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Posts Tagged ‘ftc’

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On October 5^th, 2009 the FTC published and released to the public its final revisions on guides governing endorsements and testimonials.

What does this means for the Bloggers of the world that have affiliate links on their sites?

If you are endorsing or promoting a product by doing reviews, you will have to state that you get compensaion for you efforts should someone by from your link. Its pretty simple, the readers that come to your site will now be informed by you that you will be compensated if they buy from your link. In other words, you may want to attach a little note saying, “This is my affiliate link, if you buy this product after clicking on this link I will be compensated” You get the idea. You may be able to find some good legal direction on the internet if you do not already have an attourney. I am definitly not a lawyer and have no education in legal counsel. “You got it, this is a disclaimer.”

This new ruling goes into effect on Dec. 1^st, 2009. You should know that this is not a bad thing for bloggers that promote with hoensty and integrity. What will be bad is if you don’t follow the rules.

David Goldman, staff writer for CNN Money notes in his article released on October 6^th, that the existing rules carry a fine as high as $11,000 if product endorsers and reviewers don’t comply.

Frank Kern also did a bang up job writing an article post about this. you can do a search for him if you have not read his stuff already. His post puts it all together and just nails it hard with what he learned from one of his lawyer pals.

So, do yourself a favor and go to the Federal Trade Commission site and read the entire article.

Personally, I think it is great for bloggers that are truthful and want to give great content to help consumers make informed decision on a purchase. I truely am sold on the fact that this will help the good guy out there and weed out the deceptive marketers and give our customers a warm fuzzy felling again about buying online.

Be well!

The Bloggomaniac