I'm having some 'ethical' dilemmas

[ArizonaJay]

A few months ago, when I began learning about AM, I originally thought that I would stick to selling information, make a little from AdSense. I envisioned several very simple websites. Nothing fancy, minimal maitenance, easy website design, some good content on the pages so that people gain something before they buy. I recognize that these types of sites would deliver less income, but I have no expectations of being the next "Affiliate Millionaire." I definately need to make some income, but not as much as I was making when I worked full-time in a high level management position. (Losing the stress is payment in itself.)

But then I began to look closely at the ebooks and information that are out there for affiliates to sell (CB and LS especially). My sense is that most of them are total crap, full of lies, or a waste of money. Other times the price of the product is inflated - the information is already out there for free on the net, but the buyer is paying to have it already consolidated and easily accessible, which is okay for a reasonable price. It seems like so many (most?) of these products have BS written all over them and that is easily recognized by the 'look' of their landing pages. I just cannot see myself selling stuff like this - though I won't judge someone else for it.

Tell me honestly: Am I being self-righteous or maybe just stupid? Should I simply stop worrying that I am leading someone down the merry path of being scammed and figure 'buyer beware'? Or have I unfairly judged these information products?

(If anyone is going to suggest I consider product sales - I am. I have a separate posting about that - I'd welcome advice, replies and reassurance in either one.) Thanks.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I understand your dilemma and agree that it is a biggie. I would have the same issues if I were an affiliate, but then again if I were an affiliate I doubt I'd sell eBooks for all the reasons you mentioned.

There have to be some that are decent I would think. I just don't know how you find them.

I'd suggest being an affiliate for products, but like you said you are already moving in that direction, so that's good.

Wish I could think of something else to say that would help.

What does everyone else think???

 

[hiltonm]

I started off the same way

When I started off Internet Marketing I bought I don't even know how many e-books that told me I was going to make $10,000 by next week. Well I finally figured out they were making all the money.

Nothing happens overnite you got to give it time and effort. My first internet sale inspired me so much. I finally after testing and testing I said now I have proven to myself this can really happen and it did. Before I knew it the rest followed soon after. You can send me a pm or {email address deleted} if you need some help.Mike.

 

[Nojac]

Hi ArizonaJay

I don't think your being self-righteous or stupid, but rather are touching on an important point.

If you have ethical reservations about a product, you will save yourself alot of time and effort to stear clear of it. In the end, if you follow a product you have no respect for, your issues with the product will grow as you get further into marketing it and it sounds like you have an ethic so it is better to addreass your reservations straight off the cuff and pick something you think provides value.

There is nothing wrong with eBooks, it is just which ebook you decide to go with, I can think of one ebook in the clickbank marketplace that I consider to be brilliant, and worth ever cent but there are alot that are not good. It's a matter of finding what you think has valuable information.

I often use the metric that you must attempt to provide value in what you do, if you site and your marketing provides value, you will not have reservations holding you back and additionally, you site can end up alot more successful because the value it provides will give it staying power in the long run, returning profits for a long time to come.

I also think this is an argument for picking a niche that you are somewhat knowledgable about, as in such a niche you will be able to determine which products and ebooks you feel provide value and you will be able to communicate why, which should end up converting for you because there is actual real knowledge behind your recommendations.

Hope my rambling helped here.

 

[Meir_SportsEvents365]

An informative website with useful content can be an excellent affiliate site.

I wouldn't suggest you to start promoting anything you don't feel comortable with promoting or worst, promoting anything you don't like and don't believe in.

 

[Bailey Dresmond]

I am with you! Some of the stuff is just pathetic. Remember that affiliate marketing is an online business model. Key word here is business model. If you had a brick and mortar store, would you try to sell products that didn't work or worse would hurt your customers? Of course not! It may help you to think of it this way. What would you want to provide a customer who walked through your door?

That said, there are good products and resources out there, things that are valuable to those who purchase them. Stay away from products that make claims about how much money you can make by next week. This is a great business model, but it is still a business like any other.

