The Newsletter is Online

Posted by admin in FTC rules on Nov 5th, 2009 | 1 comment

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In this newsletter:
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1. Jim’s thoughts on the New FTC rules
2. My video contest is under way
3. Quick tips:
- Make twitter SIMPLE
- MySilentTeam.com close to hitting a landmark

New FTC Rules – Jim’s take on it…

Posted by admin in FTC rules, inspiration on Nov 2nd, 2009 | 7 comments

Please 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.

Please leave a comment or question below, and if you use twitter click the green retweet button above.

My new FTC disclaimer

Posted by admin in Creative Ideas, FTC rules, inspiration on Nov 1st, 2009 | 27 comments

PLEASE CLICK THE GREEN RETWEET IF YOU USE TWITTER:

I’m putting together my personal take on the new FTC laws going into effect in December and will publish it in my newsletter soon (subscribe for free in the upper left hand corner), but in the mean time here’s my first draft for your consideration and comment. If I don’t post any updates after this please consider this my full response to the new law:

“DISCLAIMER:

NONE of the results achieved by me or by any of my students or readers are TYPICAL.

If you consider yourself to be ‘typical’ or ‘average’ then go find a real job or better yet a generous government program and save us all a bunch of wasted time. People that succeed in life possess extraordinary abilities that you DO NOT and WILL PROBABLY NEVER have.

The ability to turn off the TV and read a book occasionally, or the ability to put aside selfish short sited desires in order to pursue larger long term goals makes some of us freakishly superior and you probably don’t have what it takes to join us. So please – just give up now and go eat some ice cream and watch a movie. DO NOT BUY MY PRODUCTS.

You’ve heard it said “results may vary” right? Well, yours won’t. You won’t get ANYTHING from ANY of what I have to offer.

Let me be clear: The average or typical results that anyone can expect from reading ANY of my books or articles or programs is a dead honest ZERO.

There is nothing there for you. As far as you know every testimonial about me on the Internet is made up anyway so why bother? How can you possibly trust ANYTHING on the Internet?

If however you would like to actually meet and talk to the people behind those testimonials you can do so at my open forum membership sites MySilentTeam.com and OfflineBiz.com.  Sadly though – you won’t find any typical people there…only those freakishly superior people that always seem to succeed when you keep failing.

Why are you still reading this? I told you to go watch a movie.”

Since the FTC wants to know the average results that people can expect there it is in black and white. Please post your comment or whiny complaint below