Ethical internet marketing

You have to answer this for yourself.

I always say clearly what's in my mind and i don't mess in somebody's mind just to make him buy something which he really doesn't need.

The Best and uncontroversial Ethics is and Should be

Treat people the way you want to be treated

Yeah...just go by the golden rule...can't really go wrong there.

Ethical marketing starts with the truth, and not misleading people. Like when people have links to things that promise to make them an overnight millionairre

Seriously though, I believe I am an ethical marketer. I 100% believe in the products I sell (my own products) and 100% believe in the products I promote as an affiliate.

Furthermore, my own products - I practice what I preach, and have had lots of success with what I teach in my eBook and in my Video Course. And the products I am an affiliate for, I actually use and love.

In fact, I bought a course recently, and about 30% in I thought, yeah, this is good stuff. I rooted out their affiliate program and started with a banner in the sidebar of my blog, with the intention of talking about it in an article at a later date.

I finished the course, and then thought to myself 'How stupid - you put a banner up after not even completing the course' - Because at the end of the course, while there was some good info, I did not think that the pricepoint was worthy of the content, and I have bought far better courses in the past.

So I asked myself this: Would I recommend this to my family and friends. My answer was no. I removed the banner, because I don't want my blog, or me, associated with the product.

It is different for everyone though. I don't rely on my blog, for example, as income. My blog is there because I love writing - earning money from it is a bonus. But there are others who rely on their marketing to earn a living - and some will go my route, some will push anything and everything in order to make a buck here and there.

But that is my idea of ethical marketing.

not causing harm and cheating on consumer to me is considered ethical marketing..

I am confused by the OP's question: why would the "internet marketing ethics" (whatever that is) be different from the general ethical rules that (hopefully) guide your life?

If someone is a jerk in real life - will be a jerk in IM, as well.
If someone is an honest, decent guy in real life - not likely he'll be scamming customers.

I am as harsh and mean (my definition = blunt and not caring about beating around the bush) online as I am offline. Nothing different when I meet you in the pub or here in the forum.

For me, being ethical means going above and beyond what people are expecting.

It's easy to create a product quickly and sell it online, it takes more time and dedication to make that product the best you can possibly make it.

To me, that's an ethical way of creating a product and I wish more people would follow it.

Ethical internet marketing...

1) Delivering on your money back guarantee

2) Not ripping people off

3) Delivering on your services and products

4) Responding to customer questions and problems fast

Ethical marketing for me means:

1. Genuinely helping others
2. Promoting only products that I use and like myself
3. Don't do things just to get money, but to help others.

Seriously?

Marketing can't be ethical. Internet or not.

You are telling people that your product/service has some value.

But is the value of anything universal or even permanent?

It's ultimately about making people believe/trust you for something you want---MONEY!

It is about overselling the upside and underselling the downside!

However, you could disclose the actual risk/effort necessary and try to lower the prices to match a fair value.

another point that's worked for me is, take the years of hard work it takes to become a genuine expert (not a wannabe poser), in your field, so you can authentically really help people in your niche, with actually usable content that really works.

what a novel idea. become a genuine expert, take thousands of hours to master something, and THEN try to market your knowledge, in service of others. "just say no" to posing -- many try that and have short-lived careers since it's not ethical, and savvy customers (the best ones, since they buy for years) can instantly smell the difference.

It's amazing to me in my niche 95%+ of the so called gurus are total bsers and "just" marketers (fakes) without having the genuine skills and proof they can actually help people. Marketing content that actually can help people is ethical, at a fair price... unethical is what most people do though, unfortunately. To survive and grow your online business (I've been online fulltime nearly 15 years now, solely), you need to become one of the best, and actually SERVE others. Have a goal of contribution. What's in it for THEM mentality.

Not ooh who can I jv with to monetize my list for a crappy launch of an overpriced pos shiny toy.

With the proper values no lasting success can be achieved. I believe its say what u do, and do what you say. Honesty and Integrity all the way, its should be a Win-win proccess, where the customers gets great deal from his perspective, and not sellers perspective.

Ethical is hard to define. But unethical is really easy to define. Unethical is anything you wouldn't want done to you.

Ethical marketing and product ownership are two different things. If you are using an OEM Microsoft computer you don't own the OS you are using right now. It's licensed to the computer

I think each of us know when we have crossed that line and know we are not providing the best possible service we owe our clients. It is our duty as marketers and human beings on this journey to do no harm. If the relationship you have with a client is not beneficial then the business relationship should be severed.

There are those of us, among us even, that don't live by this code. They have to answer for their transgressions on their own. Ultimately they have done a dis-service and will answer for what they have done.

