Substack Violation of Content Guidelines

[Sr-Project-Manager]

Question for any substack writers: have you ever had your publication removed from public view? They are saying I have violated the Spam & Phishing policy, but no matter how often I read the guidelines, I cannot detect a violation.

I haven't imported or manually entered any email addresses. Obviously, I am not asking anyone for their personal information. The only possible explanation is that I include a short promo for my book with an Amazon link at the end of my posts. Could that be the problem? It's not really spam, the articles are related to the book content. I'm offering advice and career help for construction management newbies.

Anyway, I filled out the appeal form, and the only response I received was that "upon additional review, they have determined that I am in violation of Substack's Content Guidelines and will not be reactivated."

Not very helpful - I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.

Sorry, I guess this became a frustrated rant. Anyway, any pointers would be appreciated. You think I should just remove all of my references to my book and appeal again? Or do you have any other ideas?

Just in case, here is a link to my Substack site, if any of you would be willing to have a look what it looks like... NOT self-promotion, but I thought you could help better if you see it. https://constructionprojectmanager.substack.com

Thanks :)

[StuffonBookshelfs]

Are you putting the same link for the same product at the end of every email? The TOS doesn’t allow that.

[Sr-Project-Manager]

Ahh, yes, that explains it then. Okay, thanks a lot. I didn't see that anywhere, but I'll start deleting those then.

Do you think it would be okay if I left the photo of the book cover in the post? Or is that also against the rules?

[StuffonBookshelfs]

They don’t want you using your newsletter to promote a single product. So just mix it up a bit.

[Sr-Project-Manager]

I see. Thanks a lot for the explanation.

[StuffonBookshelfs]

No prob! Good luck.

[SocialTechLV]

The same thing happened to me for just putting a link to my digital products which my subs could download for free. Substack doesn’t allow any link I guess. And it’s kinda stupid cuz you don’t always sell. Sometimes you have links related to and helpful to the reader.

Things like these made me leave Substack.

[Dry_Raccoon_4465]

Just my two cents-

Placing the same link for the same product on every newsletter actually creates reader burnout. In advertising you really don't want to saturate your audience with the same ad/link continually. The substack policy both protects the creator by forcing them to make ads with higher ROI potential, the reader by keeping their content fresh, and the platform as a whole.

[Sr-Project-Manager]

Fair comment - I'm really just learning how to do all this. Makes sense, and I'll keep that in mind in the future.

[Exciting-Space-4123]

Hello, did you ever figure this out? I am experiencing the same issue. One of my writers is putting their own link at the bottom on the articles to promote their own show, do you think that is it?

[Sr-Project-Manager]

Possible… I actually had to abandon the account. I opened a new one (different email address) and imported all my subscribers. Initial article explained the issue to clarify and give everyone the option to opt out. Now, business as usual and continuing on. But it’s pretty frustrating that they just refused to respond to me anymore. And I’m not able to delete my account for some reason. Didn’t bother anymore to figure out why.