AThere has been new members that have become Craftsy affiliates. They are posting links for Crafty sales in their threads. If you click on THEIR link and buy a class, they get paid. You have no idea, you just click on the link and you are at the Craftsy website, but you are really being filtered thru a different site that tracks the sale then pays the person that owns the link. [B] This type of solicitation is prohibited here[/B] but besides that, the members are not letting you know any of this - they are posting like they too are buying classes and just want to spread the word. Totally deceptive and uncool.

I have literally just deleted 6 different threads all started today, all by members looking to make a free buck from this forum. I will be deleting and banning any member that is continuing to violate our terms of service and posting about the sale when they are clearly affiliates that get paid for selling the classes.

If you want to take advantage of the Craftsy sale, you should do it by using one of the Cake Central banner ads. Why? Because Cake Central gets paid as an affiliate, and these types of sales are what keep the lights on here!

UPDATE: I heard from the wonderful people at Craftsy and their affiliate terms of agreement totally prohibit this type of posting. They too ask that if you see these types of posts in the future you please flag them as SPAM.

Feel free to discuss the value of the classes or even to talk about the sale, but people that post links to it that is not the Cake Central affiliate link or a direct link to the Craftsy website will be banned.

Thank you. Now go buy a Craftsy class. From us!

AI've seen other forums where user-created links to retailers (with or without referral IDs) are automatically replaced with affiliate links that benefit the forum. You may want to talk to the folks at Huddler to see if they can do this.

AOh! So that's why everyone is so friggin enthusiastic about them so suddenly. Yeah, they're pretty cool, but all this syrup was making my teeth hurt....

And please, if any of you see these links posted, please flag them as SPAM because that's what they are.  

Thank you!

This is the Cake Central link to the sale!

AI, too, wondered about all the sudden enthusiasm! I mean, if one is tacky enough to self-promote in such a vulgar way, at least do it with more discretion.

My apologies to CC.  I got the original link from Craftsy in my email, and placed my order for 2 classes through the Craftsy site.  May I give credit to CC "after the fact"?  I can cancel my original order and then re-order thru the CakeCentral link above.

What do you suggest?   I appreciate you being on top of this and letting the CakeCentral membership know.  If I can help CakeCentral by purchasing something cool; I'm all for it!

Apti, if you were sent an email direct then no worries or if you go directly to Craftsy then A-OK!  I'm specifically talking about threads started here by members titled "Craftsy sale!" or similar.  You go into the thread and it says "HI!  I just wanted to tell you all about the big Craftsy sale, I just bought a bunch of classes for myself!  Click on this link blablabla dot com for 70% off!"  

Or if someone responds to a thread asking for help, "Hey, I learned how to do that fondant technique on Craftsy!  They are having a big sale, go to blahblahblah dot com and the classes are 70% off!"

These links are tracking links for the affiliate to get paid on any classes you purchase.

If you bought classes thru one of these links your info is perfectly safe and there isn't much we can do at this point except flag these threads/posts as they come up.  And don't feel bad, I'm totally one of the people that saw a post last month right here and used an affiliate's link to buy a class and had no idea.  

This is NOT a reflection on Craftsy - they are an awesome site and the classes rock.  

The way to tell if you've clicked on an affiliate link or not is to watch the tab of the browser when you click on a link. If it's a craftsy link it will go directly to craftsy. If it's an affiliate link it will change to "shareasale.com" or whatever other affiliate company they're going through first, then it will change to craftsy.

I'm an affiliate for a couple of sites and I have badges on my blog, but you're supposed to disclose that when you post a link that you're working for. It's basically like saying "advertising" at the top of the magazine story so that people know it's a paid ad and not editorial. If you don't disclose it, or if you post it where you don't have permission, you are a spammer!

<rhetorical question>What's a Craftsy?</rhetorical question>

Thanks for the info.

Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY!

I love and cherish my cake buddies.

Has anyone taken the purse class with Elisa Strauss on craftsy?  Would you recommend it?  Any classes that are good?  Thanks. 

