How important is your reputation to you?

Sandy,

Great post.

At the end of the day, your reputation is all you have. Maintain the integrity of it and it will take you a long way. Abuse it and you will crash and burn in no time.

The thing people don't understand is as big as the Internet may seem, if you rip people off, it won't take long to catch up with you. For ones that don't believe this to be true, just follow along here on the forum. There's always the sharp ones that will catch the scammers and call them out.

Thanks for the words of wisdom.

John

I don't think Mark Twain, Ralph Lauren, Sting, and Lady Gaga are suffering a loss of business or harm to their reputations because they don't use their real names for their business lol. I agree with much of what you say but I am not sure why you included 'assumed names' in the post.

I suppose it depends on what your business goals are. Sometimes you need to see the person behind the curtain, but I have no idea who owns Target and I still shop there. Whole Foods doesn't introduce their entire executive team complete with home addresses and personal phone numbers every week when I need groceries, etc. etc. etc.

Great post indeed! Reputation is important to me. It's like a trust and integrity you have out there from your business to the world. I agree that the new younger generation is doing too much scamming left and right no good.

Great post!!

Sadly, I think in the world of Internet Marketing more people are unscrupulous than in most occupations.

This is due to the somewhat anonymous aspect of things.

I truly think as we evolve, and the economy picks up, those with the good reputations will prevail. Times will not always be desperate where any scam will work.

With so many products and marketers out there, you have to give yourself an edge.

That edge to me is making myself into a sort of... well... brand.

I attempt to create a personal brand with my visitors, that builds a relationship and a sense of trust.

Part of this is the sense of integrety that my visitors and individuals in my list can sense coming from me.

What I am trying to say is, to survive in the field, you NEED the reputation and a brand name.

I think all IMers should read this thread and keep it in mind. I think this is particularly true for the scammers, else all they'd do is continue to give our field a bad name!

Most people in IM are not making any money yet. That is certainly no great secret. But many of them lose sight of the big picture in exchange for quick profits. I mean you really cannot dream the dream until you have some sort of money coming in from your efforts, right? I was a lot like that when I started this IM thing a decade and a half ago. All I cared about was being able to generate enough money to allow me to quit my day job. As I grew older and older I soon started looking at the big picture. One day my grand kids will read my interactions to the world and I want it to be something they can point to and be damn proud of. A scammers grand kids are going to do the same research. Instead of being proud they will duck their head in shame. To me that is wholly unacceptable to my mission here on this planet.

This is a trick question. You seem to want to set the standard for "integrity," and I question that.

For example, a product that got bad reviews made you question the "integrity" of the person, rather than possible other options--like the fact some may like the offer more than you did, or, at worst, the person you mention does not know the difference between a good and bad offer or was misled himself.

To me, the problem is with the person who goes around questioning the integrity of others, especially when they don't have the full facts. After all, you only sent an email to the person, you did not receive one back, according to your post, so your comments about integrity are problematic.

Maybe the feelings you have are not connected to the integrity of the person. Maybe it is just buyer's remorse.

There are people who have little integrity by nature, those who are learning integrity, and those who may have occasional lapses of integrity. Few are pure. That's why I think it is not helpful to judge the integrity of others--it is almost always a tainted judgment. Better that people judge themselves when it comes to integrity, not others.

On the same topic I wrote a blog post today about the importance of Googling yourself on a regular basis. With so many online platforms now for people to share their opinions, I think online reputation is something nobody can afford to ignore.

To me, reputation is everything. Not because if you get a bad reputation, your business will dry up, but because cheating people out of money is a bad thing to do and would make me feel really scummy.

If I have to choose between reputation and a big fat wad of money, I'll choose reputation.

Wonderful post
It's nice to know there's lots of people out there who understand that running a business ethiclly is important. It's also so much better for productivity. When I'm doing something which follows my moral compass in the right direction I'm happy about my work. This was one of the reasons I desired to work for myself in the first place, to be able to feel good about what I do as opposed to working for a company which has a negative impact on the world.

But reputation can easily be manufactured by someone who understands seo and backlinking.

In all aspects of life your reputation is very important. If you have a buisness it's 100 times more important.



Kristof

Hi Sandy,

Interesting post.

