FTC Attacks Affiliate Bloggers
I have always been clear when making a product reviews on my blog that I use affiliate links. In fact Affiliate Marketing is a big part of the monetization model on my blog and in last 3 month or so, ever since I heard that FTC will go after internet endorsements I have added extra disclaimers to each post that included affiliate links.
Well, time has come – “Big Brother” has his eyes on Your Blog Income!
Yesterday FTC has resealed final guides governing endorsements, testimonials and yes, that includes promotions via Affiliate Links! This could have a very dramatic impact on your affiliate marketing business if you don’t precautions. And here is how and what…
First and foremost I want to make a disclaimer:
I’m not a lawyer, I’m not qualified to give you legal advise and if you have ANY legal questions or concerns I highly recommend you get yourself advise from professionals!
With that being said I want to share what I use for legal protection of my own sites, such as you can see in legal documentation section of my blog.
For years I was using legal forms on my sites that you can create using some free generators. And sorry, I will not even link to those for one simple reason – I have learned that those generic form generators actually have more chances to damage you instead of protecting. They simply leave too many loopholes open for your site to become legal liability to you and your family!
I don’t know about you but I prefer to be as secure and as protected as possible.
To really get a solid legal defense you got couple options:
1. Get an Internet Lawyer to create legal documentation for your sites. And it is very important to hire a qualified professional. Internet Law is a new so be sure if you hire someone who know all the intricacies of the new media format and offer you solid protection! This is the most expensive but best form of protection you can find, expect to part with a few hundred dollars.
2. Get Website Legal Forms Generator. This is a software I use myself to create all legal forms for my own sites, such as I have shown above. And reason behind it simple. Software created by Internet lawyer Mike Young, who knows the nature of the web law and provides you with very decent protection for the price you pay!
I like the simplicity of the software and protection it provides but it also doesn’t hurt to know that you get ongoing support.
Since the FTC guides just came out – software doesn’t generate dedicated form for it but when I first heard about this regulation coming, I have contacted them and was advised that once final version of regulation released – they will include protection for it. Is is always nice to know that you and your family are protected against intrusive eye of Big Brother.
Not that I don’t like government – I simply don’t like them to meddle in my business affairs. Unfortunately they have a proven record of screwing up anything they touch.
Click To See a Video Demonstration Of
Website Legal Forms Generator Here!
Disclaimer: some of the links mentioned within this post or posts they lead to are my affiliate links and I get compensated for recommending those products. However I never recommend something I didn’t believe in and welcome your questions and feedback.
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About The Blog Author
Alex Sysoef is an IT Consultant, Internet Marketer and ProBlogger who shares his passion and knowledge of WordPress, SEO, Social Media and traffic strategies on his blog WordPress Howto Spotter. Connect on Twitter or Facebook
40 Responses to “FTC Attacks Affiliate Bloggers”
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RT @TheSpotter FTC Attacks Affiliate Bloggers http://bit.ly/1fba2 <– Good addition to our Blog Post and Radio Show yesterday!
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Wow Alex! Once again, you are providing great infomration, and exactly how to do it! Thank you for that. I had not really even bothered much with all of this, but your right – it is us, the blogger, and the affiliate that it will effect.
.-= Heather Masson´s last blog ..Is Commenting Old Fashioned? =-.
Heather,
Right now it is of highest priority as I think they will be picking a few bloggers for a high profile “examples”. Obviously those who make really good money can hire layer to protect them so it will be mid level bloggers that will suffer.
Or so I think
I really kind of hope this whole thing blows over, but what ultimately matters is which bloggers they decide to make an example out of. The actual guidelines are pretty vague, and if they wanted to they could probably take an extremely broad interpretation that puts all of affiliate marketing under regulation.
I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed and hope they take a very narrow and specific approach to fighting obvious scams. If they want to soak $11,000 out of me, they should call up their buds at the IRS and realize I ain’t got that kind of cash
.-= John´s last blog ..SideWiki – Hardly Worth Writing About =-.
Ok, I think they will not focus on average bloggers, as the spotter said, they will pick some big fish and people will be scared. I dont think this will help the internet progress at all. How sad.
.-= Sarah O.´s last blog ..Encuentra Celebridades =-.
John,
I don’t think it will blow over – in fact I know it will not as once they put regulations in place it will stay. What we need to do is be prepared and protected.
