In my previous article SponsoredReviews not FTC Compliant I pointed out how the pay site SponsoredReviews is not meeting the new FTC guidelines that take effect on December 1st 2009 which require bloggers to disclose any articles where payment or compensation is received to review or promote a product or service.
At the time of this original article, a blog earning site called BlogsVertise was also not yet compliant with the new FTC requirements as they clearly state when requesting or assigning you opportunities to not mention this is a sponsored post in anyway. This was a clear violation of the FTC Guidelines and for US Bloggers to continue using BlogsVertise or SponsoredReviews after December 1st they needed to update their policies and adapt.
Many bloggers make good money from these programs, personally I have made about $50 from BlogsVertise over the two years I have been with them, but particularly the number of offers I get are very low. Most of my blogging income comes from IZEA based programs like SocialSpark or PayPerPost which are already FTC compliant as they require a disclosure for each assignment. You can read more about which programs I use to make money blogging and which ones I have tried but have not worked out that well for me.
US Bloggers need to be more choosy and aware that just because they are using legitimate paid blogging programs they might be non-compliant if they continue to use them after December 1st 2009.
Update:
As with most major blogging platforms online, BlogsVertise has since updated to bringing the system compliant where bloggers should disclose any reviews accepted and written as assignments.
-Dragon Blogger
Related posts:
- SponsoredReviews: Not FTC Compliant? My suggestion is that they take a page from SocialSpark and offer a "Support my Sponsor" button at the bottom...
- SponsoredReviews Answers FTC Compliance Questions SponsoredReviews posted a detailed and very informative response on how to handle Disclosure of paid assignments. ...
- FTC Investigates Blog Endorsements of AnnTaylor Stores If you receive any compensation for writing a review of a product or service then you need to fully disclose...
- SponsoredReviews Updates Post Types SponsoredReviews a very successful company that helps bring advertisers and bloggers together releases an update for some post types and...
- SocialSpark Update: New Disclosure Statements SocialSpark announces an update to how disclosures are done in assignments with a top full statement disclosure now being required...
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Tags: blog for money, blog for profit, Blog income programs, blogging and ftc, BlogsVertise, earn blogging, Earn Money Blogging, FTC, FTC Compliance, ftc for bloggers, IZEA, money blogging, paid blogging, sponsoredreviews
October 20th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Excellent article Justin. Which reminds me that “we” bloggers, have the power to influence sites, such as these two that you have mentioned, to comply with FTC guidelines by spreading the word just like you are doing. I think this is awesome.
Ditesco´s last blog ..DiTescos Weekly Echo #6
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October 20th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Hm when you say “U.S bloggers” , does that mean a blogger who lives in the U.S or any blogger who blogs in a U.S webhost server?
I think I better have a read the FTC guidelines
Michael Aulia´s last blog ..Weekend fun: A cat betrayed his girlfriend…..
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October 20th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
The guidelines aren’t specific enough to say honestly, I don’t know the answer. I would assume residents of the US and people are subject of the FTC guidelines, web hosting providers I don’t think would be liable since they don’t write the content.
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October 20th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
My understanding is the blog ip determines the jurisdiction. An ip has a geo location so if you want to ignore the FTC, just go blog in another country
I’ve done a couple reviews with Blogsvertise since the release of the FTC law. At the end of both I inserted: “FTC Compliiance: Author was compensated for this review but unbiased.”
Both reviews were approved and are set for payment.
I’m not defending Blogsvertise but they are a good income stream for me and they respected the FTC guideline in this case.
On a side note, don’t you find it finny that a company with the word “Sponsored” in their title couldn’t spell it right in the notes to it’s publishers??? (sponsered) he he. I’ve never like Sponsored Posts because they’ve never offered me much work.
Good article!
Damien Riley´s last blog ..Puppeteers – Unsung Heroes of Seasame Street
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October 21st, 2009 at 6:45 am
Thats good to know that you put a disclaimer in and they will still Approve, I should have done that instead of denying the last 2 assignments from them.
