Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing

Harry Papadopoulos · 10-01-2010, 01:40 PM

Hello to everyone. First of all, congratulations for this great forum. Great information!

I am a total beginer to the IM world, and I can say that I am excited as the potential is huge. I have worked as a salesman in various different organizations so far, so I know some things about salesmanship. However, what wonders my mind about IM is this:

I totally believe that one should not sell something (a product, service, whatever) to people unless he knows the use of what he is selling to them and that this will add to their life in some way.

As all of you, I am also in many people's lists, and most of the time I observe that these people sell ''how to make money online'' products. I do not feel that they have any idea whether these things walk their talk. This could result in the manipulation of people, as they may waste their money on something that the seller presents as ''shocking, mind blowing, unbelievable etch''.

I will provide a few examples to make this point clear:

1. Lose weight - health internet programs: How can I be sure that these programs will not harm the people? Even if they are (which I doubt for the majority of them) FDA approved, I know that the roots of any body disfunction lie mostly in the mind, and superficial methods from people who IGNORE the real cause of illness and other disfunctions won't do the trick most times. What if we mislead people to the wrong direction?

2. Personal development programs:

I see many of them on the internet. I haven't researched them all, but, the same the case here. Would you promote a ''Law of attraction'' programme that you are not sure if it delivers its promises, and, who knows, maybe harm the people by convincing them to take some wrong path?

3. When we do CPA, I have heard about people complaining that they were spammed afterwards, or they called them to sell to them various things, etch. Is there any way we can choose CPA who do not spam people that much?

I feel that we, as marketers, have great power, and with power comes responsibility. We have the power to deliver our message to the world, and, up to a point, change their minds and thus their lives to the better or to the worse. It is our choice. Will we make the web a place that mostly useless and low quality content is sold, thus gradually making people not trust the internet for buying, or we will do our best to provide excellent products and services, and isolate all those who take advantage of people's trust?

I definetely believe that there is a way of doing real, value delivering, ethical commerce, cpa and whatever else on the internet and I am looking for that way. Yes, I am interested in making a great deal of money, but I want to gain something for something and not something for nothing or even minus.

I would deeply appreciate any proposals about products or services you really believe in of their quality, value and think of them as trustworthy. I would also be grateful of any thoughts and feedback on this subject.

Thank you in advance,

Harry

mark587905 · 10-01-2010, 02:04 PM

I understand your ethical beliefs. I wrestle with the ethics of IM daily and believe in not promoting anything that I have not tried myself. I will order the product and test it to ensure it does what it says on the can. Unfortunately there are many many marketers who do not care about their customers as long as they make the sale/conversion. I would rather earn a basic wage and know my marketing is ethical.

excoder01 · 10-01-2010, 02:53 PM

Just stay away from the three poisons of the Internet - Gambling, Porn, and Viagra.

Don't promote those and you'll be an ethical marketer.

InternetWriter · 10-01-2010, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by excoder01

Just stay away from the three poisons of the Internet - Gambling, Porn, and Viagra.

Don't promote those and you'll be an ethical marketer.

I would disagree to a certain point with all three choices you selected.

excoder01 · 10-01-2010, 06:24 PM

Ok, you're going to disagree my Vegas friend. =)

InternetWriter · 10-01-2010, 08:28 PM

Yes my ex-coder friend

CharlieMan · 10-01-2010, 09:43 PM

I'm definitely subscribed to a lot of lists that promote some questionable products, I mean, how can marketers ethically promote a new $200 product every week?

kevinflatt · 10-02-2010, 12:33 AM

A number of CPA networks give a 30 day trial offer and the customer pays postage and handling. The problem is usually when the person realizes they are actually now being billed monthly and a repeat order of the product is automatically sent to them. When they try to cancel the agreement they are sometimes ignored or delaying tactics are used and they find it difficult to stop the repeat billing and products being sent to them. By the time they finally sort it all out they are substantially out of pocket especially if the product does nothing for them.

Quote:

1. Lose weight - health internet programs: How can I be sure that these programs will not harm the people? Even if they are (which I doubt for the majority of them) FDA approved,

Most of the FDA approved weight loss products (eg Alli) have nasty side effects and I, for one, would never promote them. Besides, there is no magic pill for weight loss.

Just my opinion.

Kevin

RyanEagle · 10-02-2010, 01:01 AM

Ethics? Drop them if you want to make any real money online.

