Affiliate marketing with fake forum posts

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waz67

waz67

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Anyone tried this? I was thinking of creating a landing page which looks like a discussion forum page, consisting of a made-up discussion of the merits of an aff product, and a recommendation from a couple of (fake) users, which would include (of course) an affiliate link to buy the product. I would then promote it with ppc, seeing as there are so many people out there who don't realize the ads are ads.

1) Is this ethical, and do I care? (Not sure yet)
2) Does it convert?
3) Is it legal, or would I be required to include some sort of "This is a paid advert" in fine print somewhere?
 


I don't see anything specific in adwords tos or guidelines that would prevent it, I guess the only question is if they would consider it fraudulent.
 
it sounds just like what they already do with dear abby- why not- ppl have been doing it for years. ppl pay actors to endorse products they dont give a shit about- its just converting an old concept to a new method - and makes perfect sense.
 
waz67 said:
Anyone tried this? I was thinking of creating a landing page which looks like a discussion forum page, consisting of a made-up discussion of the merits of an aff product, and a recommendation from a couple of (fake) users, which would include (of course) an affiliate link to buy the product. I would then promote it with ppc, seeing as there are so many people out there who don't realize the ads are ads.

1) Is this ethical, and do I care? (Not sure yet)
2) Does it convert?
3) Is it legal, or would I be required to include some sort of "This is a paid advert" in fine print somewhere?
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Build an entire site around it and SEO the heck out of it. Nothing beats organic traffic when it comes to cost. This would work best on a subdomain like "forum.example.com". There are always small forums for sale at DP or SP. They are indexed and they are cheap.

Chris
 
waz67 said:
I don't see anything specific in adwords tos or guidelines that would prevent it, I guess the only question is if they would consider it fraudulent.
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This wouldn't be fraudulent. You are merely providing info about (and a convenient link to) a legit product or service that the visitors was actively looking for. So what if it's not a real forum page?

You are not in any way tricking the user to buy something he or she didn't want in the first place. Think of it this way; This is really no different than a tv infomercial with "testimonials" from people who supposedly tried out their shitty products. Anyone with a brain knows that they just hire actors or people to read cue cards, lol.
 
Legislation is being drafted to outlaw what you described... And the Search engines will eventually discover what the site is about.

Just use honest reviews, everyone appreciates a balanced opinion on products.
 
waz67 said:
3) Is it legal, or would I be required to include some sort of "This is a paid advert" in fine print somewhere?
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at least in europe, this approach could get diffcult from 31st December 2007 on. a new european directive tackles fake blogs and reviews and it will then be against the law for businesses to post reviews of their own products and services. this includes to set up fake blogs and web sites that claim to be written by an independent party if they are in fact not.

so, it all depends on under which legislation you currently act but even then: that such a law will be setup indicates, that there has been activity in that sector. so i would ensure how far you could go in terms of, well, bending the truth ;)

however, i see a new form of service coming up: paid tester, because if you pay someone for writing the (of course independent) review, no one can argue with you ;)
 
Well... how are they ever gonna be able to enforce this shit. Sure, a law might work on paper, but not in practice. How are they gonna hunt down each and every "unlegit" or "fake" site / review. And who's gonna judge and determine what's fake and what is not. It's too much of a grey area, and the internet is WAY too big.

I say go for it.
 
ImagesAndWords said:
Well... how are they ever gonna be able to enforce this shit. Sure, a law might work on paper, but not in practice. How are they gonna hunt down each and every "unlegit" or "fake" site / review. And who's gonna judge and determine what's fake and what is not. It's too much of a grey area, and the internet is WAY too big.

I say go for it.
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that is a little bit of a naive attitude, sorry.

these laws will be an incentive for hordes of lawyers to hunt you.

this is not about the affected companies to take action, but those scavengers that usually salvage the victims of car accidents while they are still in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

those laws are always a big money making machine for a special kind of lawyer and you can rest assured, that it will go into this direction.
 
So would having a "this is a paid advertisement" at the bottom in semi-fine print be enough to stay out of trouble? Visitors probably wouldn't even notice it, the same way they don't tend to pay attention to the "Sponsored Links" disclaimer in google.
 
waz67 said:
So would having a "this is a paid advertisement" at the bottom in semi-fine print be enough to stay out of trouble? Visitors probably wouldn't even notice it, the same way they don't tend to pay attention to the "Sponsored Links" disclaimer in google.
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either this, or maybe it is a solution that you, the forum owner, include something like a caveat emptor, where you state that you take no responsibility for the content of your forum.

sure you would have obligations to clear your forum of racist comments and illegal actions, but some people spamming your forum in such subliminal ways ? ;) who would have thought that they don't mean what they say but instead make a false advertisment. after all, there should be freedom of speech, right? ;)

but all in all it comes down to asking someone who really has a clue: a lawyer. it is a pity that we don't have any lawyers here.
 
wouldnt it be smarter to maybe create the page like your describing and fill it with legit testimonials and discussions from authority sites.

For example you want to push Hoodia.... Take the setup your talking about and possibly use the testimonials off of the page that the product sells on. Sure it is a lot more work , but you seen how they will be buckling down on shady methods , and I am sure the advertisers that want you to push their products wouldnt have an issue with someone using their testimonials and resources as long as it helps them push more of the product
 
bigbyte said:
There are always small forums for sale at DP or SP. They are indexed and they are cheap.

Chris
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Just make sure they aren't Infopop (Eve) forums. They hardly ever get indexed for their content (forum posts/threads). I had an Infopop forum for a while until I realized this. It sucks.
 
chucktown said:
Oh yeah, and who the hell is going to know if the forum posts you make aren't legitimate? No one, that's who.
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This is my opinion aswell. If you want to do this maybe just make a "real" forum and ppc to a review topic you make with your fake testimonials posted by different usernames. There's no way anyone could tell unless all the posts sound like they were written by the some bullshit spammer. Don't be a bullshit spammer. At least not for what you're doing here ;). Maybe make several other posts (not all about your lame product) so it just looks like a new forum startup and not some spammed piece of garbage. SEO it and make it decent then maybe someday the forum will grow itself into a real site with organic traffic and you win either way. Just my thoughts.
 
znine said:
This is my opinion aswell. If you want to do this maybe just make a "real" forum and ppc to a review topic you make with your fake testimonials posted by different usernames. There's no way anyone could tell. Maybe make several other posts (not all about your lame product) so it just looks like a new forum startup and not some spammed piece of garbage. SEO it and make it decent then maybe someday the forum will grow itself into a real site with organic traffic and you win either way. Just my thoughts.
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Booyah. Exactly what I was thinking.
 
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