What's wrong with Swine Flu? Or, are you really in business?

See ya'll just had to get the hamster king started ... You all done it now ...

Oh Hi Kevin, What Up dude ...

James

Well, I suppose porn "provides a valuable service" but I don't plan on working that niche either, also for personal ethical reasons. But, I don't have a problem with someone else working it as long as they're providing that valuable service and, in the case of health care info, that the info is scientifically and medically accurate.

I agree, it's silly to think that just because something is "serious" that it can't be monetized. Think about it for a moment, the only reason people exchange money for an e-book is because they have a problem (that they think is serious) that they would like to understand, solve, or learn more about.

As long as people are providing accurate content, good customer service, and providing value for the customer I don't have a problem with anything being monetized.

... as long as it's not "hamster flu". then Kevin would SLEEP in his white coat!!!

If you think it's unethical, don't do it. If you want to make some money do it. Pretty simple.

You could say it's unethical NOT to offer access to real advice and solutions.

Imagine if Google decided to be "ethical" and ban all sites that related to any kind of serious problem that people were having.

In other words, they turned their back and said just let them get on with it. They've got the information, but they've chosen to keep it from people that really need it.

Now that's unethical.

Cheers,

Neil

I don't see a problem with it...

I will repeat what I said in the other thread, I'm being lazy so copy and paste here

I'm like Dee writing a report on it. I was going to sell 10 copies as PLR for anyone who wanted one, but I see that nobody here would be interested because it is a hot topic and one that is scamming people. Give me a break.

Let me give you some facts for a moment, before SARS people didn't wash their hands in China, what happened with the news reports and information given in the media, they learnt it was OK to wash their hands, and now you don't see many people going to the toilet and not washing their hands.

More people get and die from flu every year, what the figures will be from this type of flu is not known. How terrible that marketers have books on flu and what to do to prevent it.

Millions of people die from cancer, terrible all those books out there on the different cancers. I mean we are talking about the main cause of death here.

Millions of people are living below the poverty line, how terrible that people sell these make money books.

Millions of people buy books on different subjects each year, how terrible for a marketer to cash in with ebooks especially those who go looking for formulas of how they think a person might be making xxxx with a certain formula and then sells them as golden bullet.

How terrible to cash in on the offline market, and charge a premium because marketers think it is OK to do it even though many haven't got the basic information.

How terrible for those who promote mainly blackhat tatics because they think they are above the rest of us, and can't come up with a legal way of making money.

Thanks for letting me know, I will know what to do with our report

I had a disturbed sleep last night, I had dreams about Ninja Hamsters wreaking havoc throughout the planet....should've known it was somebody upsetting the Hamster Overlord! Please guys, don't make Kevin angry, you wouldn't like him when he's angry!

Amazing! I had a nightmare that someone had a spelling mistake in their WF signature, and when I checked everyone this morning, it was you Phil

Cheers,

Neil

Yep scary stuff, I wouldnt even think of marketing for this. I found google maps on cases marked so far, considering how easy this can be spread it has potential to be very nasty.

H1N1 Swine Flu - Google Maps

Kevin - all you siad there was true apart from the coffee bit, I'm a brit so I drink tea of course...with the queen of course, in fact she's sitting on my lap as we speak (she's put on a bit of weight bless her)

Neil - Classic! Yeah, I can't spell affiliate it seems, if Kevin is the Hamster King, I'm the Typo King!

Phil you're OK because that is the new British way to spell Affilaites, but we haven't told Neil yet :p

Oh crikey, I'm going to China Town off Leicester Square today actually, maybe I should avoid the cat chow mein then? Talking of which, I went to Indonesia recently and had that Cat poo coffee...Kopi Luwak as it's known. VERY nice but couldn't help thinking about where the beans had come from.

Ok, I can't resist this...Cat-astrophe!

There's nothing wrong with exploiting the pig virus. As long as one recognizes that it's the fad of the moment, and will be gone as soon as the next "wag the dog" event is pumped by the silly school girl inciting mass media.

Michael, you could be right, the media has a habit of doing this. I live in London so I was a bit worried when they said 92,000 could get infected by this....yeah...COULD....well, an asteroid COULD hit the Earth also and blow up the whole planet.

