I want to write a short post and get some feedback from my readers to see if I’m just on another planet or if Tumblr is completely missing the point.
As part of this year’s 30 Day Challenge, we watched a video on how to sign up for and use Tumblr to help drive traffic to our new niche sites. The video was very careful to tell us to pay attention to the Terms of Service and to abide by them. We were reminded that it would all be for nothing if we tried to set up a crappy site with no value and affiliate links because this is something Tumblr expressly prohibits.
I had never used Tumblr before but because I have a great deal of trust in and respect for Ed Dale and his associates I thought I’d give it a try. Here is my story.
I went to their site and supplied the info they needed. I decided I would test it by setting up a .tumblr domain using the relevant keywords for this blog to see how quickly it would send traffic to my site. I did the initial account creation steps and was thrust immediately into the content creation module. I received no email that an account had been set up or any details about it. I thought this was odd right off the bat.
I created a short blog post that I felt would be relevant to anybody who would be interested in my blog using the site’s keywords. I posted a link to my blog and not a sales page. No spam or trash links. I finished the post up and submitted it. I figured I’d give it a couple of days before I checked stats and updated the content.
To my dismay, two days later I was met with a useless message when I tried to log in that mumbled on about Firefox not being able to complete the page load. Only looking in the URL bar was I able to see the /suspended at the end of the Tumblr domain. My head scratching started at this point. I couldn’t think of anthing I could possibly have done to warrant suspension. Again, I had received not even a system-generated email telling me what had transpired.
I checked the 30 Day Challenge forums and noticed that many people had this happen to them. Apparently, a huge percentage of people from the 30DC who had set up legitimate accounts to help link together their web assets were suspended as well.
I finally sat down this morning and found a way to contact them (which is very difficult because Tumblr blocks access to even their site until you delete their cookie) and found out that the link to my blog was seen as an affiliate link and my account would remain suspended. No email when this happened either. When I asked for clarification I was only asked “Can you see how having a Tumblr domain with ‘starting an online business’ in it with a link to a blog about ‘starting an online business’ would be seen as affiliate marketing?”
Maybe you need to read that last sentence again…
That’s right-my account was suspended because it was set up using keywords relevant to my readers and had a single link leading back to my blog. Not a sales page or directory or viagra site or adsense but my blog. The Terms of Service may have mentioned something about links in posts but who would ever suspect using legitimate links to a real resource would or should be seen as a policy violation? To top it off, I have been reading in the 30 Day Challenge forums where it has been suggested by more than one person that Tumblr knew about the 30DC recommendation and received such a flood of traffic and sign-ups that they just started block suspending accounts that appeared to be associated with it. Apparently, they did the same thing with last year’s 30DC.
I asked them one last time how that could possibly be seen as affiliate marketing and received no clarification. I then wrote them back and told them to delete my account and a few choice words about them totally not understanding web 2.0. No cussing or insults were used. Again, I received no response.
A Better Alternative
Even though it’s not a blogging platform, here is the link to a review of a hot tool to help you gain backlinks to your site legitimately by blog commenting. The tool is called Fast Blog Finder an you can find the full review on the ScriptCritics site here.
OK, now it’s your turn.
Please add your comments below and tell me if you’ve had a similar experience with Tumblr or if you have found a way to make good use of it.
For my money, I’ll be avoiding it like the plague and recommending others do the same.
Editor’s Note: Thankfully, Ed and his associates have posted a link to a web 2.0 resource to help people find an alternative to Tumblr. I should also mention that Ed personally apologized for recommending Tumblr in light of what happened.
The resource is GO2Web20.net
Best,
If you liked this post, please bookmark it at your favorite social media sites using the ShareThis icon below.
[tags]social media,affiliate links,tumblr suspension,go2web20.net[/tags]
Jeff,
Just wanted to comment that Tumblr did the same bull**it to me… I love these 2.0 sites that block marketing… Why the hell do they think people set up the 2.0 pages in the first place…? Boredom? WTF? For social media, Myspace, Facebook and Youtube are it… Everyone else is just a dummy site for marketing…
Hubpages and Ezine are the same way….
Figure out your place in the food chain… Aside from Myspace, Facebook and Youtube, If it weren't for people using them for backlinks and marketing purposes they would be ghost towns…
These guys are the quintessential beggars being choosers…
Angry Marketer,
I couldn't agree with you more.
I was blown away by how unprofessional and unrealistic the whole
process was.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts.
