FTC and Blogging
I just read an article on Zac Johnson’s site about the FTC and their decision to regulate blogging. His reference was Fox News, and then low and behold while walking past the front desk at my office I see on the front page of the Wall Street Journal an article about the subject. Now considering I already read Zac’s post and got the jist of things enough to not click through to the Fox site, having that article sitting right in front of me in print was a little hard to pass up, so I read it.
I wanted to link to the WSJ article, but spent a full 3 minutes looking for it and came up with bupkiss. I did however see the headline on a video and they are nice enough to put the little embed code right there, so I did.
The jist of the article is that the FTC wants bloggers to disclose when they get paid to write a review, disclose any free products they have received, etc.
First of all, this is kind of a no-brainer for both bloggers and consumers. It is a pretty much established standard in any review type of proposition that you simply disclose that you were paid or got free stuff. Read most CNET reviews or articles and you will see the disclaimer down in the about the author at the end of each post. That is nothing new and most bloggers on the up and up have already been following that type of policy.
Second – HELLLO, Consumers, the decision to make a purchase is entirely up to you. If you come across an ad, then the site that has that ad is most likely getting paid to have it there. If you come across a review of a product on a blog and there are links directing you where to purchase you can pretty much bet that the site is getting a affiliate commission from sending consumers. If you see the opening sentence of an article stating “So and So just sent me a free laptop so I could test out their software” you should take their review with a grain of salt. Most of the reviews I saw about the free laptop also included that after testing the software they were going to donate the laptop – thus keeping to their code of ethics and trying not to taint the review.
The articles seem to make it look like the FTC is really going after the fake blogs (flogs) but bulk of people doing flogs aren’t going to be deterred by a FTC guideline. They are going to have to face real consequences in order to change their ways.
The real questions about these guidelines are these:
1. For those bloggers that actually purchased a product, reviewed it, and placed a affiliate link (thus getting paid if readers follow & buy) – how does the new regulations effect that? Would we need to put a disclaimer at the bottom of the post saying – If you click the link and purchase I get a affiliate commission. If one were to do that, then the disclaimer itself might break the affiliate agreement (some agreements have rules about telling people to click on the links). I suppose a simple disclaimer like: This site participates in affiliate marketing, and many times links to products reviewed are affiliate links. Might work. – who knows.
2. What about advertisement type posts w/ affiliate links?
3. In theory all old posts would be grandfathered in, but who knows – if those old posts have search engine rankings and are still generating hits, would one have to go back and edit all their previous posts to input the disclaimer?
I did scan the Fox report and it seemed to explain things a little better than the WSJ article. Just too many questions.
On a separate note:
I tried to Retweet Zac’s post by clicking on his handy retweet button, and Twitter kept telling me my un/pw was incorrect. Now my computer has saved the un/pw so I haven’t actually had to type it in for a long time. I tried several variations but had no success. Then I did the “forgot password” route and reset my pw. After about 1/2 and hour I went to refresh the page and it had logged me out and again told me my un/pw was incorrect. I just reset the thing so I know it is correct – what the heck?! Arg – frustrating.
Johnny Optimist
The other 1/2 is full of opportunity!
This site participates in affiliate marketing, and many times links to products reviewed are affiliate links. 
Free Photo Tutorial Website Launched
One thing I have always been a fan of is Photo Tutorial sites. These sites give you step by step instructions on how to use some great photo editing and design software to create awesome photos, designs, pictures, logo’s, banners, etc.
Several of my website logos are based off some free design tutorials. For instance, my From Pink Slip logo of a Pink Slip is just a pink version of a turned piece of paper with the corner flipped up. Same goes for the Blogmaster General notebook logo. The Click Into Action logo was also created from one of the tutorials I found online as well. I followed the basic tutorials then customized them a bit based on what I was looking for. After completing those, I created the Mitchendise and Johnny Optimist logos from scratch.
Why am I telling you this? Because a new Tutorial site has just been launched by none other than Zac Johnson. Yes, That Zac Johnson. As if his Affiliate Marketing website wasn’t full of enough awesome information, now he will be providing great content on a second site. Seeing as I already enjoy reading his affiliate marketing site, I am certainly looking forward to following what he does on his new Royal Tutorial site.
Some of you might disregard this post as just an entry into Zac’s contest, but rest assured I am actually going to be following his new site and fully expect great things to come out of it. I am definately adding his new site to my short list of bookmarks. Check it out if you have time.
Johnny Optimist
The other half is full of opportunity!