If you want to learn on CONmerce you should see a movie and be taught by the master - Harvey Hunnicut. This guy could even sell a Chrysler minivan.

Twilight Zone - Half Hour Video - The Whole Truth - CBS.com

Exploiting??
I would have jumped on it if I was not busy with my other projects.

Faraz

This isn't a comment on the rightness or wrongness of anything spoken about here, but there is an aspect that deals with the subconscious and that's whatever we tell ourselves is what we often believe and then act on as real. If we tell ourselves it's fine, and we subconscisuly believe that, then we will act that way. If the opposite is true, then the opposite happens.

Another aspect (just to give some of you insight as to why others might say it's unethical and you can't figure out why) is that there's always a part of us giving out energy (through our actions) to the world, and sometimes that energy isn't as good as it can be.

When someone offers a remedy, no matter what you might think, they ARE profiting off of someone's loss. This isn't a debatable point. What's important is what happens next. If the remedy that someone offer's helps them to to get rid of it AND NEVER GET IT AGAIN, that's the higest best "output" of personal energy to the world. However, if the remedy keeps them coming back, then it's lower and does have some negative components, and others are picking up on that and simply offering those who are justifying making money by whatever reasoning makes them comfortable the reasons.

Following the "it's okay - it's only a service!" thinking, then you'd have to consider your local neighborhood drug dealers as providing a much needed service, too.

I'm personally not pro or against it, so I'm not going to respond to any sort of replies telling me how right or wrong I am according to what you've already subconsciously accepted.

My biggest beef is with the media frenzy, trying to make us think that we're going to die if we even get the slightest strain of it. That being said, if any of you die because of getting it...

I get first dibs on your stuff.

(Again, not trying to post judgement or make it a right-wrong thing, just saying there's the subconscious factor as well as the "effect on the world" factor and if neither of those matter to you then forever so be it. But it does matter to some and if you recognize that you won't be as shocked at the apparent insanity that some people have by not agreeing with you about your self-convincing logic.)

My issue is not about the morality of it, it's the fact that once again, we have who knows how many people jumping off the boat of building their own businesses to chase a quick buck.

The single biggest downfall for most online marketers (especially newbies) is FOCUS. Things like this are the antithesis of focus. There is a very strong possibility that a future prolific marketer has just been permanently sidetracked from an important, useful project to go chase a few swine flu bucks.

Focus people!! You'll make FAR more by building your own brand, and your own business, in one single niche, then you will by being the online equivalent of an ambulance chaser.

Is someone wants to make money from selling info related to swine flu then go for it!

We're often told to keep an eye on upcoming trends and this will be around for some time yet.

I'm waiting to hear about the launch of a new face mask that can be sold to pig farmers for their pigs.

How about a product on how to stop pigs getting flu in the first place?

By looking after the pigs the hamsters are less likely to get it. Hmm...I wonder if guinea pigs can catch it?

Mary

What I find fascinating is how many people confuse personal ethics choices with business matters.

Morality tends to be highly subjective. While we mostly all agree that, for instance, killing is wrong, we mostly all support soldiers whose job description is to kill. Many feel that thinking sexually about someone other than your significant other is "cheating in your heart", yet see no conflict with leafing through Playboy or harboring fantasies about unatainable moviestars.

I personally see no problem whatsoever with monetizing swine flu or any other disease, as long as the information presented is correct and the products offered perform as promised. Providing helpful information/products/services is adding value to a needy market.

I think the problem most of us have with capitalizing on catastrophe is when 'snakeoil' and gouging enters the equation, but then we're right back to the concept of being ethical and responsible, which has nothing to do with the catastrophe itself.

How is this any different than someone that has a local store? Are they playing on people's fears of starving to death? no, they are providing what people are looking for. Do they need to be food experts to sell it?

So it's more plainly obvious -

If you want to sell stuff on swine flu, then sell stuff on swine flu.

Some of more relevant points are talking about the self-justification mindset to sell anything.

It ain't really about swine flu. It's not even about money.

It's about denial.

Sorry if some of you are missing that, but not really.

I guess most of the people in the last few days are actually making a very nice profit. And personally I support them. Are we forgeting that it's a world crisis right now. We need to try and make money on each and every corner.