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Ethical?

by l_christopher
11 replies
I've started to get back to the basics. I'm not making as much money as I would like so my thinking is that my fundamentals need work.

Currently I'm doing the bum marketing thing with Ezine and the other directories. I've been using Squidoo for my landing pages.


My question is: Is it ethical to set up a domain as a redirect straight from Ezine to my affiliate link?

I understand it can be better to cut out steps, but I have no desire to cut corners....
#article marketing #bum marketing #ethical
  • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
    It is ethical - in fact it's exactly what Ezine ask you to do in item 9 of their TOS EzineArticles.com Terms of Service for Authors

    It is ok, however, forward/redirect to an affiliate link from the top-level of a domain name you own. For example, it is permissible to forward to an affiliate link from:

    http: //your-company-name. com]
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Marshall
    Originally Posted by l_christopher View Post

    I've started to get back to the basics. I'm not making as much money as I would like so my thinking is that my fundamentals need work.

    Currently I'm doing the bum marketing thing with Ezine and the other directories. I've been using Squidoo for my landing pages.


    My question is: Is it ethical to set up a domain as a redirect straight from Ezine to my affiliate link?

    I understand it can be better to cut out steps, but I have no desire to cut corners....
    Yes it is ethical! If it wasn't ethical, then Ezine wouldn't let you do it.

    Depending on your niche, you might want to send them to a landing/squeeze page first. In some niches, you want to build an email list where you can stay in touch with your readers. This applies to most niches. In other niches, building an email list is not practical. An example of a niche where you wouldn't build an email list is hemorrhoids.

    If you aren't sure if you should build a list for the niche, test your conversions both ways.
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    Confused about SEO? Facebook? Adwords? Send me a PM to apply for your free 30 minute consultation today!



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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    I've started to get back to the basics.
    Reading TOS is not part of the basics...?
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  • Profile picture of the author l_christopher
    Lol. Yeah. I probably should've caught that. Thank goodness I have you savvy marketers to lean on
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by l_christopher View Post

    My question is: Is it ethical to set up a domain as a redirect straight from Ezine to my affiliate link?
    It's perfectly ethical.

    Whether it works, and you'll make any sales from it, is a whole different question.

    It depends partly on what you're trying to sell, of course, but for affiliate marketing (as opposed to CPA, for example) it's generally not good at all, because the two main requirements for affiliate sales are (i) effective pre-selling and (ii) list-building, and you can do neither by redirecting straight to your affiliate link.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      It's perfectly ethical.

      Whether it works, and you'll make any sales from it, is a whole different question.

      It depends partly on what you're trying to sell, of course, but for affiliate marketing (as opposed to CPA, for example) it's generally not good at all, because the two main requirements for affiliate sales are (i) effective pre-selling and (ii) list-building, and you can do neither by redirecting straight to your affiliate link.
      There are alternatives to just redirecting. There are products that will allow you to still send visitors to your domain but instead of it redirecting them to the sales page, it will display the sales page on your domain and YOUR own popup will show over that sales page. So the visitor will still land on the sales page but you also have the ability to build your list as well.

      One such product is this one: Affiliate Optin Generator
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      • Profile picture of the author sierraandmo
        Originally Posted by WillR View Post

        There are alternatives to just redirecting. There are products that will allow you to still send visitors to your domain but instead of it redirecting them to the sales page, it will display the sales page on your domain and YOUR own popup will show over that sales page. So the visitor will still land on the sales page but you also have the ability to build your list as well.

        One such product is this one: Affiliate Optin Generator

        I have not run into this product before. Thanks for the information.
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      • Profile picture of the author yourreviewer
        Originally Posted by WillR View Post

        There are alternatives to just redirecting. There are products that will allow you to still send visitors to your domain but instead of it redirecting them to the sales page, it will display the sales page on your domain and YOUR own popup will show over that sales page. So the visitor will still land on the sales page but you also have the ability to build your list as well.

        One such product is this one: Affiliate Optin Generator
        Me too. Never heard of it. This seems to be a good solution for those looking to do direct linking and yet want to build a list from the lost visitors.
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        • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
          I am not 100 percent sure I uderstand the question.

          I know this is permissible to do under EZA's TOS but that is not really a question of ethics.

          I think a case where something like this might be considered unethical is if you had an article about one subject and then your link went to an entirely different type of offer.

          That would be more about people receiving what they thought they were going to get as a result of reading your article and clicking the link. That would probably fall into the area of ethics.
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  • Profile picture of the author Colin Y
    Originally Posted by l_christopher View Post

    I've started to get back to the basics. I'm not making as much money as I would like so my thinking is that my fundamentals need work.

    Currently I'm doing the bum marketing thing with Ezine and the other directories. I've been using Squidoo for my landing pages.


    My question is: Is it ethical to set up a domain as a redirect straight from Ezine to my affiliate link?

    I understand it can be better to cut out steps, but I have no desire to cut corners....
    Yes it is ethical, and a lot easier than setting up a Squidoo page.

    This is an easy way to get started, but affiliate marketing with articles works a lot better if you have a pre-sell page/blog or if you are building a list with a squeeze page.

    One you get up and running you can alway create a pre-sell blog on your domain and cancel the redirection.
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    • Profile picture of the author rashamba
      I think the advice here has been good. The question should not be if it is ethical, but profitable? Building your list is always going to work out better for you. Direct link is not going to do that for you, so it is cutting corners and cutting your own throat in the long run.
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