Internet Marketing No-No’s: Are You Comitting Any Of These Crimes?

Steve Shuitt of TubeNinja.com recently put together a post on one of the most annoying trends happening right now on facebook. Worse than that, though, is that this practice is something that could literally ruin someone’s reputation online.

So I am expanding on this idea by putting together just a few things I can think of off the top of my head that you may be doing, or know someone who is. Take note to avoid these “Cardinal Sins” and be sure to share these tips with others in order to help them avoid possibly doing irreversable damage to themselves or their business.

4 Things That Can Ruin Your Reputation Online

1.) Bombarding Your Email List With Too Much Infomation
What? Aren’t you supposed to communicate with your list regularly? Isn’t it your
responsibility to alert your list to the best and newest information possible? Well,
the short, easy answer is “Yes”. Your responsibility as a leader is to keep your list
informed as soon as you know something. However, if you abuse this practice, and
start emailing your list 4 times a week, constantly bombarding them with links to the
newest, latest, greatest product they “Just have to have”, you run the very serious
risk of tuning them out to you completely. Make sure you communicate often, but be
sure you are offering true value, not just junk. That means much of your communication
should really never ask them to buy anything. Your emails should be videos, blog posts,
and articles that will help them improve themselves in some way, and most of your information
should have no strings attached.

That doesn’ t mean you can’t offer products and opportunities, just keep your ratios in check, and
the products offered should be high quality, proven material. Not just crappy ebooks or junky affiliate
programs.

2.) Bogus Claims And Promotions
It’s very easy to get excited about a new opportunity, and of course, you want to
share it with the world, and help everyone lead better, healthier, wealthier lifesyles.
However, it is not O.K. to make false claims about the income you are making or about
the benefits your product offers. The FTC has been very clear as of late that they will
not tolerate anyone lying about how much money they are making, and a free compliance report
explains what you can and cannot say about your income.

Exagerating your income may put you in legal hot water, but making false claims about how
healthy those vitamins are, or how much weight you will lose with this excercise program will
not only lose the trust of your prospects and peers, but will more than likely get you booted
from your MLM opportunity. If you have had success, great! Share it. But be honest about how
long it took you to see results. If you use a testimonial from another member of your company,
be sure it is legitimate and credible. People will appreciate your honesty if you tell them that you
lost 15 lbs, but it took you 3 months to do it. Bottom line…Don’t lie.

3.) Gossip Will Bring You Down Faster Than Birds In The Engine Of A Jetliner
Office gossip is commonplace. Politics play a role in everyday life from kiddie carpools
to corporations to, well, Washington. It is pretty much in-escapable that if you are
well known in any capacity, there will be some sort of discussion about you somewhere.
The question is….will it be favorable? Or not? Just because you are working from home, at
your laptop, does not mean you’re insulated from the rest of the world. The internet community
is just that….a community. It may span the globe, but it is a small world inside this electronic box,
so just mind what you say, and avoid participating in any negative smearing of anyone’s reputation,
whether they earned it or not. (There are, no doubt, many marketers who have earned their tarnished
reputations, but that is no business of yours. Pride yourself on staying obliviously neutral in as many
instances as possible).

4.) Thou Shall Not Steal
“Swiping” is a commonly known practice on the internet. You will hear lots of references to
’swiping a file’ or ’swiping content’ from someone elses site. What you may not know is that it
is actually a commonly accepted practice. “What? How is that possible? Who would
literally “allow” someone to steal content from their site?” Well, now I didn’t say steal, I said swipe.
Here is the difference. a marketer friend may have what’s called a “swipe file” that they will share
with their prospects or teammates, allowing them to use pre-authorized content however they
choose. This has been approved, so there is no implications of dishonestly here. That’s one way
swiping is acceptable. Another way which is very common practice among marketers is to actually
find content on another site, whether it is video, article, or blog post, and take that idea to make
your own content. Notice I said idea.

What you don’t ever want to do is copy and paste, word for word, anyone else’s written material
without proper consent from the writer. Now, copywright infringements most likely won’t apply from
individual marketers, but in all likelyhood, you will be called out as a thief, and your trust factor will
be tarnished for a long time to come. Same with video. Bottom line here: You can borrow content
all you want, as long as you legitimately work to make it a unique offering from you. We can all share,
right?

These are just a few examples off the top of my head that will hurt you and your business if you
aren’t careful how you handle them. Please feel free to share other ideas that I did not mention here.
I’m sure there are many, and the more we can come up with, the more people we can help in the long run.

Filed Under: Get Motivated