Is Your Marketing Business Skating on Thin Ice?

Here’s Marvin Double from Monkeeze Marketing Blog, with an article about the “legal stuff”.

To be perfectly honest, I very rarely think about the legal aspects of internet marketing, yes I know I should, and so should you, that’s when you need to listen to people like Mike Young (who is an experienced internet laywer) to protect your ass from the leeches out there who ready to bleed you dry!

Neil

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Is Your Marketing Business Skating on Thin Ice?

It’s winter in my part of the world and, around here, the idea of skating on thin ice is not simply a metaphor. Falling into dangerous water is a serious risk for anyone foolish or careless enough to disregard their own safety.

For those doing business online the concept of “thin ice” good image to keep in mind. Experts in Internet law will tell you that, anyone who does business online is exposed to risk just a real as skating on thin ice can be.

The internet is a big place filled with all sorts of people, some of whom are not the kind you’d ever like to meet in a dark chat room. For people doing business online, the 800 lb. gorilla in the closet, is the potential of significant financial loss, business or personal.

Internet marketing offers a fantastic opportunity for anyone to make money online but, it also has a dark side. The attraction of making money online is a lure that draws thousands of new marketers online daily.

Many promoters push the glitz and glamor of the so called “internet marketing lifestyle”, but fail to tell potential marketers critical details about the possible risks and how to avoid them.

The vast majority of those that begin marketing fail but, for some success really is the stuff of dreams. Those dreams can however quickly become a nightmare.

It’s the unfortunate reality that those who actually are successful marketers. may also be targets for unscrupulous, devious and malicious folks that want to take them to the cleaners. Unless they, or you are properly informed and legally protected you could be vulnerable to some serious unpleasantness.

Threats to internet markets take many forms. One of the biggest potential threats however is that of liability. It’s easy to see how the issue of liability could apply to physical products, however with information products the issue might seem a bit fuzzy.

If, as an example, a customer purchases a book about exercise and, is injured while doing the exercises illustrated. The marketer or author of the book might find themselves on the wrong end of a law suite even if they were not at fault.

Defending against such a suite might be an expensive proposition. Even if you win the costs could be crippling, if you lose you could be financially devastated.

Another example might be someone suffering financial loss as a result of becoming involved in money making program or “scheme” which you have promoted. You might be totally unaware that the program being promoted uses certain questionable, unethical or even illegal practices.

However, as is so often said, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Even if you were entirely innocent of wrongdoing you might still be held liable if you are unprotected.

These are just two hypothetical examples however, there are numerous real world incidents which are very important and should be noteworthy to every marketer. Understanding the realities of doing business online is the part of internet marketing where the rubber really does meet the road.

Even if your marketing efforts are part time and your earnings are small the risks you encounter online are no less significant than those making millions. While the risks are real there are many things marketers can and should do that offer real security.

Mike Young, an experienced internet lawyer, has written an excellent book which very thoroughly covers these issues and provides honest, common sense and practical solutions.

This very well written book provides real world examples of that clearly illustrate why marketers need to be cautious, careful, knowledgeable and well guarded against potential legal snares.

Click Here to Check Out The Book This book is highly recommended reading for any internet marketer.

Mike Young’s book might be thought of as the ounce of prevention that really is worth a pound of cure. You shouldn’t drive without a seat belt and you shouldn’t sell anything online without reading this book. It really could save your bacon.

In a world where being sued is such such a commonplace event, the threat of being targeted by a law suite is very real. Every product, where physical or digital, caries with it the potential of attracting some kind of legal action. Marketers need to be careful to protect themselves from suites which are legitimate as well as those that are not.

It’s fair to say that most folks that begin marketing online are not likely to actually think of what they are doing as a “real” business. There are so many programs that entice you to sign up and start making money right away that it’s tempting to jump right in.

Jumping quickly into anything is unwise however, the potential legal dangers online are often not at all clear and certainly not obvious. For that reason there many that begin doing business on the internet really could end up in a precarious state with no idea how they got there.

Skating on thin ice is risky and foolish and, so too is doing business online without being legally protected. The solutions are simply and easy to put in place. Considering the potential consequences it only makes sense to do so.

Marvin Double is a writer and internet marketer with over 35 years of business experience off line. His company Monkeeze Marketing provides information, content and resources to the internet marketing community. You can find the company blog at Monkeeze Marketing Blog