11 replies to this topic

[CDNSHOPGUY]

I wrote a small php script into my shopping cart that posts product information to tumblr by passing parameters such as:

-product name
-price
-short product description
-link back to products page

So a post would look like:

Product Name
ONLY $X.XX
short description descrtipion blah blah blah ...
<link back to my page >


What do you guys think ? Is this a good way to get backlinks or can this work against me ?

[Jill]

They don't use nofollow?

[CDNSHOPGUY]

nope .. nofollow free. I did use the same concept with twitter but they however do use nofollow. Some social media sites have API's to work with like twitter and tumblr etc. This way after I add a product I can simply click a button and i have a number of inbound links to my new product page. Even if they use nofollow they might come up in SERPS and serve as a potential way to get SOME traffic.

[CDNSHOPGUY]

Haven't really heard back on this ....

Is this frowned about as being a little spammy ?

Or

Is this good way to get backlinks and advertise products on tumblr ?

[Randy]

Sounds to me like you'd want to read the Tumblr terms of service. They're the ones who are first going to have to decide if the automatic posts fit with their terms.

[CDNSHOPGUY]

Regardless of tumblrs terms. Is there value in doing this ?

[Jill]

I think you'd have to ask someone who's done it, as we can only speculate.

Since you're doing it, or plan to do it, why don't you let us know if you find value in it? Testing is what it's all about.

[CDNSHOPGUY]

I think you'd have to ask someone who's done it, as we can only speculate.

Since you're doing it, or plan to do it, why don't you let us know if you find value in it? Testing is what it's all about.

I guess this will be an experiment I will have to report back with.

Working with major social media site api's, i can easily post content by click of a button across multiple sites. The posts are well formatted with an image, description and backlink of course.

This will not take away from using these sites as they were intended but a quick way to get links to your newly created product page.

[Randy]

You're not concerned about creating a bad rep for yourself and your site, hunh?

That's the take away I get from the fact that you're going to do it regardless of what anybody's TOS might say. And wouldn't it be fun if such actions somehow put the search engines on notice that perhaps they should scrutinize a site more closely than they otherwise would.

[CDNSHOPGUY]

You're not concerned about creating a bad rep for yourself and your site, hunh?

That's the take away I get from the fact that you're going to do it regardless of what anybody's TOS might say. And wouldn't it be fun if such actions somehow put the search engines on notice that perhaps they should scrutinize a site more closely than they otherwise would.

Please let me know how this conflicts with their TOS ? How is this any different than if I decided to post an RSS feed from goal.com on my tumblr page ? Is goal.com going to get penalized ?

[Randy]

I don't use tumblr. Never even been there. So obviously haven't read through their TOS with an eye towards what is and is not allowed. For all I know what you're proposing could be perfectly acceptable. Which is why I encouraged you to read their TOS earlier in the thread.

What I was referring to specifically was your comment:

Regardless of tumblrs terms.

That's simply not a wise approach to take. With anything, but doubly so with business. Especially when someone else ultimately controls the content.

So I would encourage you to read their TOS. If you can't find a clear cut answer to whether it's allowed or not, ask them point blank. Then you'll know if you're within their rules or not.

Just because someone is already doing it doesn't mean it's not against their rules. Just that the person doing it may not have been caught yet.

[WarnerCarter]

Tumblr, like wordpress.com, is pretty aggressive in blocking commercial use of their service. If you made posts that have prices and look like products offers my estimate is your account would last 3 days then they would block your IP address. Even posts with links that look promotional can cause them to just dump your account into oblivion.

Warner