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WV Loyal user South Africa, Durban 290 Posts |
I am posting this to apologise. Since the beginning of November I have been posting reviews of various tricks I bought from Trickshop.com as well as recommendations (for both tricks and online magic shops) and posted my affiliate link, which means I got a commission from each person who clicked on my link and bought that particular product or anything else from the online shop. I also continued to earn a commission from that person for any purchases made 180 days after they clicked on my affiliate link. Most of the traffic and commission came from The Magic Café, but also from Talk Magic and Penguin Magic. On the latter 2 I had the links up for a while, but soon after deleted it. I started to feel really bad about making money off of unsuspecting people. I wanted to leave the links on The Magic Café as I was getting some good commission. I also had affiliate links on my blog under my Reviews which also generated some commission. I confirmed with the shop and they said that I was allowed to buy off my own affiliate link and did this as well. I tried posting these links on the Genie forum, but I wrote in one of posts that they are affiliate links and my links were deleted and I was band. I only signed up with Talk Magic and Genii just to post my affiliate links, although I did get some good advice on other normal topics from Talk Magic and of course from The Magic Café.
I am truly sorry for all of this and want to apologise. I knew I was not supposed to, but I did it anyway because I wanted the money. I have asked the shop to delete that particular account due to personal reasons and they responded that although it cannot be deleted, they have disabled it. This way I cannot make any more money from the people who unknowingly clicked on the OLD affiliate account links. I have signed up for a NEW one though. All together I made $64.76 on my OLD affiliate account, all of which I have spent. From the last money paid over to me today (which forms part of the $64.76) from my OLD affiliate account I have purchased some eBooks from that site and used my NEW affiliate link for the commission (which I have earned). I also made a new blog called The Great Vernesto Show (more on that later) and although I will be using my NEW affiliate account links on this blog, I will openly let people know what they are. I am also going to use the first $64.76 made on my NEW affiliate account and donate it to a charity. Although I posted my OLD affiliate link under different threads on the various forums, I will only post this same post of apology under one thread on all the forums I posted on. I will read all the comments posted, but I am not going to reply to any. I am going to try and post this on the Genii forum – I’m can’t remember when the ban will expire. I feel really convicted about this and felt that I need to get it off my chest, which is why I made this post.
Vernesto
"I'm not perfect, just forgiven!" |
Mary Mowder Inner circle Sacramento / Elk Grove, CA 3659 Posts |
Go, and sin no more!
(And send the money to The Magic Café). I had no idea such things were possible. -Mary Mowder |
WV Loyal user South Africa, Durban 290 Posts |
BTW. I was able to post this at the Genii Forum.
Vernesto
"I'm not perfect, just forgiven!" |
WV Loyal user South Africa, Durban 290 Posts |
I posted this to ask for forgiveness and I have asked the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive me as well.
Vernesto
"I'm not perfect, just forgiven!" |
jimhlou Inner circle 3698 Posts |
Donate you $64 to the Magic Café! We could use the money to keep this forum going.
Jim |
Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
WV,
I wouldn't call $64 grand larceny even of the heart. It takes a decent person to fess up publicly in such a large forum. Your conscience has guided you to this point, so let it take you the rest of the way. Thanks for your honesty. And Merry Christmas! Best, Bob
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
Cyberqat Inner circle You can tell I work on the net from my 2209 Posts |
Hoenstly, it might violate some Café policy and for that you should apologize to them.
But, as long as you did not let your monetary interest in any way effect your review, I don't feel you did anything ethically dishonest.
It is always darkest just before you are eaten by a grue.
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WV Loyal user South Africa, Durban 290 Posts |
This apology goes out to all the users and the forum owners (The Magic Café, PenguinMagic, Talk Magic and Genii).
Vernesto
"I'm not perfect, just forgiven!" |
Bryan Smith New user Korea 99 Posts |
I fail to see how you did anything unethical. Unless you feel that the products on Trickshop.com are inferior in some way, it seems like a win-win-win situation. They get customers, the people referred get products they want, and you get money for referring them. Who was wronged in this situation?
Am I missing something?
"I'm half drunk most the time
and I'm all drunk the rest" --Tom Waits |
Cyberqat Inner circle You can tell I work on the net from my 2209 Posts |
The only thing I can think of, assuming he did his reviews honestly, is potentially Café advertising policies. But I suspect even there its a grey area...
It is always darkest just before you are eaten by a grue.
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gr8fl1 New user 35 Posts |
Impressive that you would admit to your misgivings and ask for forgiveness. You have a gentle and kind heart. I see no rea l wrong doing, but you are being true to your morals and being quite the stand-up magician.
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harris Inner circle Harris Deutsch 8812 Posts |
Cleaning up our side of the street..priceless..
...continued to take inventory and when we are wrong..promptly admit it. Welcome to Magic Anonymous... My name is dr. laff and I am a magiholic....
Harris Deutsch aka dr laugh
drlaugh4u@gmail.com music, magic and marvelous toys http://magician.org/member/drlaugh4u |
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