As you may, or may not, know the Federal Trade Commission has new guidelines which affect all online business owners.  While I wouldn’t normally post about legal stuff this is important and affects 99% of the readers of this blog so before I go any further…

Note: I am NOT a lawyer and this is NOT legal advice… (sorry, had to be said!)

Fake Blogs

You know the ones.  Normally promoting some weight loss program or something along those lines.  The site is normally set up as a single page promotion to look like a blog post, but of course it’s really just a sales pitch.  They are misleading, and most people would consider them as scams… in my view the new guidelines to crack down on these is a good thing, and won’t affect anything we do as legitimate business people…

Disclosure of commercial intent

What does that mean?  Well basically it’s just being open and honest… if you’re recommending a product to promote it (as an affiliate) then you need to make that clear… something along the lines of “If you decide to click this link and make a purchase I will receive a commission… blah, blah, blah…”

(Like I said - I’m not a lawyer, if you want to know what to write then you need to get advice about this from someone who can give legal advice!)

Again, no big issue for real marketers.  Everyone will have to do it, so there won’t be any disadvantage to having a disclaimer like this on your site… people will get so used to seeing them they probably won’t even read them!

Testimonials

Hmmmm… now this one could catch a few people out!  Basically, the new rules say that testimonials must show “typical results”.

Now, you’ve all seen amazing testimonials right, like the woman who loses 100 pounds in 3 days, or the guy that makes $200,000 in a week following this new system…. then underneath it says “Results not typical - your results may vary” or something similar!

Well, the new rules say that you can’t do that.  Under the new guidelines you need to tell your customers what the TYPICAL RESULTS ACTUALLY ARE!  So under your amazing testimonial you need to put something like “The average user only loses X pounds” or “The average user only makes 3 bucks”!

Is this a biggie?  Well lots of people are worked up about this, and it certainly means a lot of marketers will have to make changes to stay inline, but here’s the deal… Everyone is in the same boat!

That’s right, all the changes you may have to make, affect everyone else too.  The best part is, as Frank Kern wrote in is blog post about this today, these new changes will probably put a bunch of people off!  That means a whole bunch of people will probably disappear from online marketing, and whatever niche you’re in will suddenly have less competition!  All the scammers, and the schemers who can’t deal with the new guidelines will disappear and leave a lot more room for us legitimate marketers!

So my advice - consider this an opportunity for growth.  Let OTHER people worry about what this might do to their business, and YOU just concentrate on growing yours!  Sound like a plan?  Well that’s what I’m planning to do, so here’s to the future! (and yes I had better say it - my results probably won’t be typical, and the average user… well, you know the score!)