I congratulate you on putting ethics before money. Best of luck.

Bailey

 

[richkid]

Hi ArizonaJay hardly any people would think the way you are thinking, its good to think that way. Most of them just want to promote their products and make money out of it, doesn't matter if the customer are happy or not with it

However if you start off with delivering good content, just give information for starters this will help you build a good reputation

Now regarding ebooks on clickbank, yes I agree with you that a lot of them are just junk and if you promote something crap you will obviously go down on your reputation.

But all I can really say is try to find products that are really helpful. This could be by researching about the product, may be asking other people, maybe you could those tracking tools to help you

Have a look at % refund etc.

 

[Niche48]

Abolutely love the honesty of your post Arizonajay

As a rule, I do not promote products that I do not believe in.

As an affiliate marketer your reputation is everything. If you promote products that are duds you will soon be known as the guy whose emails and site recommendations are a little iffy

If you have any doubts about the products then don't promote it

As a newbie I spent a lot of money on a lot of products. And you are right, some of them are BS to use your term

But I did find some products that actually taught me something useful. So when I finally went into the affiliate marketing niche I focussed on the products that helped. I still do

 

[scarpet1]

It is pretty simple. I found a good program at CJ and I learned a bunch about it and wrote about what I learned. I make a good living off some cj commisions and some adsense.

 

[scarpet1]

Great Thoughts,
Many people are just in it to try to make a buck. Trying to be ethical is one of the keys to success. Learning all the time is another key.

 

[cowy]

I have same dillema like you when starting affiliate marketing, That's why I don't promote CB products. But I must admit people who promote those info products are smart and some of them or genius. I found some good ebooks/reports that blew up my mind, even I don't promote digital products, I get nice ideas how they promote it in creative ways.

I suggest you to join another Affiliate networks like CJ, SAS or LS that has legit physical products, then try thinking "outside the box" like those marketer who promote CB products...

 

[ArizonaJay]

I have started my first niche site and joined several affiliate networks including SAS & CJ. I've been lucky and have not been turned down by any merchant. The only programs I am promoting are hard products.

My challenge is two- fold. Most of the commissions on hard products range from 4% to 15-20%. That's significantly less than info products. Secondly. It appears that sites for hard products take longer to build any organic traffic.

PPC is not something that I have the knowledge, confidence or budget for right now. And like everyone else, I have bills to pay. So I find myself considering CB products. As others have indicated, there MUST be some good ones. But again, I don't have the budget to order every weight loss ebooks that promises a miracle to find out if there really IS any value to it. I will not stop adding content or promoting my product based sites - but is there a way to earn a little revenue short term while continuing to build traffic to my long term projects WITHOUT losing my sense of honesty and integrity?

(please notice I said a little revenue - not $10k per month within 30 days kind of BS. Oh crap, that's probably the title of the type of CB product I don't want to promote).

 

[cowy]

Hi ArizonaJay,
You can try promote items from ClickBank if you want, but from my experience, they are harder to promote and their niche is too saturated. In ezinearticles and squidoo, there are so many pages telling about get rid of toenail fungus, DIY solar energy, dog training and many more. Yes, I have to admit that clickbank have better comission but it doesn't mean clickbank products easier to promote.

I'm not promoting CB product just only for ethical issue. I have promoting some info products but it doesn't work well for me, the physical products sells better. I think it's because I don't have faith in those info products, the products don't sell. However, when I have faith on the physical products that I believe it really can help people who buy it, I write good content about it, give honest review, spread the fact about the products (most product I promote, I never tried em. but I gather valuable information from across the net and rewrite it) then it sells!

Here is my suggestion:
Take time to pick merchants that have product you believe it will sells and you are comfortable to promote. Choose merchant with good EPC, in my case I never promote merchant that have less than $30 EPC so I don't waste my time to promote products that doesn't converting or don't give me enough commission to pay my bill.