Law Requires Disclosure of Affiliate Marketing Links, Word-of-mouth and Paid Reviews
Wednesday, December 13th, 2006;
-- Andy Beal |
Copyblogger has been digging around a new statement made by the Federal Trade Commission and reported by the Washington Post.
The bottom line, the FTC is pushing to make companies disclose any compensation received when promoting a product or company. While this is not a new law, the FTC wants marketers to know how it intends to interpret existing legislation.
…companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships…Word-of-mouth marketing can take any form of peer-to-peer communication, such as a post on a Web blog, a MySpace.com page for a movie character, or the comments of a stranger on a bus.
This certainly impacts word-of-mouth marketing companies more than anyone else, but it could also effect affiliate marketers. And what about all of those pay-per-review sites that are popping-up. PayPerPost.com is going to have to change its model to force reviewers to disclose their relationship.
Via ProBlogger.
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December 13th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
Give me a break - if you are on a bus?
This isnt going to effect SEO much, but I still think its crazy how much they want to be a “moderator” for the web.
December 14th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Firstly, this isn’t a “law” — this is an opinion of staff by FTC.
Amazing how the information on this stuff spits out the other side as …”Law Requires…”
ugh.
December 15th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Can anyone recommend me affiliate programs where you can use text links?
I need to know of all the affiliate programs out there where you can use text links and that pay per click.
thanks in advance….
April 9th, 2007 at 3:31 am
I got scared that it is realted to all affiliate programs. What is anyway the “word-of-mouth marketing”? Never heard about that before.
December 4th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
So simple disclaimer like “we are getting paid by advertisement on this site” would do?
September 24th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Bollywood - Yes, in my humble opinion, that would be the only requirement.