Contracts
By David Fishman

The Internet marketer will see thousands of paper contracts, and witness many more thousands of verbal contracts. Unfortunately the Internet marketer will also experience the broken, breached, and neglected contracts. One will also be around threats of lawsuits along with a multitude of other types of verbal accusations that stem from the failure of one party to uphold or properly communicate to the other party. It is rare in the Internet industry to actually be involved with a legal action that goes to court. However, that is not to say it has not or does not happen. Clearly it does, the US civil court system is packed with law-suites. What has been the trend for many years is to create loose contracts or none at all and continue doing business. It is the view of this author that by not taking the time to work with legal council and develop proper contracts the Internet marketing industry and individual companies are risking their assets. 

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The goal of a contract is for the document to be both a historical record of the agreement and a future dictator of how conflicts will be resolved. That is a great deal to ask from paper and pen. However, in the Internet space and especially in the online advertising industry, we move and generate new ideas/programs super fast. Often we neglect the creation of contracts. This does not allow companies to look back and see if the result was the same as the agreement in the beginning. By neglecting to create a contract it allows people to ignore and often breach their side of an agreement. Even if the full weight of a contract is not enforced, the value of having an agreed upon document to hold people to will often create more honesty and trust.  

With a contract one can always look back and understand financial, and direct responsibilities and obligations that an individual or organization has within each deal. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of a contract is that it sets the ground rules and expectations before anything happens. This makes a deal, or project happen in a way that both parties understand and there are no assumptions often leading to conflict.

The Industry is still allowing for multiple deals to occur daily with out so much as an insertion order, which in the end can put a company at risk. While this way is often easier and less time consuming it can and will at some point harm the organization. With the constant creation of new companies it is important that we protect assets, people, and the overall industry. A simple way to do this is to make sure we control deals through contractual obligations that both sides agree and fully understand.

 
David Fishman
dfishman@ileadmedia.com