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New Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Rules are Now in Effect

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Just a quick note to let you know that FTC Rules are now in effect.

(In fact, just in today’s email, I’ve seen an abundance of violations that people are making already the DAY OF — are you making them too?)

This is serious — and I’m not trying to alarm you because I have something for sale because I don’t.

All sales are off (and were on Sunday at midnight).  But…

The FTC thing is SO serious, I am watching Internet Marketing gurus retire products in the last month just because they do NOT want the heat.

The FTC is the NEW internet police.

Forget Interpol (which is for serious hackers and counterfeiters), the FTC will take out the average entrepreneurial site, the blogger who is gaining too much clout or the guru that is flying too high in the atmosphere.

I received notice from one marketer who is exiting selling info products for selling services.

Talk about a PARADIGM shift.

While this note may be quick, you should take this incredibly serious.

The internet in the United States (and soon in coming nations) is no longer just the Wild Wild West.  It will soon be heavily  regulated within the next 5 years by the government — guaranteed.

Those who have their shop setup right — their businesses aligned properly and strategies configured from the getgo with the new profiteers from this FTC re-alignment.

One lawsuit from the FTC could paralyze your organization if your site does not comply.

Not too many can hire a defense attorney to represent them and drop a $5,000 retainer and continuous monthly payments to defend against an FTC complaint.

The fact is — you simply don’t even want to get a notice — plain and simple.

Simple rule of thumb would be that if you are in doubt about a disclosure of ANY kind as to an affiliate relationship, disclose the relationship.

I’ll share with you how to dampen the effect in just a second.

The rules affect TWO major things:

1.  Testimonials

On your site or your affiliate site should state right below any claims of what kiind of results the average user should receive.

Do NOT use a testimonial from a vendor unless you know the average user results — OR just grab a testimonial that simply states an EXPERIENCE about the product — not a result.

It must be CLEARLY spelled out what the average user should expect to receive ONLY if the testimonial is a results oriented statement.

2.  Blogger Reviews – Freebies – Affiliate Relationships

When in doubt, I already said it above (and I do repeat things purposely so YOU remember it) — disclose that relationship.

Dampen the effect by offering a bonus to offset the disclosure part.

It’s SO easy — and instead of the disclosure, your bonus becomes the highlight.

I am discussing this in more detail in side the NicheRockets.com Private Mastermind where I am disclosing a bunch of examples I’ve already received on HOW to creatively deal with this situation (beyond just the FTC webinar we had about a month ago on how to creatively deal with the situation).

I’ll be revealing certain LANGUAGE to use (one because I’m a wordsmith when it comes to legal terminology having been a
paralegal/law office manager for 18 years of my life).

Your privacy policy, terms of service and income disclaimer should be up, including one thing I see people missing all
the time, which is the Disclosure of Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA for short).

Any blog reviews that have a recommendation, you should disclose any freebies.

Any emails that go out with affiliate recommendation should have disclosures on them — you will be seeing this with me so you can follow by example if you wish.

That’s all for now — this is simply a Public Service Announcement

Now make sure you are in compliance.

Your partner in KEEPING YOUR PROFITS,

Jim Morris, President/CEO – FTEI
Founder – NicheBOT.com, NicheRockets.com, LetsTalkProfits.com

P.S.  Please leave your comments and thoughts about this situation and feel free to retweet this post

Posted by Keyword Research Maven Jim Morris on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 2:11 pm 
Filed under FTC regulations · Tagged with

  • David Garfunkel offers a program for copywriting with templates. He has an entire section on how to comply with the new ftc rules. http://renegadeproblog.com/2009/12/03/free-webi...
  • Penny,

    Thanks for the mention here -- always good to have some resources on the matter and I'm a fan of David.

    He was actually one of the FIRST copywriting courses I took back in the Aesop days when MJ offered the course in like 2002 or 2003.

    I'm not sure whether David covers everything such as affiliate blog reviews, email marketing and the like, but this FTC covers the entire gamet.
  • Thanks for the reference to the DMCA. I see this new FTC ruling as finally leveling the playing field.
  • Jim,

    I noticed that your Nichebot site here, as of today 12/03/09, is quite packed with testimonials still, is this something that you are going to change at some point in the future?