With the proliferation of ‘review’ blogs out there, this was bound to happen… Many people go out of their way to hide the fact that they’re marketers, and try to make it look like they’re just some customer. You can even buy bundles of reviews, so you can use those rather than ever see the product yourself…
Two problems spring to mind immediately – if an ethical marketer likes your product they’ll grab an affiliate link and promote it – but in light of this legislation probably not as many will blog about it. Since people on a rant don’t affiliate, the percentage of negative posts will take a higher profile.
The other problem is that the law only applies within the US until other countries adopt the same or similar legislation – might this leave American marketers and site owners at a disadvantage?
Overall, though, I can’t say I have any issues with the law – we’ll see how it’s implemented. If a marketer believes in a product they shouldn’t hesitate to disclose their affiliation with the site; if they don’t believe in the product or haven’t actually seen it, they shouldn’t be promoting it in the first place…
.-= Doug Champigny´s last blog ..Protecting And Preparing Your Internet Marketing Business In Today’s Economy =-.
I agree Doug,
Problem is – they don’t have good track record on implementation and anything they try to regulate, they completely screw up. I hope this will not be the case.
Sorry, but I don’t see this as government meddling in business. I see it as government attempting to protect the consumer from scam artists and con men…including people who don’t necessarily see themselves as scam artists and con men.
It’s not that I have all that much confidence in government’s abilities to do everything they promise, but I *do* see a value in consumer protection efforts. And, believe it or not, those efforts are often successful. (You might want to check out what things were like in the US before consumer protections were enacted. It’s really scary stuff.)
I know many folks elsewhere online are arguing that the FTC shouldn’t be involved because of “caveat emptor”…let the buyer beware…without realizing that they themselves have long been protected from the ramifications of caveat emptor by that ‘meddling government’.
For example, if you buy a gallon of milk before the Sell By date, get it home, pour yourself a glass…and discover the milk is spoiled…under caveat emptor, you’re out of luck. You just bought yourself a gallon of spoilt milk, and the merchant doesn’t have to do a darned thing about it.
However, because of that ‘meddling government’, when you buy a gallon of milk at the store, it comes with an implied warranty. So you can take that spoiled milk back to the store and get it replaced.
I know which I’d prefer.
Frankly, I don’t believe most people know how to protect themselves online. I don’t believe most people know how to separate the wheat from the chaff online. Why? Because “on the internet, no one knows you’re a dog”. Heck, I know a lot of people who think they’re knowledgable about the Internet who are just as easily fooled as anyone else. And it’s not like genuinely knowledgable people are teaching this stuff in elementary school.
Think about it. You’re looking for information online because you DON’T know something and want to find out about it and, at the top of the results for your search term, come across a polished, professional-looking website with lots of information that looks really useful. How are you to know it’s legit or not? How are you to know that the information they’re providing isn’t the most up-to-date when the reason you’re looking for information in the first place is because you don’t know the information???
Certainly, scam artists can put disclaimers on their websites…but at least they’ll be there for people to find, to serve as a warning. And, of course, these guidelines provide no defense against foreign scammers. But, you know? We don’t have protection against foreign scammers anyway. However, as countries enact protections within their own borders, more and more people in other countries benefit from those protections. Should the US wait to implement protections until every other country in the world has? Yeesh.
And, as far as the scapegoat routine goes? Do you really think the legit big time bloggers don’t already have disclaimers? Are you one of those folks who think that Consumer Reports gets all the products they review for free? Or believe that most of those review sites out there are legitimate? I sure hope not.
Frankly, I believe the bloggers who hustle affiliate products they’ve never used…raving about them to get people to buy them…brought this on themselves. So I have no sympathy with them. Any more than I have sympathy with “review sites” who purchase reviews. Or IMers who promote products *they’ve* never used, choosing simply to use the sales letter provided with the product and getting it out to their list before their folks buy it from someone else.
It makes me wonder what percentage of the complaining about this all over the web is coming from people far more concerned about how telling the truth will cut into their sales than any concern about ‘meddling government’.
Yeah, same way government tries to provide us all with health insurance. Someone will always end up paying dearly for any guidelines and regulations by Government.
While someone will always get victimized by scammers – regulations will not protect them as the rest of the world is not regulated!