Nail Yener · 10-02-2010, 01:02 AM

There are millions of products online that you can promote as an affiliate ranging from a "digital camera" to a "weight loss ebook". Just like there are unethical products both in digital and physical form, you can find millions of ethical products that really help people solve their problems.

That means you can make good money online even without Clinkbank type products or CPA offers. I don't mean that they are unethical, but if you feel that they are unethical in some way, then you have lots of other options as well. Amazon is only one small example for that.

In all ways, take note that, you will never see much success if you don't have an idea on what you are promoting or haven't tried it yourself. That is the critical part of the promotion.

magma · 10-02-2010, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyanEagle

Ethics? Drop them if you want to make any real money online.

Totally agree, 99.9999% of IM millionaires are doing unethical things

I'm not saying illegal but unethical

InternetWriter · 10-02-2010, 12:41 PM

[sarcasm]Lets all put our hands together and save the trees! [/sarcasm]

CESam · 10-02-2010, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry Papadopoulos

Hello to everyone. First of all, congratulations for this great forum. Great information!

I am a total beginer to the IM world, and I can say that I am excited as the potential is huge. I have worked as a salesman in various different organizations so far, so I know some things about salesmanship. However, what wonders my mind about IM is this:

I totally believe that one should not sell something (a product, service, whatever) to people unless he knows the use of what he is selling to them and that this will add to their life in some way.

As all of you, I am also in many people's lists, and most of the time I observe that these people sell ''how to make money online'' products. I do not feel that they have any idea whether these things walk their talk. This could result in the manipulation of people, as they may waste their money on something that the seller presents as ''shocking, mind blowing, unbelievable etch''.

I will provide a few examples to make this point clear:

1. Lose weight - health internet programs: How can I be sure that these programs will not harm the people? Even if they are (which I doubt for the majority of them) FDA approved, I know that the roots of any body disfunction lie mostly in the mind, and superficial methods from people who IGNORE the real cause of illness and other disfunctions won't do the trick most times. What if we mislead people to the wrong direction?

2. Personal development programs:

I see many of them on the internet. I haven't researched them all, but, the same the case here. Would you promote a ''Law of attraction'' programme that you are not sure if it delivers its promises, and, who knows, maybe harm the people by convincing them to take some wrong path?

3. When we do CPA, I have heard about people complaining that they were spammed afterwards, or they called them to sell to them various things, etch. Is there any way we can choose CPA who do not spam people that much?

I feel that we, as marketers, have great power, and with power comes responsibility. We have the power to deliver our message to the world, and, up to a point, change their minds and thus their lives to the better or to the worse. It is our choice. Will we make the web a place that mostly useless and low quality content is sold, thus gradually making people not trust the internet for buying, or we will do our best to provide excellent products and services, and isolate all those who take advantage of people's trust?

I definetely believe that there is a way of doing real, value delivering, ethical commerce, cpa and whatever else on the internet and I am looking for that way. Yes, I am interested in making a great deal of money, but I want to gain something for something and not something for nothing or even minus.

I would deeply appreciate any proposals about products or services you really believe in of their quality, value and think of them as trustworthy. I would also be grateful of any thoughts and feedback on this subject.

Thank you in advance,

Harry

I appreciate your concern Harry. There are not much people in IM thinking like you.. rather not much in any kind of market.

I wish we all can mature the market with useful products and can also gain respect of consumer.

Appreciate again.

Thanks
Sam

CESam · 10-02-2010, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyanEagle

Ethics? Drop them if you want to make any real money online.

I really dont think so.. However its my personal approach towards life. You can make a LOT & LOTS of money WITH ETHICS, i am sure.

I understand in practical world sometimes we have to close our eyes. But never means we should endorse everything unethical happening around.

Sam

InternetWriter · 10-03-2010, 11:28 AM

If you think about ethics, what about fast food chains?

They only care about making money, not your health. If you work for a fast food chain, you're obviously promoting the brand.

I think ethics just depend on your moral views of what society has set in stone on you.

CPATrendPhil · 10-03-2010, 11:50 AM

As long as you're not misleading your visitors/traffic, you shouldn't feel unethical promoting any particular product, unless that product is clearly a scam (though if you're promoting a scam, that would be misleading).

InternetWriter · 10-03-2010, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CPATrendPhil

As long as you're not misleading your visitors/traffic, you shouldn't feel unethical promoting any particular product, unless that product is clearly a scam (though if you're promoting a scam, that would be misleading).

