Starting December 1st, 2009 the FTC has mandated that bloggers are to follow the same disclosure rules as most traditional media (newspapers, radio, etc). In a nutshell, if you make money from a link, received compensation (free stuff or cash) for a review/testimonial/etc or are connected to the product/service you’re endorsing then you need to reveal that info.
The blogosphere (I feel weird saying that) has voiced many opinions regarding this change. Personally, I could give a crap about the FTC, but their $11,000 dollar fines have my attention. What I love is how this change is helping feed the misconception that people are making TONS of money through their blogs. I haven’t made a red cent and I’ll venture to guess its the same for 98% of the blogs out there. That’s not for lack of trying, but unless you’re really good at hawking your wares or have a big enough readership, the ROI will be meager at best.
Having said that, I too am joining in on the futility. It’s minor in scope and none of the Adwords crap. Here’s what I got so far.
- Amazon links – Having been on the Internet as long as I have, my standard assumption is that ANY link to Amazon is an affiliate link. Why would it be otherwise? If I like something that I think you’d like and it’s on Amazon, making 4% off of the recommendation doesn’t seem evil at all. So just to be clear every single one of my links to Amazon are affiliate links.
- Thesis – WordPress is the super awesome platform I run my blog on and Thesis is the ninja-like theme I use. Many of my favorite blogs use this theme (like Lateral Action), so switching to it was an easy decision for me. I like it so much I signed up for its affiliate program. If you see a graphic or a link that points to Thesis *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* it’ll be an affiliate link.
If I decide to sign up for anything else, this post will be updated to reflect that (there’s a direct link to it in my footer). Also, if I put any reviews on my site that stemmed from free goods, I’ll make that association clear. I think that covers all the bases. If I missed anything, feel free to call me on it and I’ll square things away ASAP.
This post was inspired by Kelly Diels of Cleavage
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Dude, you are so, like, five minutes ago. We were all, like, talking about this junk, like, two months ago. WHATEVER!
LOL!
It sucks but I still haven’t ascribed.