FlickR Bans Account For Commercial Use |

FlickR Bans Account For Commercial Use

Think you can use social networking sites such as Flickr to boost your search engine rankings? Think again. Not only has Flickr implemented no-follow tags to prevent ‘misuse’ of its service, but it has gone so far as to remove an account one search engine optimization (SEO) contractor created for his client, FramesDirect.

As reported by The ClickZ Network, Flickr emailed SEO contractor Richard Burckhardt, to say that his account was taken down because it violated Flickr’s terms of service. Flickr’s guidelines say that the service is for personal use only and that anyone found selling products or services through the photostream will have their account terminated.

According to Burckhardt the account was removed with no discussion, no warning, and no chance to rectify the problem or even to retrieve the photos.

Of course, that doesn’t quite explain why other accounts - which are also arguably for commercial purposes - remain on Flickr…

The lesson here is that social networks have cottoned-on to Internet marketers using their sites for search engine optimization (SEO) and promotional purposes. Some of them don’t like it and, like Flickr, are doing something about it. It may not seem ‘fair’ but they own the sites and can therefore make the rules.

Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the account Richard Burckhardt created was relatively innocuous. But this is an example of what happens when others i.e. ‘rogue marketers’ don’t simply take advantage of marketing opportunities but abuse them to the point where others can’t use them at all.

Source: Kate Kaye, “Flickr Ban Raises Question of What’s Commerce, What’s Not”, The ClickZ Network, December 8, 2008

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 4:04 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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FlickR Bans Account For Commercial Use

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