    If Yes, why have you not already made the necessary changes to it?

    If No, why not? Is it that you feel that the FTC will never bother to give you or your business a problem over your testimonials?

    Also, when reading the FTC site and listening to the video gal, it seem apparent to me that they are "only going to go after folk's they are receiving, or have received, repeated complaints on" -and- they even say themselves that "folk's aren't going to get sued by the FTC the first time they receive a complaint, first time offenders should at least receive a warning from them first time around.

    So my opinion is, if your not doing things that make your customers complain about you to the FTC, I wouldn't worry about it too much. There are plenty of 'real' bad people out there to keep them busy for quite some time.

    <[:o)
  • Garrett,

    No -- we have made very MINOR changes as of 12/20/09 as I don't believe NicheBOT is in one of the major threat zones where testimonials are being that outlandishly used. For one, we have NO money claims, which I cannot say much for others and their sales pages and their pages continue to remain.

    So yeah -- I do not believe that the FTC is going after the Keyword Research industry just yet, but rather, I'm sure their targeting will be the health and wellness industry as well as dieting and fitness that tend to make insane outrageously claims about losing weight.

    Whereas the diet industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, while I believe every case should be significant and deserves as much attention as any other, there are much deeper pockets and many more people being swindled and complaining about the pills they received in the mail promising to burn 10 inches of fat off their body.

    Yes, we are weeding out testimonials little by little, and we are ultimately waiting for some sort of initial precedent from any case the FTC takes on. Once the initial case about testimonials is settled and the court has its say-so about it with a published opinion, then there will be more guidance on the matter.

    Until then, everyone, including the FTC, is flying by the seat of their pants.

    We will be making some changes in the copy that will reflect compliance, but again, the vagueness of the testimonial rule without any borders and without knowing exactly how to measure accordingly is problematic. I think many people are just at a stalemate about this and some just rather not deal with it and just close their doors in the meantime.

    The biggest issue on this is the FTC doesn't know how to appropriately measure first of all how the merchant can achieve knowing what the typical results are yet as there haven't been any cases that went through trial.

    At my last 9to5 job in the legal industry, I did work for the BSA -- Business Software Alliance which was a team of companies like Adobe, Microsoft, etc. that sat on the board to enforce their software rights.

    The only way an employer could be taken down for improperly installing too many copies of a software program was usually by a fired or disgruntled employee.

    So yeah -- unless someone starts receiving a good number of complaints, they really don't have anything to worry about.

    But then again, the FTC isn't going to send YOU notice that they have received a number of complaints against you until they actually show up with the complaints and they are ready to take action.

    There is a famous line that one of the partners whose firm I managed said that he remembered from law school:

    "In an abundance of caution..." is the preface to anything you can think of when it comes to protecting your butt in business. So you should always make sure you're covered by taking the extra steps before the need arises to have to write the FTC back and tell them what a bozo you were for doing what you did. :D

    Hope that made sense because I rambled that off in a first draft format.
  • The Romans were known for placating the populace with "bread and circuses". The US - a modern day global empire - is reduced to doing the same thing.

    Only today, the bread is a 'Windows 7 Whopper' and the circus is, well...pick a channel!


    - donpower.ME
  • dollofagrl
    Hi Jim...

    Thanks for the info.. Can you maybe clarify a little for me? What if you have Amazon testimonials on your site.. What type of disclaimer are you supposed to have? (what should it say). Also, if you're selling a physical product from Amazon, do you need to add that you make a commission on each sale?

    Enjoying the blog so far..

    Liz
  • I am sure that there are many out there still selling affiliate products because they are too lazy or underfunded to MAKE THEIR OWN.

    This is the simplest answer.....make your own products and tone down the over-hype. Sell it like it is, if it's any good it will sell well.

    We implemented this practice long before the FTC was even sniffing around on this subject. We saw the possible problems coming with the over-hype going on and everyone grabbing their affiliate link and pushing the crap products down everyone's throat just for a quick buck.

