3 Sites With Likable Terms And Policies

Hey, guess what, Tumblr’s terms of service and privacy policy aren’t the only ones that I like. I've been writing a lot about Tumblr’s terms of use and policies, so, maybe, it seems like these are the only ones that I like.

But that’s totally not true at all 😃. It’s just that these are the ones I've recently read and liked. But the truth is that there are other terms and policies that I’ve read and liked. For example, I do like Persona Paper’s terms and policies (and I'm seriously not just saying that ‘cause I write here), and I intend to elaborate on that later on.

It’s on my list of stuff to write about, which seems to be growing more and more by the minute. Okay, that was a bit too much of an exaggeration, but there's definitely a lot that I want to write about and the list is definitely very long. In fact, I can’t wait to write them all, but just can’t seem to find the time to do so.

Aside from Persona Paper’s terms and policies, another one that I like is that of PicMonkey’s. PicMonkey is a free online photo editor that I don’t use. Actually, when I was reading through Tumblr’s terms and policies, I was reminded of PicMonkey’s terms and policies.

But it’s not because the two are all that similar or anything. It’s just because PicMonkey also has terms and policies that I actually like. It's quite short and pretty fun to read. What do you think about the terms and policies of these websites?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

SandraLynn wrote on August 12, 2014, 4:00 PM:
LOVE PICMONKEY. I'm a royale member AND an affiliate. It's a great deal - free or paid OR the affiliate... I was JUST freakin' there making a thing for my website. Funny that I happened over here right after :) I used PicMonkey for years and then said what the heck, I want more. And then, with my site, decided to earn some money, as well. It's been good so far! I like helping folks, they like helping folks. Win win :) YAY :)

Oh, and I don't know anything about tumblr, but I love it HERE, too :)

FreyaYuki replied to SandraLynn on August 16, 2014, 5:05 PM:
It's good that PicMonkey is working well for you as a photo editor. I didn't know that they have an affiliate program. I'm just getting started on Tumblr so don't know much about it yet. I like Persona Paper too :) .

Feisty56 wrote on August 12, 2014, 7:24 PM:
You've got me giggling with your like of PicMonkey's terms, but then saying it's a program you don't use. I'm going to have to watch myself when I read your posts -- but it'll be fun.

FreyaYuki replied to Feisty56 on August 16, 2014, 4:47 PM:
😃 I didn't think anyone would notice that. I read PicMonkey's terms when I considered using said online photo editor. And I did like the terms of use and privacy policy because it's so fun and humorous and it's not that long either. But I ended up using GIMP as a photo editor instead.

*Notes:
- Image is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

3 Problems With Persona Paper Polls

For my last 2 posts on Persona Paper, I used the poll feature. I think it's great that Persona Paper has a poll feature ('cause polls are pretty fun, right? LOL), but here are some of the problems and issues that I've noticed about it.

I actually already made a poll post before. It seemed like forever ago though, so I don't really remember when, but it was this poll about Bubblews (looking at the poll in question, I see that it was published on October 16, 2014. Huh. Really long time ago, then. LOL).

Even then, I noticed that there were some issues with the poll feature, so I refrained from using them. It was only a few days ago that I decided to try out this type of post again. I wanted to see how it was now and if there were any new improvements or something.

So, here are the issues with the poll feature:

Spaces

• When you make a poll, you get a textbox where you can place your introductory text
• Unfortunately, you can't add spaces in between the paragraphs of your text
• Even if you make sure that there are spaces in between your paragraphs before posting your poll, those spaces will disappear after you publish your post
• So you end up with a poll post with an introductory text that's like one huge wall of nothing but text (this is especially the case if your intro text is quite long. If it's short, this shouldn't be much of a problem though it would still be nice to be able to put spaces in between our paragraphs)
• I wonder why we can't put spaces in between paragraphs?
• I'm not sure if using the break code <br/> will work as I haven't had the chance to try it yet though I have my doubts. Has anyone tried this? Does it work?

Removes apostrophe in the poll choices

• You can't use words like "you're", "I'm", "don't" and other such words that require the use of apostrophes
• So, you end up with poll choices like "youre", "Im", "dont", etc
• I wonder why this happens?
• It makes it seem like the writer/author/creator of the poll didn't even edit or proofread their article when the simple truth is they really wrote the words properly. It's just that when the poll was submitted, it messed things up and removed the apostrophes

No preview poll option

• If you're writing an article on Persona Paper, you can save it as a draft and then preview the appearance of your article
• For example, I can preview this article that I'm currently writing so I can check and make sure that it looks all right and that there are no errors, etc before publishing it
• Unfortunately, you can't preview poll posts
• All you can do is write your intro text, add the poll choices, give your post a title and then hit the submit button
• You won't be able to see what your article looks like before it immediately goes live
• This wouldn't be so bad if you can actually edit your post but you can't do that either
• I can see/understand why we can't edit our poll posts but wouldn't it be nice if we can at least preview it before submitting so we can see if there are things that we need to fix?
• For example, if I've been able to preview my polls before submitting them, I would have been able to correct the apostrophe mess. I could have tried to shorten my intro text too. As it is, I only found out about the mess when I saw my published post
• By then, it was too late to change anything because you can no longer edit your post

So, what do you think about this? Do you make polls on Persona Paper? Have you noticed these things?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

Soonerdad3 wrote on March 15, 2015, 1:52 PM:
Yes, I made a few polls myself and I have noticed every one of the issues you included in the post, but the one I find most troubling is the fact that you cannot edit a Poll post.