True, people know when they are buying porn. They know when they are buying penis pills that obviously don't work because they are looking for that miracle. Where people will spend, there is money to be made.

Scams are just dirty and fraud in my opinion.

Kenster · 10-03-2010, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InternetWriter

If you think about ethics, what about fast food chains?

They only care about making money, not your health. If you work for a fast food chain, you're obviously promoting the brand.

I think ethics just depend on your moral views of what society has set in stone on you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CPATrendPhil

As long as you're not misleading your visitors/traffic, you shouldn't feel unethical promoting any particular product, unless that product is clearly a scam (though if you're promoting a scam, that would be misleading).

Most marketing practices at any level, for any company, in any time in history are not purely "ethical". The point of marketing is focus on the positives of any product or service, its not to focus on the negatives, right? Do you think the following marketing is ethical?

Toyota comes out with the Prius and all the marketing and advertising surrounds the company as being Green. What if you found out that Toyota was using environmentally unfriendly light bulbs, or that tires that are put on the Prius are made in one of the most un-green factories there are or what if they could be using solar power at all their facilities but they didnt want to pay to have them installed.

Can't you say the marketing is unethical? They aren't green just because they came out with one car thats a hybrid.

Back when Grey Goose Vodka started (perhaps now) they stated in their commercials they are the world's best tasting vodka, yet they fail miserably in most blind taste tests. Isn't it unethical they are saying that?

What if an iced tea product says on their bottle "all natural" on their label making it seem like its a healthy drink and puts in tiny print in the back (just because they have to by law) all the garbage thats in it.

You can see that marketing is in most cases a bit deceptive. Companies focus on the best aspect of their product or service and let all the negative aspects slide by, it only makes sense. Is Coca Cola going to come out with an ad campaign that says "One of the Best Ways to Get Fat and Rot Your Teeth" Of course not, they focus on something positive about their product, which in a majority of cases is how marketing and advertising works, will work, and has always worked.

Now of course there is a spectrum. A risk free trial offer that blends the small text describing the $1000000 a month recurring fee in with the background is on the more extreme side of deception.

My point is that most marketing will inherently focus on the positives and ignore the negatives, which many people would call deception. The same is true in the online world. I have no problem with Mike Geary's Truth About Abs product even though it may make it seem easier than it really is to get good abs. If its a good product that has value at least as great as the cost, then I am fine with it. This is no different from the offline world.

So of course stick with towards teh white end. Marketing is normally biased but you dont have to trick people.

I am a 100% believer that internet marketing can be done effectively if you stay true towards the whiter end of the spectrum. As a test, would you be embarrassed to tell your grandmother exactly what you do and how you do it. If so, then you are probably being too unethical. If not, then you are probably fine.

Ken

tim_reeves · 10-03-2010, 02:57 PM

I would never, ever go down the debt niche because of my personal ethics. If your making money from someone in debt (or anyone for that matter), that means that they have, or will, or will statistically have the possibility to buy something to 'solve' their debt problems, but in reality nothing you can buy will help you out of your debt, it'll only make it worse. I don't know how people can make a living from helping to ruin other peoples lives.

Now with other things like weight loss, your selling (or helping to sell) a product that might work, but in most cases wont. The thing most people don't realise is that all you need to loose weight is a good diet and some frequent exercise. This aside, your not ruining peoples lives.

Quote:

If you think about ethics, what about fast food chains?

They only care about making money, not your health. If you work for a fast food chain, you're obviously promoting the brand.

Just because they sell unhealthy food, does that make them unethical?

CPATrendPhil · 10-03-2010, 03:04 PM

In terms of debt consolidation, most people make money driving leads to the debt consolidators, not by selling stuff to people in debt. The debt consolidators do help those in debt, and they turn a profit. Otherwise, nobody would take part in it.

dwatkins · 10-03-2010, 03:58 PM

I agree with you. I have a large niche site and I have looked hard for Clickbank products to promote. Most of the products in my niche are not up to my standards, and I promote very few of them. It's worse because I'm a writer and won't tolerate a lot of poor grammar and misspellings either.

I choose to only promote products that I believe in and can recommend. I might make more money promoting everything that comes along. But that money would be short term. People would very quickly be turned off and never purchase from me again. I take my good name seriously.

This is a little off topic, but I also hate it when I get an email headline that is misleading. Some will use "personal" or something similar to make me want to open the message. Well, I know who the marketers are in my email. They aren't fooling me, but they do make me want to open it--so that I can find the unsubscribe address at the bottom.

