouble.

I don't really know why Google considers them to be a "good site" considering their entire structure is geared towards (and encourages) illegally distributing copyrighted material.

Best Regards, Georgetta

[markquinn]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

Yes, it's official they cracked down BIG TIME... for over 2 years I've held several large accounts with hundreds of documents and now they are all gone.

Now I know how all those people with Squidoo lens that got shut down feel...

I still have all the content though.. Docstoc.com and Slideshare.net are 2 other places to go with your documents.

edocr.com may also have some potential, although the site is young it has a PR 4

Wow. Too bad.

I loved your WSO on Scribd and even bought resale rights, but obviously most of what you cover in the Scribd WSO still applies to DocStoc and other sites and my plan is to just rework the text.

I haven't checked my Scribd account yet - dare I? LOL. But I would think that following your principles and what James has discussed here the risk of getting banned would be much lower than a true "spammer".

Look on the bright side - now you have the chance to easily launch a new WSO - "DOCStoc Secrets Revealed!" LOL. ;-)

Update: I'm not banned...yet.

[Marhelper]

Originally Posted by markquinn

Wow. Too bad.

I loved your WSO on Scribd and even bought resale rights, but obviously most of what you cover in the Scribd WSO still applies to DocStoc and other sites and my plan is to just rework the text.

I haven't checked my Scribd account yet - dare I? LOL. But I would think that following your principles and what James has discussed here the risk of getting banned would be much lower than a true "spammer".

Look on the bright side - now you have the chance to easily launch a new WSO - "DOCStoc Secrets Revealed!" LOL. ;-)

Update: I'm not banned...yet.

This is one of those rare times that it is good not to have taken action ... LOL.

[Sipboy3000]

Got a couple of mine banned also, but a few of them were not affected.

I also released a product on how to use document sharing sites (see my sig.) and I was getting some killer traffic from Scribd.

But I also get traffic from many other sites similar to Scribd, so I am not too much worried about.

I think if you are linking to your blog, then that is ok. At least it seems ok for the accounts that I did not get banned for.

Tommie

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by Sipboy3000

Got a couple of mine banned also, but a few of them were not affected.

I also released a product on how to use document sharing sites (see my sig.) and I was getting some killer traffic from Scribd.

But I also get traffic from many other sites similar to Scribd, so I am not too much worried about.

I think if you are linking to your blog, then that is ok. At least it seems ok for the accounts that I did not get banned for.

Tommie

Yeah Tommie !!! I reviewed the ebook, great stuff...

My account is not effected either ....

James

[MarkH45]

Originally Posted by markquinn

Wow. Too bad.

I loved your WSO on Scribd and even bought resale rights, but obviously most of what you cover in the Scribd WSO still applies to DocStoc and other sites and my plan is to just rework the text.

I haven't checked my Scribd account yet - dare I? LOL. But I would think that following your principles and what James has discussed here the risk of getting banned would be much lower than a true "spammer".

Look on the bright side - now you have the chance to easily launch a new WSO - "DOCStoc Secrets Revealed!" LOL. ;-)

Update: I'm not banned...yet.

LOL, "DocStoc Secrets Revealed", I don't think so... Although I know for a fact DocStoc is a little more slack in their rules... especially now. The downside is they don't get the same kind of Google love Scribd got. (Atleast in my experience)

I think I'm going to give edocr.com a try...

[ManojRanaweera]

Thanks for mentioning edocr.com MarkH45. I am the Founder of edocr.com and thought of letting you know our terms.

1. Free user account will give you 100 document uploads free.
2. For business accounts, we charge £25 monthly/£250 annually, for which, you get a company profile, up to 5,000 document uploads, and ability to add multiple employee accounts to your company profile and list the company account against multiple listings on our business directory
3. Once uploaded, Edit your documents to include a link to your main business.
4. We will not tolerate documents on sex, violence, terrorism, drugs, etc

In terms of comparison with our American friends from California:

1. We are small and focus
2. We are very much about promotion of your business through documents.
3. We are not a bookstore, but can develop white label bookstores if anyone fancy
4. Yes we have a GPR of 4 but do hits Google 1st page for many docs under 24 hrs and maintained that position for many, but this is not something we can guarantee

In terms of abusing:

1. It has not been a problem up to date
2. Will review if it becomes a problem

Happy to listen

Best regards
Manoj

[MarkH45]

The million dollar question... Do you allow affiliate links in content based documents? Are we allowed to link to other sites such as blogs?

[ManojRanaweera]

Mark, this has not been a problem to date. You can EDIT the document page to add a link to your site. As long as there is a balance (no. of free users for affiliate market purposes vs. companies), we do not see a problem.

Happy to respond through @manojranaweera on Twitter to any further queries.

