The Lazy Hippy - Ethical Internet Marketing > Ethical Internet Marketing (With a Multi-Coloured Hat!) [part 1]

Ethical Internet Marketing (With a Multi-Coloured Hat!) [part 1]

Posted: Si on Jul 10 | ethics

Well, nearly 3 weeks ago I said I would make an effort to regularly post some at least half-decent content on here and have I? Have I fuck! I could give the reason/excuse that I’ve been too busy with other stuff but really I’m just living up to my name and being a lazy bastard hippy!

From now on…. no more promises!

Ok, “ethical internet marketing” - what does that mean? I’m ranking high for the term now (thanks - at least in part - to SQUIRT - more on that later), but I’ve hardly mentioned it on here….. Do I even practise ethical internet marketing anyway?

Well, I am marketing products online - so that’s 2 down, but am I ethical? What are ethics anyway?
Ethics is a branch of philosophy… so this could get very deep (and I’ve not had a smoke for nearly 2 weeks now..!)

It can be defined as “a major branch of philosophy, the study of values and customs of a person or group. It covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as right and wrong, good and evil, and responsibility.” - cheers Wikipedia.

I’ll save getting into detailed descriptions (at least in part because I’m a lazy fucker hippy) , if you want some nice light reading checkout the pages on the ever-useful Wikipedia - ethics, business ethics. They haven’t got anything there on how ethics apply to internet marketing (if I was less lazy I’d write a page and get a nice link!) but as with anything else, in this game ethics are subjective - what one person sees as right or wrong, another will disagree with. So what I view as being ethical or unethical you might disagree with - if you do please let me know!

Let’s start with the easy stuff. What is unethical?

I’m not at all religious - in fact I really don’t like organised religion (spirituality is another matter entirely) - but religions have always given people guidelines about what is right and wrong, e.g. “Thou shalt not kill” - pretty obvious, even if ignored by many (step forward Messrs Bush & Blair). One of the major teachings in Christianity is: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” this is echoed across all major religions and ties in with the concept of Karma, which can be loosely defined as: “The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one’s own life, and the pain and joy it brings to others.” - What goes around comes around.

This fits in with my personal (hippy-esque) philosophy on life: Treat other people how you would like to be treated.

How does this fit with internet marketing?

Well, back to the question of what is unethical - I don’t like to be ripped off, scammed or misled for a start. So I will not make up bullshit to sell a product - I consider that unethical. Fake testimonials and stuff like that also fit into the ‘bullshit’ category as far as I’m concerned.

One thing I consider to be a big part of being ethical (or just ‘good’ if you prefer) is helping people - simple really, but so many people in this game are so focussed on making their millions they don’t have time for anyone else and forget that they were new to it once too. I’m active on one popular internet marketing forum, WickedFire. While I’m by no means the most experienced or knowledgeable person there (by a long shot) I know more about some things than some people and when I can will offer my help and advice. If you have ever received good advice, make a point of giving some back when you can. Everyone knows more than someone else about something - everyone can help someone in some way.

I was looking for a place to discuss ethics (and admittedly to get a link as well to improve my ranking for the term “ethical internet marketing”) . I joined one forum claiming to be an “ethical marketer’s club”, only to find they were more interested in selling shitty ebooks than discussing ethics. The owner recently sent me an email promoting some product by claiming that creator was suffering from a mental illness (in a half-joking way), I contacted him suggesting is wasn’t particularly ethical to promote products in that way. He hasn’t even bothered to reply to me. Anyway, I didn’t bother with that place (and didn’t even get a link in my signature), but now I’m currently second on Google for “ethical internet marketing”, his site and forum have dropped from the first page to around 50. Karma?

Talking of ebooks - while some can be great sources of information, the ones the claim to make you millions are not. I will not promote them. I will however give you a link to get them for free - check out the free ebook thread on WickedFire!

Right, it’s getting late and I’m finding it hard to concentrate due to toothache - dentist appointment tomorrow morning (really looking forward to that!). I’ll continue this later in the week (hopefully, but remember I’m lazy! lol) when I’ll talk more about:

• The ethics of selling information products (ebooks)
• Copyright, intellectual property and file sharing
• The big big subject of ethical SEO
• Probably some more stuff too

Oh and the hat thing… well it’s half metaphor-half literal, I’ll get a pic sorted but it features in the video for the Firelead prize draw.

Another ethical thing… I’ve removed the nofollow attributes from comments - so leave a comment and get some link love!

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