FreyaYuki replied to Soonerdad3 on March 16, 2015, 11:07 AM:
I wouldn't mind not being able to edit a poll post as long as we can see a preview of what our published article will look like first before we publish it so we can correct any possible error or typo (like shortening our intro text if it's too long or making sure we don't use words that require apostrophes so it won't mess up the look of our polls).

Dawnwriter wrote on March 15, 2015, 1:59 PM:
I also dislike the fact that text in poll become one big block of text. I guess elitecodex can answer your concerns best.

FreyaYuki replied to Dawnwriter on March 16, 2015, 11:16 AM:
Yeah, I hope elitecodex can take a look at the poll post issues once he's feeling better.

Carmelanirel wrote on March 15, 2015, 2:34 PM:
Wow... I never created a poll yet, but that stinks, especially for me because as a writer, I am very particular in many the proper spaces and punctuation.

FreyaYuki replied to Carmelanirel on March 16, 2015, 11:19 AM:
I agree. I'm also particular with such things, which is why I've decided to stop making polls for now. It's too bad I can't edit the polls that I posted so I can at least try to fix the apostrophe mess.

Carmelanirel replied to FreyaYuki on March 16, 2015, 4:19 PM:
Oh I know, my first money making forum we couldn't edit anything but what was on our profile and I found that really annoying when I made typos..

FreyaYuki replied to Carmelanirel on March 17, 2015, 8:41 AM:
That is really annoying. I like being able to edit and proofread my posts. Even if we always edit before publishing our articles, sometimes, we can't catch all the mistakes so it's great to be able to go back and edit again if we notice typos. So I like how we can edit our comments and articles here. I hope Persona Paper can allow us to edit or at least preview polls before we submit them so we can correct any error.

Carmelanirel replied to FreyaYuki on March 17, 2015, 9:23 AM:
Maybe you can contact admin (sorry I can't remember the names, if you need to know, let me know and I will look them up) and inquire about changing this.

trufflehunter wrote on March 15, 2015, 9:44 PM:
Oh yes for some strange reason we can't use apostrophes for Poll text...

FreyaYuki replied to trufflehunter on March 16, 2015, 11:20 AM:
Yeah, it's really odd. I wonder why that is the case? I do hope these issues can be addressed eventually.

scheng1 wrote on March 16, 2015, 9:13 AM:
That is good suggestion. I hate to read a whole lump of words too.

FreyaYuki replied to scheng1 on March 16, 2015, 11:24 AM:
Yeah, I don't like posts that are just one big wall of text too, so I always make sure to add appropriate spaces on my articles. It's easier to read that way so people won't have to strain their eyes.

CalmGemini wrote on March 17, 2015, 10:58 AM:
I have posted some polls, and all the problems you have pointed out are relevant. Regarding the introduction, we can not write a smaller one as it should have the word count of a post. We should be allowed to edit or we must have the facility to preview our polls. Very good post.

FreyaYuki replied to CalmGemini on March 18, 2015, 11:08 AM:
Thanks. Yeah, it would be so much better if we were allowed to have spaces on the intro text so it would look nicer and if all the other poll post issues are addressed. Hopefully, the admin can look into this soon.

crowntower wrote on March 23, 2015, 8:59 AM:
That's why I never do a poll... lol! Heheheh I once had an issue about it, bestwriter told me that I did not vote on the poll that she had... but I told her I did it twice but nothing happened. I don't know what happens next, because I did it the third and fourth time nothing happened.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on March 24, 2015, 11:11 AM:
I've stopped doing poll posts for now. Hopefully, the issues with this feature can be sorted out soon. Looks like there are also problems with answering polls. Maybe that's why some polls only have a few votes. It's possible that the votes of those who answered the polls weren't properly recorded at all.

*Notes:
- Pic is a screenshot of this article from back when this was posted on another site
- This was previously published elsewhere

Answer To The Viglink Issue On Bubblews And Persona Paper

Take a look at this screenshot.

Remember this? Yeah, does that look spammy to you or what? So, I wrote about that in an earlier post, which you can find here. It seemed that no one had the answers though. I was looking for more information, and, after doing a bit more research, I've found the answers to exactly what's happening and what's going on.

What is Viglink?

