The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for protecting the public against false claims. On the internet, a person may be more vulnerable to such calms and as a result, the FTC has put into place certain rules based on how a blogger must disclose what is advertised, and what products have been received free or purchased for review. Bloggers must comply with these rules or hefty fines could follow.
Following these rules will help your credibility as a blogger. Your readers will see that you aren’t trying to deceive them for profit. What follows, are suggestions to help comply with the FTC expectations in terms of how to disclose properly your intent to your readers. The full document can be read here.
- Obvious disclosures must be placed on your site. When you are making a claim about a product and that product will make you money if someone should purchase it, there needs to be a disclosure stating that you are an affiliate. In addition, you must disclose that you’ve received the product free to give a review. It is also wise to inform your readers that just because you’ve received the item at no cost that doesn’t mean that your review won’t be honest.
- The advertisement must be truthful and honest.
- Take into consideration what device may be used to view your posts and where disclosures should be placed. Make disclosures as conspicuous as possible. This can be challenging when it comes to the size of the display screen for the digital device. That is why it is imperative that bloggers put disclosures at the beginning, near trigger texts and at the end of the content. For example if you were advertising an imitation pearl necklace, the trigger texts for a pearl necklace would be “pearl.”
But if the pearl necklace were imitation, the word “imitation” would disclose that the pearl necklace isn’t real and would comply with FTC guidelines. Therefore, the hyperlink would read “imitation pearl” necklace. (Without the quotation marks)
- It’s advised that if a hyperlink is used to point readers to a full disclosure that the hyperlink be clearly marked with disclosure text. A hyperlink works best for disclosures that have a large sum of text to be read and that can’t fit next to or in close proximity of the trigger text.
To some bloggers complying with these FTC rules can be confusing and overwhelming. A good rule of thumb is to be honest and truthful about what you are pushing. Make it clear what it is the person is buying and give him or her all the necessary information to help make an informed purchase decision.
Disclosure Page
In addition to making disclosures conspicuously on your page, it is wise to have a disclosure page. Some bloggers use a disclosure page to reaffirm intentions and any association with the makers of a product. It is important to note that disclosure page isn’t enough. As a blogger you will need to find a way to make it known to your audience if a link is an affiliate link, if the link is a sponsor ad, and if you are receiving payment in the form of cash or gifts in exchange for your review.
Generated Affiliate Links
Most bloggers use widgets from services that generate affiliate links, such as Amazon or Google Adsense and may not directly review or promote a product. In this case, it is wise to post a disclosure some place very easy to see that reads, “May contain affiliate links” at the beginning and end of each blog post.
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