ethical or not?

Selling crappy products is unethical in my opinion. It is hard to find honest reviews for clickbank products, because everybody would like to make an affiliate commision. So without using them yourself it´s hard to decide which one is good and which one bad.

Why don´t you change to physical products from amazon? There you can find directly a lot of honest reviews from their buyers and so you can spin out of them your own review for an affiliate website.

lol, sorry but that makes me laugh...

When people ask "what's a good affiliate offer"...To me, that means one that's a great deal for the buyer.

If it's really a good deal, it becomes a lot easier for me to sell.

That is the main problem with affiliate marketing - is it ethical to sell something that you don't know.

That's why I think people should go into niches where they have some knowledge. If you are an internet marketer and you sell panic attack courses, then you can potentially damage a person's hopes.

So, my verdict is:

1) Buy a product in a niche you know something of
2) Go through it
3) Review it


To your success,
Andrii

I think that is not ethical ...and I think you can explain to the vendor that you have a review blog and you want a review copy. If they find you serious ,I think they'll give you a review copy.

Stefan Ion

I had been into affiliate marketing for the past two years and I have seen hundreds of products being sold which sound and work ridiculously. And yes, as members above stated their sales pages look so far stretched that at times I had to convert them into PDFs and read them later on.

Did I buy them? Yes, I bought several thinking of promoting. But, at times I realized that I had been duped with content which is already available online or else the product is so crappy that it takes eons to load or which does not get updated along with the API or which has crappy support team. I had even faced some product owners who were so adamant in refunding when I explained to them what the problem was and how they can solve it.

So, now I have moved on and am selling only those products which I have personally bought, tested and liked in the long term. Without which, I stay away from sending the affiliate link to my users, subscribers and readers.

Many people earn their livelihood by being affiliate marketers. They have to read this point because it made lol. I know a few marketers who even purchase a $297 product before even writing a single line about it. And are they successful? Absolutely yes.

I suggest a business to go alongside your list... The whole shizam with a blog, products, 1 major offer etc.

That way you can create side products that all lead to a big 1 and you don't mess up your reputation with a crap offer.

Don't take shortcuts!

- Dean

You find a product you think should be good, you buy it and it is crap... You have just found a perfect product to make and sell to your list as there is not any other 'good' products like it that you KNOW people need. Now you are making your own products in addition to promoting good affiliate offers. EBWs! (Every Body Wins) and you make more money than you would have in addition to the knowledge you have helped some people that really needed help.

There was an awesome thread by CDarklock on a similar topic not long ago...

Just think: if you were about to buy a Clickbank product based on someone else's made-up review and you later found out that the product was garbage and that review was made-up based on other dishonest reviews, how happy would you be? Not very, I'm guessing.

It's easier to write reviews for most physical products that way -- you can find a ton of customers reviewing the product on Amazon in many cases, which allows you to see the positives and negatives and write about them both in a fair and balanced way.

I have in my earlier days promoted products I didn't use or didn't really believe in, but it was more out of being green than out of being dishonest. The reality is, there is an awful lot of practically useless products on Clickbank and promoting them can impact your credibility. My advice...steer clear of any product you're hearing bad things about or can not see value in.

so by reading it's thread, it's pretty much unethical. That's not great to hear cuz this is the main way I know how to make money. Anyways, I hope I will change my strategy. I will try amazon but meh really...

Ethics aside, it doesn't make good business sense to promote bad products. If you are in this for the long haul then you must protect your reputation. Using the product before you promote it is the best way to make sure the product will deliver on it's promises.

A lousy product will create lots of refunds. Then most of your hard work goes out the window. Stick to promoting products you know are good. There are enough out there you shouldn't have any trouble finding any.

I also suggest you look into physical products from Amazon or CJ or the like.

you could mention positives and negatives from what people are saying.

to review means to highlight the positives and negatives of something.

so pick products to promote that you can see has lots of good feedback

some people cant afford to buy the products they promote

As I feel, writing reviews for affiliate product without using it isn't ethical. But, most people do.

