Comments on: Are a Site’s User Rules Unfair? http://www.irepnetwork.com/blog/1350/unfair-rules/ Home business news, information, tips and tools to help direct sales consultants succeed online. Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:46:12 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Linda Stacy http://www.irepnetwork.com/blog/1350/unfair-rules/comment-page-1/#comment-3926 Linda Stacy Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:52:53 +0000 http://www.irepnetwork.com/blog/?p=1350#comment-3926 Hi Jennifer. Thanks for coming by and commenting. It's respectful disagreement of course. You and I are usually on the same wavelength! Are they allowing commercial blogs by "rules" or by not getting around to deleting them? No matter what the policy, enforcing it when hundreds of thousands of blogs are added monthly is a huge nightmare at best. My understanding has been that commercial purpose blogs have never been allowed. I considered instituting a policy of only accepting advertising for companies that are DSA members because of their set of ethics. But then there are many legitimate companies that aren't members. What are your thoughts on that? And yes, a better understanding of the direct selling industry would be a great thing in many instances! I think a big part of the problem is that there are differences between the "dictionary definitions" of direct sales, MLM, and network marketing, and how many (most?) people use those terms. It can become a slippery slope. Again, it's just hard to know where to draw the line. Hi Jennifer. Thanks for coming by and commenting. It’s respectful disagreement of course. You and I are usually on the same wavelength!

Are they allowing commercial blogs by “rules” or by not getting around to deleting them? No matter what the policy, enforcing it when hundreds of thousands of blogs are added monthly is a huge nightmare at best. My understanding has been that commercial purpose blogs have never been allowed.

I considered instituting a policy of only accepting advertising for companies that are DSA members because of their set of ethics. But then there are many legitimate companies that aren’t members. What are your thoughts on that?

And yes, a better understanding of the direct selling industry would be a great thing in many instances! I think a big part of the problem is that there are differences between the “dictionary definitions” of direct sales, MLM, and network marketing, and how many (most?) people use those terms.

It can become a slippery slope. Again, it’s just hard to know where to draw the line.

]]> By: Jennifer Fong http://www.irepnetwork.com/blog/1350/unfair-rules/comment-page-1/#comment-3925 Jennifer Fong Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:10:21 +0000 http://www.irepnetwork.com/blog/?p=1350#comment-3925 Linda, Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! I guess my biggest issue is that they DO allow other businesses “to direct readers to external domains for commercial purposes,” just not MLMs. That in my mind is discriminatory. Now I completely understand that there are some folks out there who are doing questionable things. But when consultants are part of Direct Selling Association member companies, those companies have agreed to abide by a set of ethics. So when a company like WordPress automatically takes ethical companies and bars them because of unethical companies' practices, I think it's discriminatory. And MLMs were lumped in the category of "Affiliate Marketing." This is untrue. MLM is not affiliate marketing. That is something else entirely. Yet it shows that WordPress made a sweeping generalization that was not based on research or an understanding of the direct sales industry. And that I have a problem with. So I guess we have to agree to disagree a bit on these points. My biggest concern, however, is that this is an indication of things to come. If big companies like WordPress close to direct sellers, what will happen when direct selling companies wake up and finally start training the field on the proper ways to use the social web? Will we find all the doors are already closed to us? That is my biggest issue. Thanks again for participating in the discussion! Jennifer Linda,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! I guess my biggest issue is that they DO allow other businesses “to direct readers to external domains for commercial purposes,” just not MLMs. That in my mind is discriminatory.

Now I completely understand that there are some folks out there who are doing questionable things. But when consultants are part of Direct Selling Association member companies, those companies have agreed to abide by a set of ethics. So when a company like WordPress automatically takes ethical companies and bars them because of unethical companies’ practices, I think it’s discriminatory.

And MLMs were lumped in the category of “Affiliate Marketing.” This is untrue. MLM is not affiliate marketing. That is something else entirely. Yet it shows that WordPress made a sweeping generalization that was not based on research or an understanding of the direct sales industry. And that I have a problem with.

So I guess we have to agree to disagree a bit on these points. My biggest concern, however, is that this is an indication of things to come. If big companies like WordPress close to direct sellers, what will happen when direct selling companies wake up and finally start training the field on the proper ways to use the social web? Will we find all the doors are already closed to us? That is my biggest issue.

Thanks again for participating in the discussion!

Jennifer

]]>