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October 20th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Hi, I love your tagline there about 50% technology, 50% personal & 100% entertainment
Btw, I’m hosting a giveaway for $200 USD at http://boeyjoey.blogspot.com/2009/10/im-wishing-for-something-sparkly-for-my.html. To win just paste a button, go check it out!
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October 30th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I think it would be far better for them to clearly require compliance; if their instructions state that you are NOT to specify that this is a sponsored post, then THEY are in violation and I’m assuming they’re based in the U.S.
As I recall, the guidelines required a good faith effort on the part of marketers to at least INSTRUCT bloggers to comply with the law. I believe that the new guidelines are just that – in and of themselves, they are not the law, but rather clarify existing law. So this is already in effect, as far as I know.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..$1,500 Thanksgiving Giveaway @ JaypeeOnline
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October 31st, 2009 at 8:02 am
Damien also mentioned that he always puts the Disclosure in as well, and Blogsvertise has approved them.
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November 1st, 2009 at 6:11 pm
I’m becoming increasingly interested in Paid posts nowadays. Hehe. I’ve never had one before – I advertise events and concerts for free for my friends. :p
How is it and what site do you recommend I sign up for?
reyjr´s last blog ..How JaypeeOnline celebrates Thanksgiving
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November 2nd, 2009 at 7:21 am
I would need to know your blog statistics to make a recommendation, what are your daily unique visitors, pagerank, alexa rank. I know you run a personal diary blog.
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November 2nd, 2009 at 7:36 am
Lols. OK. Here goes:
Daily unique visitor = 80 to 100
Pagerank 3
Alexa at 800k (7day average at around 300k)
Not quite impressive, but then again, I’m fairly new. hehehe.
reyjr´s last blog ..How JaypeeOnline celebrates Thanksgiving
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November 3rd, 2009 at 3:40 am
i stopped doing paid posts since last year, and i haven’t visited my accounts at PPP, smorty and blogsvertise for the last 6 months. i still think that most of the advertisers want only the links, and not the content of the reviews. but i hoped they changed.
novz´s last blog ..Cebu Pacific Air’s Peso (Piso) Seat Sale
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November 3rd, 2009 at 7:36 am
Consider SocialSpark which is interested in the reviews and is one of the highest quality paid blogging programs around.
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November 4th, 2009 at 5:56 am
It’s is really hard to believe and almost incredible that a big company like Blogvertise would be advising clients to ignore and/or violate the new FTC regulations. I hope that no one is planning on using their bad advice as a defense. I don’t think the FTC administrators will buy that defense.
Thanks for the tip about Socialspark. Great informative post!
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November 4th, 2009 at 7:04 am
According to some other bloggers who have commented you can still put your own disclosure and it should still be approved.
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November 4th, 2009 at 8:24 am
I don’t intend to do a lot of paid posts – actually I refuse to. haha. But am interested to learn how to do it.
Thanks again for the tips!
reyjr´s last blog ..Singing with Sarah Geronimo (plus tips on how to use a microphone)
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January 29th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
This is interesting, I have tried blogsvertise and I earned $15 for a post, but they never knock my door again, I think they don’t have much advertisers!
Thanks for sharing the info!
Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..Best 10 Marketing and SEO articles at MMO Social Network
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January 29th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
I see about 1 or 2 offers per month for $9 come my way, I reject most of them but take once in a while. I hear others do pretty well, I think it like SponsoredReviews gives you more opps if you have higher pagerank.
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August 17th, 2010 at 3:55 am
Does Blogvertise only approves blog with PR 2+? I have read some article that mentioned that. But on the Blogvertise’s page, there are no explanation about it.
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August 17th, 2010 at 8:09 am
No, I have a PR0 blog in the system that gets offers (rarely), there is no minimum pagerank
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