NEW FTC Ruling
This is very important information. So if you run a affilliate
site or BLOG you need to read this.
The American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have made
an official statement that starting on December 1, 2009,
all bloggers and affiliates have to disclose they are being
paid for running paid endorsements and testimonial on their
blogs and WebPages (including eLerts).
i.e. if you get paid for selling a product and you use
endorsements or testimonials you need to make it very
clear you are being paid to
do so.
An endorsement or testimonial means ANY advertising
message, including reviews, statements, demos,
signature or any other elements that consumers could
potentially believe that reflect the opinions, beliefs, findings
or experiences of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser.
Endorsements and testimonials usually appear as images,
text, video, reviews, links, giveaways, etc.
Note that a consumer who purchases a product with his or
her own money and praises it on a blog will not be deemed to be
providing an endorsement. However, a blogger who is paid to
write about a product, by an advertiser or a third party, is
covered by the Guides.
This includes being paid commission on sales so affiliates beware.
If you are a blogger who receives any type of compensation for
reviewing a product/service/web site and writing a blog post about
it, the FTC rules apply to you, regardless of your geographic location
and nationality –expect that all countries will soon release similar
rules.
Any form of compensation is regarded as payment (money,
merchandise, coupons, freebies, etc.) and any form of
compensation should be disclosed.
While the FTC does not require bloggers to post the exact
amount of money received by a blogger to endorse a product,
the commission expects bloggers to clearly and conspicuously
disclose their relationship with the advertiser and what they
have received to endorse a product.
These rules affect mommy bloggers and tech bloggers who
are given products because their core readership represents
a key demographic group targeted by the advertisers.
For example, a blogger could receive merchandise from
a marketer with a request to review it, but with no compensation
paid other than the value of the product itself. In this situation,
whether or not any positive statement the blogger posts would
be deemed an “endorsement” within the meaning of the Guides
would depend on, among other things, the value of that product,
and on whether the blogger routinely receives such requests.
Bloggers and affiliates who have any type of testimonial on
their sites should comply with the regulation.
Big Brother!
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