Why Jesse Willms Thinks Supporting Kiva Is Still The Ethical Thing To Do
Hi, this is Jack Stanton once again, filling in for my friend and co-worker Jesse Willms on his blog. He asked me to post an entry today about a discussion we had in his... more »
Jesse Willms: What Are Ethics?
The 4Chan group that is known as “/b/” or “Anonymous” is back to their old tricks and in the news again. This time it’s because they decided to exact vengeance on something they considered... more »
Jesse Willms: Unethical Companies Threatening Net Neutrality
On this blog I’ve spent a wealth of time talking about the ethics of doing business over the Internet. I believe that being open and honest with your customers is the best way to... more »
Why Jesse Willms Thinks Supporting Kiva Is Still The Ethical Thing To Do
Hi, this is Jack Stanton once again, filling in for my friend and co-worker Jesse Willms on his blog. He asked me to post an entry today about a discussion we had in his office last week. Over a year ago, Jesse decided to start helping out the Kiva Foundation as it works to fight poverty by offering microloans to budding entrepreneurs in third-world countries when banks are unwilling to. This can help create an emerging middle class in the third world. Jesse has been proud to support Kiva, but was disturbed by recent news articles that have put microfinancing in a bad light. He brought me into his office to discuss the situation and decide if we still wanted to support Kiva. Over the course of the next few hours, we went through all of the available information about the microfinancing controversy. What we discovered was that certain people not associated with Kiva were taking advantage of the microfinancing... more »
Jesse Willms: What Are Ethics?
The 4Chan group that is known as “/b/” or “Anonymous” is back to their old tricks and in the news again. This time it’s because they decided to exact vengeance on something they considered a threat to them. It seems that the U.S. Government contracted with the well-known computer security company HPGary to find out what they could about who Anonymous really is. HPGary then hired Aaron Barr to infiltrate the group. Taking that job may have been the biggest mistake of his life. Barr apparently managed to get some information about the group, which he planned to sell to the FBI. But, Anonymous was one step ahead of him. Before he had the chance to do it, they hacked his computer. First they put 50,000 of his confidential emails on the Internet. Then, they hacked his Twitter account and used it to post his Social Security Number and other private information that could be used by identity theft specialists.... more »
Jesse Willms: Unethical Companies Threatening Net Neutrality
On this blog I’ve spent a wealth of time talking about the ethics of doing business over the Internet. I believe that being open and honest with your customers is the best way to do business. And, I believe doing so will generate profits ethically in the long term as long as we are all playing on a level playing field. Some larger companies, it seems, don’t agree with me and would like the odds completely stacked in their favor, even if it ends up giving consumers less choice and damaging small and mid sized companies. For over a year now they’ve been pressuring the FCC to eliminate net neutrality. Net neutrality is the concept that right now you can access any site on the web you want to no matter who your Internet service provider is and all sites load up at the same rate of speed. That’s good for consumers and business owners alike. But, many Internet service... more »
Jesse Willms: Neighborhood Ethics
On my blogs I spend a lot of time trying to encourage people to find ways to give back to their community and help make the world a better place for everyone. I also spend a lot of space writing about worthwhile charities that I support including Samaritan’s Purse and the Breast Cancer Research Fund. Or, I talk about my volunteer work for The Mustard Seed or Habitat For Humanity.I do so in order to inspire others to follow my example. But, I often hear back from people that they simply don’t have enough free time or money to support nonprofit organizations even if they want to. I can understand that attitude. It did take me a fair amount of time to set up my volunteer work and many people are not in a financial situation where they can write checks just because it’s the right thing to do. That’s why I wanted to take some time today to point... more »
Jesse Willms: Helping the Mustard Seed
I just got back from doing my latest bit to try to give back to the community. As you know, I feel like we all have an obligation to our local and global communities. That’s why I’ve been doing my best to try to support organizations that work hard to help people in need in my Edmonton community. I mentioned last week that I have become involved in helping out The Mustard Seed food bank in Edmonton. You’ll remember that The Mustard Seed provides hot meals six nights a week to inner city people in need. It also offers them clean clothes, personal hygiene items, household items and work items in an attempt to provide them with a sense of purpose and dignity. The Mustard Seed was started by a local Baptist church, but today it is supported by most major local faiths. Anyway, last night my employees and I went down to The Mustard Seed to volunteer our time.... more »
