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Is it cool to post links to articles on your own site?

by lukedidit
6 replies
Hi All,

I am in the progress of developing a new site / blog which will be catered towards the IM industry and bloggers, but not trying to directly sell a product / method or get someone to click a link - content will be the priority.

It will mainly consist of a lot of helpful 'how to' technical posts (centred mainly around wordpress) that will be helpful all to warriors alike.

I have around 15 years experience in the technical side, so I feel it should be useful stuff, not to high level, but not to low level (only small code excerpts when needed).

Am I ok to post about the articles and include an excerpt? I would be sensible about this and not spam the forum everyday, perhaps once in a while, a week apart at most?

I have read the FAQ and rules and it seems like this is OK?

Luke
#articles #cool #links #post #site
  • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
    Do as I sometimes do: when I write a post on my personal blog, which I think may be of benefit to some Warriors, I provide a link to it in my signature.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by lukedidit View Post

    Am I ok to post about the articles and include an excerpt? I would be sensible about this and not spam the forum everyday
    I suspect it's "trial by Warrior".

    If people start "reporting" your posts because they feel there's promotional intent there as the motivation for posting (and I think they will "report" them, if it looks that way), then they'll start disappearing. Is my guess.

    You can do this in a sig-file, you know (as long as you don't make posts that draw attention to your sig-file)? Openly and with nothing to be ashamed about or feel that "you couldn't do it every day" ...
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    • Profile picture of the author lukedidit
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      I suspect it's "trial by Warrior".

      If people start "reporting" your posts because they feel there's promotional intent there as the motivation for posting (and I think they will "report" them, if it looks that way), then they'll start disappearing. Is my guess.

      You can do this in a sig-file, you know (as long as you don't make posts that draw attention to your sig-file)? Openly and with nothing to be ashamed about or feel that "you couldn't do it every day" ...
      That sounds fair enough! The sigs a good idea too.

      To give a better idea of the content......;- instead of 'how to make $2000 dollars in 30 days with this fail proof technique!' it will more likely be articles such as 'How to install piwik open source analytic's if your concerned about other sites snooping your data'.

      The idea is to provide free decent content which is genuinely useful, it will be monetized with ads here and there, but nothing underhand or spammy.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by lukedidit View Post

        it will be monetized with ads here and there
        That's what may make people feel that it has "promotional intent", Luke, I think - I'm "just saying" ... there's sometimes an element of "Well, what would the forum look like, with its 300,000+ members, if everyone did that?", you know? :confused:
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Luke, the fly in this ointment is setting a precedent others will look to exploit. One thing I've seen here over the years is people pushing boundaries and then playing forum lawyer. "You let him do it, why can't I?"

        It's one of the reasons affiliate links are not allowed in sigs. Some would exercise restraint, while others would, as you say, spam the forum every day. And, because each of them would receive some benefit economically, they would all try to make the case that they were just adding value.

        I'd say your best bet, if you want to be active in promoting your blog here, would be to post the excerpt and link you proposed to your Warrior blog and then link to that in your sig with a teaser line.

        The other more or less safe way to promote the blog is to watch for "targets of opportunity", where someone directly asks for help with something and your blog post directly addresses that subject.

        It wasn't all that long ago that Allen had to ban posting complete articles in threads, especially starting threads with articles. While some exercised restraint and judgment, others started using the main forum as just another article dump where they could get a backlink indexed in minutes.

        Of course, that's just my opinion. I have no official pull here beyond the same report button every other member has.
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        • Profile picture of the author lukedidit
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          Luke, the fly in this ointment is setting a precedent others will look to exploit. One thing I've seen here over the years is people pushing boundaries and then playing forum lawyer. "You let him do it, why can't I?"
          That makes sense, give them an inch and they will take a mile.

          I shall give it an ever so slightly subtle tentative spin and let the users decide.

          The helpful reply is another good idea.
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