New FTC Rules – Jim’s take on it…
Posted by admin in FTC rules, inspiration on Nov 2nd, 2009 | 7 commentsPlease leave a comment or question below, and if you use twitter click the green retweet button over there —>
For those of us that fall under the jurisdiction of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) some of the rules of online marketing are going to be changing very soon (December ’09).
For those NOT under the jurisdiction of the FTC you just got a HUGE advantage over those of us that call the U.S. home!
Here’s the official announcement:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm
In summary there are two changes that will effect ALL businesses under FTC authority both on and offline.
ENDORSEMENTS AND DISCLOSURES
The first change is a stiffening of the rules in regard to endorsements and disclosure. If you do any affiliate marketing you now need to let your customers know that you stand to possibly profit if the customer goes on to purchase an item that you are endorsing. This effects blogs, twitter, email, websites, book review articles, membership sites, EVERYTHING.
TESTIMONIALS
The days of the “results not typical” disclaimer are now dead. Marketers must now somehow be able to state the average results of what the average user/customer can expect to achieve or they should probably NOT use any testimonials of any kind. It will be pretty funny to watch as marketers try to come up with “average” results calculations for things like pain management, food taste, exercise benefits, model upgrades etc. This silly law should provide for some interesting wording on the part of marketers. Look for some VERY FAT pay days for the FTC as they go after helpless violators such as a soda company that couldn’t do the math correctly on the average taste bud effect of their new diet drink.
At least we’ll get to see a bunch of new creatively worded commercials on TV!
My personal opinion on the changes? Silliness. I LOVE to hear about quality products from people that I trust and could personally care less if they benefit or not from the endorsement. If the product stinks I get a refund and now know not to trust their opinion any longer. Does it really take a new law to make that concept work?
The second change on testimonials is INSANELY RIDICULOUS. It seems to me that by design the new rule leaves so many gaping holes that the FTC can literally strike down ANYONE that uses ANY form of marketing testimonials should they choose to.
You can see the first draft of my new “testimonial” disclaimer that I came up with CLICK HERE
Remember – I’m not an expert. Consider me just another big goof-off that shouldn’t be trusted until you do your research… and I’m certainly no lawyer worthy of giving any legal advice!
Here’s what an actual Internet lawyer (Mike Young) came up with as a disclaimer for the “Endorsements/Disclosures” FTC change (I’m not sure I’m capable of such perfect language as this because there’s no silly edge to any of it):
MATERIAL CONNECTION DISCLOSURE: You should assume that the sender of this e-mail has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services mentioned in this message and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.
And another guy that is taking all of this FTC stuff quite seriously put a nicely worded notice on his blog:
http://www.askthebuilder.com/Disclosure_Policy.shtml
As far as testimonials go you’ll have to make your own decision, but as for me I’ll probably blot out all monetary results from all of my testimonials and start promoting even more the fact that you can meet all of my past customers any time you’d like to by joining my membership sites at MySilentTeam.com and OfflineBiz.com. Join the discussion forum and find out for yourself if I’m a goof off or actually worth listening to.
This is where all of that crazy “reputation management” stuff that I’ve been talking about all along starts to pay off! Treat people well and they’ll stay loyal. Let others speak highly of you without the expectation of return favor. Achieve that and none of this will matter.
And just to be clear…if you ever see me talk about, endorse, or discuss a product just assume that I’m including an affiliate link. If you don’t trust me don’t buy what I recommend, but if you do trust me there’s a good chance I’m marketing it as an affiliate.
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7 Responses to “ “New FTC Rules – Jim’s take on it…”
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Excellence is not acceptable in a totalitarian state. Everyone must be the same – average – however good they are.
The simple solution is to not-be a US company, and not-be a US-hosted website. Solves a lot of problems. There are some countries without control-freak explosive-ego jackasses running them. Find one!
Jim
I can only partially agree with this statement “For those NOT under the jurisdiction of the FTC you just got a HUGE advantage over those of us that call the U.S. home!”
Yes, as an infopreneur living in Japan I am outside the clutches of any rabid FTC investigator who decides he dislikes the look of me (er, the wild hair and beard don’t always meet favourably with the button-down polizei). However, even if I were to move all my sites to my non-US hosting service, I would still be following these new guidelines.
For one, I basically already do follow the guidelines and now simply have to make a few adjustments, such as disclosing affiliate links. Worded properly (I have disclaimers for this, and am upgrading disclaimers in info products) meeting the FTC guidelines won’t be a hardship, and it maintains my professionalism.
For another, as one who teaches other Internet marketers to create and market info products (in a number of niches where the FTC could take interest – although I’m sure they’ll target my members who create weight loss products before they go after a member who publishes knitting guides) I must set the example.
Now, although I agree that in some instances there is a need for a watchdog (let’s face it, there are some marketers out there who the Internet would be better off without), I do not like the sweeping powers that are put in the hands of FTC investigators, and I must admit that I am very glad I don’t fall directly under their jurisdiction. I sympathize with my numerous American fellow marketers who could be affected by this. All I can say to you is, keep your house as clean as possible and avoid attracting the attention of the FTC bloodhounds.
Jim,
How will this new FTC ruling work for something as simple as using adsense on our websites and blogs?
[reply from Jim]: I’m sure Google has sent a team of lawyers and spent millions addressing that very issue. The fact that the phrase “ads by google” appears along with the ad is probably going to be sufficient. Google is the one that needs to worry about that though – not you.
Great
It’s about time the Gov shuts down all of those myspace/facebook spammers and their counterparts that produce phony review sites and blogs.
I have seen all of these conspiracy theories batted around previously when the gov introduced the cann spam act, and how did those changes negativly impact you personally?
My take is that if you are very worried about these changes then you are doing something that you KNOW is deceptive and don’t want the good times to end.
Bob
James Jones has an interesting approach for the FTC look at the bottom of the page at
http://www.micronichefinder.com/crreplay/
I agree with Kevin to a degree. People who run a clean race have less to worry about.
What concerns me is that this is going to be like eBay and Google. People will get slapped with no reasonable explanation. We all know it is going to happen.
And I love having words on my site like “affiliate”. Think that will help my Google rank?