FTC’s New Ruling on Endorsements and Testimonials
I just found out about this a couple days ago. The FTC(Federal Trade Commission) has made new rules on how endorsements and testimonials ads should be or faces $11,000 fine per case.
http://ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm
The major changes seems to be that advertisers will have to disclose results that “consumers can generally expect”.
The hard part for this is: What is a general result then?? How do you define it?? So if somebody used a holy grail stock market trading system and made a million dollars and the other person didn’t make a dime, would the general result be half a million??
Also, for affiliates, who use blogs to promote products must “disclose the material connections they share with the seller”.
This part is actually quite good in my opinion. I’ve personally seen many sites and blogs who try to do reviews on products and they tend to just praise certain products with outrageous claims trying to make affiliate commissions while pretending they are reviewing the products that they are trying to sell!! And they probably never used those products themselves!!
This new ruling by FTC seems a bit confusing while at the same time can be an exciting opportunity for marketers who are sincere and genuine.
Fell free to comment below and tell me what you think about this new ruling.
Enjoy life,
Huddson
Other Internet Marketing Sites Online
- Trend Trading for a Living: Learn the skills and gain confidence to trade in Life
- Stock Market Trading – 3 Ways to Play | PediaWorld
- How to Be Successful in the Stock Market | PediaWorld
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
hey Huddson how’s it going,
Thanks for post been hearing a lot about this be curious to see how they finally define some of the details contained in that pkg. All I know is I don’t want them knocking on my door. Thanks again keep it coming.
Bob
Bob´s last blog ..Does Your Blog Have Focus and Purpose…Part1 
Next time I need a lawyer–I am calling you! J/K
Ralph
Ralph´s last blog ..Starting With Marketing Academy Video Testimonial
Hi Hudson,
I had heard something about this.
So what happens when I blog about a product I have recently bought and I include an affiliate link as anchor text. Surely that isn’t really classed as a promotion?
I think I’ll just carry on as I am, I don’t really use my blog to promote things, so I should be ok.
Thanks for the info,
Paul.
Paul Lear´s last blog ..Paul’s Recent Activity Report – September/October 2009
I think you should be OK Paul….as long as you don’t exaggerate claims about what the product can do. Just be yourself and put honest comments we should all be fine.
Huddson
Hi Huddson,
First I would like to thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment.
I also received several emails about these new FTC rules, in some way I think that they are good, but on the other hand there will be this fear about messing up and not following their rules and getting in trouble.
Hope everything goes well…
Jeanette
Jeanette Fitzgerald´s last blog ..Blogs Get Hacked – It Could Happen To You
Hi Huddson,
Thank you very much for posting this and thanks for the link. I had received some emails talking about this, but had not read them yet and they were on my to do list. Your post was short and to the point, always appreciated as time is something that is scarce for most people. Great post!
Thanks very much,
Ed
Ed Rubi´s last blog ..Dean Holland, Starting With Marketing, Module 5 – World Wide Winners