Things are simpler for me since I'm the last of the Mohicans
in my family. I try to do the right thing and cause no harm to
anyone. So with that fairly straightforward approach, the rest
takes care of itself.

But your overall question and point are interesting to me, and
perhaps only from a historical perspective.

There are quite a few very wealthy families whose names (and
wealth) derived from less than respectable endeavors. I'm being
as generous as possible, here.

That's why I think much has to do with scale and what is at stake.

The children of those families at least do not seem to be bothered
with ill-gotten gains or other (normally) unacceptable behaviors.
Maybe they wisely do not wish to throw stones lest they are cut-off
from one day having their 'fair' share.

Obviously this is all a personal decision, even though some may not
be thinking far enough into the future to realize they may have regrets
about what they're doing today.

Salvaging tarnished reputations, in my loose opinion, is similar to
wars of attrition.

It's sustained damage control, truth by repetition which is merely a
persuasive tactic and simply not caring what others think. Of course that's
a very general approach, but it has happened a hundred times (if not more)
on the national and international stage with individuals and larger entities.


Ken

Yesterday, Seth Godin posted about alignment. Theory being that when a business's goals are in alignment with the customer's goals, that's the root of long term success. When goals are out of alignment, the business is eventually going to fail. Worth reading;
Seth's Blog: Alignment

With IM, I think it's easy to get seduced by the influx of cash after a mailing and justify that the buyers should do their own due diligence, etc., etc. I see that as short term thinking.

I grew up on a farm - ie; knowing we can only harvest what we planted. Reap what we sow and all that. Our decisions eventually catch up with us. Some people know that going into an endeavor. Some people learn it after the fact. C'est la vie. Such is life.

And I don't think integrity has anything to do with age.

It seems to me that there are too many marketers who are willing to pretty much promote anything that will make them some money.

How many emails do you get that say

"Check out this product now" and a link ... no explanation or anything?

How many emails do you get that set unrealistic expectations in their subject lines, promising you untold riches for no work?

Basically, affiliate marketers need to stop being lazy and start checking out the products that they are promoting and making sure they are decent quality. Any idiot can put together a product to sell on the Internet, it's not hard to do, but it takes talent to create something that is of a good quality and really helps people.

If more marketers checked the quality of the products they were promoting then it would start to weed out all the rubbish. I can remember recent product launches with refund rates of 75% and higher yet the guru's and the like were scrambling over each other to promote it. Go search the product review thread here and you'll see product after product with bad reviews and they aren't by people out to sabotage the point.

My word of advice to everyone here is to start hitting the unsubscribe button. don't be worried about missing the latest greatest thing because you're not likely to do so. start voting with the unsubscribe button and these people will start to pay more attention to what they send out.

I used to be on 100+ marketers lists and realised that out of ALL of those marketers there were 2 (yes, just 2!) marketers who actually sent me content other than promotional emails. Of the 100+, probably 60-70% of them only ever sent canned, pre-written emails and about 30-40% sent one liners telling me to go visit a site as if they were my friend!

The Internet Marketing arena is unfortunately soured by a huge amount of poor quality products being promoted by marketers who seem to be literally desperate for commissions.

Start voting with your feet and unsubscribe and then they'll have to listen!

Reputation is important, which is why I tend to focus on creating authority sites moreso than sites dedicated to only selling products. You want people to like your content and keep coming back.

Hello Sandy,

First of all, let me say that i really enjoyed reading your post and i do give a damn.

Reputation and integrity are vital if you wanna build a long term successful business and even i, younger than most of the people here, realize that without them we're just walking into failure.

People forget about the Client/Seller relationship and only have one goal in mind: "Quick Money". It's sad but nowadays, this is our reality.

(Sorry about any grammar mistakes)

Hi sandy,
Nice post,Actually reputation is very important if we want to be in this business for long.This IM we are doing will not stop after we get some 1k,2k it will keep on growing.So if we want to continue keep doing postive things is very very important.

Thanks for the brilliant post again.

Thank you Sandy!

This is a very good piece for consideration. However, there are Pros and Cons to the regard of one's own reputation.