Anyway,

If you're serious with ethics, you can say "I don't have personally used this product but people who have already used it say like this"

Now, you can present reviews.

The second thing is "refund".......

Customers can refund money, if they're not satisfied with the product......True...

But,

It'll make huge damages for your marketing profile.

you guys are right, well this is a hard thing for me....I think it's unethical. Well, I added below my posts that I suggest people to request for a refund if they aren't satisfied with the product. Atleast, it shows I'm not just there to suck up people's money.

In my mind, reputation is everything. Before I actually promote a product, I use it myself or know someone I trust implicitly who does. That way I know I'm not selling the unknown.

I've been burned too many times by buying into hype. I certainly do not want to inadvertently promote a product that is not what it claims to be because I had no knowledge about it. If I buy something from someone I trust and the product isn't good, I lose respect for those who promote it. I've unsubscribed to a number of "guru" lists after buying an "endorsed" product that turned out to be crap.

I'd rather be safe than sorry when my reputation is on the line.

I know a lot of people "review" things without ever using a product/software, but I don't think it is a good idea.

Youve got to know what youre selling first, no question..

i think that most of the marketing we do is unethical.. all the products boast about their effectiveness.. only few of them are worth the money.. when i started out in internet marketing the biggest problem i had was the lack of honest reviews.. if you try to check the reviews of any product, you would only find good reviews.. and reviewers would try to presell the product before you go to the sales page.. so you never would be able to know.. every product has mostly good reviews because internet marketers want to earn commission..

Just think of the amount of products purchased for you ,if you try to check every product that hits the market would spend more money than they would earn ,for example, I mostly promoted in software, SEO or keyword research ,courses to earn money online I do not promote ,and not because they are bad or do not serve ,the problem is that people want everything ready and do not apply what they learned

The main problem you'll face when you become an affiliate is promoting the products that you never used before.

Let's think about this. You promote a $27 product and you wanted to increase your profits by promoting a backend products too. The backend products could costs about $67 - $97.

Two things will happen for you if you try to be an affiliate the "honest way". First, you buy the products, try it, love it, and promote it. You also have less money to promote your affiliate products right now. Second, you buy the products, try it, hate it, and refund it. Try this couple of times and there's a huge chance people don't want you to promote their products because you keep refunding it. But hey, at least your money is still intact

Or, you could try to become an affiliate in "the smart way"

1. Know the product creators

Find as much as you can about his profile, past products review, free promotion products, etc. If you find more positive reviews than the bad ones, there's a good chance that he's only releasing a high quality products.

2. Read the sales letter

Read the sales letter of the products that you wanted to promote. Do they list more about what these products are not than actually tell you what it's really are? A good marketer will ACTUALLY explain about the products in an easy-to-understand word. You could minimize the refund rate AND your commission when your prospects know clearly about what they'll get BEFORE they make a purchase.

You don't have to really avoid affiliate products. It actually could increase your income, especially when you already have your own products. Just think of it as a bonus

I do think that creating your own products is the better way to go if you want to build a solid reputation. But if you prefer to promote other people's products then I think the review system on Amazon is far better than anything on Clickbank. I am sure that there is someone out there who might say that the reviews on Amazon are not real either, but they seem it to me.

i honestly do think that the only thing that makes the real difference in marketers is their reputation, their ethics and how they hold true to those ethics. We can all write gimmicky products and try and sell them - it would probably work, but it sounds like you do want to run a solid and reputable business so I would strongly advise going with Amazon

All the best whatever you decide
Lisa

If you want to succeed and gain your customers trust and respect you must be ethical. Promote products u've seen and like, or make your own giving your 100% of your potentials. You must first trust yourself when you walk the internet marketing road.

Asking questions if it's ethical or not means that you are in the right direction.

Oh its so hard to decide on what is the right thing to do. As for me you should have at least well enough knowledge about the product before making reviews about it.