Don’t Be An Asshat

February 9, 2012 • Topics: , , , , ,

Don’t buy links.
Don’t sell links.
Don’t sell your content.
Don’t deceive your visitors.

When publishing online you have a responsibility to be honest. Anyone can get paid a few dollars and get a bit closer to the Most Crap Gadgets When You Die award thanks to it by selling out, but the damage done is way more serious.

Always mark ads as ads.
Always disclose sponsored posts.
Always separate content from paid content.

We have not fallen so far from grace that we view content as lies first. The initial reaction to something we read online is still that it is to be trusted. Questioned sure, but new sites are not automagically thought to be factories of lies. That can change, because every time we are deceived, we trust a bit less.

Never lie.
Never cheat.
Never sell out.

I get it, you want to make money. I really get it, making money might even be why you publish your site. But that doesn’t mean that you have to be a liar and a cheat. Sell your ads to trustworthy companies, be clear with what is really an ad, and don’t sell out and deceive your visitors for monies.

Be true.
Be honest.
Be transparent.

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  • Spriggan

    I notice that the ad for your books on the in the right column isn’t marked as advertising. Why is that?

  • http://www.lindqvist.com/ Nikke Lindqvist

    I’ve never seen that done with internal links. Why should one do that?

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  • http://www.bjornsennbrink.se Björn Sennbrink

     Maybe because that is books TDH wrote himself?

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  • Cliff

     Trying to make him look like a hypocrite? Yeah, I would not label it as an ad either if it was something that I had written too. Paper or website makes no difference. Content is content. Just my opinion.

  • Mjjones

    Agree, but as far as honesty is concerned, would also like to see the date of your posts on the front/summary pages, even in a tiny size. And the number of comments would be appreciated as well to grasp the essential at a first glance.

    I hate having to click on a title to see when the post was written. But don’t mind not seeing the author’s name and article’s tags before looking at the Single Page. 
    As a WP expert, you surely must be able to tweak your front page template to do so…

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