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New FTC Rules for Bloggers.. How about Affiliates? or PPCers?

Posted: October 12th, 2009 | Author: Matt Levenhagen | Filed under: Affiliate News, Landing Pages | Tags: , | 16 Comments »

Unless you are avoiding forums, news, blogs and social media, you know that there have been some things from FTC that we haven’t seen for a long, long time.. Guidelines dealing with the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising which hadn’t been touched since 1980.

And it affects all kinds of things including Merchants and Affiliate Marketers… it initially seemed to focus just Bloggers, but ultimately it goes beyond that including the affiliate links we place on our sites.

I’m not personally going to provide you a long winded post here or tell you what my lawyer says.. others are doing a fine job doing that and I’ll simply link to some of the best posts I’ve found on this topic. And we have a lengthy thread in my private forum here in our membership about it if you are one of our Affiliate Marketing Members. ;)

It was, as many things are, misunderstood by many, blown out of proportion by others and miscommunicated early on. That’s why I always tell folks to give these type of things some time. Whether it’s a major Google change or rumors, wait.. because it’s not always 100% how it’s first thought of.. or it doesn’t touch as many people as people might initially think.  (remember, when bad happens.. you only hear from those affected; not the many more that aren’t)

And you have a ton of non-lawyers dishing out advice.. yes, some have disclaimers like I do below.. but do you think that means people don’t act on people’s opinions?

Most important, if you are worried about getting an $11,000 fine if you accidentally don’t comply to some minor thing on your site, don’t be. Although you ‘could’ be fined ‘Up to’ that, you will likely be warned first with a cease-and-desist..

Whats happening here..

– There are far to many, millions, of pages on the web for the FTC to police every single sentence..
– They are mostly complaint driven.. so if people aren’t complaining about your situation, you likely will be fine..
– And really, they’ll likely focus on the greatest offenders..  we’d hope.

If you are providing legit info and promoting Quality Merchants and Products THAT will help.. and follow the guidelines being talked about on the following pages (especially providing disclosures).. you should be ok.

And the bottom line is.. we’ll learn more. In the coming months, it’ll become more clear and you can emulate what others are doing and maybe even get a real glimpse of how this really is affecting the industry by seeing what happens to those that don’t comply.

One last thing before I provide links..  of course, people around the world want to know how or if this affects them.  It will in a couple of ways:

– It may set a precedent for your government..
– You may still be an affiliate of U.S. merchants..
– And Google and other engine’s will make sweeping changes that may cross borders – do you think the recent changes at Google (suspensions, warning etc) are coincidental?

Bottom line, check with your own local situation outside the U.S…  and keep your eyes open for changes that ‘might’ affect you.

More Info:
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Me protecting my ‘behind’ legally..
Understand here, I am not a Lawyer.. I will not be held responsible for the information being dished out by those I’ve linked to in this post (or any post for that matter). In fact, it could ALL be wrong, links broken, inaccurate.. I can’t guarantee it isn’t. Proceed and apply the advice you find at your own risk including mine. And consult a lawyer for more clarity and how it affects you specifically..

Shareasale Introduces Widgets!

Posted: May 6th, 2007 | Author: Matt Levenhagen | Filed under: Affiliate News | 1 Comment »

Newsweek and bloggers around the net have been talking how 2007 will be the “Year of the Widget”..

Seems Shareasale decided, “Yeah, that makes sense!”.. let’s do it!

And here it is: Make A Widget!

SAS created an easy-to-use interface enabling merchants on the ShareASale Network to create and maintain a variety of widgets for their affiliates. Merchants have been provided access to the Widget system and I do believe they have a bit of testing to do yet.. but it reads like they will be offering this as early as the coming week to affiliates.

The more flexibility we are given to showcase merchants products on our sites the better. And in this case you will be able to have your offerings dynamically updated with the change of seasons and promotions.

The possibilities for this are far reaching. And I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before other networks look at this and create their own widget system. :)

Just keeps getting better and better this business..

-Matt Levenhagen

Online Spending Crossed Over 600 Billion in 2006!

Posted: January 9th, 2007 | Author: Matt Levenhagen | Filed under: Affiliate News | No Comments »

I will tell you this, no single person can deny that the internet is expanding and opportunities to make money are increasing. Not only are markets expanding and growing, but the methods are improving to reach those markets and make sales!

Per Yahoo: Online Spending Tops $100 Billion in 2006

Driven by a strong rise in holiday spending, U.S. retail Web sites collected $102.1 billion in 2006, marking a 24 percent increase over last year, according to a report released today..

So what does that mean to the affiliate marketer?

Many things! It means YOU are in the right place at the right time.

People are buying more online like never before. Things they may not have only a few years ago. That puts us in the position to make money like we couldn’t only a few years ago.

This means that merchants are doing better and will provide more opportunities because they will expand as well.. they will expand their product lines and improve their sales processes which reflects back on us!

Better affiliate programs… More of them!

As the news gets out that money is being made online, more and more merchants will hear the call, launch their sites and affiliate programs.

This is a global environment. Saturation is far, far, far from near. We’re not talking just opportunities in the U.S. or other major countries… The internet is expanding around the globe!

You don’t think I just make affiliate sales from people in a handful of nations do you? NO! All over the world…

If you are already practicing affiliate marketing, this should energize you to do more..

If you are thinking about it, this should give you peace of mind that this is an opportunity like no other right now.. Big.

The better merchants do, the better the opportunity for affiliate marketers.

-Matt Levenhagen