Learn how to empty your inbox
Do you have a hard time keeping your inbox empty? Don’t know where to start to get it that way? Constantly bogged down by the seemingly overwhelming array of email? I have a solution for you! Well, actually Khuram has a solution for you. He has created a video on how to empty your inbox.
Doubleter - want to do stuff faster and better? Go to Doubleter and learn how to do that. His latest post and video is about how to get your email inbox down to zero. Who doesn’t want that huh?
Johnny Optimist
The other half is full of opportunity!
Investors are always looking for Quality
Think the folks out there who invest in Venture Capital, Angel Funds or Private Equity aren’t putting up more money in this “economic environment”? Think again. Quality management, and Quality financial fundamentals are still being invested in. There are new Venture Capital / Angel funds being raised. In fact, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have been able to raise some $300 million for their new Venture Capital firm. Yes – NEW Venture Capital firm. Of course these guys are no strangers to Venture Capital, nor are they strangers to investments or new technologies. But this is the first fund they have raised.
You can read more about their fund and firm here:
http://blog.pmarca.com/2009/07/introducing-our-new-venture-capital-firm-andreessen-horowitz.html
They have stated that they are only going to invest in areas they know. That would be in the software and internet worlds. This is a great move and one many VC firms follow. It allows them to maintain a focus on specific areas of the industry and keeps them from trying to build and market a company in an industry they have no experience, contacts, or knowledge in. Many benefits arise when you structure your fund like this from the beginning.
They also will be making a lot of smaller investments. Just because they raised $300 million doesn’t mean they are only going to invest large chucks. They say they could invest as little as $50k into a project. Keep in mind though, most VC’s like to be close to their investments so if you want to pursue a investment from Marc Andreessen you will most likely need to be in Silicon Valley. They say they will invest elsewhere for the right opportunity, but for the most part you will need to be in Silicon Valley.
There are opportunities all around you, so keep your eyes peeled.
Johnny Optimist
The other 1/2 is full of opportunity!
Follow me on Twitter – @JohnnyOptimist
Maintaining a Internet Connection
If you are doing any online business or even just email, having a solid DSL or Cable connection is paramount. Over 2 weeks ago my DSL modem went down. I had the modem box for about 9 months before it fried itself. I was even able to pull out the receipt where that charge was billed to me, so I thought I would be able to give AT&T a call and get a new one from one of their stores. Well, it turns out they couldn’t even verify they had sold me one to begin with. After talking to 3 different “support” people in 3 different divisions and 3 different phone numbers I finally got the response of “those are only warranteed for 3 months, so even if we could confirm that we sold it to you, it would be way out of warrantee anyway”. Great. She then gave me the number to their store. I called it, and the ONLY thing he was able to do would be to order a new modem. Right, like I want to be without internet service for a week. So I asked him where the nearest physical store to me was. “I don’t have that information.” So I ask him what types of modems I could buy from say Best Buy that would work with AT&T. “I don’t have that information”. Wow, thanks for wasting my time. I end up using another computer with a connection to look up the locations of the stores and give the only one near me a call. It was 9:59 am and they didn’t open until 10. Arg.
So, I go to Best Buy. The last thing I want to do is buy another modem from AT&T for petes sake, as nobody there seems to be able to help you if it dies. The Best Buy near us is fairly new and everytime I go in they are very helpful. My wife and I go in and go to the computer area and are immediately asked if we would like some help. I say sure, I need a new modem that will work with AT&T, and I would prefer not to have another Motorola since that is the one that died and I saw nothing but bad news about those machines online. He brought me over to the modem section and unfortunately the modems were all gone. There is another Best Buy within about 10 miles so I asked if that one would have one. He went and checked and said the closest store that had one was about 30 miles away. That isn’t too bad, but I didn’t really feel like driving to that other town. He then suggested maybe a modem/router unit by NetGear. Read More
Want a house for $100?
Moose in Field
A guy in Jackson Wyoming is raffling his house off after a year of being on the market. If you have never been to Jackson, it is quite a place. There is actually a lot to do there beyond the normal “go to movie, go to shopping center” stuff. The question of “what is there to do in Jackson” will be met with varying answers depending on the time of year. Everything from skiing in the winter – there is a mountain IN the town, so conceivably you could be skiing in like 15 minutes from getting off of work. I don’t mean at the mountain, I mean riding up the lift within 15 minutes.
In the summer there is whitewater rafting, mountain biking, nature walks, wildlife watching opportunities, camping, etc. The town of Jackson is actually located in the valley called Jackson Hole, although in most instances Jackson & Jackson Hole are both referring to the town. I am sure some locals will disagree, but for people who don’t know the difference they are talking about the same thing.
