A type of endorsement or testimonial that can land your Internet business into hot water is known as buzz marketing.

Trying to create a buzz marketing online campaign is fine. The dangerous turf involves situations where the person giving you a testimonial or endorsement is being compensated for creating the buzz.

The FTC began to crack down on this “word of mouth” advertising in a December 2006 staff advisory opinion .

Referring to this opinion, Mary K. Engle at the FTC stated that “if you’re being paid, you should disclose that.”

What the FTC is essentially doing is applying the existing restrictions on paid endorsements and testimonials (such as those by celebrities and actors) to your Internet marketing campaigns.

This creates a gray area for your affiliate marketers. In particular, this issue affects websites and e-mails to lists that provide product reviews or endorsements without disclosing that the affiliate will get paid every time a consumer clicks through the affiliate link and buys the product or service.

Because these promotions are arguably biased by monetary compensation, you should inform readers that the opinions expressed are not independent and that a relationship exists between the affiliate and the vendor.

About the Author

With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 14 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young shows entrepreneurs how to protect and grow their businesses online. He's the author of Internet Marketing Legal Secrets Revealed. Not just a lawyer who focuses exclusively on Internet and marketing law, Mike’s been working with computers for more than 27 years (his first computer was an Atari 400 with 8 KiB RAM) and started representing Internet businesses back in 1996.