Chris Barclay at Work

So recently I’ve noticed a few blog posts on ethics in affiliate marketing. Most notably were the blog posts from Bryn Youngblut and Uberaffiliate. Now I don’t want to come in and repeat what either have said because that would be pointless, besides I have a different views on the subject.

First and foremost people these days need to learn to read the fine print and understand what they are getting themselves into. Day in and day out people will sign up and sign their name to documents without having a full (or even any) understanding of what they are signing up for and what the terms and conditions are. I don’t know about everyone else, but if I go to the bank and fill out any paperwork, I read it first before signing it. I need to know what I am getting myself into before signing my life away.

I know many people don’t associate whats online with whats real but if your dealing with financial information you really need to treat it the same. With Payday loans and credit cards being a HUGE market in affiliate marketing, often people get roped into huge interest rates and crappy terms because they didn’t read all the information presented to them.

Now when it comes to other offers such as Acai Berry, Green Tea, and other products which offers a “free trial” where you “only pay shipping and handling” then get charged down the road, it’s the same thing, it’s all noted in the fine print but when people say free and limited time offer it encourages them to fill out the forms as quickly as possible and often reading the terms and conditions get skipped.

Now do I agree with these shady tactics? Of coarse not. However like everything else – it is buyer beware. Know what your getting yourself into. Though I don’t agree with some of these companies, I have no moral dilemma promoting them. Do you think the kid at the McDonalds counter feels morally or ethically bad for serving fat people cheeseburgers? Do you think the person at the gas station selling people cigarettes feels bad? Of coarse they don’t – they just do their jobs because they need to get paid. To me, there is little difference between them and us (in that aspect at least).

Another thing to take into consideration – a fair bit of affiliate marketing is done through search engines, so realistically people are searching for these offers, you are not shoving the offers down their throats or holding a gun to their head making them sign up.

So after reading this I’m sure some of you think I have no morals and ethics or don’t agree with me. I do what I need to do to be successful, if you don’t promote these offers someone else will, I may as well be the person getting your could be traffic/leads

Here’s something interesting. To celebrate Googles 10th birthday, they are showing their oldest index available which is from 2001. Do a search and see the results Google turned up 10 years ago. Interesting stuff, check out saturated niches like ringtones and payday loans.

Google – 2001

Ok, this is kind of a rant. But one of my pet peeves is when people brag how much they’ve made but only tell you there earnings and not expenses. Guess what that means – nothing.

If I tell you my earnings for a month are $10,000 you’d probably think that was ok. Now if I tell you they are $10,000 but my expenses were $9,500, which means only $500 – you’d probably say I suck. So really you need to look at profit to see how your doing. Checking your ROI can’t hurt either.

I’m not saying you should go out and brag how much you may because that drives me nuts too Just at least if you do that, get it right and say the right amount.

Here’s where all the magic, frustration and other crap happens

Here’s the desk, nothing special. Laptop, keyboard, mouse, monitor, lamp and other fun stuff. White board in the backroom for brain stormer or just general reminders.

The amazing POS laptop. A whopping Pentium M 1.8, 1 gig of RAM! Boo yaa

Printer/Scanner, no big deal..

The toys! Dion Phaneuf, Tomas Kaberle, and my future car! Don’t miss those Vista Print business cards! Big Spender here!

And the most important part.. the mints.. these things are addictive!!!

Hope you enjoyed it!!

I’m sure many people have already seen this but for those who haven’t. Here is an ad for Wario Land Shake it. They took a normal boring way to advertise and spiced it up. Check it out.

Wario Land – Shake It

Twitter has been growing communication and networking tool amongst affiliate marketers and other industries.

At first when signing up I looked around and thought the whole idea was stupid. Well after playing around it for a bit I am starting to see some of the benefits.

It makes it very easy to broadcast a message to everyone you know, provided that they are signed up and read Twitter. Although the message is limited to 140 characters, most of the time that’s all you need to let out. If people find they need more they will often post on a blog and just link to it from Twitter saying something like “check this out..”

Twitter also shows who you are following and who is following you. It doesn’t take too long before your followers and people you are following start to grow. You meet people through other people, etc, etc – basically you network. Myself – I have found it’s a good way to meet and talk to people I normally either wouldn’t talk to or didn’t even know existed.

Now the big question – Will Twitter ever be Mainstream?