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Spiderman's Moral Conundrum

by josephkerr
9 replies
By now it's become a quote on par with anything written by James Allen or Napoleon Hill.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

And, this has become my moral conundrum. As a professional copywriter I know the skill set. I know how to sell.

Thing is... I also know the following: working for someone else is not the best game in town. Ultimately, if I want to be wealthy in a way that makes sense to me, I've got to go into business for myself.

The other thing I know, and here's the hitch, is if I'm not selling something I'm proud of, that is actually making a positive difference in people's lives, my conscience will eat me alive and my resolve will be decimated when the going gets tough.

So that's the million dollar question, warriors. It's a question of congruence. Am I selling something congruent with my core values... does this resonate well with me? Am I honestly expressing myself?

This, as it turns out, is a challenging thing to do.
#conundrum #moral #spiderman
  • Profile picture of the author dorothydot
    I don't know how Spiderman fits in here, but I became a copywriter because first, I love to write and second, because my goal in life is to make someone else's life better in some way.

    I sold some harps at Celtic festivals, and discovered how gratifying it is to bring the magic inherent in that wonderful instrument to someone else's life.

    I was hooked! The ideal way to combine both my goals into one. Yippee!

    There are certain areas I refuse to write for, such as MLMs.

    Dot
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  • Profile picture of the author DreamFreeMedia
    To be honest Joseph, it's not insanely difficult to find something you can market as an affiliate marketer that's ethical... Any product on Clickbank, that you believe in, can be marketing for example... On top of that there are plenty of ethical CPA offers out there, they're not hard to find. Anything from Dating to Biz-Opps. But your too hard on yourself, it's not your responsibility to validate the claims of every offer/product or whatever your associated with. Your job as a marketer, is to market them. If you really wanna get the what's what on affiliate marketing, and do it in the ppc arena, I'd definitely recommend ppc-coach.com (not an affiliate link).
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Scott
      Originally Posted by DreamFreeMedia View Post

      But your too hard on yourself, it's not your responsibility to validate the claims of every offer/product or whatever your associated with.
      Most courts of law will see things VERY differently.

      -Daniel
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      • Profile picture of the author josephkerr
        If someone believes they stop being a human being in order to be a "marketer", then it is possible to say things like it's not your job to validate the claims of the products you're associated with, your job is to market them.

        This, however, is a pretty direct route to corruption and general awfulness for the psyche. I don't see myself as a marketer. I see myself as a person. A complete human being. The whole shebang.

        And as a human being, I think the golden rule is a pretty decent guide for behavior. The ol' "do unto others as you'd have them do to you". I sure don't like when people use fancy persuasion tactics to pedal garbage when I'm on the buying end of things. So I refuse to do it to other people. I'd much rather put an intelligent effort into developing something of value. To do this to my standards of performance is challenging.

        I posted this thread here to get the attention of people who've been through the same thing. I know they're aren't as many working professionals in the copywriting world who frequent these forums as there are people trying to come up in the game, which is fine. We're all at different points along our own path and I'm not here to judge anybody.

        I am curious though to see what the vets of the copywriting world have to say about this issue because I know it hits home. It must. Anyone with a conscience who works in persuasion has to face this issue constantly.
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        • Profile picture of the author Ken Strong
          So what's the conundrum? You want to go into business for yourself and only sell products you believe in. Sounds good to me. What's the problem? And what's Spiderman got to do with it? Maybe I'm just dense or missing something, but IMHO you're not communicating the purpose of this thread very well.
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          • Profile picture of the author josephkerr
            This quote from the Spiderman movies with Toby McGuire, "With great power comes great responsibility" is big in pop culture for my generation. (I was born in the 80s so I'm coming from the younger side of things but it's fairly well-known these days).

            My conundrum is one of self-expression. It's an important question to consider because how you express yourself, especially in the marketing world, can have profound effects on your audience.

            If I sell biz-op for example, I've got to be very careful how I present things if I want to truly benefit people. What I mean by that is, to me, it's very important to make sure, every step along the way, that if I'm offering people an alternative to the "rat race" I don't lead them into some other racket that will make them just as miserable. That is, as a leader one has a responsibility to those he or she is leading, especially if we're making promises that sound 'too good to be true'.

            If you're selling "the good life" you'd better damn well know how to live it yourself. Otherwise, you're a charlatan.

            The purpose of this thread is to discuss this issue. Does selling itself require a certain "moral flexibility" as Nick Naylor from "Thank You For Smoking" would say? Or is there a way to use the principles of selling to lead people toward liberation from their problems?

            This is a deep problem and requires careful attention. And, I think if we work together as a community to solve this problem, especially in the online marketing world, it will only improve things.
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            • Profile picture of the author Alex Cohen
              Is there a way to use the principles of selling to lead people toward liberation from their problems?
              Yes...
              • Sell products and services that people are already looking to buy
              • Make sure your solution, when implemented, actually helps solve the problem
              • Provide good value for the price paid
              Then you should be able to use the principles of persuasion without guilt.

              Alex
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  • Profile picture of the author ebizplatinum
    I agree it is extremely important to believe in what you are promoting. I always seek out real products that are helpful to me and will be helpful to my customers as well. I steer clear of biz-ops which entail "selling an opportunity to sell and opportunity!!" I guess that's kind of like some MLM schemes in which the actual product is meaningless! I stay away from those!
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  • Profile picture of the author GlobalMedia
    It is a very unique thread.
    Most of us are good at heart and want to share that goodness with others. Especially for the professionals, it is quite difficult to make up time. But still for morality we must find time to do some good for others.
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