Unacceptable Web Site Promotion Techniques

[See publicizing your site for ideas, advice, and information about advertising your site.]

We are all anxious for our Web sites to draw more and more visitors, however there are certain techniques for getting exposure for your site which are destructive (perhaps illegal) and not permitted by WebCom policy. WebCom disallows certain activities which negatively impact WebCom users, Internet users in general, or Internet Services such as indexing services. The four major types of such violations are unsolicited email, redundant URL submissions to Internet indexing services, Usenet newsgroup flooding, and chat room or forum flooding. Participation in any of these activities, (either using WebCom's services directly to perform these acts, or using other Internet services to advertising sites by these means), can result in the suspension or termination of the WebCom account.

If you are uncertain as to whether any particular activity or use violates these restrictions, or Netiquette in general (the unwritten standard of acceptable conduct on the Internet), then please contact us and we'll be happy to advise you.

Unsolicited Email

One of the major problems threatening the future usefulness of the Internet is the proliferation of unsolicited email advertisements. Sending such bulk mailings costs the sender virtually nothing. However, the costs to the rest of the Internet can be heavy. Unsolicited email typically results in email servers (both the sending and receiving servers) going down under the load of a massive emailing, filled email boxes, wasted bandwith for the entire Internet, (one of the reasons why the Internet seems to be getting slower every year), and general inconvenience and frustration for everyone.

Due to this, WebCom explicitly prohibits the sending of unsolicited email, even so-called targeted email advertisements. For more information, see our Spam Policies page.

Redundant URL Submissions

Most Web site indexing services, such as Yahoo and Alta Vista, provide an online form where you can submit the address (URL) of your site to be included in their index. Some Web site marketers, in order to increase the chances of their sites being found, submit a single site many times over. Another technique is to submit pages which are loaded with special "keywords", which are meant to increase the chances of being found under those keywords, but are not actually pages meant for viewing.

These kinds of promotion techniques are increasingly being considered attacks by those who run and maintain Internet indexing/search services. This is because they maliciously waste resources, and ultimately make the index less useful by including repetitive listings. Due to this, both of these kinds of techniques are disallowed by WebCom.

Usenet Newsgroup Flooding

Another form of promotion which causes a substantial burden on other Internet users is the sending of redundant or irrelevant advertisements to Usenet newsgroups. There are certainly times when it is appropriate to send a message describing your services or Web site to a newsgroup, as their are many newsgroups setup for this purpose (under the biz.* hierarchy). However, some have taken to flooding newsgroups with repeated messages in order to get their Web site noticed, whether or not their site has any relevance to the subject of the newsgroup(s) being flooded. This type of promotion is strictly against our policy, as it diminishes the usefulness of Usenet newsgroups substantially. Refrain from posting advertisements to newsgroups unless the purpose of the newsgroup specifically allows for advertisement, and then only post ads related to the topic of the group.

Chat Room or Forum Flooding

It is beginning to become popular for people to advertise through on-line chat rooms (particularly on AOL or IRC) using programs to flood rooms with messages, or automatically send a message to every user connected to that service. These messages waste bandwidth and and become very annoying very quickly. Advertising in this way is not allowed by WebCom.

In General

In general, WebCom does not allow methods of advertistement which involve the sending or posting of messages that are not solicited by the recipient, or that waste dangerously large amounts of resources as to effect WebCom or other Internet users.

Once again, if you have any questions regarding these restrictions we urge you to contact us. The Internet only works as a medium for communications and commerce when we all act responsibly to preserve its effectiveness.

Contact us by email:info@webcom.com
phone: 1-888-8WEBCOM (1-888-893-2266)
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