They both chase the same firing of a pixel, but with very different ways in achieving it. Recently, as you’ve probably read on this site, the FTC has started cracking the whip in the direction of those cowboys who continue to break the rules.
I’m sure you’ve seen the reason why. False claims, overly aggressive marketing, undisclosed sponsorship. The list goes on and on. I could sit here and belittle the rogue marketers who decide to take these paths, but it would be hugely hypocritical of me. Especially considering I got my first lucky break through sheer determination that overcame any sense of ethical responsibility.
The problem comes from within.
It only takes a few minutes to register a domain, whip up a sales pitch and – if you’re very lucky – stumble upon money online. There is no barrier to entry and the only policing is what your own conscience will accept as fair game.
Affiliates are sold so many pipe dreams about easy riches, and one click businesses, that the pressure to conform with FTC guidelines only truly dawns on them when they’ve had their first taste of success. And many other tastes. Enough tastes that the FTC actually decides to take interest in their methods.
Are you telling me when you sat down with ZERO commission to your name, you were reading blogs about advertising standards and ethical guidelines? Of course you weren’t. You were buying in to the dream. Reading success stories that had about as much to do with success as the author’s ability to Photoshop his stats. And here lies the problem.
Most affiliates simply don’t stop to consider the rights and wrongs of their methods UNTIL they’re making money. The FTC suits will surely be reluctant to hunt down Jimmy in his mother’s basement if he’s notorious for getting 4 hits to his weight loss website and an Adsense click in 2007.
Once an affiliate is making money, the equation often becomes complicated by greed. “Well, I could backtrack and make my sales letter legit… but what if I lose my sales?”
Before you know it, the kids who were once dodging good advertising practice in the name of a few sketchy Clickbank sales, are the masterminds behind campaigns that are banking thousands of dollars a day until somebody has the balls to say enough is enough. The lawsuits are filed and just like that, another sore black eye is dished out to the industry of affiliate marketing as a whole.
Personally, I think it’s a problem that has to be addressed by the very gurus and experts (I roll my eyes as I call them that) who plant the seeds of this great online dream in the first place. How many of the shoddy ebooks getting passed around on Warrior Forum stop to mention the ethical responsibilities that we’re required to take onboard before we launch our first campaigns?
If affiliate marketing is going to rid itself of the reputation as the backwards cowboy cousin of the advertising world, the whole dream that new marketers are sold has to change.
I made some stupid mistakes when I entered the industry. I pushed the boundaries of right and wrong so far that I forgot about them completely and simply asked “What is profitable and what is not?”
Thankfully, I had enough ethical equilibrium to change my ways before being forced by any lawsuit. But let’s be honest. Many of us are young, rich and stupid. That’s a toxic combination that could completely destroy this industry for every legitimate hard working affiliate UNLESS better principles are taught by the guys who sell the dream to tomorrow’s affiliates.hypersmash.com
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