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How to Write About Commercial Topics on Golfwiki

Although GolfwikiIsNotIntendedToBeASiteToAdvertiseProductsOrServices , articles about how to use commercial products are welcome. Because new editors are not always clear as to where the line between helpful how-to article on a product and an ad lies, many potentially useful articles end up being deleted as advertisements. This guide explains how to properly write an article about a commercial product without being subject to Deletion for violating our BrandNamePolicy or external links guidelines.

Steps

1. Understand that you are contributing to a wiki. Volunteer editors at Golfwiki are interested in creating a helpful, comprehensive golf-related wiki and not in promoting someone's products and services. Editors will quickly delete articles and potentially blacklist domains that overstep the line on self-advertising. Volunteers will edit any commercial topic to make it factual, neutral, and helpful to our readers. The smart move is to make your article on commercial content neutral, accurate and non-advertisement-like from the start.
2. Write a genuine article in Golfwiki format. Golfwiki wants to be a place where commercial products can be accurately described and their use explained and evaluated. Helpful how-to articles on commercial topics are welcomed. On the other hand, articles which read like advertisements, devoted to describing the virtues of a product are unacceptable.
3. Follow our BrandNameGuidelines . Sometimes brand names can be used on Golfwiki, other times they should be avoided. Here is what to do when:
   • If the article is about how to use a specific brand.
     • Put the brand name in the title of the article. Don't hide recommendations for a commercial product in a generic title. For example don't title your article "How to Use an MP3 Player" when you write predominantly about iPods. Instead title the article “How to Use an iPod.” Forcing brand names to appear in titles, prevents subtle spammers from writing articles that are essentially a product endorsement, but hiding that fact with a generic sounding title.
   • If the article is about generic commercial activity, not focused on a specific brand.
     • Eliminate the use of brand names anywhere a brand can be replaced with no loss of meaning or helpfulness to readers. For example in an article about "How to Appreciate Shakespeare's Macbeth" a reference to "Buy Macbeth at Amazon.com" should be changed to "Buy Macbeth at a bookstore."
4. Follow our external links guidelines:
   • Links can only be added by an editor who created or significantly improved the article. "Drive by" links are deleted as spam.
   • Place links in the "Sources and Citations" section at the bottom of the page. Avoid placing external links in the text of the article – this sticks out like a sore thumb to volunteer editors looking to delete spam.
   • External links can only be placed in a few approved circumstances:
   • For the purpose of attribution if you are SharingYourCopyrightedContentWithGolfwiki . If you copy your own copyrighted content to Golfwiki, please link back to the source in the following format: "http://www.YOUR-SITE.com/specific-source-page.htm - Original source, shared with permission."
   • For the purpose of citation for a reference used when researching the article or verifying a fact within the article.

Tips

• By Registering for an account and interacting with other editors, you can build trust that you are trying to build a helpful site and community and not just trying to spam Golfwiki.
• Don't go around Golfwiki pointing links to your article in related articles. This practice, known as "Wiki-jacking" stands out to our editors and may result in your article being deleted.
• One of the best ways to contribute to Golfwiki is to ImportYourExistingContentIntoGolfwiki . If you've already written an informative article, consider sharing your text (either by starting an article on a distinct topic, or contributing it to an existing article that needs help) under the Creative Commons license, so that anyone and everyone can use and reproduce your content freely. At the bottom of the page, you can provide a link directly to the article you imported in the "Sources and Citations" section. In order to avoid your link being mistakenly interpreted as spam, it is very important that you include your link in the following format: [http://www.YOUR-SITE.com/specific-source-page.htm Page Title] - Original source, shared with permission.

Warnings

• Volunteer Golfwiki editors have a low tolerance for being spammed. We welcome good faith additions on commercial content to our site. That said, if you violate the guidelines presented above the consequences could include:
  • An editor deleting your article.
  • An editor deleting all edits and articles you have added to Golfwiki.
  • Having your domain and brand name being placed on our spam blacklist. This will prevent your brand name and domain from appearing in Golfwiki and the other wikis that share our blacklist.
• Every day websites that over step these bounds end up on our Spam Blacklist, which is shared with other websites. Don't act so foolishly here as to have this happen to your brand. Instead by playing by the rules and adding value to the site, you can help Golfwiki while sharing information about how to use your products or services.

Related Golfwikis

• HowToPublicizeYourselfTheRightWayOnGolfwiki
• Writers and Editors Guide
• Title Policy
• BrandNamePolicy
• External Links Policy
• DeletionPolicy

-- MichaelBrezin - 12 Mar 2008

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Credits

Originally posted by MichaelBrezin on 12 Mar 2008.
All contributors: LynnwoodBrown, MichaelBrezin,

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