Viglink is an affiliate program which can help you earn some money by turning your regular or normal links into affiliate links. If people decide to click on those links, they will get taken to sites where they can choose to buy the item or product you mentioned in your article. If they decide to purchase something from that website (like Amazon or eBay) after clicking on your affiliate link, then you will get a commission. That's good, right? Sure it is if you want to earn some money 😃.

The issue with Viglink

Th problem is with the screenshots which you can see on this post. Note that I've noticed this happening on both Bubblews and Persona Paper. If you look at the screenshot, you can see that there are 5 links in 1 single post and they all go to the same page on the same site.

On Bubblews, 1 post I can recall reading mentioned Viglink 3 times, which caused said program to insert 3 links to their site's homepage on that article. How is this not spammy? I mean, how many links do you need for 1 site anyway? What's the point of linking to the same site more than once in an article unless those links go to different pages on the same domain? In this case though, they all go to the homepage of Viglink, so, isn't that pointless?

Skimlinks

Note that this is also possible with Skimlinks, which is another affiliate program that is pretty much similar to Viglink. I'm focusing on Viglink though because this is what I've seen on Bubblews and Persona Paper and so you can see an example of how it works.

Affiliate programs = not bad as long as you avoid spam

Also, note that I'm not saying that either of these affiliate programs are bad. In fact, I wanted to find out more about them and am even considering / thinking of using them on my own blogs and sites (haven't gotten 'round to it yet though as I wanted more info plus needed to make sure they won't end up looking spammy. I think I'm going with manual rather than automation on this one - no automatic insertion of links, which can make your post spammy).

Edited to add: I've created an account on Viglink though I haven't really used it on any of my blogs/sites yet.

There's nothing wrong with these programs. What's wrong is how they can appear spammy to your readers and visitors. If you can make them less spammy, if you can make the links look natural and not just there for the sake of being there, if you can make them relevant to your content, then it's perfectly fine to have those links on your posts.

Some sites where you can use your affiliate links

Actually, there are some sites that let you add affiliate links to articles you publish on those platforms. For example, you can add affiliate links to your HubPages, Writedge and Daily Two Cents articles, but they do have rules about this - and those rules are there to prevent your posts from being spammy.

What's the deal with the Viglink spam on Bubblews and Persona Paper?

After doing a bit more research, I discovered this feature known as Viglink Insert and I highly believe that this is what Bubblews and Persona Paper are using on their sites.

What is Viglink Insert?

This is actually a pretty cool feature (when used properly) and I think you know what it does and how it works already 😃. This feature automatically inserts affiliate links into your content so you don't have to do anything except write. Plus, Viglink says they will be inserting the link to the highest-paying merchant at that time so if someone decides to use your link to buy stuff, you can get a higher commission. Pretty cool, right?

What's wrong with Viglink Insert?

Well, nothing, I suppose, except when it gets too spammy. But what I've found is that you can actually control the settings of this feature on your site. You can see a screenshot of this on the Viglink website, but, basically, you can do things like:

• Add the automatic disclosure (Bubblews and Persona Paper do this. It's that title that shows up when you hover your mouse on the links. It says "link added by Viglink")
• You can set the link target like having it open in the same or new window when clicked
• You can decide the "allowable link destinations"
• You can decide how many links are inserted and the "minimum space between" these links

So, it looks like the problem is with the last bullet point - the total number of inserted links allowed and the space between these links. What do you think about all this? Do you think having too many links that go to the same page is spammy?

Additional information

The screenshot that I'm referencing in this article is the one that shows up in the first post that I wrote about this here on Persona Paper. It's the first pic on this post. But I took another screenshot of this article because, as you can see in the pic below, it did pretty much the same thing as the first article.

It's also interesting to note that the links are so near to each other even though I've mentioned Viglink in other parts of the post too plus why are the links near the top of the article? If you scroll down further, you see nothing at all even though Viglink was mentioned even at the end of the article. On the plus side, at least they made it easier for me to screenshot the post.

Again, just like I did with the first article, I'm changing one of the letters in the program's name to destroy / get rid of these annoying, spammy links. Actually, I just noticed that the program decided to add in the rest of the links after I removed the initial 5 and, after I got rid of all those links, it decided to add links to Amazon and eBay, so I had to get rid of those links too.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

LeaPea2417 wrote on February 23, 2015, 12:49 PM:
That is interesting. I have not given it much thought before.

FreyaYuki replied to LeaPea2417 on February 24, 2015, 8:54 AM:
I wouldn't have minded much at all if it didn't look so spammy. I mean, 5 links and all to the same page is spammy, isn't it? What's the point of linking to the same page 5 times in 1 article?

j2jworkz wrote on February 23, 2015, 1:02 PM:
It may be worth considering if used manually. I believe the auto does make pages look spammy; of course I assume manually controlling the insertions would be much more work.

FreyaYuki replied to j2jworkz on February 24, 2015, 8:57 AM:
If I ever decide to use either of these affiliate programs on my own blogs/sites, I'd also choose to add the links manually. It might take more time, but at least it would stop your posts from being so spammy. Besides, will people (your readers and visitors) really like it if they see 5 links to the same page in your posts? They might think you added the links yourself or something.