    Common business sense will tell you that this sort of thing was going south fast. Maybe 1 out of 10 products I get offers for in my emails are barely worth the cost, most are just rehashed old info being shoved out the door at overinflated prices so they can pay the affiliates enough to sell that crap.

    One question.....how long did anyone think this sort of thing could keep going before someone stepped in to regulate it?

    People are getting ripped off left and right out there daily, who in their right mind could find this sort of practice acceptable?

    Don't get me wrong, I do not agree with the government trying to regulate any part of the internet. First it's this, then it's charging a penny an email with 75% of that penny going for new taxes, then it's something else. The government has never gotten into something that they didn't screw it up and tax the hell out of it.

    Just make your own products, sell them for what they are and you won't have any problems. What you will do is set up a viable long lasting sustainable business. Stop worrying about the quick buck.
  • Travis
    Jim:

    Thanks for the reminder. Just curious...how does a guy get into your private NicheRockets group?

    Travis
  • Travis,

    Go ahead and email contactus[at]nichebot.com and tell them you recently missed last weeks opening and would like to find out if there are any openings and they'll let you know right away.

    Jim
  • I guess the best response to this is a quote that say's it all:

    “Men fight for freedom, then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves.~~Author Unknown

    Thanks for the information...
  • aquafanfan
    thanks for the info
  • patricia2
    Im surprised how many people are confused with the International side of things with these New FTC laws.

    To me it is obvious!

    If you have created a lovely little website or bucket loads of little websites and you live in Europe, Indonesia, Canada, Australia, UK etc. It does not matter!!! The law affects you!

    Think about it.

    Its irelevant where you live and where you made your site or who owns the site.
    If its a .com, .net, .org etc website, then it will no doubt be viewed in the USA, and therefore should/must have FTC laws in place.


    Its would be business suicide to ignore the FTC law as an "international owner" of a website.

    If you want to do more localised domain names eg: .com.nz or .com.uk then again I would be maintaining American FTC laws as eventually every country will follow suit.

    As for testimonials.......the way I see it is that the FTC law hasnt abolished them, its more like keep them fresh (only have them a few months old and keep a record of your testimonial person for future testimonials). Plus talk about the product rather then the result.

    Be upfront your getting a commission and/or something for free.

    Believe me I will do anything I can to ensure my integrity with the "net" I want to maintain my business for a few more years. So I might as well start now!
  • Good point, you might as well even if you're in another country make sure your website complies now because it'll come time for your government anyways -- and if you're covered now, the change over won't be so hard then. :D
  • Ron
    Thanks Jim for the reminder. Do you have specific examples of how we can tone down the disclosure on self-initiated reviews? I was on your Webinar for this and at the end of the Webinar you posted "The privacy policy Jim personally uses is at http://www.myinternetlawcomplaince.com" which was an invite to go to that site as a sample of a good privacy policy. Unfortunately I did not have the time to go to the site for a couple of days and then when I did, all that I got was "Page Not Found" or just a Blank Page. Now I'm trying to figure out how to do the disclosure the best way. Can you give us some help on this?
  • adam
    Yes, it would be really good to know what my position is as a UK citizen in relation to all this? Does your government have any power over me if my site is hosted in the US? Should I move to a UK site hoster immediately?
  • Adam,

    My question would be what is your product or service or affiliate programs you are representing (not where you are hosting your sites -- although that is an interesting question to ask a practitioner)?

    I believe what comes into play is whether you have an affiliate program and U.S. folks are signed up for it.

    If you are an affiliate, are you representing U.S. vendors or foreign vendors.

    And then if those prongs are met, I would then probably assume they would move onto look more closely at your hosting, but I don't in my own professional NON-LEGAL opinion believe that is a qualifier.

    So it really comes down to what your business model is and what kind of commerce your conduct on your sites or though your affiliated vendors.
  • This is a well written article that even provides some practical tips on a subject that gives just about everyone the willies. Thanks for posting it.
  • I actually find it amusing that everyone is getting all up in arms over testimonials. Does anyone every actually read those things? Or believe them?

    The gurus always tell us to include testimonials when a new product is launched. But if the product is new, where do you get testimonials? Simple. You con your JV partners and affiliates to make one up for you in exchange for a backlink. Problem solved .. until now.