I believe that if you take it slowly and do things right, you will eventually do better than people who take advantage and practice shoddy ethics. Good, ethical practices will ultimately make you more money, once your good name is known. The internet has a long memory.

Kenster · 10-03-2010, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim_reeves

I would never, ever go down the debt niche because of my personal ethics. If your making money from someone in debt (or anyone for that matter), that means that they have, or will, or will statistically have the possibility to buy something to 'solve' their debt problems, but in reality nothing you can buy will help you out of your debt, it'll only make it worse. I don't know how people can make a living from helping to ruin other peoples lives.

Now with other things like weight loss, your selling (or helping to sell) a product that might work, but in most cases wont. The thing most people don't realise is that all you need to loose weight is a good diet and some frequent exercise. This aside, your not ruining peoples lives.

Just because they sell unhealthy food, does that make them unethical?

I don't think it does, but the point is that there's a spectrum especially when it comes to marketing as to how ethical something is. Is it right that they may pick a more unhealthy ingredient which leads to heart disease because its cheaper than the all natural ingredient? But back to marketing, I've never seen a McDonalds commercial that mentioned how many calories are in a big mac.

Does that make the marketing campaign unethical? Marketing is naturally about pointing out what you are good at and leaving out all the bad things. McDonalds may focus on how cheap they are but fail to mention all the negatives about them. Its not deceptive, but its not 100% truth just like most marketing campaigns.

The same is true for a lot of internet marketing. I agree that there are some deceptive marketing practices within IM, i'm not arguing with that, I'm just saying its normally a matter of perspective and normally within a moral spectrum.

10-01-2010, 01:40 PM	#1
Harry Papadopoulos Warrior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing Hello to everyone. First of all, congratulations for this great forum. Great information! I am a total beginer to the IM world, and I can say that I am excited as the potential is huge. I have worked as a salesman in various different organizations so far, so I know some things about salesmanship. However, what wonders my mind about IM is this: I totally believe that one should not sell something (a product, service, whatever) to people unless he knows the use of what he is selling to them and that this will add to their life in some way. As all of you, I am also in many people's lists, and most of the time I observe that these people sell ''how to make money online'' products. I do not feel that they have any idea whether these things walk their talk. This could result in the manipulation of people, as they may waste their money on something that the seller presents as ''shocking, mind blowing, unbelievable etch''. I will provide a few examples to make this point clear: 1. Lose weight - health internet programs: How can I be sure that these programs will not harm the people? Even if they are (which I doubt for the majority of them) FDA approved, I know that the roots of any body disfunction lie mostly in the mind, and superficial methods from people who IGNORE the real cause of illness and other disfunctions won't do the trick most times. What if we mislead people to the wrong direction? 2. Personal development programs: I see many of them on the internet. I haven't researched them all, but, the same the case here. Would you promote a ''Law of attraction'' programme that you are not sure if it delivers its promises, and, who knows, maybe harm the people by convincing them to take some wrong path? 3. When we do CPA, I have heard about people complaining that they were spammed afterwards, or they called them to sell to them various things, etch. Is there any way we can choose CPA who do not spam people that much? I feel that we, as marketers, have great power, and with power comes responsibility. We have the power to deliver our message to the world, and, up to a point, change their minds and thus their lives to the better or to the worse. It is our choice. Will we make the web a place that mostly useless and low quality content is sold, thus gradually making people not trust the internet for buying, or we will do our best to provide excellent products and services, and isolate all those who take advantage of people's trust? I definetely believe that there is a way of doing real, value delivering, ethical commerce, cpa and whatever else on the internet and I am looking for that way. Yes, I am interested in making a great deal of money, but I want to gain something for something and not something for nothing or even minus. I would deeply appreciate any proposals about products or services you really believe in of their quality, value and think of them as trustworthy. I would also be grateful of any thoughts and feedback on this subject. Thank you in advance, Harry

10-01-2010, 02:04 PM	#2
mark587905 HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 281 Thanks: 0 Thanked 29 Times in 28 Posts	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing I understand your ethical beliefs. I wrestle with the ethics of IM daily and believe in not promoting anything that I have not tried myself. I will order the product and test it to ensure it does what it says on the can. Unfortunately there are many many marketers who do not care about their customers as long as they make the sale/conversion. I would rather earn a basic wage and know my marketing is ethical.
	Build Your Online Business The Right Way.

