Internet Marketing Today

What do you believe is ethical in business? I have been searching for online business ethics, and it is hard to find.Is it ok to lie to a someone, just because you want them to buy a product? I had to ask myself these questions when I started looking into affiliate marketing as a career. Unfortunately, too many people out there think it is ok to lie to people since they never see them.  This type of business practice is why so many other online businesses don’t like affiliate marketers.   As I have read more about successful people, I learned that this is a common problem.

I choose to follow my own standard of online business ethics.

The Golden Rule is still the best way to go. Do for others what you wish was done for you. If you want to be lied to, cheated, and scammed, then by all means, go out and run your business that way. If you would want to find a business that you could trust, one you could return to repeatedly for different challenges you face,  then you should run that type of business yourself.

Many show no online business ethics in the area of product reviews. Many of the people with review sites have never even seen any more of the product they are promoting than the sales page. If you are going to promote a product you have never seen, go for it, I have done a few myself. But do not write a review on a product until you have actually seen it.

Just as an example, I saw a book review the other day.  It was a book I was already interested in buying, and I knew the site owner, so I used his affiliate link to buy the book. I figure I would help a friend. Well once I read the book, and reread the review, almost half of the info in his review was completely fabricated. He just made it up based on info on the sales page. I will leave the sites author anonymous. He did get an email from me afterwards about it, no reply yet.

Please if you are going to promote products you have not seen, make sure you know what you are saying is true. Most affiliate products will even give you a review copy if you ask. Some may have requirements of sales or something first, but just email their support and ask. The worst they can do is say no.

The niche I find the worst online business ethics in is the make money niche. So many people are trying to hype up their products And sites to compete in a highly competitive market. Most take it too far. They make simple great business models look like spam, get rich quick schemes. If this is your type of site don’t take offense. It works for some people, and you can make a lot of money doing it. But for me, I can’t sleep well if I know I have cheated someone.

Think of it this way, that customer could be your mom. You wouldn’t want her to get lied to and cheated would you? I hope not. When you build a website, take pride In what you do. Even if you are using a pen name, which I do on almost all my sites, remember that is your site. Would you refer a friend to that site if they were interested in that niche? Would you send your family? Here is the big question.  If you did, would you have enough pride in that site to tell them you owned it? If not, maybe you should look at changing your style. You can still have great copy that sells without lying and cheating your customers. If we were all to improve our online business ethics, we would all have more trust from consumers and we would be able to get better sales and conversions.