FTC Investigates Blog Endorsements of AnnTaylor Stores
This article should be of interest to every blogger who lives and writes in the United States and does sponsored blog content. If you receive any product, service or monetary compensation for writing a review of a product or service then you need to fully disclose what you received and from which company. This is required under FTC rules and you can read an article about how the FTC Investigated Bloggers who promoted an AnnTaylor event without disclosing that they received free gifts to attend and blog about the event.
This case AnnTaylor was covered because they specifically mentioned that bloggers should mention what gift they received and disclose that they received something from the company, however remember that if you are a blogger and you are receiving compensation via cash, free license, gift then you are required to disclose or you could be fined by the FTC at some point. I know that enforcement is highly unlikely with millions of blogs and the odds of getting caught if you are a small time blog with little traffic and a small time advertiser, but be honorable and keep your reputation intact by disclosing properly.
Most of the major online blog earning programs now already require that you put a disclosure statement in your blog post now, but sometimes when you get contacted by an advertiser directly they may ask you not to or won’t require or bring it up. I know myself I have had advertisers ask me if I “Had to disclose” my review of their product or service and in every case I tell them that it is required by FTC guidelines and I refer them to the FTC Final Guidelines about Endorsements article so they can read it for themselves.
-Dragon Blogger
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FTP guidelines have forced many bloggers to take down their blogs and rethink about how they did internet marketing. I wish other countries will exercise similar laws to make internet once again a trusted place. Mentioning 'exact' gift would mean sitewide disclosures won't work anymore.
I have seen PPP and ReviewMe changing their guidelines but they still accept sitewide disclosures.
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