BarbRad wrote on February 23, 2015, 1:12 PM:
I have added Viglinks to my Blogger blogs, but have not noticed any links being added automatically, even though I've set it to add them. I have added some of my own Zazzle and Amazon links. I don't usually talk about any products by brand name, so maybe that's why I'm not seeing any links. I do talk about places and wineries occasionally, so I thought they at least might add links or wine tasting tours or travel, but so far nothing. All I see is their disclosure at the bottom.

FreyaYuki replied to BarbRad on February 24, 2015, 9:18 AM:
Have you tried contacting their customer support? Maybe there is an error in their code or something? It seems like even just mentioning shopping sites will cause a link to automatically be added to that site. For instance, you mentioned Amazon in your comment and I see that an affiliate link was automatically added.

I think it might be best to just add the links yourself to prevent the posts and articles from looking too spammy or at least make sure that the affiliate program won't end up linking to the same page 5 times in a single article.

AliCanary wrote on February 23, 2015, 1:31 PM:
I've noticed that some of my Bubbs articles are full of these, although I have not noticed on PP. I have actually been deleting the links on any articles I transfer from there to here, because they seemed like they might be affiliate links, and that's not allowed here. Thanks for more information on the subject!

FreyaYuki replied to AliCanary on February 24, 2015, 9:19 AM:
You're welcome 😃. I noticed these links on some Bubblews articles too.

GemstonePink wrote on February 23, 2015, 2:27 PM:
It does seem that Viglinks could cause a problem for quite a few sites if not monitored carefully.

FreyaYuki replied to GemstonePink on February 24, 2015, 9:24 AM:
Yes. It's best to either manually add the affiliate links yourself or really look into the settings of the automation feature to make sure that the links being automatically added won't end up making your articles look spammy.

ViperGirl85 wrote on February 23, 2015, 2:52 PM:
If I'm reading correctly, you mean the random links inserted into our posts? I noticed it on Bubblews, not on here yet, but it doesn't bother me anyways.

FreyaYuki replied to ViperGirl85 on February 24, 2015, 9:30 AM:
Yes, I'm talking about the random links that are automatically inserted in our posts both here on Persona Paper and on Bubblews. I wouldn't have minded at all except the links seem very spammy. If you look at the screenshots, you can see that the affiliate program inserted 5 links to the same page in one single article. Isn't that too much especially since all the links go to the same place anyway?

BrenndaMarie wrote on February 23, 2015, 3:47 PM:
I really do not know, much about it at all. Thank-you for informing me. I have never even heard of viglink before.

FreyaYuki replied to BrenndaMarie on February 24, 2015, 9:33 AM:
You're welcome. It can be a good affiliate program when used properly. If you look at the comment you just made, you can see an example. The word Viglink that you included was automatically turned into a an affiliate link. And, when you hover your mouse on this link, you will see the words "Link added by Viglink".

SLGarcia wrote on February 23, 2015, 3:50 PM:
I do know that is not something I would ever use, nor would I open the link. Thanks for pointing this out so I can avoid it :)

FreyaYuki replied to SLGarcia on February 24, 2015, 9:35 AM:
You're welcome 😃. I agree that I wouldn't click on these spammy-looking links. But if used properly, these affiliate programs can be good. It might be best to just manually add the links by yourself to avoid the spam.

allen0187 wrote on February 23, 2015, 7:14 PM:
Haven't really noticed any of these links in any of my posts here in PP or even in bubble ooze. i guess my posts aren't worth the time of these companies. LOL!

FreyaYuki replied to allen0187 on February 24, 2015, 9:49 AM:
It depends on the things mentioned in the post. For example, if you mention shopping sites like Amazon or eBay or if you're reviewing a product or item and mention it by name, then it's highly likely that an affiliate link will automatically be inserted to your posts.

Kungfu123 wrote on February 24, 2015, 1:57 AM:
Actually, I don't think there will be someone click the link.

FreyaYuki replied to Kungfu123 on February 24, 2015, 10:07 AM:
Yeah, I don't think anyone will want to click on spammy-looking links. Besides, who needs 5 links to the same page anyway, right?

nbaquero wrote on February 25, 2015, 12:36 PM:
freyayuki Well as of yesterday Bubblews removed VigLin(k) from their site. It was too intrusive.

FreyaYuki replied to nbaquero on February 25, 2015, 4:23 PM:
Thanks for the info. Haven't heard of this yet. I think they could have just tweaked the settings of Viglin(k) Insert to make the posts look less spammy (like setting how many links a single post can have, etc), so they wouldn't have to remove or stop using this affiliate program. Were they able to fix the issue with AdSense ads yet? Haven't checked the site yet. I guess I better go log in to see if there are new updates from the CEO.

nbaquero replied to FreyaYuki on February 25, 2015, 4:36 PM:
No according to one of the staffers (who posted an update) they are using AdBlades? while the wait to fix the issue. It looks VigLin(k) wasn't really meeting their objectives. I don't know if the same happens here.