Trust, we as affiliate marketers establish by being honest right now is what helps us make profits online, not sending random links to everyone in the world.
I personally believe people are smarter then you give them credit and are able to see honest from scam and beauty of internet – those who doing honest business will remain profitable.
I still say – government should be small and stay away from my business and my personal freedom and my choices! I’m capable of regulating myself and so are many of my friends! I have always clearly stated on this blog that affiliate marketing is part of my monetization strategy but always been upfront in reviews.
Wow, that’s unbelievably naive, thinking the government is protecting you. I’d suggest moving to a communist country if you’re that big a fan of government.
Kay, I wish I could share in your optimism.
I do review some products I *actually use* and I’ve always believed that being honest about both the strengths AND weaknesses is the best way to create trust and conversions. But now I could be sitting with a huge liability if my results with that product “aren’t typical.” So what if I’ve been using a particular web host for years, and I recommend it, but someone spilled juice on the server next to the machine my sites are on? How can I, from a limited one-person perspective, know what the “typical” result of the product is?
And yes, sometimes I use the word “review” on products I haven’t used. I also keep these objective and announce clearly that I haven’t used it myself, that the information I’m providing are technical specifications and comparisons to similar products.
I guess its not a big deal that I have to put a disclaimer on these things: But I wasn’t trying to trick anyone in the first place. Meanwhile, marketers from other countries can say whatever they want about any kind of product, and I’ll look like the sell-out because of my government mandated warning label. If people aren’t smart enough to make good purchasing decisions, do you think they’ll realize that the sites stuffed with legalese are the “good ones?” I think thats a bit backward!
.-= John´s last blog ..SideWiki – Hardly Worth Writing About =-.
I’m not surprised considering Oprah and others have filed suits against fake blogs with regards to stuff like Acai. Their CPA ads are still leading to the fake blogs even today!
What is surprising to me is the language used. Bloggers! What about regular websites? Are they also under the scrutiny? Or is it more towards affiliate marketing in general?
If it is towards bloggers, it would seem to me that any lawyer right out of college would see a loophole there.
Tom,
This impact anyone as web in general now regulated from what I understand. I state Bloggers because this is my main audience.
Unfortunately, I’m afraid that not only will this not “blow over”, but this is only the beginning. Big government has been sniffing around for awhile for ways to meddle in the highly profitable internet arena, and the current administration is more tech savvy than any other. The internet will be just one more power grab. And it will not just affect the US. If you do business in the US(and who doesn’t on the World Wide Web?), regardless of where you are based, you will fall under these laws. Enforcement will be impossible, so they will simply select a few victims to use to scare the rest of us into compliance. Americans need to wake up and oust the current administration before we lose ALL of our hard-won freedoms!
.-= Jacque LaMantia´s last blog ..The Law Of Attraction Is Only ONE Of 11 Forgotten Laws! =-.
So now you have similar laws over there as we have in Germany since I can remember. It is indeed terrible, and one can get gray hair as a web master. Consumer protection laws would be a good thing though, if they worked out as they are planned — just, they don’t.
As it is near Halloween, I must mention another thing: In Germany, from the beginning, a new way to make money online was discovered: hunting and suing bloggers and webmasters who made some little formal mistake.
This overdrawn legal stuff is created by people who do not know what they are doing, everywhere in the world. It mainly helps scam artists and other fishy people, hardly ever the customer. And web law is the worst.
Internet publishers, not being printed press, must always be more watchful, not only in business, but even to not lose freedom of speech little by little.
.-= Neila S. R.´s last blog ..Your Hotmail / MSN Password Published on the Internet. What does this mean? And Why Did You Allow This? =-.
Governments are the same every where, it’s all about control, control,control. I’m not a big fan of governments and their need to control every aspect of everything.
But just to lighten it some what,here in Australia we have a politician who has decided that it’s a good idea that we all have tracking devices put in our cars so that, they know when we leave the house what roads we use,how far we go and when we come home, so then we can be taxed on road usage or some such rubbish.
I say to that person go out and get a real job if you have that much time on your hands to sit there and come up with such nonsense.
Hi,
I have worked as a certified paralegal for over 23 years and have just read and re-read the new FTC regulations, it is unfortunate that our govenment spends so much of our tax payers money on formulating such non sense. This is nothing more than “full disclosure” and any business model which does not follow “full disclosure” is not a good business to do business with.