A couple Pros are:

1) Geometric Networking Effectiveness. This is basically where your networking efforts become more effective because previous connections you have built spike in strength due to collateral reputation building. Additional connections become more frequent as your reputation grows from the previous connections, and a dynamo affect takes place in your network. This is a lot like search engines and the spidering they do. This could also be thought of as "going viral." To keep it simple here, dropping unnecessary boundaries and making friends is IMPORTANT! I stress "unnecessary boundaries" because some boundaries you keep legitimately in place in order to maintain a professional approach, where appropriate, and to avoid the pitfalls of association with those who have OBVIOUSLY NOT CHOSEN to self-correct OBVIOUS HARMFUL BEHAVIORAL patterns. Application of awareness, forgiveness, self-correction, and redemption are keys to keeping this moving forward.

2) Value Adding. Adding value to your life and the lives of those in your inner circle (family, friends, close business associates, etc...) Your reputation affects the reputation of others, and this, adds or subtracts, value, to or from, their lives. Remember, people are thinking about them also, who they are connected with, and YOU are one of those connections. We are truly a network, in and of, ourselves together socially. It may be complex in size and quality, but it's operation is really simple.

3) Trust Building. This includes the opening of doors that once were closed, and the realization of opportunities that were not before understood or seen. Trust, or the lack thereof, has complex roots, yet a simple understanding. It boils down to what, you and others, believe about, you and others, concerning the probability of, yours or their, actions or the end results of efforts made.


A couple Cons are:

1) Selfish Consideration. "what others think about you" is not always healthy, and can become a mental health trap. While it is true that your reputation geometrically effects your networking effectiveness, it can become a two edge sword whereby you become absorbed into internal considering which becomes a common psychological trap known as identification. In other words, stuck and/or paranoid in the thought of what others think about you can lead to serious mental health issues such as split or dualistic personality disorder. The way to handle this is to neutralize YOUR critical inner consideration of "what others think" while simultaneously objectively looking at their viewpoint, and holding to the essential value that your contributions to the world are best served by doing what is honorable, right, and making amends where necessary.

2) Clique Formation. This becomes an exclusionary body that tends to operate with conceit and arrogance whereby the adherents forgets their roots that, they to, were beginners at one time. None of us were born with the perfect book of life operating in our consciousness. The result becomes damaging to their reputation collectively as a group as they gradually take on the beliefs that "once an enemy, always an enemy", and "your enemy is my enemy". These are destructive networking thought patterns to have, and reassessment should always play a role here. Redemption becomes an unthinkable concept to most cliques, and extremist considerations of the outside world develops. This is commonly seen in cults. I've seen this in other IM forums, and I have to wonder how successful they really are when statistically compared to places like the Warrior Forum. In most groups where cliques exist, new members to the group find the learning curve to be extremely high, and for some impossible. This in turn denies them, and the group, the benefits of learning the values of the groups ultimate mission, which is probably some form of improvement for everybody. With this kind of clique development ultimately everyone in the world would be excluded except for the few in the group. People DO make mistakes. Of course, the more that are excluded, the less profiting that can take place as well, so it becomes a self-defeating dynamo in opposition to the desired result of networking and reputation. The way to handle this is to have a set of redemption rules, that are not impossible to achieve, but do become progressively harder to achieve with each offense thereafter the initial banning from the group. Perhaps a doubling of membership fee to rejoin the group. Of course this can have the pitfall of banning-for-profit, but it wouldn't last long because it would cause reputation damage and eventual collapse of the group. Making this a, do-not-do, moderation rule would solve that problem.


There is nothing wrong with seeking to fulfill your needs and desires. The questions you have to ask yourself are: At what cost will this have in doing so? and, How can I adjust my approach to keep it ethical, helpful, and focused?

A product, a service, a belief, a thought, an idea, is ethical to the degree that it is valuable to the people it most closely affects. (Harry Palmer)

Helpful, is where you are adding additional value via advice, tips, relevant knowledge and/or correcting obvious errors to the topic at hand.

Focused is where you discipline your attention to remain on topic and task, of whatever you are doing. Some goal setting helps a great deal with this.


Understanding these Pros and Cons lays the foundation for an ever widening growth that will benefit all, and diminish the pitfalls of newbie ignorance. After all, greater profits are realized with greater integration and unity.