FreyaYuki replied to nbaquero on February 26, 2015, 11:59 AM:
I just saw that post. I do hope they get the AdSense issue sorted out already. From reading the comments on that post, it looks like many don't like how the Adblade ads look like.

For Viglin(k), I think it might have been better if the links were manually inserted to prevent the spammy links and make sure only posts that warrant an affiliate link will contain links like if the post is a review of a product, it would make sense for it to have an affiliate link but if the post is a personal one and doesn't mention any products, then there should be no affiliate links there, etc.

scheng1 wrote on March 1, 2015, 3:20 AM:
I think Bubblews has removed it, and I think their Adsense account is terminated by Google.

FreyaYuki replied to scheng1 on March 1, 2015, 11:49 AM:
Yes, I just read the post about them removing the affiliate links from Viglin(k). I don't think their AdSense account has been terminated since I just saw that the ads were back on their site. It looks like they were finally able to fix the problem with the homepage ads that was mentioned in one of their posts.

*Notes:
- First and last pic is a screenshot of this article from back when this was posted on another site
- Second pic is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- Third pic is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

How Viglink Works On Persona Paper And Bubblews

Also known as "Something annoying about Viglink, some questions, and stuff about both Persona Paper and Bubblews (trust me, it's all related)".

So, I've heard about Viglink and how it's supposed to be good, useful- eh, you get the point. I was thinking I might want to try it too. But then I saw how it works on the-site-that-shall-not-be-named (a.k.a Bubblews), and now, I'm not so sure.

What is Viglink and how does it work?

Viglink is an affiliate program. It works by automatically adding links to stuff you mention in your posts. For example, if you mention a product or a site or whatever, then Viglink will automatically add an affiliate link which, when people decide to click on, will take them to the site where they can choose to buy the item. You then get a commission from that. Cool, right?

What's the problem then?

But the issue I noticed is that Viglink tends to link to the same site several times. I saw this on a few posts I've read that use this affiliate program (like articles from you-know-who (*coughBubblewscough*)). For example, there was this one article I saw that was about Viglink. It mentioned that word around 3 times, maybe more.

Do you know what Viglink did? They automatically inserted a link to their site on that article not once, not twice, but three times. Doesn't that seem way too spammy to you? It was 3 different links to the same site. Is that even necessary? Do you like that? Do you think that's a good idea?

Some readers or visitors might be under the impression that the author of the article did that. Thankfully, if they hover their mouse on the link, they can see "link added by Viglink," but that's not really going to help much if they don't know what that means, right?

Question about Viglink

If you use Viglink on your own sites or blogs, can you be the one to add the affiliate link yourself? Like, can you get the affiliate link from Viglink and be the one to insert it on your post and then make it so that Viglink will not automatically add any links? Is that possible?

Edited to add: I've created an account on Viglink though I haven't really had the chance to use it yet. From what I can see so far, you can add the inks yourself. But the program also offers a feature which automatically inserts them for you. You can change the settings of this feature, so it won't go overboard when it comes to creating affiliate links for you.

Question about Skimlinks

Oh, and since we're asking questions and all, anyone know anything about Skimlinks? It's similar to Viglink, but I have to wonder which of the 2 is better, and, more importantly (okay, maybe just as important 😃 LOL), does Skimlinks do the same thing as Viglink? Will it also automatically insert several links to the same site in your article or can you stop this from happening and just do it yourself?

Using Viglink on Persona Paper

I can't believe it's happening here on Persona Paper too. Look at the screenshot below:

5 links to Viglink. Including the title. Seriously? This is what I've been seeing on Bubblews. Do you think that looks spammy or what?

Aside: I really don't like what Viglink is doing, so, to get rid of or destroy these annoying links, I'm changing one of the letters in the aforementioned word, so don't be surprised if you don't see what the screenshot shows when I publish this post.

Yet another aside: It's interesting to note that Viglink didn't link to Skimlinks in this post, considering I mentioned it a few times too. Must be because they're competitors. LOL. Okay, that does it then. There should be no other links on this post now except the tags at the very end or right below this line.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

MsBiz wrote on February 19, 2015, 2:46 PM:
I don't know much about said advertising program. Do you add it on your own? Can you use it on many sites?

FreyaYuki replied to MsBiz on February 20, 2015, 10:30 AM:
I've been doing a bit more research about this. I'll try to write a post about it soon. But, basically, you need to sign up for the programs first. Once they approve you, you can start adding affiliate links to your posts. It's similar to the Amazon Associates program. And you can even use Amazon with Skimlinks and Viglink.

Kasman wrote on February 19, 2015, 5:04 PM:
If that isn't spam I don't know what is. At the very least it's undesirable and not something we really want on PP.