    I never read that nonsense. I just scroll past them.
  • things are going to get a lot harder to sell for the IMers and they're going to have to rethink the entire game - and so will Mr. Product Launch Formula dude because ALL the internet marketing courses right now are complete defunct, out of date and not current.
  • Travail
    Steve,
    That's for sure. You've noticed that all those pre-launch testimonials just say stuff like, "I've read your "product" and it looks like it's going to make me loads of money." Or, "Your previous "product" looked like a killer so I know this one will be too."
    Almost never any specifics about how anyone used the product and how much it earned for them. This all for new products - existing product reviews were always hard to believe anyway, but we figured "we" could make them work. No more of this unsubstantiated B.S.
  • Dave
    I pulled all of my mini sites, I just didn't want the hassle. After I pay for my lawyer's son to go to school for a semester I'll put them back up with a legal disclosure and disclaimer.
  • threedragon
    Jim,
    Thanks for the heads up and all the information. Really I saw this coming and personally I am suprised that it all didn't happen before now because of all the BS and scams that have been going on for a very long time now... I have however stuck with you for a very long time now and stuck close to what you have had to say about many many things about the internet.... Personally I have yet to find a way to make a red cent... LOL... as it has all come to nothing but dead ends every time... Anyway keep up the great words of wisdom and thanks again... Please feel free to email me anytime !!!
  • Travail
    Seems like they would have jumped right away at those blatant come-on ads on MSNBC.com ...you know, all the "RachelRayBlogger.com" stuff loaded with false testimonials (always adjusted to be someone in your town as the speaker full of claims). Also those with "News8Tonight.com" (just a domain name - no "News 8" TV show exists) claiming that it's "famed" reporter has investigated ...whatever - followed by a full-blown product promotion.

    If I see those disappear in the next few days, I'll give this FTC stuff some credibility.
  • limakoh
    Thanks, This is a good overview.
    The net is borderless and what happens when the website is hosted in US but the owner/author is not in US. I wonder how the FTC ruling will apply. ( I am just wondering )

    Generally, I think this is a good development.

    TH
  • TH,

    Here's the big, big issue with this.

    If you are a direct seller of products and services in another country with NO affiliate program, you are not suspect to any of this.

    If you have an affiliate program and accept affiliates in the United States, then their practices could potentially subject themselves and your concern along with it. Question is the extent of how long the arm of the FTC is with respect to this.

    The next question remains when exactly they (FTC) are going to clarify the "average user results" for the testimonial factor.

    The biggest issue with the testimonial factor is that they (FTC) have not established any cases yet, so they have NO legal precedence, so my belief is that they do not want to corner themselves or confine themselves in any way until a court rules on the first few matters.

    Only after the first few cases are adjudicated will we start seeing more borders and definitions put up, because the end and final decision is going to be judicial and court based and is out of the hands of the FTC.

    It's only the FTC's lawyers that can plead the case and request whatever relief they are attempting to get. It is up to the judge in the matter as to what kind of relief the FTC will be granted on a case by case basis.
  • Good post Jim. I will be sure to follow this closely.

    Chris
  • Hi Jim,

    Appreciate your insight and comments regarding the new FTC regulations. Do you remember that it was just 10 years ago that everyone faced the Year 2000 Compliance issue?

    The new compliance parameters are more serious, but great for honest Internet marketers. It's just a matter of putting one's mind into doing it because it's needed.

