I wonder when this will affect affiliates. Will we ever have to disclose how much we receive for each cpa lead or clickbank ebook commission? Code: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,560501,00.html http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/04/14/ftc-to-regulate-blogs-and-social-media
What a bunch of dickheads. So let's screw over little bloggers while banks get free money from the government.
You failed to read. "requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products." What that means is say Apple gives a popular Blogger a free iPhone if they do a positive review of it, the Blogger would than have to be honest with it's viewers and let them know that they got a free iPhone for doing it. It has nothing to do with how much Bloggers are earning per conversion on CPA or anything related, it's only about false advertising. Sidenote: I do like threads like this though, it shows who here has basic reading comprehension skills, and who doesn't.
I always like how they say the fines will be to recover losses to consumers . . . quite entertaining.
Makes perfect sense to me. If you buy something thinking it's going to be amazing due to false advertising than you've lost out as a consumer when it's a piece of shit. It's more about being a deterrent to false/misleading advertising.
good luck trying to enforce it..They would better off spending their man hours on something a little more worth while.
hmmm.... big problem i see here in enforcing this is google.... if there was a disclaimer on a site regarding freebies then google might hurt a blog in rankings but, imo....if pple fight it or get into too much of a fuss, then it's gonna get big media coverage....then the stupid reporter will tell stupid people that have no clue about the internet that such laws are good for them. imo, knowing this gives some us advanced prep.....personally, i might add something somewhere in my privacy policy (an almost invisible link at the bottom of my blogs) in legalese.....it never hurts to have a privacy policy on your site. also, imo, this issue will be far more complex than the ftc realizes...just because it's been approved doesn't mean that it'll be fully enforced....after all, i see a ton of lobbists + lawsuits in the horizon...primarily from advertisers who are making bucks from small folks like us writing about their products.... also wanna add that cigarette companies are required to put warnings on their product saying that basically their product can kill you...yet tobacco is a multi billion dollar industry.... disclosures are no biggie... jmo
What the regulators say they will do, and what they end up doing once their nose gets in the tent are two different things. When the FDA started regulating it was only supposed to be about banning toxic or dangerous drugs, not about it monopolistically 'approving' the efficacy of all medications or all therapuetic claims. I imagine the FTC implementing its surveillance of blog conflicts of interest by eventually requiring all bloggers file annual disclosure forms, requiring bloggers to pay licensing fees to conduct their 'free speech', demanding tracking of all financial transactions the sites conduct, and surrendering all such data upon command with or without legal process. In the name of stopping a little false advertising, we may get a ton of false democracy.
The root of this is the Flogs. And the FTC really cant tell the difference between a Flog and a Blog and just wraps them under the same blanket.
I did paid posting a few years ago and Googlesmacked my blog from a PR3 to a 0 then recently I got back to a 1 but started doing real reviews and they dropped me to 0 again. I wonder if this affects blogs that are already published?
I believe the government always seems to put in effect things we the people just dont want. How the hell can this be?
they only way google'd catch you is if you put a payperblog link or something similar that's the danger of the ftc ruling....
the strangest part of this whole thing (if i am understanding it completely) is that it is: A) If you receive a review item for free, you need to say so or you break the law B) It is PERFECTLY FINE to make up a COMPLETELY BULLSHIT review of an item you probably never even saw before in your life! If this is the case, then boy are we in for some rough times ahead with our elected leaders
I'm in Canada (yay, FTC has no authority here), but my server is in LA... Not that I've received any free iPhones or anything...yet.. Hmm? Apple?
Had the same thing happen to me. I had a PR3 blog, was making like $10 - $15 per review from PPP, and got whacked to PR0. This was when they wanted in post disclosures. Now, you only need to have a "disclosure policy" like this: This policy is valid from January 1 2009 This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content. The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers? own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question. This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified. And yes, you should have a privacy policy as well. Just make it standard when you set up the blogs, and no worries.
An interesting question is how it affects bloggers that live outside the US, but have their web properties inside the US. For example, I live in Canada, but my domains are registered with a US company, and my hosting is from a US company - does that mean that they could (try) to enforce those policies even though I am not a resident?