FreyaYuki replied to Kasman on February 20, 2015, 10:35 AM:
Yeah, I think it looks spammy too. I mean, why would anyone want 5 links that all go to the same site? I hope something can be done about this or many might end up thinking the site is too spammy with all the links.

GemstonePink wrote on February 19, 2015, 5:54 PM:
It does sound like it could lead to a lot of problems for a site.

FreyaYuki replied to GemstonePink on February 20, 2015, 10:38 AM:
Yes. It can make a site seem really spammy especially with lots of articles swimming in clickable links that all go to the same site. It's also pointless to link to the same site several times in one post. One link should be more than enough unless they all go to different pages on the same domain. In this case, all the links go to that site's homepage.

inertia4 wrote on February 19, 2015, 6:30 PM:
FreyaYuki I saw those links on the B site also. I do think that people who frequent these sites know that we did not add those links ourself. But they are somewhat annoying. I find it annoying when I am reading a post. The light blue words on the B site turn me off to reading a post. But it is ad revenue for the site them and here as well. And since we get paid from ad revenue, I am not complaining.

FreyaYuki replied to inertia4 on February 20, 2015, 10:44 AM:
I don't mind the links. I add affiliate links on the other sites I write for too and they are allowed though there are rules. But what I don't like is if it ends up making the article look spammy, like in this case. Just because you mention a site or product or something several times doesn't mean a link needs to be added that many times too.

Like in that screenshot I included, Viglink even added a link right in the title. Plus, all the links they added go to their site. Isn't that redundant and pointless? If someone was going to go to a product or site, don't they need only 1 link to do so? What's the point of having so many?

j2jworkz wrote on February 19, 2015, 9:30 PM:
Have hard of Vlinks, but no experience with it. Good questions re: targeting and options.

FreyaYuki replied to j2jworkz on February 20, 2015, 10:46 AM:
Thanks. I'm doing more research about the 2 affiliate programs in question. Have found some things about them already so will try to write a post about this soon.

scheng1 wrote on February 19, 2015, 10:10 PM:
They use it because Adsense policy allows other advertisers that display in-text links.

FreyaYuki replied to scheng1 on February 20, 2015, 10:49 AM:
I don't mind that a site uses either of these affiliate programs. But what I don't like is if an article ends up swimming in clickable links that make it too spammy. Like in that screenshot, there are 5 links that go to the same site. Isn't that redundant and pointless, not to mention spammy? People don't need that many links since they all go to the same site anyway. Plus, one of those links was inserted right in the title.

nbaquero wrote on February 20, 2015, 7:30 AM:
FreyaYuki Well I was doing a little research on my own becasue I saw the links being added here at Persona Paper and there. I do know that those links can be disabled by the user, but then it would be like the Ad blockers.

FreyaYuki replied to nbaquero on February 20, 2015, 10:59 AM:
I did a bit more research too and am planning to write a post about it soon. From what I've found though, it looks like both Persona Paper and Bubblews are using the Viglink Insert, which will automatically insert affiliate links for you.

However, it is actually possible to decrease the amount of links that are automatically added by fine tuning the settings and options of this feature. If they can at least stop this program from linking to the same site several times in the same article, then that should help with making the posts look less spammy because 5 links to the same site is way too much, isn't it?

*Notes:
- First image is by kaboompics (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- Second pic is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Third pic is a screenshot of this article from back when this was posted on another site
- This was previously published elsewhere

Why The URL Links On Persona Paper Are Nofollow?

Did you know that all the links you add to your Persona Paper posts automatically have the rel="nofollow" attribute?

You can see this by clicking on the source code <> icon or button in the Persona Paper text post editor. For example, I'll add this link about what happens when you reply to the comments on your Persona Paper profile page here. If I click on the source code icon, I will see this:

<a href="URL link here" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>

The rel="nofollow" is automatically inserted. You can try to remove it, but it won't make a difference. The next time you look at the source code, you'll see the nofollow tag again.

Well, some sites do this while some only add this tag to affiliate links. On my own blogs, I add rel="nofollow" to the affiliate links. But on sites I write for (like Persona Paper, HubPages, Writedge, Daily Two Cents, etc) and on my own blogs, if I interlink or link to my articles, I don't add this attribute.

I can see why Persona Paper would do this, and, I don't know, I guess I don't really mind all that much (okay, maybe just a little 😃 LOL. But, really, not all that much, I guess, since I usually interlink Persona Paper articles anyway), but what I wonder about is why Persona Paper would add rel="nofollow" even when you're linking to a post that is on this site? Isn't that odd? I mean, why nofollow links on your own site? Is there a reason for this? Just curious and confused, I suppose. What do you think?

Note: see, all the URL links here go to articles on Persona Paper, but if you check the source code, they're all nofollow anyway. Odd and strange, isn't it?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

GemstonePink wrote on February 24, 2015, 10:28 AM:
Thank you for alerting to this situation. I am very appreciative of those who help the newbies with their informative articles.

