Your points and questions are honest, and I know there are people who view marketers as immoral and unethical at best.

That view is deserved by some, but by no means all of us in my opinion. Still, I don’t get in a huff when I or all marketers are perceived that way, I just let the conversation proceed and offer the best information I can. What others take away from it is up to them.

Cheers,

Mitch

Vic is a bit of a tool, but since you said my points were “intelligent” I’ll play nice. :)

Actually, I’m joking with the tool comment and hope if it gets back to Vic he’ll realize that and laugh it off. Otherwise he’ll probably post a “F@c& Scott Bannon” video response and drive up my traffic.

Seriously though, some of his methods are too gray-area for me but I’m sure he’s making a killing with them and respect that.

I’ve even linked to his blog in the past because for anyone interested in Bans or Bookmarking Demon stuff I think he’s among the top goto guys to follow. You just have to get passed his ghetto mannerisms.

If you insert cookies, collect data and etc., you should make that information available in your Privacy Policy along with details of how these things will be used.

On disclosing business information, G’s terms say you should “openly share information about your business and what it does”.

I’d say it’s up to the business to decide what reasonably needs to be shared and what doesn’t in each situation. If you run an affiliate site that promotes Amazon.com products does your name have to be disclosed there?–or is it reasonable to simply inform visitors that they will be interacting with Amazon.com while visiting YOURDOMAIN.com in your privacy policy?

If you run AdSense on your sites that’s exactly what you have to tell your site visitors in your PP according to G’s updated TOS. So, I’d say that’s a reasonable line in some situations.

In many cases we stay under the radar because that’s better for everyone, including our visitors and customers who couldn’t care less about us; only what we can do for them.

A bloated about page with a company history and bio’s for each associate serves no purpose beyond ego stroking in some cases, I hate having to waste time scanning them on sites myself when I’m really just looking for a brief blurb that informs me of who and how to make contact if I need to.

There are toll-free phone numbers and mailing addresses available on nearly every web site I’ve ever been involved with. It’s just good for business to do so. But my name and mug-shot doesn’t always appear with prominent placement because it simply doesn’t need to.

As for G’s points about honoring the deals you make and only charging for the products or services you provide… those are no-brainers to me. Of course you should follow those rules if you want to stay in business more than a day.

As for whether or not G’s applying the same standards to index listings as their PPC offerings, you’d have to ask them, and despite their posted positions on being “open” with information, I doubt they’re going to tell you.

If I had to guess–and that’s just what I’d be doing, guessing–I’d say there’s probably some SERPs weight being given to sites that have clear Privacy Policies, AUP and TOS pages, and maybe even About pages too, though I would doubt that since they’re often nothing more than an expression of vanity rather than informative to visitors.

While I realize that the section relates to PPC, I was wondering if you think Google might be applying the same standards for SER. Any thoughts?

I listed several bullet points of my online marketing resume in this posting and referred to them as my own accomplishments. However, the truth is that without the assistance and support of Heather, Chrissy and Roberta (listed in no specific order) none of these would have been possible and I’d still be lingering in “what to do” land without each of them.

:) So, “my fault” guys.