Jeff
I just found your blog after googeling for tumblr suspended to find out wtf was going on with my blog. Now I see it clearly: They try to avoid any blog that could (!) be something like marketing. But like Angry Marketer said who the fuck needs such web2.0 pages if there's no use to build links or drive traffic. I only started a blog about poker, not even with a link to any poker site. Just some news about the industry and guess what. It took 2 hours to get suspended. I don't even bother and won't send them a single email. It's just ridicolous and they are dead for me. Obviously I'll write a blog post about that…
Cheers,
Stefan
Hi Stefan,
I don't think Tumblr even knows what Tumblr avoids but it is a HUGE
list I'm sure.
I'm glad you stopped by to leave your experience but I'm really sorry
you didn't see my post before you tried Tumblr.
I know I'm not in the majority but my take on a lot of the social
media sites is they ARE great for engaging your audience if you have
the time. However, I still feel it's no coincidence that the people
who seem to have embraced them ALREADY have a large following. It
just gives them another point of contact with their established
audience.
I still do not believe that anybody builds a business using them.
Have you had any success with any of the other web 2.0 sites? I have
a sizeable StumbleUpon profile and I've met some great people but I
can't attribute one sale to it so far. I know the gurus all say
that's not the point but it would be if they were new to internet
marketing and blogging.
Jeff
It happened to me also. At first I thought Tumblr would be great but I swear I'll never use it again. It was a waste of time.
Hi Maria,
I was also very disappointed as you can tell.
What other types of sites have you used successfully?
Jeff
I signed up for Tumblr a month ago. Thought it was awesome. Created unique content for it, had social bookmarks go to it, tumblr posts went to my twitter page, worked with my iphone, I raved it, but then one day while adding a new tumblr blog, it didn't work. I thought that tumblr was just down, but after two weeks realized its cus they banned me!
No notice, no fun, I wasn't using tumblr to spam in the least bit.
Alan,
It seemed like a great setup and system when I was first told about it and
it also seemed to be fairly easy to get up and running.
I wasn't using it for spam either.
You're absolutely correct…you should have some warning that you've
violated a rule before being banned.
Thanks for stopping by and letting us know about your experience.
Jeff
I was banned and even got an email response from Marc – support manager that I advertised the site with affiliate links (that is agains content policy). Does that mean that if you write a Tumblelog about books, you cannot put the link to a book review which has a link to Amazon, eBay or Barnes&Noble? Ridiculous!
I shared my experience and advice to marketers in eHow article http://www.ehow.com/how_5085784_use-tumblr-not-…
If you read the Content Policy carefully you may have noticed that Tumblr do not tolerate not meaningful content, but still provides tools for importing numerous automatic content from Twitter, Delicious or any RSS feed. Really strange attitude to content 🙁 I agree with Maria's opinion – Wasteof time!
maruxz,
I totally agree that Tumblr seems to support adding noise content if they
get anything from it.
Like yourself, I merely wanted to add another way to reach my readers and
customers and did NOT set up a spam blog.
I'm with you…total waste of time.
I know there are a bunch of people who will swear by it and I'm not knocking
them. I just know if I'm going to spend the time to build a site I don't
want it rejected for some bullcrap policy violation.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts. I'll definitely check out
your ehow article.
Jeff
I was banned and even got an email response from Marc – support manager that I advertised the site with affiliate links (that is agains content policy). Does that mean that if you write a Tumblelog about books, you cannot put the link to a book review which has a link to Amazon, eBay or Barnes&Noble? Ridiculous!
I shared my experience and advice to marketers in eHow article http://www.ehow.com/how_5085784_use-tumblr-not-…
If you read the Content Policy carefully you may have noticed that Tumblr do not tolerate not meaningful content, but still provides tools for importing numerous automatic content from Twitter, Delicious or any RSS feed. Really strange attitude to content 🙁 I agree with Maria's opinion – Wasteof time!
maruxz,
I totally agree that Tumblr seems to support adding noise content if they
get anything from it.
Like yourself, I merely wanted to add another way to reach my readers and
customers and did NOT set up a spam blog.
I'm with you…total waste of time.
I know there are a bunch of people who will swear by it and I'm not knocking
them. I just know if I'm going to spend the time to build a site I don't
want it rejected for some bullcrap policy violation.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts. I'll definitely check out
your ehow article.
Jeff
I got banned twice. I didn’t take it personally, it’s just part of doing business in the space. I looked as the kind of sites that were common on Tumblr and noticed a pattern. I replicated that pattern and now have a few tumblrs going.
