SponsoredReviews: Not FTC Compliant?

15 October, 2009 - 07:00 AM - 14 Comments

SponsoredReviews has been a successful program for many bloggers who have a PR4 and above, but many opportunities require that you perform a review or post without disclosing that it was sponsored:

This would make SponsoredReviews non-compliant with the new FTC ruling that goes into effect on December 1st 2009, which states a blogger must declare when a post is sponsored and the company that sponsored it. This is a direct conflict with how SponsoredReviews has been assigning out posts previously, so one only wonders what SponsoredReviews will do to become compliant.

My suggestion is that they take a page from SocialSpark and offer a “Support my Sponsor” button at the bottom post that declares it was a SponsoredReviews opp, how many bloggers are using SponsoredReviews and are concerned about this?

-Dragon Blogger

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Written by Justin Germino (1518 Articles Published)

Working in the IT Industry for over 10 years and specializing in web based technologies. Dragon Blogger has unique insights and opinions to how the internet and web technology works. An Avid movie fan, video game fan and fan of trying anything and everything new.

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Rose

Thanks for posting about this. I had no idea.

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Tycoon Blogger

I have noticed that too, It seems like Social Spark is ahead of the curve. It is a shame that they do not pay bloggers as well as Sponsored Reviews does.
.-= Tycoon Blogger´s last blog ..VOTE now for the Rookie Blogger of the Year =-.

dragonblogger

SocialSpark pays me very well, I have made $500 from them in 2 months. It just depends on how popular your blog is, with SocialSpark you can excel with high traffic and low pagerank.

Trey - Swollen Thumb Entertainment

It seems likely that they would stop accepting reviews from U.S. bloggers, but only at first glance. I think that they would make the most reasonable business decision possible, and would most likely conclude that there's too many U.S. bloggers out there to exclude them, and would thus find some way to disclose the fact that the review was paid in a way that was as discreet as possible.

Mike@Coolest Gadgets

It will be interesting to see how this comes down. The FTC is a US governing body and applies to their citizens so if you live outside the US, I don't think it would apply.

However, if your sites are hosted on US servers or you have any kinds of dealings that go through the States, you may indirectly fall under the rule of this law.
.-= Mike@Coolest Gadgets´s last blog ..Nintendo Wii Cyberbike =-.

In the meantime do all your posts now, so they grandfather in before December 1st.

Extreme John

It looks like SponsoredReviews has some work to do if they plan on hanging around very long.
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..NFL Week 6 Predictions =-.

Harsh @Google wave

I'm sure they will make changes before this new rule will come into action.@Google
wave´s last blog ..Why Bloggers Drink and How to Avoid Drinking? =-.

Metallman

Hey there. I haven't seen any mention of the new regulation at Sponsored Reviews. If they plan on operating in a legal manner, they are going to have to give their advertisers and publishers notice that a disclosure will be required. It will be interesting as to how they will proceed since nothing has been mentioned as of yet. Later.
.-= Metallman´s last blog ..A Stomach Bug Must be Going Around =-.

Klaus @ TechPatio

Obviosuly they have to do *something*, they can't get bloggers to do their reviews when going against the law.

However, what if non-US blogs/owners does it? I mean, since we're in Europe, we're not under FTC, so we can still hide it (not that I do and would).
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Firefox 3.6 Will Support Accelerometers â€“ Beta Release Tomorrow? =-.

Right, I wonder since some advertisers prefer anonymity if this means that companies will start saying "Non-US Bloggers only?"

Heather Kephart

I agree. They're going to need to move forward or rick getting left behind.
.-= Heather Kephart´s last blog ..Change =-.

Sunday's Best - week ending 10/28/09 | Tycoon Blogger says:

October 18, 2009 at 1:55 pm

[...] Sponsored Reviews – not ftc compliant ? Dragon Blogger brings up a great point about Sponsored Reviews.Â Will they change their policy? [...]

BlogsVertise not FTC Compliant on Dragon Blogger says:

October 20, 2009 at 7:02 am

[...] Visit Twittley.com to read more about BlogsVertise not FTC Compliant. 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 [...]