Here's an idea. . . if you want to purchase something from Craftsy. . .or any other website, why not just go to that website?  Why would you go through some other random thread? Craftsy.com.  seriously. Course, then there's the person that posts their EBAY link every time someone on here asks where to purchase any kind of cake decorating tools or supplies. . . and so far, I haven't seen that person's remarks deleted or addressed even though they are sooooo blatant!!  Or it it just wrong if the other retailer is in competition with what CC sells? 

I'm going to do some class reviews on my blog, and believe me I'll tell whether they stink or not. The problem with most of them (problem for me) is that they're all designed for beginners for the most part, so while that's good for everyone being able to follow the lessons, they're not always teachy enough for me. I wish they'd rate them by skill level, that would be helpful.

XXXXXXXXXX repeated posts about buying supplies at XXXXXXXXXXXXXX on XXXXXXmight be spam. . . . . . obviously XXXXXXXXXX is affiliated with this XXXXXXXX seller. 

*edited to remove further advertising.

Please flag those posts.  I don't read absolutely everything that everyone writes, I rely on the community to self police to a certain extent.  Yes, you are correct, posting an ebay link is also prohibited or posting a link to a store when someone is not asking for where to buy something is prohibited.  Please flag those posts as SPAM!

I get emails directly from Cratfsy and that's how I've bought mine...I've never bought them through Cake Central or any other site. So far, I've got them all on sale and I really do love the classes.

A

The main reason people do click and proceed to buy through a link (bear in mind the link takes you to the Craftsy site, which has your account details there - ie not a phishing site), is that the classes through the affiliate programme are DISCOUNTED. For example, one member advertised a class price of $14.99, which is a big discount from the original list price of $39.99. So, being that many people like saving money, they take advantage of such a sale. Especially if they were going to buy the same class at $39.99, or $24.99 or $19.99 or whatever.

Your second point, about the member posting eBay links to their shop - please flag these posts as spam, and one of the moderators will check it out. We depend upon all members assisting to help keep CC a great cake decorating site! Thank you.

A

Yes, I purchased this class and it was terrific! Highly recommend it.

Evoir, thanks for your response. I've purchased 5 courses recently (in the past 4 months) on Craftsy and bought every single one of them DISCOUNTED on the Craftsy site.  With all the scams and rip offs online, maybe I'm just too wary.  I like to deal directly with the retailer/seller, not a middleman that's taking my money.   Just my humble opinion.  Craftsy almost always has at least one of the cake classes on sale, so I'll just wait rather than get ripped off.  And thanks for the advice about the SPAM.  FromScratchSF very nicely gave me the same information a couple of days ago.  Thanks for repeating it tho.  Sometimes I'm a little slow.  ;) 

AArlenej, if you're not a Craftsy affiliate you might want to check what the links you were posting came from. The ones that were up here before all went through an affiliate website first before they went to the Craftsy site. I was checking on all the links, including the ones that you put up, because as an affiliate myself, I know that when you post an affailitate link you're supposed to disclose that you're in a business relationship with someone because of the spam laws. Your links also went through the affiliate site first, so if you copied it from somewhere you were basically spamming without knowing it.

The safest thing to do if you want to recommend any product is to go to their website directly and copy the address. Don't grab links from other places, you don't know where they've been ;)

I disagree, I've been creating sugar flowers for over 16 years now and if you choose a class from one of the biggies you will definitely love it and refer to it often.  I purchase a lot of the classes then send a review out to the ladies in my NH cake group and quite a few of them also purchase the class.  When you own and run your own cake business, it's so hard to get out to a class and even harder to pay the high cost of them.  NO, I'm not selling them for Craftsy or associated with them in any way, although if they offered stock I'd buy some :-)

AI didn't like one of the sugar flowers classes, it was too simple and basic. I'm watching the Nicholas Lodge one now and I'm liking it. Better info then on the other one that I watched. Not all of them are worth the amount they charge...IMO they should do one free "how to make gumpaste" video for reference then do shorter classes that cost less. Some of the ones I've watched give you very little information and have so much padding in them to stretch the time out, I get the feeling that they're just trying to justify the cost. I'd prefer a shorter class that cost less and didn't spend so much time on repetitive stuff. People would probably be more likely to buy them.

Arlenej, the last link that you got came from an email sent to you directly from Craftsy, right? That one wouldn't be a spam thing, they take you straight to the website. But I'm not a moderator so I can't say whether that would be okay to post here or not!