When you lie down with dogs you end up with fleas
I see that this bit of wisdom is ignored by internet marketers. Let me explain something that seems to be going over the honest marketers head and will jump up and bite you in the rear end. We are all morally responsible to self-police our industry, or the authorities will do it for us!
Businesses never grasp this simple fact and then a few years later you hear them all crying and moaning about government imposed regulations that they must now follow. Regulations that come with an increased cost to doing business that could have been avoided had they made a moral stand to clean up their own industry before the governments felt the need to step in and do it for them.
Let me give you some examples:
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Americans WIth Disabilities Act
Identity Theft Red Flag Rules
US Department of Labor Minimum Wage
All of these agencies came about because businesses were not self regulating and were simply excusing abuses that they saw and writing it off as the cost of doing business. This has led to the government stepping in and imposing rules and regulations on business often putting businesses out of business because the cost of complying with those rules and regulations are cost prohibitive.
Right now anyone honest or not can come online and claim that they have a business. Most don't the FTC has estimated that as much as 80% of online businesses are scams. So when the FTC, IC3 and other government agencies around the world finally get tired of it, who do you think is going to suffer when they start imposing regulations? It's not going to be the scammers who will simply look somewhere else to find their victims.
It will be the honest internet marketer who will be looking at rules and regulations that you are going to have to come out of your pocket to comply with. It is the honest marketer who will be fined and penalized for non compliance and it is the honest marketer who will be whining, crying and boohooing over regulations they now have to comply with. And guess what, it is the honest marketer that will be at fault for sitting back and doing nothing to self police and clean up your industry when you had the chance.
Take a moment to also read this article by the old coot (Arthur)
Businesses never grasp this simple fact and then a few years later you hear them all crying and moaning about government imposed regulations that they must now follow. Regulations that come with an increased cost to doing business that could have been avoided had they made a moral stand to clean up their own industry before the governments felt the need to step in and do it for them.
Let me give you some examples:
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Americans WIth Disabilities Act
Identity Theft Red Flag Rules
US Department of Labor Minimum Wage
All of these agencies came about because businesses were not self regulating and were simply excusing abuses that they saw and writing it off as the cost of doing business. This has led to the government stepping in and imposing rules and regulations on business often putting businesses out of business because the cost of complying with those rules and regulations are cost prohibitive.
Right now anyone honest or not can come online and claim that they have a business. Most don't the FTC has estimated that as much as 80% of online businesses are scams. So when the FTC, IC3 and other government agencies around the world finally get tired of it, who do you think is going to suffer when they start imposing regulations? It's not going to be the scammers who will simply look somewhere else to find their victims.
It will be the honest internet marketer who will be looking at rules and regulations that you are going to have to come out of your pocket to comply with. It is the honest marketer who will be fined and penalized for non compliance and it is the honest marketer who will be whining, crying and boohooing over regulations they now have to comply with. And guess what, it is the honest marketer that will be at fault for sitting back and doing nothing to self police and clean up your industry when you had the chance.
Take a moment to also read this article by the old coot (Arthur)
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Comments (9)
Cheryl Baumgartner12
Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
Taxation is not the issue of this post. This post is about Internet Marketers being hit with unwanted and unnecessary government regulations for consumer protection. That has nothing to do with taxes. We know the government is going to tax everything they can. I'm talking about Internet marketers sticking their heads in the sand about unethical behavior within the industry. That is going to bring regulation through permits, licensing etc that the IM Industry is going to have to comply with,
Cheryl Baumgartner12
Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
Oh it's possible but you have to treat the dog for fleas. Get rid of the fleas and no problem. Kind of like take care of cleaning up your industry and the Government won't have to do it for you.
Mohinder Singh6
Consultant
Summarizing it all in a greater positive spirit here; let the approach not be in avoiding to lie down with dogs, but in looking out for solution that ensures removing of fleas from these dogs, which shall also go a long way in strengthening Animal Rights and freedom to lie down with dogs without any fear of ending up with fleas :)
Cheryl Baumgartner12
Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
The easiest thing to do and what will probably happen is some sort of 'licensing' that people will have to pay for
Paula van Dun16
Retired
To be honest I have no clue what they are doing in the Netherlands. There are some rules here for business sites but I do not have the impression these rules are enforced. I guess there is to little man power. You have to put your name and address here on your business site and your number of the Dutch chamber of commerce (kvk) but i see many sites that don't. However I do not how the rules are for privat persons that have a shop or sell goods or services.
Cheryl Baumgartner12
Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
The IRS Is looking in the US also. I'm just waiting for the FTC to step up and demand regulations on internet businesses, They are already in partnership with the agencies overseeing banking. I'm waiting for them to start issuing permits to advertise do business online. And that will kill the entire industry right there because there is now way in hell someone running a program from say Bangladesh can afford a permit in every country around the world. There will be no more global opportuniti
Sean North12
Business
In the UK the inland revenue and customs are already trawling the net in search of undeclared income Arthur.
Arthur Webster7
Just plain honesty
Thanks for the link, Cheryl. Regulation of the internet is long overdue and the current financial situation must be making all government agencies seriously consider the internet as another, possibly major, source of income. After all, look how many marketers are claiming to be earning $,000s a day. How long do you suppose it will be before the revenue and taxation agencies start to identify and locate the physical addresses of these folk? It will be difficult for the idiots making false claims
Cheryl Baumgartner12
Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
I had to edit this to include a Link to the Old Coot's very clear and concise article on the subject. It's amazing how industries time and time again stick their heads in the sand until the government puts a foot in their other end.