Should You Fear the FTC’s Sponsored Blogging Crackdown?

By Andy Beal on June 22, 2009

Should You Fear the FTC’s Sponsored Blogging Crackdown?

It appears the Federal Trade Commission is continuing its sloth-like race to enact new standards for bloggers that don’t currently disclose compensated endorsements.

The AP does its best to make bloggers out to be "quite different" from the "journalists" that work for mainstream media–and therefore must all be on the up-and-up, right? So, I’ll spare you the fluff and cut to the chase:

New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

It would be the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online. The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and getting commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger oversight.

Honestly, 99% of bloggers have nothing to worry about. If you forget to disclose that you used a 50 cent coupon on that hamburger you raved about, you’ll probably be just fine. Likewise, if you blog that your new Ford gets 33mpg but in reality only gets 31mpg, you won’t likely face the wrath of the FTC.

In fact, the only bloggers that need to be wary of any new FTC guidelines are the ones that have brought this on us all. They are the ones that accept gift cards, then rave about their shopping experience. They claim their acne cleared up overnight, while receiving a free monthly supply of the skin-care treatment. In other words, the FTC is going after the professional bloggers that make a living off of freebies and commissions–all without an ounce of disclosure.

So, how can you make sure you don’t ever hear from the FTC?

If in doubt, spell it out! Cheesy, I know, but it will help you. If you ever stop to ask yourself, "should I disclose this?" then the answer is probably "yes." The chances are that whatever is causing the guilt-trip isn’t worthy of the FTC’s attention, but you’ll feel better for disclosing it AND you’ll earn the trust of your readers!

Other tips that might help you sleep at night:

Create a page that lists all of your potential "conflict of interests" and simply link to it whenever your post includes mention of one of those relationships.
Tag any links with something visible and obvious. Such as (affiliate) or (sponsor).
You don’t have to publish the full terms of your compensation. Simply stating "Company X sponsored this post…") or ("We received free XXX as part of this review…") will likely be enough to satisfy the FTC.

My last piece of advice is to simply sit tight and see what happens. The FTC hasn’t actually enacted anything yet–and we have no guidelines from it on what we should or shouldn’t say. In addition, any guidelines could hurt the revenues of those companies that rely on affiliate marketers. If Amazon is being proactive about protecting its affiliate revenue stream in one state, you can bet it’s going to try and block any new standards from the FTC.

Similar Stories in: Affiliate, Blogging, Legal | Forward: Email This Post

9 comments on “Should You Fear the FTC’s Sponsored Blogging Crackdown?”

Jeremy Nicoll Says:

June 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 am

This is stupid. Unless the FTC is going to outlaw lying, all these regulations do is give an excuse to also prosecute innocent people. Major news stations do “news” segments on companies that are basically nothing but advertisements disguised as news. This is the best the FTC can do? Crack down on bloggers? It’s irritating how governmental programs seem much more eager to take away individual rights by regulating them than they are to take on big companies with the money to fight such things.

Jeremy Nicoll’s last blog post..The American War Machine
Jaan Kanellis Says:

June 22nd, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Completely agree Jeremy.

Andy I know you say those “little” bloggers dont have much to worry about, but I disagree. Look at how the government handle the crackdown on shared music files. You heard hundreds of stories of “little” people being prosecuted.

You can even look towards the paid links crackdown by Google in which the little guys get hurt the most while bigger corporate entities get notified, slapped on the wrist and then indexed by Google

Jaan Kanellis’s last blog post..FTC Will Monitor Your Blog Posts For Paid Reviews & Endorsements
Ted Murphy Says:

June 22nd, 2009 at 3:24 pm

IZEA is in favor of stricter FTC disclosure requirements.

http://izea.com/izea-favor-stricter-ftc-disclosure-requirements/

Ted Murphy
CEO of IZEA

Ted Murphy’s last blog post..IZEA is in Favor of Stricter FTC Disclosure Requirements
Michael Martinez Says:

June 22nd, 2009 at 5:34 pm

The FTC is really concerned about two areas. First, the blanket use of undisclosed compensated consumer endorsements that are intended to influence consumer purchasing decisions; second, the undisclosed compensated endorsements of “experts” endorsements that are intended to influence consumer purchasing decisions.

It should be noted that the Federal Trade Commission says links are not endorsements.

In the eyes of the U.S. Government, it is sufficient to merely state on your Web pages that the links you provide are not endorsements — you don’t have to use any funky code to disclaim them.
Does the FTC’s new policy apply to little old me? | MamaBlogga Says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 6:30 pm

[...] Beal at Marketing Pilgrim also has some suggestions to avoid the wrath of the Feds, especially if you don’t feel a site-wide disclosure is [...]
Maybe we should get the FTC to change our diapers as well — Shooting at Bubbles Says:

June 23rd, 2009 at 8:39 pm

[...] not so funny part about all this is the fact that the majority of bloggers seem to be falling over themselves about how even though it’s a bad idea we probably need [...]
My Radical Blogs » Majority Of Bloggers Wont Be Affected By FTC Says:

June 26th, 2009 at 12:32 am

[...] Beal at Marketing Pilgrim has a more in depth look at the issue in his article titled – Should You Fear the FTC’s Sponsored Blogging Crackdown? – in simple terms – no unless your a big name in the blogging world since they are the [...]
Online Marketing Updates This Week | MarketingProfessor.com Says:

June 26th, 2009 at 5:06 pm

[...] Should You Fear the FTC’s Sponsored Blogging Crackdown? [...]
The Appearance of Conflicts of Interest Says:

July 1st, 2009 at 6:56 am

[...] sometimes be suggested when there is no real basis in fact. This is something we will all have to deal with more and more in the coming [...]

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