Is affiliate marketing ethical? (21)
Do you guys ever feel like you're scamming people? I'm still new to AM so some of this stuff just feels shady.
Okay so take adult dating or adult offers for example.
A lot of the offers are like local casual sex sites which is fine but in the banners you're using pictures of impossibly hot 10/10 women that are advertised as "online now" and "in your area." Let's be realistic because we all know there isn't a super hot blond milf with DD boobs that lives 10 miles away from me and wants to have sex right now, but yet it's what the banners/landing pages are advertising and guys are clicking on it hoping that the girls match up to the ones shown in the banner/landing page.
Same goes for other offers like penis enlargement pills (C'mon, we all know that stuff DOES NOT work).
What are your thoughts on this? Is this just the nature of the AM game and we just have to walk the grey line if we want to be successful?
Put it this way, if you're not going to do it, they'll find someone else to do it.
Also, you're just helping promote a product not made by you, in which is just business as usual 
Depends how strong is your moral compass. I also had the same issue so I focused on gaming and building tools for affiliates rather than directly promoting scammy offers. Some people don't mind, some do.
I'm also involved in the startup scene, some of those guys debate if is moral to swap notices of a product with another in their newsletter, because it doesn't feel right or their list users didn't ask for it, even if it helps them and are related. I kinda like that mindset of putting customer on the first place and caring about them, but some guys are going to the extreme side....on aff marketing is the same, but on other way.
Originally Posted by laison1234
Originally Posted by top1991
The fact that someone else may be willing to engage in a certain act does not justify you doing the same.
you had to pick out the worse example...
Originally Posted by laison1234
speak for yourself
no but in all seriousness, affiliate marketing isn't all adult dating and penis enlargement. that is just one niche in a massive industry. It would be like saying the entire GMO industry is bad because of Monsantos or today's music is crap because of Justin Bieber
Originally Posted by laison1234
Originally Posted by laison1234
Probably you should promote Vacation or T-shirts
Affiliate marketing is ethical.
It's the people behind that might not make it ethical.
You can totally make things work with out doing anything shady. Currently I'm promoting the Hotel.com app with a branded creative. It's as white hat as it gets.
You mentioned adult dating, but look at mainstream dating? I used to profitably run direct linked to mainstream dating with super tame text ads.
There are TONNE of options to go ethical.
Are late night infomercials 'moral' because they have some gigantic ripped dude talking about some ab roller which clearly didn't give him the physique that he has?
You absolutely do not have to promote shady crap, there's plenty that you can do cleanly.
all that adult offers and dating sites are fake/scam anyway
they all use more or less the same DB which is distributed through big companies like datingfactory
its like email marketing - the "leads" are beeing build, shared , sold and reused
also take a look at those mobile offers
only the scamy virus offers worked good with fake virus notification (for some quick bucks)
or selling ringtones with a big ass hidden contract/fees
Originally Posted by atom64
If you want to promote real mobile offers, you can easily find them.
Everyone has a choice. It's up to you which way you go.
Originally Posted by atom64
It's everybody's choice how legit and compliant you run.
The statement about 'only the scamy virus offers worked good with fake virus notification' is a bit broad... not much to say here, think about it twice if those are the only offers working at all...
Bottom line, there are even adult / dating offers that are legit. If you wanna play safe and legit, how about advertising 'Join this site for $50 a month to increase your (small) chances to get laid a bit' ? That'd be legit and fair.
Generalizing all offers as being ripoffs and shady is like saying all women in Thailand are shemales... No matter what niche you go, there are ALWAYS legit offers, let it be dating, adult, insurance, diet, gambling, mobile, <insert a niche of your choice>.
yea sure .. i just showed up some negative examples
there are always legit campaigns to run which require more work and a unique way promoting them
It's kinda all subjective too.
Is selling fast food to obese ppl really ethical? soda to kids, religion to dumb people, alcohol to a drunk , sub prime mortgages, pay day loans ... you could go on and on ... the whole consumer based system is designed to have people "sell things" to other people that they don't really need. haha
BUT
even if it gets a dude excited, and for a brief moment he is in bliss by the anticipation or if a supplement is a placebo but gets someone on the right track inadvertently ... it's their money, they can do what they want with it.
there's a million justifications and a million ethical lines , you gotta draw them where you feel it's right and be able to sleep at night. and knowing my product is also on the shelves of walmart, i couldn't give a fck. lol
Bizopps, for example, have a reputation as being very dubious, but there's at least one member of this forum who started out his career with a bizopp, and did pretty well
And let's face it, in similar industries - on STM we all know that there's at least one Internet Marketing offer out there that does what it promises
I promote app installs, games and products/services i like and believe in. It is easier and i sleep better at night.
An age old question that is answered differently by everyone depending on THEIR ethics. You know how you feel about it, and sometimes you can rationalize it too.
How can you make the difference between a legit offer and a scammy one ? Especially in the dating niche, all offers look the same..
@beckje - Google around. Read reviews that don't have affiliate links in them (but be aware that 90% of all dating site reviews everywhere are negative) Look through the terms and conditions of the site. And sign up yourself and see what the site's like - is it wall-to-wall 18-year-old blondes with big boobs messaging you within 3 minutes promising sex right now if only you'll sign up for the premium service, or do some of the ads appear actually genuine?
"Is it wall-to-wall 18-year old blondes with big boobs messaging you with 3 minutes promising sex right now..."
@caruman, so...you know of a site like this. I would like to know, for science.
Affiliate marketing is not a scam at all. Anyone can lose 20 pounds in a week with no diet and excercise, its quite easy!
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