I’ve been busy trying to get the Jason Gazaway’s Bloggers Payback launch up over the last few days and I JUST read this post and this post here.
As most of you might have heard, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is cracking down on affiliate marketers. The game has changed for the community of us. We must now be very careful with disclosure, testimonials, claims and even the content we blog about. That also means that, we now have to disclose clearly that you have a vested interest in the products or services you’re promoting.
It’s not the end of the world, the sky’s still up there and we’re basically okay. It just means that we now have to be more straightforward and transparent with we’re doing. Trash the overhype, be more realistic and discerning in your product reviews and be very very certain to be clear on your online claims and transactions.
I urge all of you to read through the two post links above. Somehow, I think this might change the face of internet marketing techniques and in a sense, online marketing is slowly becoming more like our offline counterparts, don’t you think?
Here’s a good article on how the news rules will affect the blogosphere: Federal Trade Commission Will Regulate Blogging
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I gather this is only relevant to the USA and its citizens, not to the greater world.
Hi Simon,
From what I’ve heard, this new regulation by the FTC will not only affect citizens of the United States but affiliate marketers throughout the world as well. Come to think about it, it’ll be kinda unfair if the rest of the world could continue with sweeping responsibilities under rug while US citizens get harassed for not providing credible truth or endorsing a sub-quality product.
The Internet Marketing industry will definitely be affected by a great deal. Even Google, who has always been a pro-govt organization, will have to change some of their rules in order the adhere to this affiliate marketing crackdown.
One good advice, and probably the only advice that has been going around since 5th Oct, would be to always be honest with your dealings. Stop finding a way to beat the new rule because there is no way you can go round the FTC. If you are promoting a product as an affiliate marketer, make known that you are an affiliate marketer and you will be getting a commission from the product owner with every purchase.
What puzzles me most, however, are the testimonials. How are you going to make your testimonials appear credible? And also cloaked links. Now that you have to be absolutely transparent about the nature of your business, are cloaked links even necessary anymore?