We advise that all Assured Advertisers read this page before posting on AVForums.com.
Assured Advertisers are long term advertisers at AVForums. Their support will
enable the AVForums to continue to be the web’s best AV resource and online
community in the UK.
Assured Advertisers also have certain privileges which other advertisers/commercial
organisations do not have:
- they will have the Assured Advertiser title under their name
in posts.
- they can include their company details in their signatures.
- they can have their company logo as their avatar.
- they may respond to direct questions for help with a reply directing people
to their business. I.e. they have a limited exemption from rule 7.
AVForums does not have any vetting procedure prior to assigning Assured Advertiser status to advertisers. Neither do we guarantee the quality of service of any Assured Advertiser company. However, we will remove advertisers from our Assured Advertiser scheme if we receive complaints about the company which we feel have not been addressed adequately.
Specifics
1. Becoming an Assured Advertiser.
Companies may become Assured Advertisers by contacting our advertising sales team. Assured Advertisers sign up for a minimum of 12 months advertising, though they can cancel during this term with one month notice (except when the advertisers are required to pay for a longer period of advertising in advance). The advertising account manager will instruct AVForums admin to grant Assured Advertising status to the advertisers' account(s). This process is usually complete within an hour but can take longer, and once done, the Assured Advertiser title will appear under the advertiser's name in all their posts. Only when this change has been made, may an advertiser start to use the extra privileges afforded by Assured Advertising.
An Assured Advertiser may have an unlimited number of staff registered with AVForums. All the accounts must be granted Assured Advertiser status (requested via their advertising account manager) and our rules with regard to duplicate accounts apply (people may not have more than one account each).
2. Assured Advertiser signatures.
Signatures of Assured Advertisers can contain contact details for the member and their company, and may have a maximum of two commercial links (ie. to their website(s)) in addition to any other non commercial links. Links to power buys or bargains posted in the appropriate place on AVForums are counted as commercial links. A link to their AVForums Blog is not.
Also signatures must
- contain factual text, objective and without superlatives (e.g. no claims such as 'Best prices' or 'Fastest delivery')
- not contain additional promotional information such as pricing or special offers (aside from links to their AVForums power buys and bargain threads).
- not be used as an advertising opportunity
3. Assured Advertiser avatars.
Avatars are the small (50x50) images displayed below members' names in their posts. Assured Advertisers may use their company logo or name in their Avatar, but must not use it as an advertising opportunity. Any text in there must be factual, objective and without superlatives.
4. Assured Advertisers may respond to direct questions for help with a reply directing people
to their business
AVForums rule 7 states the following:
AVForums members must not solicit business from within posts. An example
of this is saying 'We sell...'. Soliciting business undermines paid advertising
which keeps these forums running. Retailers, manufacturers and distributors
are invited (even encouraged) to post information about products on the forums
provided it is factual, is generally for the benefit of forum members and doesn't
break this rule. ‘Assured Advertisers’ have a limited amount of latitude within
rule 7.
Rule 7 exists for two main reasons:
- to stop spam. Nobody wants to see people posting adverts in threads.
-
to maintain AVForums’ revenue streams from paid advertising.
As an advertiser, rule 7 can be a tricky one to judge (as well as implement by the moderators). Nobody may solicit
business in posts. This extends as far as us preventing a retailer from letting
people know when they have stock of a product.
However, there is a situation when rule 7 can work against the ethos of the
forums. Let’s look at a reasonably common example. Someone asks for a
retailer in their local area. One of our advertisers is not allowed to reply
to their question yet another member is allowed to recommend a non-advertiser.
That seems very unfair because advertisers with AVForums are putting in the
effort to contribute to the forums, yet are gagged by our rules and are unable
to help a poster.
Our Assured Advertiser scheme allows advertisers to reply to direct questions
with answers which would otherwise break rule 7. These replies must answer the
original question(s) and may include a link to their website provided the link
is relevant to the answer. AVForums reserves the right to amend or delete any
posts by assured advertisers which break any of the forum rules.