Jesse Willms: Building Ethics By Building An Edmonton Home
What do ethics mean to you? Are they simply a set of guidelines for how you think about the world? I don’t think so. Of course, that’s part of it, but ethics aren’t just about what you believe, they are about what you do in the real world. That’s why I’ve decided to dedicate my time to going out and helping worthwhile charitable organizations in my home town of Edmonton. I started out by buying a bunch of toys for Santas Anonymous and then by volunteering for The Mustard Seed. This November, I’m going to head out with some of my coworkers and help Habitat For Humanity Edmonton build homes for local residents who need them. You see, what Habitat For Humanity understands is that one of the things that keeps people in the cycle of poverty is that they have to spend a disproportionate amount of their paychecks on rent. That’s money they worked hard for but will never see... more »
Jesse Willms: Helping the Mustard Seed
Over the past few months I’ve used my blog to talk about my deep commitment to the community and how ethical business give back to their community. I try to help the business community by running my company ethically and giving advice to other entrepreneurs on how they can do the same. I’ve also been working to help the global community by sponsoring children through World Vision and aspiring small business owners through Kiva. Now, I’ve decided to help out the local Edmonton community. I started out this effort by working with Santas Anonymous to provide hundreds of Christmas presents this December to children who are part of low-income families. My next initiative is more direct. My staff and I have decided to become volunteers for The Mustard Seed – a local food bank. On November 4 we are going to go down and cook and serve a healthy warm meal to people living in poverty in our inner city.... more »
Jesse Willms: How The Word “Free” Can Ruin Your Company
I have one rock solid rule for all of my Internet marketing efforts: Never use the word “free” in any ad or promotion whatsoever. I know this goes against what people think are the “rules” of marketing. Heck, any time you read a book by a so-called “marketing guru,” the first thing they tell you is that “free” is a powerful word that will motivate customers. However, I disagree. Nothing in life is free, and most potential customers know that. In fact, most people don’t want free products. It makes them feel cheap. Instead, they want to buy something they consider valuable that they can show off. Think of it this way – people perceive things based on their expectations. When someone pays $150 a ticket to see a famous band in concert, they almost always have a good time, because they expect to. After all, if the tickets are expensive and hard to get, then the band must be... more »
Full Disclosure – The Right Business Practice
Today I wanted to talk about another one of my ideals in business – always try to provide full disclosure on prices and products. Now, when it comes to products I know that full disclosure can be a tricky business. After all, we don’t always know everything about the products we sell, so it’s possible to accidentally overhype a product. Just think of Apple, one of the most honest companies in the world and what happened to them last month. They launched their iPhone 4 saying it was going to be the best iPhone yet, only to find out that when it was used in the real world there were major problems with it receiving signals. So, yeah, it’s possible to fail at full product disclosure. But, what you can do is what Apple did – they apologized for the problem and then sent people kits to fix it. Now that was great customer service! That’s what I mean about... more »
Giving Back To The Community: The Right Thing to Do
Most of my time on this blog has been spent talking about ethical business practices, and why it’s important not to do anything shady that can mislead potential customers into buying your products or services. But, today I want to write about something different – about giving back to the community and supporting worthy charitable organizations. It’s long been an adage that philanthropy is part of being an ethical businessperson. You shouldn’t use your company to simply make money for yourself; you should also use your company to try to make the world a better place. I’ve spent a lot of time building up my company to make a fair amount of money but, lately I’ve spent even more time researching and supporting meaningful charitable institutions. While I didn’t come from an overly privileged family I had a much more fortunate situation than many in the developing world. And I think that’s the case for most of us who are... more »
Jesse Willms: You Need To Be Ethical If You Want To Survive In Business