[sreid01]

I was recently browsing many of the documents on edocr.com and was noticing that many of the documents have links inside the document but they aren't clickable. How do you make the links clickable?

[Zachary R. Skinner]

yep, my account was deleted as well. It seems rather idiotic if you want free content but don't want to give in return!

[maria909]

I just received an email that my Scribd account was deleted and my IP was banned as well.

"Generally, anything which promotes or links to a company, product, program, or website may be considered an advertisement, " accdng to their email.

What I publish on Scribd is the internet marketing strategies/tips in marketing that we use in our own company and I put links back to our website. I didn't know they don't allow that one. I didn't find that rule when I read their TOS. But what's the use of posting then if you can't link back to your website. Maybe you can put your website URL in your profile but only few people know how to find it, it's different if you put it right there on the articles. Anyway, Scribd team can do whatever they want but maybe they could have informed you or give you warning and maybe you could have corrected your posts. If still you haven't changed your posts then it's time for them to terminate your account. Like what Squidoo did.

"This ban is permanent and not subject to appeal. We suggest you find another place on the internet to post your advertisements". Well, goodbye then! If you can't help me then I won't help you too. I won't be surprised if many of their partners will backout and their advertisers too.

[TheRichJerksNet]

My account is still active and live .... You just got to know how to follow the rules...

James

[Valorie]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

I'm just waiting for the big EzineArticles smack down... (I know how much you like EZA James ) ... when you place your content on 3rd party sites there is always a risk involved.

So are you psychic, or did you give them the idea?

-Valorie

[Dennis-White]

No not yet, LOL and I hope I dont!

[intromaster]

I get about 450-630 reads a day. So far a total of 50,858 reads.

Now just trying to convert that traffic over to my site and make some more dough!

[Will Edwards]

Sorry to hear of your problems guys. I just checked because I know there are people using my rebrandable books at Scribd and I noticed they have not been deleted. Not sure why. Perhaps it's something to do with the ratio of reader-value to advertising - just a thought.

Will

[maria909]

i guess it's not about the ratio, every post that i have has 100 reads and more. still they deleted my account. it's not about affiliate marketing too.

[hotconcept]

My account was deleted today also. I was pretty shocked since I have been writing there for over a year, had over fifty articles. At least twenty of those articles had reads over 1000. My top article was about 4000 reads.

My article always were about the content, with at most two links at the bottom, usually to my website.

Nothing spammy here. I recieved letters and comments from readers, and never even recieved a letter from Scribd.

Bottom line is its their website and they make the rules, but their rules are very sketchy to say the least. They put affiliate marketing in a list with hate mail and criminal activities.Yet their featured writers are ALL plugging their books, websites etc. I guess they just dont like regular folks doing it, you have to be a popular writer.

You may by Scribds policy upload your entire hardware catalog..

Well im going to write another article, post it on over 100 article sites, and it will be about Scribd. You will see it soon.

[Wealthyclark]

Finding this post really sucks because I just recently started using scribd a few months ago and have been doing pretty good with it. The other's just don't compare to the power of scribd at the moment, at least none that I know of.

I was going to build my entire marketing strategy around it due to the quick ranking factor, I guess it's better I find out sooner than later.

Originally Posted by hotconcept

My account was deleted today also. I was pretty shocked since I have been writing there for over a year, had over fifty articles. At least twenty of those articles had reads over 1000. My top article was about 4000 reads.

My article always were about the content, with at most two links at the bottom, usually to my website.

Nothing spammy here. I recieved letters and comments from readers, and never even recieved a letter from Scribd.

Bottom line is its their website and they make the rules, but their rules are very sketchy to say the least. They put affiliate marketing in a list with hate mail and criminal activities.Yet their featured writers are ALL plugging their books, websites etc. I guess they just dont like regular folks doing it, you have to be a popular writer.

You may by Scribds policy upload your entire hardware catalog..

Well im going to write another article, post it on over 100 article sites, and it will be about Scribd. You will see it soon.

[hotconcept]

Originally Posted by Wealthyclark

Finding this post really sucks because I just recently started using scribd a few months ago and have been doing pretty good with it. The other's just don't compare to the power of scribd at the moment, at least none that I know of.

I was going to build my entire marketing strategy around it due to the quick ranking factor, I guess it's better I find out sooner than later.

yes you should reevaluate Scribd as should everyone. They have a real contempt for affilate marketing, even articles about affiliate marketing arent permitted. Articles posted for search engine optimization are also not allowed. Of course all of their business partners are allowed free reign to promote anything they wish and scribd sells them on the idea of using Scribd for better search engine results. They also run ads for fuel oil or whatever they wish.

With one article i sent over three thousand people to Scribd. That wont happen again.