dilemma...is this ethical??

[Prashant_W]

hey people,

i'm working in this particular niche.

for some search terms, i've noticed the top ranking
sites to be affiliates of my competitor.

i'm thinking about sending them emails with benefits
about promoting mine and my partner's product instead
of theirs (or something along those lines?).

but just wanted to know..is doing this ethical?

or is it wrong?

cheers

prashant

[greenovni]

You can send them information about why promoting you would be better, it is up to the webmaster to change over to your product. Nothing unethical about it

[sjedwardz]

I wouldn't explicitly mention your competitor just say that you would like them to promote your links and if they do they will get blah blah...

That seems fair - its business after all and we all generally do something to get something back - that's how business works

If they come back and say they already have a relationship with your competitor then fine - nothing ventured!

Originally Posted by prashie91

hey people,

i'm working in this particular niche.

for some search terms, i've noticed the top ranking
sites to be affiliates of my competitor.

i'm thinking about sending them emails with benefits
about promoting mine and my partner's product instead
of theirs (or something along those lines?).

but just wanted to know..is doing this ethical?

or is it wrong?

cheers

prashant

[toskan]

I don't see any problem with it. If your product is better than competitor's they will appraise it and will change link to your website. This is fair competition.

[eidorian]

As long as you can prove to them that they can gain more benefit by promoting your products, there is a high chance they will switch.

I do not think this is unethical. We are talking about doing business and such thing are common in the business world.

[Prashant_W]

cool!

thank you for your advice.

cheers

prashant

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by prashie91

i'm thinking about sending them emails with benefits
about promoting mine and my partner's product instead
of theirs (or something along those lines?).

Well, why are they promoting that other crap, anyway? Clearly they don't know how great your product is! Go tell them!

Yeah, it's perfectly ethical. Affiliates are affiliates. If I were the affiliate, I'd probably put up a whole new site for your product on a different domain and sell them both.

[Pufferf1sh]

Nothing unethical about that. It's just business. Whichever product makes the affiliate the most money will probably win out.

But if you approached the other website and discredited the competing product, that would be unethical.

Best outcome is to have your own pages ranking ahead of the affiliate in the first place.

[jagsenghera]

I see nothing wrong it that. There is a really fine line between ethical and unethical isn't it.

[mark z]

Yes, it is ethical. It is a free market, right?
Make them an offer. The one they can`t refuse

[Nahar]

What you want to do is not unethical (and I agree with the previous posts encouraging the civilized approach as you write to the affiliates).

However, what you want to do is WRONG if I am your competitor.