Chris Hooley’s -ThinkBait-

SEOs and affiliate marketers are basically all competing for the same thing(s). With that said, I bring you the official SEO / Affiliate Marketer Code of Ethics.

• Take the money, let somebody else take the credit (unless you make a living speaking or writing books, in which case do the opposite)
• Your friend’s niche is like their ex and should be treated the same way. If you know about it, you can only get involved with his permission first, and you can’t ask for permission either.  You are, however, allowed to eye the niche up with longing and think about how great it would be if it was yours
• If you are blackhatting, you can’t blow the whistle on other blackhatters. Only white hats who are 100% spam free are allowed to submit SERP spam reports (which means I will be reporting ALL your silly websites in the morning)
• Don’t submit a SERP spam report unless the site you are reporting is either doing something A) illegal B) malicious, or C) if the site sucks so bad it is impossible not to try and get the person who created it banned and cut off from their income flow
• Getting a site banned is like burning down a building. There are very few times when it is OK.
• You can blog about your own new techniques / exploits, but cannot blog about other people’s unless it is already public knowledge or unless you have permission
• If you found an exploit, no matter how much I want to read your blog on it… Keep it to yourself, milk it, then right when it starts getting noticed THAT’s when you claim it
• Ideas are also like ex-girlfriends. You can’t steal an idea from a friend, but it is OK to work an “idea” if you don’t know her “ex-boyfriend”

Props to Sugarrae for helping me to focus this a bit.  We both may add a point or two after the fact.  Do you have any other “rules of engagement” or “laws of honor” for our industry that are missing?