Important note
It is strongly recommended that Assured Advertisers try to help forum members rather than use every opportunity to post links to their site and promote their business. Advertisers who genuinely help forum members without self promoting gain their trust, respect and ultimately their business. Advertisers who post loads of self promotional replies and links will start to annoy forum members, and may even get reported as spammers.
The Assured Adverising status is not to be used to post links with a view to increasing search engine ranking. The moderators are instructed to prevent this kind of activity.
Examples of using the Assured Advertiser status
Let’s look at a couple of examples of this exemption to rule 7 being used.
Say someone asks for details of a dealer in their locale.
Quote:
‘Can anyone recommend a retailer in Sheffield?’
An Assured Advertiser could reply saying
Quote:
‘Yes we are in Sheffield, check out my signature for details’.
The advertiser has answered the original poster’s question and so the
reply is allowed.
If they then went on to add
Quote:
‘and we provide the best service in South Yorkshire’
Then they are definitely breaking rule 7 and their post would be dealt with
by the moderators.
Another example.
Quote:
‘Where can I pick up the JVC HD1 projector?’
The reply
Quote:
‘We have them in stock for £4,000.’
Is ok since it’s answering the question. The additional availability
and pricing information is acceptable since it’s pretty much essential
to the original poster. But
Quote:
‘give me a call and we can get one out to you for tomorrow’
is breaking rule 7 and the moderators will remove this content and possibly award infractions.
I hope these examples illustrate that we are giving long term advertisers
more latitude to provide useful information without getting moderated. They
must still be mindful not to venture beyond answering direct questions with
relevant answers.
While we appreciate your business, maintaining the attractiveness of the forum is absolutely vital, and we will not allow any member to spoil that, irrespective of whether they are an advertiser.
Current Assured Advertisers
| Name | Signature |
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| AVSUPPORTS is proud to be an Assured Advertiser on AV Forums
Regards Tony (Technical Support)
AVSupports BLOG FOR SPECIAL OFFERS Specialists in - TV Brackets, TV Stands, TV Furniture : Help Line 0800 011 4584 |
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| www.kenthomecinema.co.uk - Proud to be be supporting the AVForums as an Assured Advertiser.
ISF Certified
CEDIA Professional Designer |
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| Smoke me a kipper i'll be back for breakfast Tech Manager at B.K. Electronics Assured Advertiser. |
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| G&G Group - Specialist’s in custom made to measure AV Furniture > Home cinema installations > Bespoke Joinery > Construction Web: www.gandg-group.com - visit our online shop and view our portfolio Supporting AV Forums as a Assured Advertiser |
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| UKHDMI is an Assured Advertiser. HDMI Cable- We won the award of the most active company at CEDIA 08. |
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| www.lindy.co.uk - AV, home cinema and computer cables & accessories
- AVForums Assured Advertiser - !!! 10% Discount on orders over £30 for AVForums Users - Use voucher code: AVXMAS |
| www.lindy.co.uk - AV, home cinema and computer cables & accessories
- AVForums Assured Advertiser - !!! 10% Discount on orders over £30 for AVForums Users - Use voucher code: AVXMAS |
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| Visit the In Car Network Retail Sites for all of the latest Car Audio and Entertainment equipment... & visit In Car Blog for up to the minute info on newly released and pre-order products... |
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| P.J - HiFi - Home Cinema - Home Automation
----- The forums longest serving member -----
Assured Advertiser |
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| Simon Ellis
PCBuyIT |
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| www.tradeyourstuff.co.uk
Buy,sell and trade video games/consoles
We will buy your games for hard cash!
Proud to be an assured advertiser on the AVForums. |
| TVCables for all your cabling needs... www.tvcables.co.uk 5 Years unbroken support to AVForums TVCables is a trading name of Nimbus Designs Ltd - Established 1980 - Your trusted cable supplier. |
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| Be careful out there forumites - 89% of statistics are made up. |
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| Elliot Hicks
PJ Hi-Fi Ltd
Guildford
Assured Advertiser |
| XTZ AB
is proud to be an Assured Advertiser on the AV Forums
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