Being ethical in all of your business dealings should be your first priority. That also should be second nature, but many people fail to grasp this basic concept – especially in the online marketplace. They’d never lie to someone in person and if they ran a brick and mortar operation; they’d be honest because they’d have to look their customers in the eye. But, the anonymity of Internet marketing seems to create a distance that makes many of us forget we are dealing with real people, and not just a bunch of electronic wallets. It can be all too easy to behave unethically online. Bad people and scoundrels have created a lot of software that makes it simple to hide IP addresses, disguise where your email is coming from or simply disappear when a customer has a complaint. But, taking advantage of any of these tactics is pure folly. Sure, you might get some short-term profits; but you will hurt... more »
Spam: Some Serious Food for Thought
Today, I want to talk about one of the most important ethical problems facing the Internet marketing community: spam. We all get it in our inbox or spam basket, and we can’t believe anyone falls for it. But, not everyone is Internet-savvy – and unfortunately, unethical businesses take advantage of less aware people, and give all of us who rely on email for sales a bad name. This is not to say that sending emails to your customers is always a bad thing. It’s only when you do it too often, or send it to people who are not interested, that it becomes an ethical challenge. That’s why an ethical marketer uses email marketing in a fair, conservative way. When you collect emails to build your list, make sure people understand that you will be contacting them with information and special offers. Next, make sure you send out email blasts only when you have a sale or a new product... more »
Jesse Willms Ethics: False Claims, False Friends
Lose 30 Pounds In 30 Days! She’ll Love You More When You Use Herbal Viagra! Start Making Six Figures A Month From Your Home Today! Do those statements sound familiar? I bet they do. I just found each one of them in less than 10 seconds simply by looking in my spam box. Cruise around the Internet for any length of time and you’ll quickly find similar statements. What do they have in common? They are all false. While I guess technically you could lose 30 pounds in 30 days, but likely no product alone could make that happen. And herbal Viagra may do what it’s supposed to do, physiologically speaking, but the description could be much clearer. And that last one is disingenuous for a variety of reasons. False advertising claims give a bad name to Internet marketing. They are unethical, and really, they are unnecessary. If you have a decent product or service, it will sell – but... more »
Jesse Willms Says “Disclose Everything: It’s The Ethical Way To Do Business”
Full disclosure: I’m a good businessman and I like making money. Now that I’ve gotten your attention, I want to talk about today’s topic: the importance of good disclosures on your website. And, by that I mean that any and all disclosures on your site should be transparent, written in plain English and easy to find on your site. Your disclosures should include everything your customers need to know about your product and about any and all fees and charges associated with your business. It’s the right thing to do, it’ll save you a lot of headaches, and over time it will generate the kind of customers you want to do business with and help grow your reputation. Here are some tips to keep handy when you’re looking to include a disclosure on your sales website: 1. The disclosure should be available from a link on your home page. The link should be easy to find, and the font should... more »
Jesse Willms: A Code Of Email Ethics
I promised you when I started this blog that I would use it to share with you my code of ethics. Today, I decided it was time to start making good on my promise. After all, that’s part of being an ethical person. Overall business ethics is a complex business, so I want to break it down into several different blog posts. To start, I’d like to discuss basic email ethics. Email promotions are an area where many companies fail in their ethical efforts. While one of the most effective marketing tools ever invented, it’s also the one that people trust the least due to spam, phishing scams and the threat of viruses. That’s why email ethics are a critical part of any company. Here are the email guidelines I’ve created for my company. Transparent copy. You can score a quick buck with a misleading email, but that won’t help you or your customers. And, it will destroy long-term profits.... more »
Jesse Willms Internet Ethics
Hi. My name is Jesse Willms. I’m the founder of Terra Marketing Group. Over the years I’ve gotten very frustrated with how unethical many people in our business are. That’s why I’m in the process of creating a Code of Ethics for our industry. I’m going to post it here when it’s ready – but in the meantime I’d love to hear your suggestions. Thank you, Jesse Willms
Questions and Comments
5 Responses to “Questions and Comments”
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Very convicting…. Makes me want to re-evaluate my own business practices. Tough stuff!
This is like my third time coming by your site. Really awesome article!
I found this site reading http://jessewillmscommunity.com/.
We searched lots of blogs to something related to this field. Thanks for the great posts Jesse Willms. Please respond to my email if you can.
Thanks again,
Project Ethics
Hey Jesse,
You blog is freakn pimp.
ohh…nice post Jesse Willms