If you have any kind of blog or you write for any website online, you need to be aware of some of the new changes that you will be facing on December 1. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just recently announced a new guideline stating that any blogger, celebrity, or just a normal person who gets any type of payment or freebie for endorsing or reviewing a product or service must disclose this information or else they will be subject to a fine of $11,000.
Do, what does this mean for the average blogger. The average blogger may not even make any money from their blog or may make a very small amount. Not everyone is like Darren Rowse who makes a 6 figure income from his blog. Could this mean that there are going to be a lot of blogs left in the dust as people don't want to risk the possibility of having to pay $11,000? The biggest question though, is where is all the money going to come from for the FTC to find these people out who are not disclosing the information? These new guidelines from the FTC bring up so many questions and many of them are left unanswered.
First of all the FTC has not made any specifics on what type of disclosure is needed. Will a simple sentence at the bottom of the post or article suffice? How about a separate page on the blog that has a disclosure statement on it? The only thing that the FTC has said is that it will be judged by a "case-by-case" basis. Also, you have to bring into consideration social media sites as well. If you post an endorsement or affiliate link on Twitter or Facebook, do you have to disclose it on there as well? How hard is a disclosure statement in 140 characters?
If you haven't noticed, most bloggers already have a some sort of disclosure statement on their site already. If you have every joined a paid posting site, most of them require you to have a disclosure statement for you to work for them. Disclosing payments and freebies is not a bad thing, but why have other media outlets like radio not been hit with this? How many times have you listened to the radio and heard a commercial for a weight loss product that never mentions any type of disclosure statement?
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The other part that bothers me about the whole FTC fine is that where is all this money going to come from for them to find these bloggers and writers who are breaking this law? Don't you think that the United States is in debt enough without having to worry about what people are writing on their blogs? Also, what about people from other countries such as the UK, Canada, and India? The FTC has no power over them, so why these bloggers can continue to do what they want.
If you have a blog, are thinking about blogging, write for any websites online, have any social media sites, or are an affiliate marketer, you will definitely want to be aware of these new FTC guidelines as the December 1st date rolls around, especially if you don't have $11,000 just lying around!
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blogging