New FTC Rules for Bloggers.. How about Affiliates? or PPCers?
Posted: October 12th, 2009 | Author: Matt Levenhagen | Filed under: Affiliate News, Landing Pages | Tags: ftc, rules | 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:
——————————————————————————————-
- Why I’m Not Worried About the FTC
- FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Clarifies New Internet Marketing, Blogging & Affiliate Advertising Guidelines With Jim Edwards
- Article available at FoxNews.
- FTC backs down.. $11,000 fine not true..
- New FTC Rules for Testimonials and Endorsements in Marketing (Joel Comm’s Lawyer)
- Kern’s take..
- How to Word Disclosures & Agreements to Meet FTC Rules
——————————————————————————————-
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..