FreyaYuki replied to GemstonePink on February 25, 2015, 4:59 PM:
You're welcome 😃. Happened to notice the nofollow links and wondered why even the links on Persona Paper were nofollowed, which is odd, to say the least.

MaeLou wrote on February 24, 2015, 10:48 AM:
I'm not sure but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that when elitecodex did the programming, he didn't limit specific websites, including ours. It was just a basic nofollow for all links.

FreyaYuki replied to MaeLou on February 25, 2015, 5:01 PM:
Ah, I see. I understand why he'd want to nofollow links to external sites though I wonder why even links to Persona Paper would be nofollowed.

arthurchappell wrote on February 24, 2015, 10:50 AM:
no idea what the no-follow means - if we were to click on the link would it not still take us to that page?

FreyaYuki replied to arthurchappell on February 25, 2015, 5:04 PM:
Owlwings explained it correctly below 😃. Yes, for people, it doesn't matter even if the links are nofollow. If you click on them, you'll still be taken to the site or page where the link leads.

Feisty56 wrote on February 25, 2015, 5:30 PM:
I appreciate you bringing this to my attention and for providing a place for Owlwings and elitecodex to explain "nofollow" for a non-techie such as myself.

Feisty56 wrote on February 24, 2015, 11:26 AM:
I know I should absolutely understand what "no follow" means, but I'm coming up empty-headed here. Can you help me out?

FreyaYuki replied to Feisty56 on February 25, 2015, 5:07 PM:
Owlwings explained it correctly below 😃. Basically, it's best to add rel="nofollow" to your affiliate links and to the sources for your pics while it's best not to include this attribute or tag if you're interlinking your own articles or linking to sites that are relevant to your own content.

Owlwings wrote on February 24, 2015, 2:13 PM:
I just looked it up (to be sure I had it right).

'Nofollow' links contain an instruction to search engines not to 'follow' that link and thus add 'Google kudos' to the site specified. You have to know a little about Page Rank to understand this. In brief, Page Rank for a site is calculated based partly on the number of sites that link to it. If someone seeks to gain financially (or in other ways) by spreading links to their site over the Internet, it can be flagged by Google as 'spam' and the site linked to may be removed from the Google database. A site, such as Persona Paper, which allows the posting of links which can be 'followed' by Search engines could find itself in trouble, too, especially if they have an Adsense account. Even though many of the links here don't need to be 'nofollow', it is safer for the site if ALL links are automatically 'nofollow'. It DOESN'T stop ordinary users from clicking on the links to take them to the page: it simply tells search engines (and particularly Google) not to count those links when calculating Page Rank for those sites.

FreyaYuki replied to Owlwings on February 25, 2015, 5:12 PM:
Yup 😃. Thanks for providing the info for those who didn't know about rel="nofollow". I use it on affiliate links and pic sources on my blogs and on the other sites I write for. On some sites, you can choose if you want the link nofollowed or not.

Feisty56 replied to Owlwings on February 25, 2015, 5:29 PM:
Thanks for this down-to-earth explanation. Between you and elitecodex below, I think I have a decent understanding.

elitecodex wrote on February 24, 2015, 2:24 PM:
Actually, we do not put that attribute on links that link internally... however the links in this article for some odd reason start with a ../../ and doesn't contain the domain personapaper.com anywhere in that. So since we can't find the domain, we assume it is an external link and add that attribute.

Like Owlwings indicated, we do not want to be responsible for content on other sites and if we link to them then we have a link to those sites in the eyes of search engines. Most of the links here are perfectly fine and don't really need it, but like they said it is better safe than sorry so we just add it to all of them. Users don't even see it and doesn't prevent anyone from clicking on them. Just tells search engines "yes, we are linking to this page but do not go there because of us".

At least they SHOULD do that... can't really say what they are doing in all honesty :)

Owlwings replied to elitecodex on February 24, 2015, 4:47 PM:
The "../../" is HTML shorthand for "use the same root directory path as the current page". As the current page is at the (public) root "www.personapaper.com/" the "../../" stands for that and is interpreted as such by the browser. In fact, if you hover the mouse over the link in the article above, the 'tool-tip' or prompt at the bottom of the page shows the FULL URL because the browser has already recognised and replaced the "../../". It looks as though the script which adds the 'nofollow' attribute just parses the HTML literally. Depending on whether you have appropriate rights, you may be able to modify it to recognise "../../" as a valid pattern for an internal link (it isn't a pattern that means anything else, so it would be quite safe to do so!). On the other hand, it may be such a minor issue that it's not worth the coding and testing time :)

elitecodex replied to Owlwings on February 25, 2015, 11:13 PM:
Your right, and I was aware of that. But we do not analyze the attribute that much... we simply take it as-is and do a few simple string checks on it. It covers 99% of use cases and it sufficient for me.

