Ethical Internet Marketing

Posted on May 15th, 2009 by Joseph Chmielewski in ethical marketing, Misc. Comments, Twitter

Here is a basic article about possible FTC Regulation and what needs to change for ethical Internet Marketing.

Here is my Forum post about the need for this FTC intervention.

The "Internet Gurus" are bringing FTC Regulation to the Internet Marketing Industry because of deceptive practices and unsubstantiated claims.

Here are some of those "truth in sales" issues…

Fine print hides the fact that the "results" reported (potential earnings from the use of the product) are atypical
Statements that $x,xxx,xxx in sales were made in 24 hours disguises the fact that…

The project took nine months to complete
The "Guru" had a staff of 32 people working on the project
An "Army of Buddies" promoted the product launch
Commissions paid to Joint Venture (JV) partners and Affiliates ranged from 50% to 100%
The product launch may have produced a loss in revenue, but money will be made on the "Back End"

A careful description of what the purchaser needs to have in place (skills, staff, equipment, out source support, Joint Venture relationships, Affiliates, software, Web hosting, Web services, etc.) to actually use the product is missing

More time and effort is put into the sales letter than into the product

The market is manipulated with automation software and low-paid workers in India and the Philippines who tilt Search Engine results with articles, forum posts, Blog posts and Blog comments

What ethical marketers must do is comply with some standard of "Truth in Advertising."

Potential customers and clients need to be warned that they will derive limited (or zero) benefit from their purchases unless they have certain prerequisites.

An Internet Marketer that sells a product that they know that only two or three percent of the purchasers will be able to use that product brings the inevitable "Clumsy Hand" of bureaucratic regulators down upon the industry.

Many "Internet Marketing Gurus" have been thumbing their noses at the FTC and dancing on the edge of the "Ethical Behavior" foul line.

The "Get Rich" snake oil is being exposed for the "FlimFlam" that is is, and many of the Gurus will be out of business once ethical standards are in place.

Just wait until some sharp lawyers figure out that their is a huge "mother load" in class action lawsuits with all these Internet Marketing customers [all those people with zero Return on Investment (ROI) from their purchases] as clients.

The only method to stay in the Internet Marketing business long-term: ethical marketing practices.