FTC New Compensation Disclosure Requirements: Free Internet Marketing Special Report
The Federal Trade Commission’s revised “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” is causing a stir in the Internet marketing community because most website owners and affiliate marketers simply don’t know how to interpret the guides.
Will it be the end of blogging and affiliate marketing as we know it?
What about testimonials, endorsements, earnings claims, and compensation?
What has changed?
How will these changes affect online marketing?
When do the new guidelines go into effect?
To clear up the confusion, you can download a free special report called How to Comply with the New FTC Compensation Disclosure Guidelines (PDF file). Written in easy-to-understand language, this report provides general practical knowledge about what to do to stay out of trouble with the FTC.
Although not a replacement for legal advice from your Internet lawyer, this guide is a better alternative to reading nonlawyers guess in forums as to what the FTC is actually doing and how it can affect your online business.
If you have friends who own Internet businesses, you can share the special report with them directly unedited, e-mail copies to your lists, or send friends and subscribers to this page so they can download the report for themselves.
Yes, the rules of the game have changed. But if you learn the new rules, you’ll be ahead of your competition that doesn’t.
To your success!
-Mike
About the Author
With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 15 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young is President of the Internet Ethics Council and creator of Website Legal Forms Generator software. He helps entrepreneurs protect and grow their businesses online.
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Thanks for posting this. I’ve been involved in recent discussion on a forum regarding this very topic.
I may have missed it, but after reading this document, I didn’t find anything saying that a endorsement could NOT be handled using a disclaimer page on their blog. I would think (in fact, prefer) that a disclaimer not be required each and every time a post to a blog is made when a product or service is being endorsed.
Can you shed some light on this scenario?
Mark,
Thanks for stopping by. I will not be providing specific legal advice on this thread.
Note that the report has an option to obtain an Affiliate Compensation Disclosure Package.
This package includes a banner that can be used, for example, in the sidebar on a blog.
It also includes a Compensation Disclosure that could be linked to in the footer of a page,
such as next to a Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
That’s about as far as I’m willing to discuss beyond the scope of the report because
we’re treading into territory that clients pay for legal expertise.
Best wishes,
-Mike
Mike, I thought your article was fairly good.
It seems to me that many people are focusing too much on the disclosure issue, which is simple, and not enough on the disclaimer issue.
When a marketer doesn’t have evidence of what a general consumer could expect using the product, use of the disclaimer is red flag for fraud.
I anticipate that a number of affiliate marketers, who are essentially marketing business opportunities, are going to find that it is difficult to navigate between this new rule and the new FTC Business Opportunity Rule, whenever it gets passed.
In the meantime, most of the big advertisers are going to need better contracts between themselves and their affiliates, and may have to register in some states as business opportunity sellers.
Michael,
Thanks for the feedback. I fully expect that affiliate marketers will be constrained to pre-approved marketing content in the future (within 5 years) the same way that MLM companies control content. The marketing materials won’t be samples. They will be the only messages that affiliates can use without prior written approval from the companies.
Best wishes,
-Mike
Loved the pdf. Thanks!
Thought you might enjoy seeing an email I just got from Frank Kern, who, as you may know, was sued by the FTC years back, when he was a bit less savvy than he is now, relative to his internet marketing practices. Needless to say, if you know Frank’s work you know he’s above board, and is an all around good businessman and good guy. But it IS interesting to see an example of how he, a big name in the field, is handling compliance with these new FTC requirements. Frank Kern’s copy was simple, direct, and very cleverly done, and further supports Mike Young’s advice and suggestions herein.
——————————–
(Note: ***’s were used to replace the actual copy contained
in the original email below so as to mask the e-addresses
and the referenced affiliate link.)
——————————–
From: xxxxx@xx***xx***.com [mailto:xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.com] On Behalf Of Frank Kern
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 2:54 PM
To:xxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Subject: WARNING (duh)
Warning #1: The results in this new video are NOT typical,
but they are still cool.
Warning #2: You have to opt in to watch it (the horror!).
Warning #3: If you buy something as a result of watching this,
I’ll get paid money and I will almost certainly squander it on
shiny things (or candy, or something equally stupid).
With that said, this is an awesome video about a NEW and
exciting way to make some serious dinero.
Here is my cleverly disguised affiliate link:
http://www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com/xxxxx.php?xxxx
Talk soon,
Frank
Hi Mike, do i need to put disclosure on every post i have?
What if I have posts that are just for information without any affiliate links and some do?
Can I just put the disclosure on a page which applied to all my site content?
Thanks!
Eric,
That’s a business judgment call on your part. How much risk do you want to assume that you haven’t fully disclosed as far as the FTC is concerned?
Many put the disclosure link in the footer along with links to privacy policy, terms of use, etc.
Some put the disclosure banner in a sidebar.
Best wishes,
-Mike
Mike,
Loved the pdf, and just recently came across your blog by way of the salty droid. I really appreciate and admire the work you are doing. Keep up the fantastic work. Just a quick question regarding this new FTC policy, i reside in canada and a couple other tax-haven countries through out the year, and since the FTC has no say about canadians (yet), does this ruling really affect my IM business in canada?
As canada will most certainly follow the US in creating a similar law, probably sometime in 2010, it is probably a good idea to start now that way when things change i wont have to overhaul everything. But with that said i would have some time to make the changes, unlike my fellow IMers in the US.
Also since my other businesses reside in tax-haven countries free from anything US or canada controlled, nothing the US or canada does should affect anything i do over there, would this be a fair assessment?
Thanks for your time Mike, a new follower of your blog, and hopefully client in the coming future.