I ran across an old blog I used to visit the other day, actually learned that the author of the blog shut it down because of a PageRank issue. Anyway, the author had a very entertaining Disclaimer up on his blog that I found very amusing. I couldn’t help but capture a screen shot and publish it here for you to see:

I found this to be funny because a lot of bloggers hide the fact that they are trying to make money off their readers. Most commonly this is found with people who recommend various types of eBooks. Here is an example:

Affiliate links that gets slipped in under the radar like that really bug me. I don’t have a problem with people trying to make money online by selling affiliate based products to their readers. I do that myself from time to time.

The problem I have is when blog authors take advantage of their readers and treat them like fish. They try all these different tactics to get their readers to click into affiliate links and then hope that their readers will take the bait.

In my opinion, that is the wrong way to promote affiliate based products. First off, what many blog authors fail to realize is that when you promote a certain product on your blog, the satisfaction level of this product becomes part of your own reputation.

What I mean by that is simple. If you offer a product on your blog and a reader buys it and soon discovers that the product sucks or even worse, is a scam, then how do you think that reader will now feel about you? Do you think that reader will continue to trust you? Or, will that reader feel like you treated him like a fish?

If you want to sell affiliate based products on your blog, that is fine. From time to time I offer a few here on my personal blog. However, I would suggest doing the following things before hand:

1. Buy the product first. If you purchased the product and quickly found that you got scammed, then the likelihood of you offering the same product to your readers is slim to none… unless you’re just a jerk.
2. Research the product. If you are too cheap to buy the product that you will soon be selling, then at a minimum, do some research on the product. This really shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish. Do a Google search for the product you want to sell. Better yet, do a Google Blogsearch, and you’ll get some pretty juicy reviews in there.
3. Own The Product. I don’t just mean buy it… it would be good if you could, but what I mean to say by “Own It” is to basically allow this program to become an extension of yourself and your blog. “Own It” as if this product was truly yours to sell. “Own It” as if you were the sole creator of the product. Know the product very well as if you made the product yourself and most importantly, represent the product in a professional manner.

The Internet is a wonderful place for people to make money online. It is a wonderful place to buy really cool things too. However, misrepresenting things and tricking people is bad. Take a minute to reflect on some previous life experiences you have with this. Everyone has been scammed in some way or another. It isn’t fun and when you get tricked you feel like crap. Don’t make your readers feel the same way.

What can you add to this discussion? Do you have any advice that you would like to share? What are your thoughts about what I have written here in this article? I would love to read your comments and learn more about what you think.