Anyway, back to the house. You can read the full story here on the Jackson Hole Daily website.
You can also check out the house and read the Terms and Conditions and even buy a ticket from his website: How to Raffle My House
Now his website says they will have the purchasing online option available by June 19th, but I just checked and it isn’t up yet. Although in their defense, it is only like 5 am there. (Edit: He now has a working link to buy tickets.) So check the site out later today and who knows, maybe you can have a house in Jackson for $100. I know where the Cottonwood subdivision is, and it is actually a good location. One of my Uncles actually lived in that subdivision when he first moved to Jackson. Read More
Great article for Entrepreneurs or New Business Professionals
Khuram Malik wrote an article about Adding Value to what ever you do. What are you giving your customers? What problem are you solving with your product? Those are essential questions to answer when you are in business, just starting a business, thinking about a business concept or plan.
If you are giving a pitch to investors, it is certainly something you would want to include, as that is going to be one of their questions if you don’t. To many investors unfamiliar with your product, they might not readily see the problem you are solving. There are a great number of problems out there that investors just don’t know about because they are not in that industry. Are you creating a new wrench? What are the deficiencies of the current wrench offerings?
His advice / article is something all entrepreneurs or people who want to be an entrepreneur should read.
If you haven’t checked Khuram’s site out, it is at: http://krmmalik.com/
Did you read his article? What did you think?
Johnny Optimist
The other half is full of Opportunity!
Learn great strategies about business, how to make money online, positive & motivational articles, general business knowledge.
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First sales with new Pricing rules
Yes, I Blog
Well folks, I have made a couple sales on my CafePress site in June and here are the results so far:
1 T-shirt – this particular T-shirt is priced at $19.99 on my shop. If you go directly to my shop, you can get that shirt for $20. The person who purchased the shirt found it through the CafePress Marketplace. They paid $22.00 for it. $2.01 higher than if they would have found my site directly.
The result for me? – I got $2.20 on that sale. If they had gone to my site directly and paid $2.01 LESS, I would have gotten my standard $5.00 commission. Read More
Want to learn about Internet Marketing?
As most of you know, I listen to WebmasterRadio.fm quite often. One of the shoes I really enjoy is Jeremy Shoemaker’s show. I have been listening to last week’s show for a couple days (yes, relistening to it over an over on the way to and from work because there are several items he mentions that I want to retain). He mentioned that he has a new Internet Marketing program out, so today I went to his site to check it out. He has a Q&A about the program on his site. He has also made its own site for sign up along with the headlines of what to expect from each of the 12 weeks. Did I mention this is a free program? It is. Simply type in your email address and away you go, you will get the info in your inbox each week.
Why am I telling you this? Do I have affiliate code programmed into those links or something?
No, I did not sign up for the affiliate network for his program, those are just straight up links to his sites. I am telling you this because some of my readers want to learn more about how to do Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, and what have you, and this program looks like it provides that information. Also, Jeremy knows his stuff, so even though I haven’t signed up for the program myself, I am sure the data in there is solid. One of the goals of this site is to pass along great information about online opportunities, money making opportunities, etc. This happens to be one of those. You can learn from arguably one of the top Internet Marketing guys out there for free. What is there to lose?
Kit Elliot at www.SuperAffiliate.com is having a teleseminar tomorrow, so hopefully I will be able to attend that and let everyone know how it goes. If you want to listen, just go to his site and sign up.
Johnny Optimist
The other half is full of Opportunity!
Follow me on Twitter – @ JohnnyOptimist
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Have you backed up your data?
You probably get this all the time, but backing up your data is only crucial about a minute before your computer crashes. If you know when your computer is going to crash, then fantastic, you can back up your data just before it does and not have a worry. If however you are like the rest of us and the computer just crashes at seemingly the worst point in time, rest easy knowing you have backed up your data recently.
The Blue Screen of DEATH!
Last Fall my laptop gave me the blue screen of death. This isn’t a normal occurance, it was much more prevalent but much less significant a decade ago. Back then if you saw the screen, you could normally just reboot and you were golden. Now a days though, the blue screen of death is a major warning that there is something significantly wrong with your machine and you may or may not be able to continue using it. My issue was with some power surge. I had my laptop plugged into a cheap power surge protector that failed. Due to the heavy processor applications I was running, that power cycle just turned the computer off. No warning, in the middle of drawing some rocking T-Shirt designs (check out my custom designs on www.HaHaShirtShop.com). The computer came back with the blue screen of death. Luckily I was able to start it in Safe Mode, transfer all of my files to my desktop and then reimage the laptop and it has been working fairly well ever since. Read More
