Have you heard the news? The Federal Trade Commission has finalized a guide to crack down on bloggers who do not properly disclose their affiliates. The rules and guidelines created are actually much more complicated (and confusing I may add) than that. If you are currently profiting from any online affiliates or advertisements, it may be a very good idea to check out the FTC Guidelines (not that it will make any sense) to protect yourself.
May I point out that the new guidelines are not just for bloggers, but for advertisements in many different media outlets. Since I use affiliate marketing and advertisements on several online sites, that is my main concern.
So how does this actually impact my online income streams? That is a very good question that I am not sure I can answer yet. In fact, I have been reading up on what others are saying and it seems there is plenty of confusion going around. It seems that some of the details and guides are a little vague. Here are a few articles from some well respected individuals on the matter.
- Pot Pie Girl writes – Who is the FTC After?
- ShoeMoney writes – What You Don’t Know About The New FTC Rules On Disclosure
After reading through all the materials I have found myself with more questions then when I started. Here are a few questions I have that could have an impact on me.
- Will I need to disclose affiliate links on my eHow articles?
- How does this impact affiliate marketing on Twitter? Since you can only post 140 characters, it seems difficult to add in a disclosure as well.
- Do I need to go back and disclose links already published on Ezine? What about HubPages and Squidoo?
- Is a generic disclosure statement enough, or do I need to be specific in how much money I get if you purchase something through my site?
- What about AdSense?
Maybe some of these questions are out of scope from the new FTC guidelines? If they are, how can I be sure? These and many questions I still have to answer.
Building Your Online Business the Right Way
In my opinion, regardless of the FTC guidelines, I believe it is good practice to disclose information whenever you can. Including disclosures and using best practices in the online world is just good business.
I know there are a lot of people out there making a ton of money online marketing questionable products (i.e. weight loss pills). I personally don’t have an issue if that is how others want to earn their income. It just isn’t for me. I believe in karma and doing the right thing, so profiting off of products that I would never use will never be included in any of my online income streams.
Additional Actions I Have Taken
As to my point earlier, I think the most important thing to keep in mind is to use best business practices whenever possible. There are a few things that I have actually updated on PFI to disclose certain information. I have added a Disclosure Policy page to my site where I point out that I do receive compensation for various articles and advertisements on this site.
I have also added some special coding that will display a “disclaimer” box in the footer of every post I publish. There is also a link included in the statement that references the sites disclosure page. You can check out the information in the footer of this post to see what I am referring to.
While the disclaimer statement and page are generic throughout the site, I think it is a best practice that I will begin adding to other online income streams.
How are you planning to disclose information on your site based on the new FTC guidelines?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It will also be interesting to see how this law affects bloggers in other countries who are using U.S. affiliates. I’m based in the U.K. and I’m sure there are many people in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the Middle/Far East that will be wondering the same thing. How can they make us adhere to their law?
Oh and by the way, you’re the first blog that has ever made me click through from Google Reader because the full feed is not there. Usually I unsubscribe. So kudos for that too! It’s a sign you have really great content that resonates with me!
Cheers,
Ian
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pfincome Reply:
October 26th, 2009 at 7:23 am
@Ian – Thanks for giving me the chance and not unsubscribing! I think you bring up an excellent concern on how all this will play out for affiliate marketers outside the U.S.
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A heavy-hitter blogger (who makes over $50k per month) recently said that these new laws will be “totally unenforceable.” It does seem that it will be kind of hard to keep tabs on every single blog in existence, in order to crack down on violators. Any idea how such a thing might be enforceable? Also…. would it be sufficient for a footer note to each post to simply say something like, “For disclaimer information about this blog, please click here.” ?
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