All-In-All, I still believe and support the concept of building and sustaining a good reputation. This post is definitely worthy of consideration because it helps us all build a value we all know we should build, especially in business. I will always give a fast and courteous refund to anyone who asks for it, regardless of whether I have included a money back guarantee, or not, in my sales pitch. I am 100% committed to customer satisfaction!


Well.., that's all my energy on this topic, for now.

May you be happy and well,

Darin

This was an amazing post! This is something I had actually been discussing recently with my husband. When I started my own business, he asked me if I was planning on using an alias name to "protect" myself from potential internet stalkers, and I told him no, I planned to use my real name and on my "about me" page, I planned to even tell the buyer a little bit about who I am.
I want for people to know who they are buying from right away.
My reputation is extremely important to me, and maintaining a standard of being honest and reliable means more to me than just about anything.
I do agree though with digesource about the "selfish consideration" part, where you can actually care way to much what people think about you.. I have a habit of falling into that trap and taking it really personal if someone seems to not like me.
I think I'm getting more sensitive with age, I used to not care one bit what anyone thought about me!
Now I just have to find the right balance to keep me at least partially sane
Again, kudos for the post!

The main reason why I’m afraid of JVs and ad swaps is exactly the fact that I don’t trust other people’s products. I can’t promote them to my list. I’d have to analyze them very well, and this practice is too time consuming…

I don’t know if I would make more money if I would be less cautious, but I prefer to preserve my reputation than taking risks.

Sandy

I completely agree. What we are seeing - right before our eyes is the growth of a brand new market. Main Street on steroids. Just like our home town, once a business has a bad reputation - it is tough to get rid of it. Montgomery Ward used to have quality stuff. Then I recall my folks calling it "Monkey Wards".

The got a real bad deal on a "house brand" washer there. Seems like it wasn't but five or so years later the store closed up in town. A few years later the whole chain just folded.

Quality, giving before receiving and service that is the hallmark of a reputable business.

I completely agree with you and believe your email to the seller was an act of kindness. Hope s/he understands they may be getting a second chance - and I hope they don't waste it.

I spent a lot of time searching the internet for quality people to teach me the business. I stumbled across Chris Farrell, Yaro Starak and Jeff Johnson. I circled them for several weeks. They each seemed to have a similar business model. "Over deliver", "serve", never take your list for granted.

Well in a few weeks of research and study I found them each to be absolutely true to their mantra. The free videos, guides and materials they have produced and supply free to nubies is fantastic.

Most importantly to me, each of their systems are reproduceable. No not just selling how to make money - they teach the basic skills that are used to market - really market on the internet.

It is their example that has proven to me that 1) your post is right on and 2) there are ethical, principled marketers on the net willing to help, guide and train.

I have confidence that the quality of our work and desire to serve our customers will win out over the scammers - just wait and see.

Great points and perfect sentiment - my congratulations to you.

Sandy, it's like you've been reading my mind over the past few weeks. Ever since I came across a video entitled "I'm Sorry I Lied" I've thought more and more about this subject -- and I've done some research into it as well. I can't answer any of these questions, only each individual person has that ability - but I do follow this topic closely and I do feel that MOST Internet Marketers do give a damn - there simply hasn't been a system in place to weed out the one's that do, from the one's that don't.

if you are offering a product or service taht is good, do you really have to worry about your reputation.

no...plain and simple.

As like food.My reputation help to get some more income from business and building a printable relationship with my targeted customers and get more sales and more new customers on a regular basis.

Have a product? Try what this guy is doing

Sandy,

I think your post is really valuable. I feel very similar. Some people will do and say anything to make a sell. I will hand them money once but never again. Sadly these sorts of people often times go out of business because after people get burned, they won't do business with them again.

A few thoughts that I rely on to run my businesses that are relevant to your post:

* Repeat business is the only way to have a secure business.

* Satisfying products are mandatory for maximum success.

* Whenever I'm faced with a long term or a short term decision I always take the long term.

* My job is to give far more in return to my clients vs what they invest.

* If for every $1.00 someone invests with me I can give them $10.00 or $100.00 back I will always have a secure, flourishing business.

Geoff

Reputation is very important to me. It is hard to have new and repeat customers if your reputation and reviews are negative.