What I have learned in my years online is that most people deal in black and white, “This is an affiliate link”, or “This is not an affiliate link”. Which is nuts. It doesn’t work like that. The truth is the world is grey, it’s about perception, it’s about how you view things.
Once you realise “nothing is”, all range of possibilities are open. The tumblr crowd think a certain way, their head is in a certain place. To get tumblr to work for you, you must understand where they are coming from.
It’s exactly the same with Google, but that’s another story 😉
Since I’ve written that post I have also found a way that tumblr CAN be of use in an overall web presence. My chief complaint at the time was how unprofessionally the whole affair was handled and how vague the guidelines were. In tumblr’s case, it seems it’s best not to get too involved in how things are done and use the service for what it’s worth.
Yep, well, apparently Tumblr is continuing to target Challenge sites this year (2010) too. It is really sad. I had never used Tumblr, and only found out about them after hearing Ed Dale’s referral to them. I was very impressed by the site themes and formatting, to say the least. Out of all of the blogs I’d seen, the Tumblr ones were the most attractive. So, I was excited to use them.
I set up a few, and decided to submit a post or two on each. One link on each, that’s it. Nothing spammy – just content I thought was interesting. Well, they were all shut down. No notice or anything, just gone.
Now that I know this is how they operate (and have been operating for some time), I will NEVER use them again. What a joke and a royal waste of time. They didn’t even give me a chance!! How can you get a good idea of someone’s content from 1 or 2 posts that have no affiliate product mentions or anything! Give me a break.
If you did as you said and just submitted content that wasn’t spammy or had affiliate links then you should not have been shut down. But that supposes their actually are hard and fast rules they go by. I checked my new tumblr site for the Challenge and it’s still running. Did you link your tumblr accounts together?
I’m just following Ed’s lead. If they shut it down I don’t care. The rest of the network is in place.
I set up a tumblr account about 2 years ago. Used it to get backlinks to some of my Hubpages. Today I tried to log in and was greeted by Firefox message about its inability to complete request. How did they at tumblr design their /Suspended page so that it cannot be loaded by a browser? I got NO emails whatsoever. At least an automatic notification would be appreciated. I think they truly believe that people from over the world will be providing them with fresh unique content 24/7/365 without any reward given (like a backlink). Well, the world won’t turn upside down due to suspension of my tumblr account. I will not bother using proxies to set a new account, it’s not worth it.
Hi Kelly,
Even though I wrote that post some time ago, my opinion has not changed. I do use one tumblr account as part of a posterous network and haven’t had any problems but don’t actively build any tumblr sites. I’ve heard recently some IM gurus swearing by tumblr now but these are people who already have thousands of readers just waiting to see what they’ll do next. The gurus swear they use tumblr for non-IM sites and have had great success but I’m still not convinced. Thank you so much for stopping by and telling your story.
Have you ever used posterous? It’s one of the things Ed Dale used in last year’s 30 Day Challenge. I’d like to know if it’s worked for anybody.
Jeff
Jeff,
I humbly admit I’ve never heard of posterous before.
Thanks for the reply, Kelly. I’m really trying to find somebody who uses it as part of their website marketing plan. It’s a bit of a pain to set up but it is cool being able to post to several accounts at once. I don’t think google dislikes them and a link is a link.
Hi,
I am happy I found this! I just set up a few different Tumblr accounts yesterday, one for each of my websites.
This morning, when I tried to log in to a few of them, I got this in my Browser: http://www.tumblr.com/suspended I had no idea what was going on.
I had set each of my accounts up with keywords from my websites, one which was an Internet Marketing site. But I used no affiliate links, just real, .com etc. websites.
I think Tumblr would do better to suspend some of the hard core adult stuff I have heard that is readily available on Tumblr :-[
Hi Ruth,
That’s exactly what happened to me. Even though the post was written a while ago I still believe as I did. And who’s got the time to drill down into a TOS to find the area you MAY have violated. I don’t know anything about hard core adult stuff on tumblr but I won’t waste any more time with them.
Thanks for coming by and leaving your thoughts.
Jeff
I have no idea why this could even happen to a harmless photo blog.
I made a mistake of even uploading some poetry and I’ve been given no notification about the blog being suspended.
I want my data back. Is there anyway to get the data back?
Will never EVER USE TUMBLR again for sure. I just want my data back, that’s all.
I’m sorry to hear that’s happened to you. I’m pretty sure their TOS makes getting anything from them impossible if they say you’ve violated it.