Integrity Marketing – Honesty in Internet Marketing

  • Sumo

Solution of a mazeThere seems to be a growing number of people who are getting fed up with the lack of integrity in internet marketing — me included.

With the scope of the internet and the ease of changing identities, it is quite simple to use tactics that are less than honest without getting caught. A marketer can milk as much money from unsuspecting consumers as possible. Then they can move on to a new identity and run another campaign.

The problem is that these techniques work and many new marketers just follow them — it’s Standard Operating Procedure.

I would love to see an increase in honesty in internet marketing. If you’ve read this far I assume you would as well. So what do we do about it? I see 3 basic options at this point:

  1. Nothing. Just let it slide. Hope that karma will catch up with them.
  2. Fight back. Complain to the affiliate centers like Clickbank. Complain to the government. Write ranting posts and scathing reviews of the offending products.
  3. Educate people. Teach people what to look for when evaluating a product. Show new guys how the dirty tricks will work for a time, but bring a backlash that no one wants down the road.

I don’t think that options #1 or #2 are all that great — they lead down a road that sees more government intervention, red tape and overhead for online entrepreneurs. That being said, there will be times when the these options are valuable.

But I believe it is best to focus on option #3.

Let’s find ways to educate other marketers who may have learned some bad habits without realizing it. Let’s find ways to encourage honesty in internet marketing. Build relationships that strengthen integrity in the market.

We can also look for ways to inform the general public. Help them see through the scams, the false promises and dishonest techniques.

I know that we may not always agree on where the lines are, but it is important that we agree that the lines exist. If we don’t, then we’ll all need to find a new place to play when the governments and big business come to paint the lines for us.

I plan to write more about this subject under the title of Integrity Marketing. So watch for more posts and share your thoughts on the subject. If you’ve written on this subject I’d love to hear about it.

And don’t be afraid to disagree with me. All I ask is that you keep it civil.

Let’s get talking.

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