New FTC Rule for Affiliate Marketeers: Mandatory Disclosure

This Just In! FTC has come up with a new rule and it is affecting ALL AFFILIATES. The rule will come in force on 1st December 2009. Changes will affect “testimonial advertisements, bloggers, celebrity endorsements” and affiliate marketers employing any such techniques. FTC stressed that regardless of the undertone of a blog post, “the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product” will be  “considered an endorsement”. Therefore “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.”

Full guide can be downloaded as PDF here. Please, if you are an affiliate, take the time and read it. It will save you tons of money (think lawsuit) and won’t land you in hot soup if you abide to it. You can also read more about affiliate blogging rules here.

Because of this, I have written a disclosure on my About page. I think it is a good move by FTC to stamp on scammers. I myself do not like scammers, thats the whole point of this blog. It is to protect consumers and guiding them to buy the right product, and not buy trash.

You can continue to find quality reviews here. As you know my style, I constantly scan through the whole web to look for legit testis (legitimate testimonials, not legit testicles) and bring you the truth. We should not waste our time and effort to land ourselves on a lousy product. I will do the research for you, and you decide. Now FTC is enforcing it, it is good news for consumers:).

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Tagged as: ftc rules, ftc rules for affiliates, ftc rules for bloggers