    Robert
  • Having reviews on our sites means we will have to make certain that everyone knows we are legit and received no freebies. Thanks for reminding us that transparent honesty is the best way to abide by this new reality
  • Sam
    In this case one of my clients has listed results, testimonies, actual accidents of cases he has won against large tire manufacture's that were proven in a court of law to be at fault. Now his site will have to change to a dull boring video of him in his office explaining only his specialties, fax number and acceptance of AmEx. No testimony's allowed at all, no graphic images no matter how slight, no actual results posted, no freedom of speech, is the way I see it? Don't even think about posting a testimony of someone doing you wrong, it's still a testimony! Their restrictions are a bit more than what you and I will have to abide by, making the hive even more angry,and I'm sure there is good reason for all this. We all have the choice of what we want to read and a fair ability to figure out the truth, after all our research is now at our fingertips. Restricting the truth in effort to stop the lies does not help us figure out what's right, and I still choose to believe more of us are true and out weigh the false.
  • Experience testimonials are way different than just results testimonials. There's no way to express what the average "experience" is of the person who purchases the product.
  • Helen Curtis
    Hey! Jim thanks for the alert on Compliance recently here in New Zealand I recieved an email from some uninvited guy working for Internet Marketing.govt.org.nz demanding that I give him my details of my activities on the internet and click his link as if I was doing something criminal so I politely put him where I last saw him in the Spam. You know some thing else Jim I pay for the privilege to have internet participation with whom ever I want and at any time but I welcome most internet marketers to my email because I trust and look up to them. Over the years its been amazing to see how IMs have grown and created hard earned wealth and whats wrong with that? Pretty much we all pay taxes anyway. Thanks for letting me comment Jim and keep up your good business. Dont Give in or up just out. Cheers!
  • It is about time that these false prophets and profits were reigned in. So much crap out there promising the Earth yet actually giving nothing of value.

    Regulation is not a bad thing. However, over regulation is a killer..

    Now, I do not know the full implications of this ruling and the new regulations, but it will be interesting to see how the far the gurus and the big launches step back.

    I would LOVE to know of all the product launches and courses launched by the gurus, how many are sold, how many people actually take the time to read/study/listen to them, how many put the teachings into practice and how many make money like the sales letter preaches and how many make nothing at all.

    That would make interesting reading..
  • Right now, I've seen an outlandish number of violations.

    I've seen one attorney marketer who has got his stuff down and he was practicing the FTC stuff before it was even time to put on the show.

    I think we're going to see a LOT of different approaches from people and I'm certain things are going to be different.

    It's going to be real interesting reading and studying (and further discussion) :D
  • Sam
    Here in Florida, last week, the Supreme Court of Florida slapped the beehive towards the Florida Bar restricting along the same lines, making the lawyer's/attorney's abide by TV media rules already in place. This in my opinion is the beginning of getting all attorney's ready for all the Internet litigation's coming down the pike. If they have to abide, so shall we all...
  • petersantilli
    Jim, quite frankly, the big hand of government should focus all their efforts on getting our branches of government to provide better disclosure to the American people.

    Going after internet marketers is the equivalent of chasing down heroin dealers in Compton, while the US government guards 80 billion dollar poppy fields in Afghanistan.

    As a consumer advocate, I'm so incensed by the hypocrisy of our federal government, that I wish I could single handedly expose their misconduct to the American people.

    The FTC should do what we pay them to do, and also protect taxpayers from crooked politicians. I recommend they start at the top & work their way down versus beating up on the boot-strapping entrepreneur.

    The American public deserves better disclosure from government officials. They should also provide a better "heads-up" before our economy implodes, or state governments go bankrupt.

    Their first task should be to demand full disclosure by the Federal Reserve...that would keep them focused on trillions of dollars lost without "full disclosure" to the taxpayer.

    Thanks for letting me rant, but most importantly, thanks for your info.

    Regards,

    Peter Santilli
    http://www.PeterSantilliTV.com
  • I appreciate the rant and if you ever need a sounding board, we're here for ya.

    For one, I think this recent update by the FTC is a way of them stepping up their game.

    I just saw their recent investigation with CVS drugstore's headquarters and their lawsuit against them for illegal business practices (perhaps anti-trust matters or improper pharma negotiations). These are signs.

    I agree that there needs to be further disclosure in other areas and as a result of this latest release, I think we'll see a lot more strict guidelines for not only marketers and business practitioners, but corporations, Fortune 500 companies not excluded, and right along that path, crooked politicians and guidelines to make it even stricter for them to persuade the general public with their slanted and pre-postured advertisements. :D

    Either way, I think this is a good thing and they'll step it up -- good you got that out there -- and I think that this should be brought up with Mr. Cleland. ;)
  • susanarcand
    Has anyone even read the new guidelines?

