Posts Tagged ‘ftc’
Stay Compliant with the FTC with Cmp.ly
In case you missed it, which you shouldn’t have considering all the outrage and buzz that the move created, the FTC decided a few months ago that it was time for bloggers and social media professionals to be more transparent with their efforts. Essentially, as a blogger, it’s your duty to disclose your material connections. If you get a product to review or giveaway, you need to let your visitors know exactly what you are doing. The move has made life a bit more difficult for bloggers, but it’s designed to protect consumers against fraud and deceptive reviews. While the FTC is not expected to come after all bloggers at this time, you still want to stay compliant just in case a major crackdown takes place. Thanks to CMP.ly, you can now make your blog compliant and keep yourself out of trouble.
Once you sign up for the service, you are going to be provided with a shortened URL that you can use to link to from your blog. Currently, 5 tops of disclosures are covered through this service. But you can always create custom disclosures using CMP.ly. Read more »
How To Stay In the FTC’s Good Graces
The FTC seems to have opened a can of worms by introducing a new set of guidelines for bloggers and affiliate marketers that will go into effect on December 1st, 2009. The FTC is trying to make things more transparent on the web and protect the consumers in the process. So the intentions are certainly positive. Nevertheless, a lot of bloggers are extremely nervous about the FTC’s ruling. Some are worried that they won’t be able to make enough money to stay afloat by providing full disclosure on their blogs. Others are worried about paying up to $11,000 per violation. That could certainly cripple even a large blogging network.
Affiliate marketing has quickly become one of the easiest ways to make money from blogs. Let’s say you have a blog about health products. You can always make money with Adsense and through other channels, but you shouldn’t forget about the affiliate products in your niche either. Here is where problems arise. There are many bloggers who get freebies from product manufacturers to review a product. They go on to write a review on those products. The tendency here is to write a positive review to show appreciation for the product manufacturers’ gesture. That’s not how you are supposed to review a product. Your review needs to be unbiased and objective. But if you are getting compensated by some a company, would you still point out the major flaws in its products? If you want to stay compliant with the FTC rules, you should!
One way to get around this issue is by returning the freebies that product makers send you. I have sent back review products in the past and usually that won’t be a trouble if you discuss things with manufacturers beforehand. By returning freebies, you show the FTC that you are not in it to get freebies. Of course, you can always disclose what you are getting to write a post. That’s probably less painful. Read more »
The FTC Rules for Bloggers
In case you haven’t noticed, the FTC has decided to regulate the blogging/social-media world to provide more protection for consumers. For far too long, bloggers have been getting freebies from advertisers and product manufacturers in return for positive reviews. Of course, you wouldn’t expect a serious blogger to engage in such practices. But you would be surprised what people do for freebies. We are not talking about small gifts here. Some people have received computers, camcorders, and all kinds of free gadgets just to provide a positive testimonial for a product. It’s not that hard to imagine why the FTC has decided to go out of its way to come up with a guideline that needs to be followed by bloggers, affiliates, and social-media marketers, starting December 1st. There are many people who read these fake testimonials and believe them to be real. Besides, reading a positive review without having all the facts in hand is not the best way to get informed online.
The FTC guidelines are vague to say the least. They always are. But the fact remains that bloggers and social-media marketers who are being compensated by advertisers need to disclose what they are receiving for their reviews, testimonials, and so on. Andy Baer, who I had the pleasure of personally working with and is an absolute expert on this topic, has taken the leadership to help bloggers understand this ruling better. Here is what he had to say about the FTC’s latest ruling on this matter:
companies that make payments or give free products to bloggers and other online commentators in order to generate positive buzz or favorable reviews for their products will now have to monitor closely the statements and claims made about the products and ensure that these relationships, if material, are clearly and conspicuously disclosed.
