FTC and Blogging
- 25 Comment
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. 
25 Comments on this post
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Viking Costume said:
Hey, thanks for the insights. Its more important than ever now to make sure all blogs have the privacy and disclaimer pages…I think by putting these on most websites things are pretty much all ok…still, will be interesting to see what unfolds next…
October 7th, 2009 at 10:36 am -
Water Filtration Florida said:
Great post. Very interesting and helpful information about writing for product reviews and affiliate marketing. Thanks for good information.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:09 am -
used tires said:
Ehh what I wonder is… whats next… and if this is just the first step of “regulation” by the FTC, but like they said in the video it will be hard to police it.
Till then,
Jean
November 1st, 2009 at 5:45 am -
Bratwurst Recipes said:
Yes this is really very interesting news.
Ok, I really understand that the decision to
regulate blogging is going to be an interesting one.
Yes indeed; it will be hard to police it.
I just read about that the regulation will be on effect on
December first but, still lacks a lot of specifics information
that we all would like to know.November 4th, 2009 at 12:34 am -
Alex @ Niche Blueprint 2 Bonus said:
Hey Johnny. Thanks for clearing this up for me. I’ve been searching to find clarification of the implications and meaning of the laws for some time and this post has done just that!
December 25th, 2009 at 12:08 pm -
used tires said:
Thanks that was very helpful. The video really made sense.
Till then,
Jean
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:41 am -
mobile phone said:
Any word on where this has gone since December? I haven’t seen much on it lately.
May 13th, 2010 at 12:16 pm -
used tires said:
@mobile phone, not sure myself, would be great if Johnny could give us an update, either way, it doesn’t really affect me, so I am not in a real hurry to find out
Till then,
Jean.
July 5th, 2010 at 4:49 am -
car battery said:
December? I see the last post date as October. It would certainly be nice to see some new posts again.
July 27th, 2010 at 7:29 am -
Tree Survey said:
There is abundant case law talking about the importance of allowing the FTC some prophylactic space to go after “incipiency.” Perhaps this is just a misguided fantasy-vestige of the Progressive Era, but you might think that an expert agency would have the expertise to make predictions about future consequences of brand-new and previously unknown behavior than a court would.
November 1st, 2010 at 12:05 pm -
seo company delhi said:
This is my first time i visit here. I found so many interesting stuff in your blog, especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your posts, I guess I am not the only one having all the leisure here! Keep up the good work.
November 1st, 2010 at 3:34 pm -
Tree Survey said:
This is a very interesting blog with great content, it will be very interesting to see how things play out, thank you.
November 18th, 2010 at 2:42 pm -
Tree Survey said:
I am guest person in this blog plz guide me for my blog.
December 15th, 2010 at 10:35 am -
Goji Juice said:
I think it’s unenforceable but a terrific idea, but then I’ve long had a disclaimer in my footer that no product mentions or reviews are chosen or influenced by any compensation. I was a msm journalist for many, many more years than I’ve been blogging and unpaid objectivity is second nature to me.
December 18th, 2010 at 1:06 pm -
seo company delhi said:
I always watch the Fox news site and its news always make me happy. I can easily watch the world’s news in just a moment in my favorite language “English”. All its correspondents are awesome and their coverage skills are high..
January 4th, 2011 at 12:41 pm -
vaughan homes for sale said:
Media is playing superb role in today’s era.if you have something n wanna share with world or to expose any bad thing that cursing you take the helpful of media.Lots of corruption,scams going everywhere, only media can expose them….
March 2nd, 2011 at 9:58 am -
Johnny said:
Yeah, I know. I took a hiatus as I had other items come up and am just now getting around to re-looking at the sites I maintain. I enjoyed the writing, just took a lot of time. Unfortunately I have a lot of balls in the air and only some of them get to continue to be juggled, the others have to sit on the floor until I have the time to throw them back in the mix.
April 5th, 2011 at 9:01 am -
Johnny said:
You know, I haven’t either. I will research it a little and do a follow up post. I would like to see what the outcome was.
April 5th, 2011 at 9:04 am -
Debt Negotiation Companies said:
does the Federal Trade Commision new law starting Dec 1 stating all bloggers will have to reveal to their followers when they get a free product or paid for a review apply only to written bloggers or also video bloggers (example youtube)??
May 27th, 2011 at 4:42 am -
Johnny said:
Sorry, I haven’t been able to re-research this and have been out of the loop on this for a while.
June 7th, 2011 at 12:46 pm -
Recipes with Twist said:
Great source of knowledge about blogging.
September 14th, 2011 at 11:03 am -
stag party ideas said:
If this applys also to video bloggers do you have a link to an official site that specifically mentions video blogging is included in this new law? All of the sites I see only seem to mention written bloggers.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:41 am -
stag party ideas said:
does the Federal Trade Commision new law starting Dec 1 stating all bloggers will have to reveal to their followers when they get a free product or paid for a review apply only to written bloggers or also video bloggers (example youtube)??
October 1st, 2011 at 12:41 am -
Air source heat pump said:
It would certainly be nice to see some new posts,I’ve been searching to find clarification of the implications and meaning of the laws for some time and this post has done just that!
November 4th, 2011 at 10:34 pm -
Air source heat pump said:
If this applys also to video bloggers do you have a link to an official site that specifically mentions video blogging is included in this new law? All of the sites I see only seem to mention written bloggers.
February 3rd, 2012 at 3:43 am