    Watching what the gooroos do in response is stupid. Even the FTC muckety mucks are confused about what the new guidelines intend. Plus it would be impossible to police. Just go out to http://ftc.gov and see what their reach is. You'd be amazed.

    Sounds like common sense, honesty, ethics and an understanding of the law is sadly lacking all the way around.

    But opportuntism and sensationalism remain abundant as ever.
  • thePav
    I've read the guidelines, and there IS good reason to be a little scared. I agree 100% that there are a lot of crap sites promoting garbages products and scamming people out of their money - hopefully this will help alleviate that problem.

    Unfortunately, should the FTC choose to enforce their new rules on EVERYONE's sites, this could be very bad.

    People affected by this include:

    -Anyone who sells ads on their blog or website

    -social media marketers

    -anyone who uses testimonials

    -celebrities (not that you see many celebrity endorsements on the web, but the new rules make sure you never will)

    -copywriters will be forced to sell features over benefits, as benefits won't be the same for everyone.

    -advertisers will be required to perform research to provide PROOF of what consumers actually think after reading an ad - regardless of what the ad says.

    -promoting your company or your client's products in forums without disclosure will be deemed deceptive and possibly warrant law enforcement action.

    And the worst part of all of it?
    Traditional media is exempt from all these regulations. Doesn't sound like common sense to me.
  • yeah -- that part of the journalists being exempt from all this -- why does someone who went to school to get a degree in that is any better at reporting a story than I am?!
  • Scott Bailey
    where can one find the DMCA and other things that should be listed on your policy, privacy page
  • Check out Attorney Michael Young's site called http://www.legalformsgenerator.com -- he has an example on his site about DMCA.

    I would actually separate the DMCA notice from other pages like privacy and policy and separate it much like Michael Young has and we (FTEI - NicheBOT.com) are currently using his forms generator.

    That's not an affiliate recommendation because there's NO affiliate link. So we just blanket wholeheartedly recommend that forms generator as the only current one we recommend as Shawn Casey neglected to update his policy pages and I did not buy from the guy who took over his site.
  • Thanks for the heads up Jim, looking forward to more information, for those of us who can't seem to find a listing of the rules, can you break them down (again) and post them?
  • Here's a listing of the last rules:

    http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendo...

    The best breakdown of the rules and the gal whose post I used the most in preparing for the FTC webinar I gave a month ago is here:

    http://getgood.com/roadmaps/2009/05/19/the-ftc-...

    That was around the time when the FTC released their first notice.

    She gives a great analysis of the most recent updates here:

    http://getgood.com/roadmaps/2009/10/08/updated-...

    Then there is the analysis of the most recent examples:

    http://getgood.com/roadmaps/2009/11/04/ftc-guid...

    Hope that helps but that should catch you up pretty well.
  • Can you show us an example of how and where you include the Disclosure of Millenium Copyright Act?
  • Mickey
    Doesn't seem like a big deal if you are being honest about your product or service. Nice to know everyone is on the same playing field.
  • Nope -- in fact, this is a HUGE HIT for the good guys and all the folks that are not overbloating and over-hyping their stuff.

    This IS the best news and if you listened and watched the FTC seminar I did back a few weeks ago (available inside the NicheBOT Vault at NicheRockets.com) -- this is exactly how I prefaced it.

    For the folks with long term mentality and no over-hyped chatter, it's going to be a nice cleaning of the decks.

    Just gets the riffraff out of the way
  • Nothing beats being above board for loyaltys sake either.
  • johnelliottakaoakywood
    Hi,
    What I'd like to know is why are so many so called top marketers now running scarred and pulling products like pulling candy out of a bag. Why do they fear the FTC's new rules. Could the real reason be that their testimonials are exactly what the FTC are talking about,namely a load of BS. Testimonials by other guru's just to actually get exposure as a self proclaimed expert in the marketing field. Expert at conning just about all of us for years and making millions into the bargain. These new FTC rules are scaring the crap out of these marketers because the truth is they have been blatenly lying to us over their testimonials for their products. Its now come to the time to prove that these testimonials are in fact true and guess what, they can't so they run like headless chickens, pull their products and websites and run for the hills.
  • and the fact is, they don't want to lose the millions they made by being tangled up in a lawsuit.

