Hi there! I'm thinking of putting my shop in the "Announce & Share Affiliate-Ready Shops" soon (it's not quite ready for that yet, though - still working on descriptions)), but I wanted to clear something up first.

I've read that it's a big no-no to put HTML or Email addresses in the descriptions. Now, is that just PRODUCT descriptions, or does that apply to SECTION descriptions as well? I'm asking cos:

1) I have HTML on every page of my store logo (not product descriptions though, just sections)
2) I have links & voting pages with no products, but lots of HTML on them.

Are these things acceptable to affiliates?

Here's a link to my shop if you want to see what I mean.

quote:

Are these things acceptable to affiliates?

Depends on the affiliate.

I'll just use me as an example. I don't care if you have html in your section descriptions and leaks all over your shop because I don't link to your shop - I am self-contained or I link to the marketplace or green version of your shop.

But if you put anything in the product description that I pull from CP that distracts my customer from buying (yes, they are my customer at that point) then I'm going to run you off the ranch.

Not an answer, but an expansion of the question (I'd been about to open a new thread with this question & the one that follows, but since this one is here...):

The standing advice is "no HTML in Product descriptions". Is this an absolute prohibition, or are simple formatting tags (such as italic, strong or break), acceptable? I do understand the leakage aspect, and am not asking about that, but anyone who's read several of my posts is at least subliminally aware of my tendency to italicize....

It is not a CP prohibition but it narrows the field of affiliates will be able to use it. It requires extra processing to filter out and remove the tags to prevent the tags from breaking things. HTML is also stripped from the product descriptions in the marketplace. Look at sales generated by direct visits to your shop. If those are high enough that you think the html is of value, that is a data point. But the html won't be seen in any other circumstance.

Thanks. I never did think it was an actual CP prohibition, but wondered if it was "absolute" for those affiliates that talked about it or only applied to "leakage links". I'd rather not tick off affiliates--while I'd rather have a non-affiliate sale, all else being equal, I'd much rather have an affiliate sale than no sale.... Sounds like it's not worth the effort.

Meanwhile, I'd love to hear more affiliates chime in on the original question. A couple of my section (not product), descriptions have links to other shops or sections within my four shops. I'm thinking of adding more, but won't if it's going to be a problem for affiliates.