One of the traits I've always prided myself with is having great ethics.

I believe ethics comes down to having a fundamental need for fairness, equality and humility and genuine concern for others.

In business and how do you have ethics when you need to be cut-throat?

Well I don't believe you have to be cut-throat. Especially not online. I believe you can be ethical and be a highly successful business person.

So what's my definition of business ethics?

Well I think it is a combination of the following character traits in a business person:

Integrity - Sticking strictly to a moral code or ethical standards.

Honesty - To tell the truth and to never mislead by only disclosing the 'attractive' part of the truth and neglecting to disclose all information.

Sincerity - To be real and to never fake nice or interest to make sales.

Fairness - To do what's right and to not take advantage and to be kind.

When it comes to the internet and I think there is the opportunity to have less than typical ethics because of the anonymity of it all. ON the internet you can hide your face and your location and your true intentions easier than if you sat face to face with someone and boldly tried to cheat them. Well unless you're just a pathological liar.

That's why I think as internet marketers it's really important that we define and state our ethics publicly and then make sure to show them in our actions.

How do you define ethics in your own business?

Is it ok to leave out some details? Is it ok to grab ideas from the competition? Is it ok to steal keywords and customers or affiliates from the competition? Where and how do you draw the lines and is it in line with your own personal ethics?

Whatever you decide and make sure to align your personal ethics and business ethics. You'll never truly love what you do if your internal ethics are compromised.