I do not know why it would automatically put the ../../ in there as I have not seen it elsewhere. I have used that same icon that FreyaYuki is using and have not had that happen to me.

FreyaYuki replied to elitecodex on February 25, 2015, 5:21 PM:
Yes, I understand why you'd want to nofollow the external links to other sites but I'd wondered why you'd nofollow links to Persona Paper. I add links, including Persona Paper ones, to posts using the link icon on the text post editor. I add the full URL link address but it automatically removes the Persona Paper part of the link and adds that .../.../

elitecodex replied to FreyaYuki on February 25, 2015, 11:15 PM:
That is strange that it is adding the ../../ in there. While it is true that those characters do evaluate themselves to the right domain, the script on the server side does not validate those same rules. It simply takes the attribute at face value. So when it sees ../../article/123-my-article-here, it doesn't see the personapaper.com domain and assumes it points externally.

I am curious as to why those characters are being inserted using that icon, I had not heard of this before and not the way it should be working.

Kasman wrote on February 24, 2015, 2:26 PM:
I believe the 'nofollow' is a kind of default position for links. This is probably why PP has it included.

FreyaYuki replied to Kasman on February 25, 2015, 5:35 PM:
The default is actually just the plain regular link, which is naturally followed. You add the nofollow attribute to affiliate links and links that aren't related or relevant to your content, etc. Owlwings provided a good explanation about nofollow links and what they're for 😃. I understand why Persona Paper would add nofollow to all external links but didn't see why they'd want to do that to links to their own site.

AliCanary wrote on February 24, 2015, 4:21 PM:
So, um, sorry to be so ignorant, but what ARE "no follow" links? Are they bad?

FreyaYuki replied to AliCanary on February 25, 2015, 5:47 PM:
Owlwings provided a good explanation about this in his comment above. You should add nofollow to your affiliate links but you wouldn't want to add them to your own articles or on your blogs or site when you interlink or link to them from other sites. So, for example, if you're interlinking your related Persona Paper articles, you wouldn't want to add nofollow to these links, which was why I wondered why Persona Paper automatically did that.

AliCanary replied to FreyaYuki on February 25, 2015, 7:29 PM:
Oh, I see. Thank you and also thanks to Owlwings and elitecodex for the explanations!

crowntower wrote on February 24, 2015, 5:00 PM:
I am not a programmer genius but I don't think that is the meaning of that. I mean if you can see the target is blank... it is more on I think to have a smooth flow of program, sometimes programs has that whenever there will be an interruption in the system so views or whatever can still be counted. I think you have to see the whole flow of the program.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on February 25, 2015, 5:53 PM:
I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say here? The attribute target="_blank" means that the URL link will open in a new tab. This is good if you don't want your readers to leave your page/article/blog/site and go elsewhere.

For the nofollow attribute, Owlwings provided a good explanation in his comment above. Basically, you'll want to add nofollow to affiliate links but if you're linking your own articles on your blogs or the sites you write for or if you're linking internally (like linking your Persona Paper articles to your latest Persona Paper post), you wouldn't want to use nofollow.

MakeMoneyOnline wrote on February 24, 2015, 5:59 PM:
I would imagine it's to prevent spammers to use the site only for links. Sad part is that I'm one of the guys who sometimes reference some of my work and now I see it doesn't benefit me much. I never stopped to check, LOL. I don't do it solely for that reason, so it's OK. As for "Nofollowing" internal links, I really don't recommend that. It takes away the power of those links and could make the posts rank not so well as they could...

FreyaYuki replied to MakeMoneyOnline on February 25, 2015, 5:57 PM:
Yeah, I sometimes link to other sites too. Upon checking the source code, I noticed the nofollow. Oh well, I do understand why they'd do that and I don't mind all that much either. But I agree with you about nofollowing internal links, which was what I wondered about. I interlink my related Persona Paper articles and I noticed that even those links are nofollow which is odd, isn't it? I don't recommend it either and don't add this attribute to my own blogs or the other sites I write for (unless the links are affiliate, etc).

Kungfu123 wrote on February 27, 2015, 8:40 AM:
Wowww, I don't know much about this. Thanks for sharing this with us.

FreyaYuki replied to Kungfu123 on March 1, 2015, 11:53 AM:
You're welcome. I just wondered why Persona Paper would nofollow links to their own site, which is odd, though I understand why they would nofollow links to other sites.

scheng1 wrote on March 1, 2015, 3:01 AM:
I have not paid any attention until you mention about it. It is not a big issue for me, since there is no author resource box for me to put link to my blog.

FreyaYuki replied to scheng1 on March 1, 2015, 11:56 AM:
I don't mind so much either though I do sometimes add links to other sites on my articles here. I do get why Persona Paper would nofollow external links. But what I wondered about was why they'd nofllow links to their own site.

cheri wrote on March 2, 2015, 7:10 AM:
This is a good information and very relevant one. I would have never find it out if I have not read this one.

*Notes:
- Image is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere