Sellout?
Michelle on Aug 02 2008 at 12:56 am | Filed under: The Personal
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I’ve been researching this “make money online” thing for so long now that I’ve caught on. I came up with a great way to market credit cards and make tons of money. The thing is, I find myself putting off doing certain things that I need to do before I will get any leads. I finally figured out that I feel like I am going to be selling people into slavery by doing this.
I came up with a whole list of justifications. Foremost, that people make their own choices, and if they’re going to run themselves into debt, why shouldn’t I get a piece of change from the credit card companies while they’re doing it? Still, it feels wrong.
I am getting very, very frustrated. It seems that every avenue I go down that has serious profit potential has ethical issues. It seems like the only clean money would be if I grew pumpkins and sold them at the farmer’s market for a few bucks a week. Ack.
I really want money right now. I was stupid and unstable and didn’t save for Sky’s college. I want to have more options insofar as Sage’s education goes.
I really hate to have this knowledge and then not be able to use it and still get a good night’s sleep. The big affiliate money is in loans and overseas pharmas. I’m trying to find another product that would work with my marketing plan, but I’m not having much luck.
Ideas? Justifications?
ITK code for Singing The Sky:
No ideas at all. I’m with you on the ethics, but oh, I so wish that I could be independent of the teaching. However, my husband is self-employed and that’s no picnic either.
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I know how you feel. Sometimes I feel like the best way to get rich is to do something not quite ethical, make a shit load of money, pay your lawyers to work out your legal troubles once sued, and then make sure you made enough money to still be rich after that.
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I guess you’ve hit the nail on the head as far as making money goes. To make serious money you have to do it at someone else’s expensive and leave your conscience at the door.
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Thanks Michelle.
Why would you be responsible for other people’s irresponsible acts? Do you think people that sell cars are evil? After all - a lot of people die in car accidents each year.
Anyways… there are a few “ethical” ways to promote credit cards too.
You could promote 0% credit cards. And give away a report that gives advice on the best way to move from credit card to credit card - and always maintain a 0% APR.
Or you could take a story of how the business owner buys everything via his amex card - including factory machines. And then uses the accumulated miles to fly the world for free. And use that story to promote credit cards that give free air miles. (Not sure if amex has an affiliate program though…)
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“Foremost, that people make their own choices, and if they’re going to run themselves into debt, why shouldn’t I get a piece of change from the credit card companies while they’re doing it?”
People are impressionable. People are stupid. Sales pitches for loans and credits cards inevitably play up the niceness of buying stuff and play down the rate of interest and how quickly they foreclose. And *everyone* gets talked into doing things with short term benefits and long term drawbacks at some point in their life.
Or to put it another way, if someone offered to pay you lots of money to stand by a bridge telling people to jump off, would you not feel responsible for those who, for whatever reason, actually took your advice?
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Good analogy, Pacian! And we can also ask, why not benefit from the people that’s already planning to jump off the bridge anyway?
Kelvin Kao’s last blog post..Upgraded the website
Interesting delima, but let me ask a couple of questions;
Do you blame the company who produced the Budweiser Super Bowl ad for someone getting a DUI?
Should a car salesman refuse to display the high-powered sports cars because they are much more risky to operate?
A cold beer or two can be a great refreshment, a cool sports car can be a blast to drive and a credit card can be a very useful tool, especially in emergencies.
All of these can also be incredibly dangerous if abused and not respected but we’re not talking about selling crack to 3rd graders. We’re talking about people just trying to make a living and put their kids through college.
Besides, if your idea works, the real money is going to come after you get your market proof. Then you’ll package your concept up into an ebook along with your proof and make a fortune selling it to people like us
I say, don’t be afraid of success. Go for it and GOOD LUCK!
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Perhaps I should become an undertaker?
Hey Michelle, this is a common question that most Internet marketers struggle with (at least the ethical ones) We can reason away any number of things, but putting time and energy into something that goes against your core values won’t be something that you feel good about and you probably won’t be successful at it. Making money online is difficult and there is a huge learning curve, I beleive many people exaggerate about what they actually make and how easy it is. If you’ve really cracked the code and figured out how to market a product, get traffic, clicks, whatever, you can probably find something to promote that won’t make you feel bad. Not all credit cards are bad, but many are, I know with AdSense you don’t have control and some of the ads aren’t products I would recommend but that’s kind of out of your control. But I think you will know what works with your own internal value system and be able to move on from there.
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Hmm, looks like there is already some good advice on both sides of the argument. I agree though that a lot of the offers seem like fairly shady deals that I’m not too sure I would want to be associated with…
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The fact that you’re asking the question shows that pushing credit card offers in some way goes against your principles. At the end of each day when you’ve made a few hundred or thousand dollars, can you look at the money and also maintain your integrity? If you’ve got doubts I’d suggest taking your knowledge and using it for a different type of campaign. It might not pay as much but as Emma said, once you’ve proven your strategy works you can then market it to others.
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Sorry, I meant Ad Tracker.
Chanya’s last blog post..Are You Little Red Riding Hood?