Always question when it comes to “worldly news and politics” who stands to benefit from this? Follow the money, its always in there hidden somewhere, just use open eyes and eventually you will find one.
Plain and simple the language says “Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service” How this or any of the remainder of the regulations within these new FTC guidelines are going to “protect” the consumer, remains to be seen. Really not too sure where this one is going, but will be interesting to see who ends up benefiting from it all in the long run.
.-= JWaker´s last blog ..Surround yourself with Positivity =-.
The FTC has replied about some bloggers fears with regards to the $11,000 fine. It is not true although they do not say what the fines, if any, are. First issue of non-compliane is a warning, not a fine. Well that is certainly good news.
You can read it here:
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/jennifer-vilaga/slipstream/ftc-bloggers-its-not-medium-its-message-0
Thanks for sharing Tom,
I think their reply leaves much for interpretation. If there are possible legal consequences this statement is bunch of BS:
Something as important as compliance to their regulations should be defined in exact format.
This is sad, what else is the government going to do.
.-= joe´s last blog ..NonProfit Credit Consolidation =-.
I don’t think they really had a choice. They had to do something! As marketers we see a lot of stuff that we know is pure BS! Fake blogs promoting acai and saying that Oprah endorses it. They are getting thousands of complaints daily! Oprah has filed suits as well as many other celebrities.
Now, they could have just come down on the free trial offers and fake blogs but what about sites with fake testimonials? How many times have we bought a ebook to teach us to make $1000/day when you finally get it the book is crap? They had to make changes.
If you are honest with your business you will have nothing to worry about. In fact, you may see less competition as it weeds out the unethical sites and those who are unwilling to comply will shut down.
Hello there TrudyVan here, I am an affiliate marketer as well as a trainer in one of my memberships sites. I see nothing wrong with disclosing that I am an affiliate marketer and that I get paid for what I am promoting. Being upfront and honest is the correct way. Surely people are not that naive to think that you are not getting paid your commission if they buy from your or from your blog. Your door to door sales men sales work the same way.
I have a problem with being singled out when there are porn sites that promote women and child abuse and they are not closed down and some of them with adsense advertising on to boot.
Just my opinion
kindest regards
TrudyVan
.-= TrudyVan´s last blog ..Comment by creativeone59 =-.
Trudy,
As was stated above – follow the money. Those sites generally are well represented or off shore making them hard target. Unsuspecting bloggers and website owners are easy target and with so much left for free interpretation they have full control. I agree that disclosure is good and should be part of every good business but self regulated
The FTC did not attack affiliate marketers so your title is unnecessarily inflammatory. What the FTC did was update rules that are decades old to reflect the real world we live in in 2009. While online activity has made it possible for us to compete on a level we couldn’t before, we are not entitled to perks or behaviors that are not acceptable in the professional world. If we are journalist/bloggers, we need to disclose our potential conflicts of interest. If we are affiliate marketers, we can’t take advantage of unaware people just like the advertisers on TV can’t.
It’s called ethics and it applies to us too. The FTC just finally caught up.
Aaron,
FTC did in fact attack as ONLY US based bloggers are subject to this “guidelines” and in case you missed it – the rest of the world is not impacted. This is not about ethics in my opinion, as those of us who are doing business have always disclosed affiliate relationship, but about possible control they can have over us.
I stand by my title even though I appreciate you taking the time to share your opinion.
I think a clear communication to the blog audience is very important and therefore sponsored or paid reviews should be disclosed. This can support the credibility of the blogger as well.
This new regulation is only going to hurt the more dishonest bloggers out there who are writing reviews as favors instead of honest reviews. I don’t feel it will affect me much.
Jim Clary
.-= Jim Clary´s last blog ..Who Is Your Audience? =-.
Most regulations just make it worse for the consumer. Think about realestate and mortgages. The amount of paperwork one has to go through is enormous. Most of it is all CYA stuff for them and doesn’t protect you. A few years ago when we were signing our title documents, I read every word. The people at the title company were visible frustrated. They were hoping for a 5-min appt and I was there well over an hour. 90% of the material offered me not protection at all.
.-= ChrisCD´s last blog ..Best IRA Certificate of Deposit Rates – October 2009 =-.