Ethical Internet Marketing

The internet is a wonderful marketing medium, perhaps the perfect marketing medium, which has really only come into it's own in the past five or six years. One can only wonder what the pioneers of the net and its predecessors think about what has been created.

As magnificent as it is, though, the online world has its drawbacks, not the least of which is the ease with which it lends itself to trickery, fraud, and deceit. The apparent anonymity one seems to enjoy on the internet tempts us all to cut a few corners, and for those who are bent upon scamming, the temptation is often too great to go unexplored.

Even those of us who go into business online intending to be honest and upfront need to stop and take stock from time to time, and ask ourselves whether we are being as honest with ourselves and our visitors and customers as we'd like to be. There are several traps that the overzealous webmaster can easily fall into. They can also be avoided, with the exercise of a little self-discipline and common sense, not to mention morality.

Plagiarism is a great temptation on the net. After all, you're hungry for content on your pages, and that great article you found has been sitting there all this time before you saw it, so how would the author ever know if you just cut and pasted it to your own site? Maybe you'll change a few words here and there to soothe your conscience ... but it's still plagiarism if you claim another's work as your own, and in many cases it can also be a copyright violation, which carries with it tough legal consequences.

For one thing, authors can rather easily locate their plagiarized content (I won't reveal here how it's done, but it's really quite simple). While there is no law (as far as I know) against plagiarism, there are laws against copyright infringement, and in either case, it is wrong. It demeans you, it demeans your readers, and it will quickly lead to your reputation being tarnished. The net is really a "small world" in some ways, and you don't need your reputation ruined before you even really make a name for yourself in your niche.

There is tons of free content out there for the asking, and giving the original author credit is not only the correct thing to do, it will actually benefit you in the long run. If you let an author know you have reprinted his or her article, you may well get a link from him or her. Or you may get an offer to an "exclusive" on a new article. Or perhaps an invitation to post one of your articles at the other site, with your name and link in it.

At the very least, by creditting the author and mentioning his/her website, you have created a link out from your site to a quality site. While this is not as good as an incoming quality link, it does help you, and you never know when it will turn into a reciprocal link.

Opt-in email

Not too many years back, what we now all think of as "spam" was an accepted practice, known as "bulk e-mailing". Online marketers bought lists of mailing addresses, sent out a mass mailing, and hoped that a small percentage of the recipients actually read the email and clicked on the links. No different than the "junk mail" we all receive daily through the postal service, or the phone calls we get from telemarketers.

Things are very different today. Nowadays, there is a movement afoot to put an end to spam, and there is even talk of making it illegal. ISPs often will shut down the account of an individual or website that is caught doing it. Sp*m has become such a dirty word that engaging in it will surely get you blackballed in the online community. And if we don't police ourselves, "big brother" will come along and pass another law we have to live with.

Educating yourself to the definition of sp*m will help protect you. While definitions differ depending upon whom you talk to, a broad generalization defines it as sending email to someone with whom you have no "prior relationship". In other words, they never heard of you, and you never heard of them.

So what does an ethical marketer do? First, never buy "safelists", because you have no idea how "safe" they really are. How do you know that the seller actually collected those addresses from people who volunteered to be on the list? Further, since you didn't collect the names yourself, you really have no "prior relationship" with the people on the list.

The only "safe" method of sending out mail in volume is to use "opt-in" mailing, meaning that a person has volunteered their address on your site, or has bought a product from you and been notified that they have been added to your mailing list. Most commercial autoresponders now include a feature to track the date, time, and IP address of "opt-in" requests, and you should make use of this feature to keep a database of "subscribes" and "unsubscribes"

You can build your list by offering quality content on your site. People will buy quality, and they will be glad to let you invite them back for more of the same. You can offer a quality newsletter. You can write articles for other newsletters and recruit subscribers to your own at the same time. You can offer free reports, free e-books, or some other incentive for people to sign up for your mailing list.

Editor's Note : As of January, 2004, there is now a legal definition of sp*m, and certain things you must do to remain within the law. In my opinion, using "double opt-in" list-building, where the prospective recipient has to first request to be on your list, and then must confirm that request before receiving mailings, is the prudent way to go about your business. Look up "Can-Spam Act" on your favorite search engine, and learn the new list of "do's and don'ts". Better safe than sorry.

Advertising and Guarantees

Be honest in your advertising. Learning to write good advertising copy is both a skill and an art. Great copy writers know how to appeal to the reader's emotions and needs, and write ads that almost demand that the reader buy it NOW. This can be done without any deception. Saying that a product is "amazing" or is a "must have" is perfectly fine, since you are simply stating your opinion.

Claiming that you made X amount of money overnight is a different story, as is the assertion that someone else can duplicate your results. IF you can back up that claim with solid documentation, that's great. But if you can't back it up, don't make the claim, if for no other reason than the fact that it's illegal, and can get you into a pack of trouble. The same goes for endorsements you post on your website. Posting fake endorsements from non-existent people will eventually come back to haunt you. Don't do it.

Offer and honor a guarantee on any product you sell. Quality products have a return rate of only a few percent. This is simply a cost of doing business, and it builds good will with your customers. Refuse to honor a guarantee and you are inviting someone to "flame" you on the message boards and forums, building up bad karma, and quite possibly doing something illegal.

The bottom line? The Golden Rule works as well on the internet as anywhere else. Treat others as you would want to be treated, and you'll stay out of trouble, sleep well, and prosper.