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On October 5th, 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?
Basically if you are endorsing a product particularly when you are doing a review on it, you must state your relationship with the product owner. 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. I will more than likely give it like this, “Thaks for checking this out, just an FYI, if you buy from my link here, I will get a little commission so I’ll just say Thanks in advance. Seeking legal advice is your best bet to be clear on the rules. I am absuletly not a lawer and have no expertise in law. “Of course this is a disclaimer.”
This new ruling goes into effect on Dec. 1st, 2009. It is not a horrible situation for the blogging community that keeps it real. 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 6th, that the existing rules carry a fine as high as $11,000 if product endorsers and reviewers don’t comply.
Frank Kern really rocked out an awesome article on this subject. you can do a search for him if you have not read his stuff already. The article post is one of the best ones I sunk my teeth into and has cool info from a lawyer on it.
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.
Have an awesome day!