Federal Trade Commission

CMP.ly Introduces a Disclosure Policy Solution

Earlier today Janet Meiners Thaeler (aka NewspaperGirl) tweeted: CMP.ly is said to have been born “in response to a continued push for transparency and honesty in blogging and within social media and digital communications”. This solution seeks to address the problem of “no established structure or format for disclosures to […]

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FTC Means To Say That Everyone is Accountable

Yesterday evening the team at #SocialMedia has published a good blog post on the FTC’s new rules. They have referred to my earlier statement that the new guidelines imply a shift in responsibility: from the advertiser (who, back in the years when “such traditional media as television, commercials and print

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How to Word Disclosures & Agreements to Meet FTC Rules

Over the past four days I have been receiving numerous emails from merchants and affiliates, asking how to word their texts to meet the new Federal Trade Commission rules for testimonials, reviews and endorsements. Affiliates wonder how to put together disclosures: As a publisher, is there generic type of blurb

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FTC Says the $11000 Fine "is Not True"

A tremendous tsunami of blog posts and articles has been raised by the recent Federal Trade Commission’s announcement of its guides for disclosing the sponsor-endorser element in testimonials and endorsements. At the time of this post there currently are 948 news articles and close to 4,000 blog posts on the

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Twitter Hashtags for Affiliate Tweets

So the Federal Trade Commission has announced the new rules for disclosing the sponsor-endorser relationships. This includes all affiliates that tweet, post, or publish any other online content that has affiliate links embedded in it (or content on which they earn money). But how do you squeeze an appropriate disclosure

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FTC Disclosure Rules & Affiliate Marketing Implications

—————————————————– Edit: 2 follow-up posts: (i) FTC Says the $11000 Fine “is Not True”, (ii) How to Word Disclosures & Agreements to Meet FTC Rules —————————————————– On 1 December 2009 the new Federal Trade Commission’s endorsements/testimonials rules are coming into force. I am referring to the “Guides Concerning the Use

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FTC to Monitor Affiliate Links in Blogs

In continuation of my earlier posted thoughts on the effectiveness of blog reviews, it seems appropriate to now turn to the Federal Trade Commission’s plans to monitor blogs for paid/biased reviews. On Sunday, the Associated Press wrote that blogging, which continues blooming, “has taken on characteristics of community journalism —

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