if you are just getting into affiliate sales there is a very real temptation to simply go after those products that make you the most money. I caution against this.

While there is potential profit in chasing each and every product with a high percentage of payout per sale, the potential for garnering a distrust between yourself and your customers by far outweighs any potential for a profitable lasting  relationship.

Before you decide you’re going to market a product or service you need to ask yourself if it’s something you would use yourself. If the answer is yes, then buy the product or sign up for the service and make sure that it works for you. If the answer is no, walk away, you shouldn’t be selling it.

I don’t offer this advice lightly. the decision to be ethical in your sales approach can be costly. Very costly. It’s simple to promote the heck out of some product that has no real use to your customers but turns large commissions for each sale, but this method of doing business comes at an even greater cost.

It will cost you your customers

A customer who feels that they have been slighted in the least is not likely to return to you for advice on their next purchase. It’s far more likely that they will tell every single person that they know how badly they feel they have been treated, thus costing you more customers, more revenue and a serious lack of trust in an open marketplace.

If you’re wondering why I so vehemently preach customer relations on this site, it’s because I learned a long time ago that making a small sale today and leaving my customer satisfied translates directly into more sales from that customer later. It was true when I sold retail, it was true in web development and it was true in technical support. A satisfied customer will most likely come back to you the next time he or she need something that they feel you can supply for them. They might even tell a friend or two.

If you’re selling or promoting software or programs on how to make money, it’s likely that if your customer runs into a problem, he or she will contact you before bailing out completely and walking away in disgust. If you have used the product or service you’re selling, you have the tools to turn the situation into a positive one. If you’re hawking snake oil… Well, don’t expect to see many “thank you” emails. It’s more likely you’ll be seeing chargebacks on sales.

Nice guys don’t finish last. They may get to the finish line later, but they have more to show for it.

If you promise what a product can deliver and sell it on its own merits, you stand to gain a collection of loyal customers, a good reputation and at least one of those “thank you” emails. Your customers will very likely trust you to recommend another product at some point in the future, since the first actually worked for them. This is what they call in marketing a “win-win” situation. You have a sale and you customer is happy.

This concept is especially important in times of economic upheaval. In times like these customers expect to get what they paid for. They don’t have a lot of disposable discretionary income. Make that sale count and it will provide a gateway for another. Blow it by selling your customer something he or she didn’t need and you’ve shot yourself in the foot in the worst possible way.

Stand behind what you sell. It may not make you a fortune in your first three hours, but it will build a solid foundation on which to make more sales in the future.

Paul Harvey was America’s most loved radio newscaster.  His broadcast graced the airwaves for seven decades and touched the lives of millions of people.  He was credited with creating the foundations for the modern newscast and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2005, the highest honor that can be awarded to a civilian by the United States of America. None of these things was a small accomplishment.

Mr Harvey passed away yesterday, February 28, 2009 at the age of 90. The voice that reached into 24 million homes and businesses each day has been silenced. To say that he will be missed is an understatement. He will be mourned by a nation in ways that few people ever are.  He wasn’t a national hero or a figurehead.  He was not someone whom we glimpsed on a screen and admired. He was a friend and  family member, warmly welcomed into our homes each and every day. Mr. Harvey’s passing is a personal loss on a national scale.

Paul Harvey has left us a legacy as sales people and advertisers.  Over the decades that he spent on radio, Mr. Harvey garnered relationships with manufacturers and service providers that he advertised in some cases for decades. He was quoted as saying that he was “…fiercely loyal to those who put their money where their mouth is”.  To think that he wasn’t approached by every company that could afford advertising time on his broadcast would be foolish.  They clamored after him. He could have easily earned millions of dollars acting as a shill for any number of products and the American public would have listened. He never did so.

Paul Harvey never advertised a product on his broadcast that he did not use himself and trust enough to recommend to his dearest friend. His integrity was such that it appears on every biographical page and wiki mention of his name.  He was known as much for his ethics as he was for his commentary.  America Trusted Paul Harvey and he in turn took it upon himself to be worthy of that trust, even though it could have benefited him greatly had he done otherwise.

To anyone willing to pay attention, the way Paul Harvey approached business has several valuable lessons to teach:

• Never sell something you don’t believe in.
• Treat your customer the same way you would treat your friends and family.
• Don’t look at the money you can earn over value to your customer.
• Never steer your customer wrong, they are trusting you to give them accurate information and to lead them to a solution to their problem however small it may be. That trust is a sacred thing and should not be violated.
• If you can’t give the customer what they want, refer them to someone who can.
• It is better to lose a sale today than to lose a customer or reader forever.

In today’s hectic and competitive business world it is sometimes easy to overlook these lessons.  In the Internet game it’s most often the most aggressive or most willing to compromise values that win big today. They flash on the scene stomp on the competition, promise the moon and make the sale, but where will these people be tomorrow?

The Internet has a long memory. Unethical companies quickly find that word of mouth on the Internet is just as effective as word of mouth in a small town in rural America. People that don’t like the way they have been treated will tell other people about their bad experience. That word will spread quickly.

In the past they would tell their friends over coffee or at the grocery store.  Today they will tell them on social networking sites like twitter, where a single comment in 140 characters or less can reach a million people within a few hours. If the word is positive, you stand to gain more customers.  If the word is bad, you stand to lose the trust of a very large number of people before you ever had the chance to earn it.

Paul Harvey never lost sight of these things and neither should we. His business practices are worth their weight in gold and can be proven easily. Mr. Harvey broadcast for seven decades.  In that time period many other broadcasters rose to high stature and then for some reason lost the trust of their listeners.  Their careers ended there, usually after only a few years. Paul Harvey’s career on the other hand, never faltered.  He worked his entire career to keep that trust, and you should be doing the same.

In closing, I wish to send my best wishes to the survivors of Paul Harvey. In particular I would like to say to Paul Harvey Jr. that your father was a man to be admired. I’m sure that you were proud of him and I am truly sorry for your loss.

As for me, I’ll carry the torch for ethical business practices and I hope and pray that others will rally to carry it with me. It’s a legacy worth living up to and something that is not nearly evident enough in Internet advertising today.

Good Day, Mr Harvey.  You will be missed.