There are two ways of knowing what is right. What is socially acceptable and what is acceptable by that person.

In my opinion, ethical Internet marketing is selling, at a fair price, a product or service that provides authentic and genuine value to the buyer.

be honest to your customers and always tell them the real deal.

yeah if you have to ask what your ethics are as far as you marketing goes, then you've got a problem.

Look, the days of scamming people on the internet, while still exist, are relatively over and a thing of the past. So if you want to have and sustain any kind of legit online business, then your ethics have to be something that is a given.

In other words, if you just do good things, and provide killer value and products, then the ethics won't be something that even crosses your mind.

Yes that's true internet marketing is connecting customer's to the products that they are planning to buy, It is that simple.. There is no space for fooling others.

I believe in sharing information that will help people, loopholes and bollocks strategies only last for a while, then they are gone. To be ethical to me means to be honest, not everyone is going to make it in IM. You need to be able to communicate with words and images that inspire people to buy...not everyone has that ability. I love IM and I can connect with my buyers...but can you do that?

There is this illusion that we all have this skill, but it's not something that comes naturally to all of us...so we'll buy wso after wso and we will make nada!

Ethical Internet marketing is:

• Treating your customers with respect
• Being honest with everybody you deal with
• Always providing something useful and of value
• Putting people before profit

If you can get these things right, then you will be off to a winning start.

If you don't really care about ethics, then you should be honest in your marketing because it just plain makes things easier!

Being honest and ethical means:

1. less refunds
2. more referrals (the gold standard in getting sales)
3. more positive reviews and therefore a...
4. better reputation that you can use to sell more.

Being dishonest means:

1. higher rate of refunds
2. more complaints
3. higher chance of getting paypal account frozen
4. have to deal with paypal disputes
5. get banned from places like the WF
6. continually have to build new sales sites with new business names
7. In extreme cases, prosecution, fines and possibly jail terms.

I don't know about you, but being honest just seems easier? Sure it takes a little longer in the short term, but who needs all of that other crap in their lives?

BTW: "How to be a millionaire overnight"? Really? This is exactly the sort of crap that I'm referring to above, and when you put claims like that in your signature on the WF it very obviously identifies you as as a noob and someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.

*cools down and continues in more reasonable tone of voice*

I get why you're doing it, but you're much better off putting "Apprentice, trying to suck up and learn all the knowledge that I can on the WarriorForum" in your signature than hypey crap that you haven't actually used to make money yourself.

You'll learn more, and hopefully it will put you in the proper frame of mind while you're on here.

Ethical Marketing is selling/promotion your products, at reasonable prices, a product or service that provide genuine value to the buyer and be truthful to your customers and always tell them the authentic deal.
Ethical Internet marketing:
(1) treat your clients with respect
(2) Being truthful with everyone you deal with
(3) Always providing something useful and of value

Most website visitors are not dumb, but instead very savvy. If you try to fool them, most will lose any trust you were able to develop through your website.

Since Attention and Trust are your 2 most important commodities, you jeopardize them at your own peril. Without trust you'll never turn one-time buyers into long-term business relationships. I think most business people recognize that repeat sales to long-term customers are more profitable than are one-off sales. Thus the popularity of list building.

How can you build a high quality list without trust?

There is nothing like Ethical Internet Marketing. You are here to make money and you do whatever it takes to make it.

Good discussion related to this in the War Room... but you'll need to be a War Room member first

http://www.warriorforum.com/war-room...ore-money.html

Replying to questions about the product/ service quickly and honestly to build good client relations. Not posting fake product reviews. Also, I only upsell products/ services that are related to their original purchase instead of spamming with random offers.

My view of ethical internet marketing:

1. Provide valuable products/services
2. Provide all the information & answer questions about the product

Yes,definitely you have to be ethical .
Remember the Customer is the King/Queen,Treat them to their satisfaction. and you will achieve all your desired levels.

Ethical for me is knowing a product is worthless to your buyer but you proceed with selling it anyway. Let's admit it, there are instances where our integrity is put to the test. Maybe in online marketing for a pure Internet business, you can get a way with it. Just change your pseudonym. But when you own a real local business and you're marketing it online, it's tougher to push worthless products. I guess I'm thankful for the position I'm in because I own a real local business and am compelled to follow ethics.

Best of luck,
Rick

That's a pretty delicate subject. Not to mention the fact that ethics are subjective, each person is different- while one person may say that it isn't ethical to make someone buy a useless product, another person may claim "hey he's an adult, it's not like I made him buy it!". You just have to make your own decisions/

See the Zig Ziglar quote in my sig.