What will you NOT do?

Well, I am not in the IM niche so I am sure my ideas are going to be much more conservative than most IMers.

For me, I try to never get involved in selling, marketing, or doing anything I would not be proud to sell or recommend to my sister. If I have to pitch a product in a way that I would not feel comfortable doing so to my sister, then I reevaluate what I am doing.

My reason is simple. I am selling to someone's brother or sister every time I make a sale. If I can't in good conscious recommend a product to my sister, I have no business recommending it to your sister.

I only wish more people felt the same.

There really aren't a lot of personal ethics in the IM world. There are enough rules and regulations to follow as it is that cover most people's boundaries.

Simple. I won't do something I don't want done to me.

I won't do anything illegal, and my biggest ethic in all 7 niches I work in including IM is one I stick very strictly to, and that is not to sell anything that I haven't personally purchased or been given to review!

On one level I would do anything.

"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?"
-Prophet Jeremiah

On another level, I wouldn't do anything that go against my
core Christian beliefs.

-Ray Edwards

all is fair game. If I can get it for free, I will. If I can take the guy above me down, I will. Until the time comes that money is not what is traded in the market, I will do whatever it takes to put food on our plate and pay the bills.

Hello,

I'm always looking for a positive things so I won't be talkig what I won't do.
But I will do what is the best and good for all. At least I will try.

I love internet and I will only use it to do good things to share love and positivness. And if everybody will try to do the same the world would be a better place.

All the best and keep smiling.
See you on top, Erwin.

Edit: After reading Mark's follow-up post, I opted to change my light-hearted answer to a serious one:

In every business I have ever been a part of, I treat every single customer like I expect to be treated. My first real job was with Revco DS, Inc, a company that was bought by CVS Pharmacy in 1998. Revco had a big sign at the front of every store and it said:

Every Customer, Every Time

It was a very simple motto, but it's something I carried with me in everything I've done ever since. I pretend like each customer is me, and then I decide how I'd want to be treated in that situation.

-- j

Thanks for the responses - very enlightening. Of course the bad things people can and do do are not limited to my list nor limited to any one niche.

I think one of the phrases that I've heard a lot here over the years that really rubs me the wrong way goes something like "look you can whine and complain all day long about guru XXX doing YYY or you can do like him and be rich."

I think for everyone who follows the crowd there are people who are successful despite purposefully NOT doing what the successful do. I have also been surprised at the people who buy into the tactics. I'll give you one example.

There is a beloved man who has a huge following with books in the bookstore. You would know who it is if I said his name. A couple years ago (or at some point recently) he got involved with some gurus in the IM crowd doing cross promotions and such. Amongst other things he sells in the business market but is not in IM.

All the sudden his server started crashing and his emails started going out wrong so they had to be resent and everyone became his best friend and basically started doing some of those things that many of us don't like.

This guy, in my opionion, was the symbol of integrity before - he was someone you could trust. Now? He's just another guy using whatever tactics he can get away with.

Now some people will point to his increase in sales as a result of these tactics and say that he's MORE successful today because of learning new things. In my personal opinion, he's LESS successful in my eyes because it's like his focus changed. The content is still good but the feeling just isn't the same.

None of what he's doing is necessarily illegal, unethical, immoral, etc. but where as before almost anyone would let him in their house, now he's just another salesman.

Mark

Nice guys never win

Interesting that you mention buying Facebook likes Mark. I advised my client strictly not to buy Facebook fans for his website.

But he did not listen to me and ended up buying over 1000 Facebook fans on Fiverr. I told him he was just wasting his money.

However this tactic worked for him. He displays his Facebook fanpage box in the sidebar of the website and everyday he gets atleast 10 genuine Facebook fans to his website and his traffic has definitely picked up.

He got back to me asking me what I think now. I said that the only reason his tactic worked was because of the high quality content he had on his site and I still insisted that I wouldn't do it.

He argued good quality content may be the reason, but the social proof is also equally important.

I know this is quite different from what your question was which is more about ethics and not about what works and what doesn't but just wanted to share the story about Facebook likes.

I like the golden rule.

Will not lie, cheat or steal

Personal integrity is the ultimate test for everyone. What any one will do and not do depends on each one individually. No one else can make the decision for them.

However if your not sure about something or have doubts about the particular action your going take; reach out to someone you trust. A different perspective can stop you from hurting yourself or someone else; including your customers.

I have someone that I can reach out to, who is 19 years my junior, that I can discuss anything with. Fortunately his input gives me different angles to look at what I'm going to do. Many times his viewpoint has kept me from crossing a line I didn't realize I was going to cross.

But the ultimate responsibility comes back on the person who made the decision.

Ken

The Old Geezer

I will not do anything that:

- Puts money before people
- Tries to "game" the search engines
- Leaves a stain in my mind
- Sacrifices long-term goals for short-term gains

I wouldn't go into buying backlinks or buying thousands of facebook likes and twitter/followers.