Ethical Dilemma in my head...

[drmani]

Questions:

Do you know of a better/cheaper product, yet pitch the costlier one?

Do you believe the product in question will be harmful to your audience?

Are you mis-representing the value or impact of the product?

These are important questions to answer before you make a choice to keep
promoting it.

encsteph has a GREAT question affiliate marketers can ask themselves
when sufficient expertise is gained in a niche, and you're looking to
create your own product or service...

Would it be possible for you to create your own product in the same niche?
Thereby alleviating all of your ethical concerns and potentially making
you more profit since you get it to keep it all.

constance said:

I'm seeking an honest path in this business and it's not always easy.

That's so true. But stick to it, and you'll be around for a long time
with your reputation intact. In the 13 years since I've been working
online, I've seen barely 2% to 3% of those who started with me still
around with their good name and authority untarnished.

It is often tough to say 'No' to $700+ commissions. But on the few
occasions where I have promoted a product without knowing the background,
carried away by the commissions alone, I have ALWAYS regretted it - and
felt like a cheat who misguided people who trusted my judgement.

Jay Abraham, my business mentor and guide, has a principle called "The
Strategy of Pre-Eminence", which distills down to putting your client
first, and being seen by your audience as the only viable solution to
any problem.

You can't do that while driven purely by profit at the cost of all else.

This note I shared with my email subscribers sometime in 2006 is still
relevant as a kind of touchstone for affiliate marketers who care about
ethics and values:

http://www.ezinemarketingcenter.com/why-email.htm

All success
Dr.Mani

P.S. - In case this comes off as sounding "holier than thou", I'll confess
that in the earlier days, I too have spammed, promoted shady stuff, and
gone after the juicy commissions - but the lesson I learned is that while
such behavior IS profitable in the short-term, it is seriously damaging
to your long term reputation.

So, if you intend sticking around this game for long, it pays to be fair
and focus on delivering value first.

My 2 cents

[yuri21]

drmani: your post was very informative. I think that about convinces me why I feel that I'm on the right path as an affiliate newbie... haha. Because people remember all the things about you, no? And in this era of "social media", nothing stops some angry customers from spreading the word. Plus, the world is small and the person you pissed off could be an important person at your local bank.

[msliz]

You could always try to find another like affiliate product that is better, purchase it and do a comparison. You could point out the shortcomings in the original product you are promoting and let your visitors know which one you found to be better and why.

[Clay Franklin]

I beleive that you should restate your review of the product to be your true opinion.
I would go so far to say, this is available, it is not the best, it does not quite live up to the promises in the sales letter, yet it does provide xxxxx. If you need xxxx then this may be ok for you. give it a star rating ***** and give it how many stars you would really give it 2 or 3 of 5?
State that you want the reader to sign up for your email list so that as soon as you find a better product or a better value product you will let them know about it.

I would also rewrite your reviews to be true to your heart.
It is not your wife's reputation on the line and I have found it is better to do my own thing and share my successes than to ask my wife or sister or anyone besides someone I trust like Lynn or a few others in the business their opinion about it because what we do is not what our wives or inlaws think about 7x24 like we do. Also I have found that everyone has their own ethics and integrity standards and if you live by someone else's ethics or integrity that have lower standards than yourself, you just do not feel like a good person anymore. For my success, I am finding that if I share my ideas less, ask less questions, get less opionions, (except from Lynn and the people here) the better I feel and more progress I make.

[Lynn Terry]

Isn't there enough junk & misleading hype on the web already?

You hinted that there were other products you could recommend, that had lower commission rates. Lower commission with a lower refund rate still equals higher profit in most cases.

Look a little bit harder, see what else you can find. Your negative review of this product, along with your positive recommendation of a better product, could result in a very nice conversion rate.

Always serve the market. Not yourself.

Golden rule for Internet Marketing.

in my book at least!

[bornstein75]

Thanks for all the tips and advice guys...much appreciated!

I have actually found a better product that I bought and looked at, and I as a buyer would be much happier with them. It's cheaper and the commission is lower, but it is a product i would happy promoting.

Let's say you have referenced a product in your posts on Wordpress, and now you want to change that reference...is there a plugin or something that will allow you to go through every post automatically and change text and the links etc....

Otherwise I will have to do it manually....ouch...:-)

[bornstein75]

[QUOTE=Clay Franklin;24928]I beleive that you should restate your review of the product to be your true opinion.
I would go so far to say, this is available, it is not the best, it does not quite live up to the promises in the sales letter, yet it does provide xxxxx. If you need xxxx then this may be ok for you. give it a star rating ***** and give it how many stars you would really give it 2 or 3 of 5?
State that you want the reader to sign up for your email list so that as soon as you find a better product or a better value product you will let them know about it.
QUOTE]

Hi clay..thanks for this great advice...this is what i am going to do!!

[AffiliateMax]

Hmmm.... something smells like ClickBank around here. They have many great products, but sometimes it seems like those are the minority.

So true - hence the alternative name of crapbank used by some people.


-

[constance]

In answer to your question about a plugin for making search and replace edits, I don't know of one like that. Let us know if you find one. I do know about the 301 redirect plugin, in case you just want to add new pages and redirect people from the old reviews to the new ones. Sorry I can't help more than that.

[yuri21]

Btw, now looking at Clickbank... hmmm yep, they really have a lot of crappy products which was why I ignored them. I think one way is to vet the author by searching through Google to see what company they run, how long the company has been in business, etc. and to see if they have been mentioned in other sites and so on.