Spam | Cross-Soliciting | Autoresponders | Registrations/Upgrades | Advertising | Other
There are hundreds of ways to build your SFI business without resorting to spamming. As outlined in the SFI Affiliate Agreement, SFI maintains a ZERO tolerance policy towards the sending of SPAM, including, but not limited to, unsolicited commercial E-mail (UCE). This action is grounds for immediate termination from the SFI and possible forfeiture of any pending commissions. You may also be subject to legal action and held liable for any financial loss incurred by SFI. Spamming is also punishable in some states by fines of as much as $25,000.
Spamming continues to be a serious problem on the Web. SFI rigorously opposes the practice of spamming and is committed to doing our part to eliminate spam.
We want all of our affiliates to know that you will always receive fair treatment from us if we receive a complaint. Indeed, our experience is that many complaints are due to misunderstanding and are often not valid spam complaints. HOWEVER, that said, if we feel the complaint IS valid and you can not show clear evidence to the contrary, we will not hesitate to suspend or terminate your SFI affiliate status. This is to protect YOU! The entire SFI business model is threatened when spamming is done, so we must be aggressive in our policing of our affiliates.
Could you be spamming and not even realize it? Check out the SFI Affiliate Agreement for a detailed list of what SFI considers SPAM. You might also want to read about SPAM in this Wikipedia entry.
Soliciting SFI affiliates for other business opportunities is strictly prohibited.
If you wish to be involved with other business opportunities, that's fine; we have no problem with that at all. Just don't use any SFI communication program or tool (including, but not limited to, PRA and CSA group mailers, SFIM, Private Team Forums, Stream, TeamMail, etc.) to promote to other SFI Affiliates about these outside businesses or for-profit endeavors. For SFI purposes, Cross Soliciting also includes inviting fellow SFI Affiliates to participate in any co-op (whether it's just for SFI or not) and is absolutely not acceptable. Nor is soliciting the purchase of anything, even from a Zing Network site.
When you cross-solicit other SFI Affiliates, you are are betraying EVERYONE in your entire group who is focused on the SFI system! It's unprofessional and it's unethical. If you are caught cross-soliciting your SFI affiliates, your SFI account will be terminated, and you will lose all your SFI benefits, including any unpaid and future commissions. And please know, someone almost always blows the whistle—we even provide a form to do so. So, please don't cross-solicit!
Soliciting SFI affiliates from other organizations to rejoin under you is strictly prohibited.
SFI is a very large, global organization, with over a million affiliates located in virtually every country in the world. Hence, you may encounter fellow affiliates all over the Internet and even interact with them on social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Interaction, sharing ideas, etc., is allowed and even encouraged. HOWEVER, under no circumstances may you request or encourage an SFI Affiliate from another affiliate's organization to register as an SFI Affiliate under you.
The SFI system is built around an extensive e-mail communication system. Therefore, you may not use an e-mail address that uses an autoresponse (automatic reply) message. Thousands of our affiliates receive dozens of e-mail messages and notifications from us each week. If autoresponders are on, that means we GET BACK THOUSANDS of useless messages that we then must wade through one by one so that we don't miss the legitimate messages with your important questions, suggestions, etc. It's also a huge waste of bandwidth.
So, if you have an autoresponder on your e-mail, you must either SHUT IT OFF, or provide us with a different, separate e-mail address that you'll use for SFI communiques. If this is not done, your SFI affiliateship will be cancelled.
Registering new affiliates or upgrading your affiliates' levels without their consent is strictly forbidden and is grounds for suspension or termination of your account. See the SFI Affiliate Agreement for more details.
You must use SFI-approved ads for referring new Affiliates and new members/customers. Note that you can use the text ads, or you can use wording from any of the banners.
If you are a Gold Affiliate or above, you may submit your own ads for our approval. They must be approved, however, before you can publish them.
If you're writing a new ad, here are a couple of tips:
* Avoid ANYTHING that sounds like a guarantee of income.
* Yes, the SFI system takes a huge amount of the "grunt work" out of building a sales organization, but please don't suggest that "we do all the work." In SFI's opinion, this kind of offer attracts lazy, unmotivated people—exactly the opposite of what you want. Often, ads that say "no work involved, they do everything," are dismissed without so much as a two-second look; most really good business-builders probably react the same way. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and intelligent people know that.
More advertising guidelines can be found in the SFI Affiliate Agreement.
Domain names may not be used as the name on your SFI account. This is to prevent cross-solicitation via the SFI Forum and other published lists.