New FTC Laws Take Effect on 1 December 2009
America’s Federal Trade Commission has revised its laws relating to endorsements and affiliates which come into effect on 1 December 2009.
This will affect every internet marketer/affiliate marketer worldwide
What this means for you as an affiliate of someone else’s products is:
1. You are ultimately the one responsible for checking out any products you promote about purchasing products you review. By far, the best, and safest way to do is to buy and use the product yourself so you’ll know if it’s any good or not. This so that you can make HONEST recommendations. I am an affiliate only of products I use myself - so I know both the product, and the owner company as well. I’d never promote anything I didn’t use my self. That’s only fair, isn’t it?
2. You must include a disclosure statement or link to a disclosure statement on every page of your website or blog explaining what kind of relationship you have to the product you are promoting such as that you get paid for every sale made from your links on your page.
3. You must not include unsubstantiated claims or testimonials on your site which include getting results in a certain time frame, any statements that you don’t know are true yourself - for example if you’ve not used the product then you can’t say how effective the product is…
In other words, just be honest. Not too much to ask, is it?
Clickbank has provided some information on this topic on their blog which you can read via the link here: http://www.clickbank.com/blog/2009/11/25/new-ftc-endorsement-rules/
Affiliate Marketing still provides an easy, fast way into a new internet business. It’s just a shame that some people have ruined it’s reputation by the marketing scams and cons. Honest marketers have nothing to lose by carrying on as normal.
