The ethics of writing a review online are not what they should be — and they won’t be for quite a while yet. That’s because a good review can lead directly to attention and, hopefully, sales. Even the best-intentioned companies want as many good reviews of their products as possible. They’re willing to do anything that doesn’t strike them as unethical or illegal, from posting reviews of their own products to sponsoring posts to handing out review copies like candy.

From the standpoint of a company trying to move a product, these approaches can be entirely legitimate, for a variety of reasons:

• The person in charge of the promotion just hasn’t about blogger relations and related topics — it’s certainly a new enough area that this isn’t an uncommon situation.
• The company expects whoever they’re working with to handle any necessary disclosures, which is not an entirely unreasonable assumption.
• The nature of the internet leads marketers to feel at least somewhat anonymous, making them feel as if a few paid reviews or their equivalent won’t be noticed.

I’ve had clients ask for estimates on projects like writing and posting positive reviews to Amazon, creating multiple user names and posting comments in forums, making changes to Wikipedia pages and even writing positive reviews on my personal blogs. I’ve said no to these requests — I consider them unethical — but what’s really important is the fact that those clients requesting these services had no idea that anyone would consider them a problem.

Some of my clients focus far more on running their businesses than marketing them — and I think that may be a good thing. But it does mean that they don’t see things in terms of ‘transparency’ or ‘disclosure.’ Until they’ve received a little education, they’ll think in terms of what’s best for selling products immediately.

Right there is one element of the education that’s necessary for most of these businesses to get the picture when it comes to marketing online: an Amazon review or positive blog post will make a sale or two today — but will decrease sales if it comes out that the review’s origins aren’t up to par. But building connections and a long-term strategy with built-in transparency can guarantee sales now and later.