10-01-2010, 02:53 PM	#3
excoder01 Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 616 Thanks: 19 Thanked 77 Times in 54 Posts	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing Just stay away from the three poisons of the Internet - Gambling, Porn, and Viagra. Don't promote those and you'll be an ethical marketer.
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10-01-2010, 06:24 PM	#5
excoder01 Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 616 Thanks: 19 Thanked 77 Times in 54 Posts	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing Ok, you're going to disagree my Vegas friend. =)
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10-01-2010, 08:28 PM	#6
InternetWriter MarketerSwap War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Vegas, USA Posts: 155 Thanks: 57 Thanked 9 Times in 7 Posts	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing Yes my ex-coder friend
	www.google.com

10-01-2010, 09:43 PM	#7
CharlieMan Warrior Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 21 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing I'm definitely subscribed to a lot of lists that promote some questionable products, I mean, how can marketers ethically promote a new $200 product every week?

10-02-2010, 01:01 AM	#9
RyanEagle I'll Make You Rich Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 693 Thanks: 7 Thanked 94 Times in 76 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing Ethics? Drop them if you want to make any real money online.
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10-02-2010, 01:02 AM	#10
Nail Yener You reap what you sow. War Room Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Turkey Posts: 569 Thanks: 75 Thanked 167 Times in 108 Posts Social Networking	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing There are millions of products online that you can promote as an affiliate ranging from a "digital camera" to a "weight loss ebook". Just like there are unethical products both in digital and physical form, you can find millions of ethical products that really help people solve their problems. That means you can make good money online even without Clinkbank type products or CPA offers. I don't mean that they are unethical, but if you feel that they are unethical in some way, then you have lots of other options as well. Amazon is only one small example for that. In all ways, take note that, you will never see much success if you don't have an idea on what you are promoting or haven't tried it yourself. That is the critical part of the promotion.
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10-02-2010, 12:41 PM	#12
InternetWriter MarketerSwap War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Vegas, USA Posts: 155 Thanks: 57 Thanked 9 Times in 7 Posts	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing [sarcasm]Lets all put our hands together and save the trees! [/sarcasm]
	www.google.com

10-03-2010, 11:28 AM	#15
InternetWriter MarketerSwap War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Vegas, USA Posts: 155 Thanks: 57 Thanked 9 Times in 7 Posts	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing If you think about ethics, what about fast food chains? They only care about making money, not your health. If you work for a fast food chain, you're obviously promoting the brand. I think ethics just depend on your moral views of what society has set in stone on you.
	www.google.com

10-03-2010, 11:50 AM	#16
CPATrendPhil Network Owner - CPATrend Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: New York, NY Posts: 254 Thanks: 43 Thanked 52 Times in 36 Posts Contact Info	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing As long as you're not misleading your visitors/traffic, you shouldn't feel unethical promoting any particular product, unless that product is clearly a scam (though if you're promoting a scam, that would be misleading).
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10-03-2010, 03:04 PM	#20
CPATrendPhil Network Owner - CPATrend Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: New York, NY Posts: 254 Thanks: 43 Thanked 52 Times in 36 Posts Contact Info	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing In terms of debt consolidation, most people make money driving leads to the debt consolidators, not by selling stuff to people in debt. The debt consolidators do help those in debt, and they turn a profit. Otherwise, nobody would take part in it.
	CPATrend.com Affiliate Marketing Network - Top Payouts - Top Support -- Prompt Payments - - AIM - CPATrendPhil - CPATrend Reviews - More Reviews

10-03-2010, 03:58 PM	#21
dwatkins Writer Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Seminole, Florida Posts: 52 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 14 Thanked 5 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Ethical and Real value delivering Internet Marketing I agree with you. I have a large niche site and I have looked hard for Clickbank products to promote. Most of the products in my niche are not up to my standards, and I promote very few of them. It's worse because I'm a writer and won't tolerate a lot of poor grammar and misspellings either. I choose to only promote products that I believe in and can recommend. I might make more money promoting everything that comes along. But that money would be short term. People would very quickly be turned off and never purchase from me again. I take my good name seriously. This is a little off topic, but I also hate it when I get an email headline that is misleading. Some will use "personal" or something similar to make me want to open the message. Well, I know who the marketers are in my email. They aren't fooling me, but they do make me want to open it--so that I can find the unsubscribe address at the bottom. I believe that if you take it slowly and do things right, you will eventually do better than people who take advantage and practice shoddy ethics. Good, ethical practices will ultimately make you more money, once your good name is known. The internet has a long memory.
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