    It's clear that this is the one that hangs anyone that stands in the way.

    Whether the testimonials are a fraud or actually real but helped and aided and supported and somehow made so the person couldn't fail, that could be.
  • John,

    I agree, it looks quite suspicious when all the products come down because you start asking for proof.

    On the other hand, when the burden is on you to prove that what has been shown on the video will work for you, you are gonna lose.

    You obviously have never been hounded by the FTC. It apparently is a nightmare. So better to lose a few millions, than go head to head with the FTC and lose money, time, your business and peace of mind.

    Cheers.
  • Jim
    Jim,

    Thanks once again for the reminder. Do you have specific examples of how we can tone down the disclosure on self-initiated reviews? I was on your Webinar for this and you read and answered one of my questions which I appreciated. Now I'm trying to figure out how to do the disclosure the best way.
  • Whether they are self-initiated reviews or requested reviews, you'll have to disclose no matter what. I study human communication and how language and things can impact folks in a subtle way so that the actual disclosure you are trying to give is buried within the actual carrot that acts as a motivator to the prospect.

    For instance, I have an RC Helicopter site where I do a review the latest ENTRY helicopter for the beginner but actually has enough torque to take off.

    I do the review and add a bonus of a 45 minutes interview of the top ranked RC helicopter pilot that won 5 world championships and I interview him about the basics of how to master flying like a pro.

    In the review, I mention this bonus at or near the same time I mention that I also receive affiliate commissions and use the actual notice of the commission the point in time that they the visitor who becomes a customer after buying your stuff by actually sending you their receipt to redeem the notice.

    It's diversion with explaining the BONUS at the same time I explain that I am directly connected as an affiliate.

    I'm mean - it's SO in your face and obvious that I believe the prospect will just glance over it because their direct motivation is the bonus.

    99% of people will not do this -- so if you take the effort, and form a habit to attach a bonus to every single thing you promote as an affiliate, well, you'll be an ace above all others I believe by providing value -- AND you'll be creating a customer list at the same time from the emails you receive (just make sure they sign up on a customer autoresponder list so you can have them already opted in without having to do it sometime again in the future).

    Lordy -- I just ramble on -- don't I?
  • Bill White
    I just sent an email complaint to the FTC about the FTC. My question to them was were they going to enforce these laws on the U.S. Government as well. Take for example the fact that our President just proclaimed a national health emergency with the Swine Flu whereas statistics are showing several things, 1) The CDC isn't having every case tested to be sure it is swine flu. 2) The Swine flue has killed less than the yearly average of normal seasonal flu cases. 3) He's recommended taking the H1N1 vaccine, saying it's safe yet already people are reporting Guillain-Barre Syndrome and other adverse reactions. I don't even think we need to go into Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, TARP and every other program that was promised at a lower cost than it actually did, with a more far reaching result than it actually produced.

    I think it's time the U.S. government had to swallow their own pills.
  • This could well backlog the entire bureaucratic system by another 4-8 years (a governmental branch going after the government) and then no one would be prosecuted and the crooks will continue getting away with stuff because no one's going after them so they keep pushing the line. You get my point...
  • Greg
    Darn good point.
  • Chris
    Bill,

    I wasn't even thinking about the US government. But more specifically obama has scammed the entire US and world costing us the largest debt ever and probably screwing us for generations. I would think that any of those liberal websites, moveon . org, etc should be shut down and fined immediately. If they want to keep US citizens from being screwed you might as well start with the biggest culprits... i.e. obama and his democratic leadership.... sure hope this didn't offend anyone... he he he.
  • Crosby
    My goodness Chris, Pres. Obama has only been in office about a year yet you are blaming him and his administration for all the transgressions of past administrations (which should be left unnamed).Be honest here and recognize the true culprits. You know who they are!!!
  • mickey
    An interesting quote by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "American people are the most entertained and least informed people on the face of the earth." He was referring to our national media.
  • mickey
    I like that. Then all we need is for the national news to do a little research and tell the truth.
  • Thanks Jim. I always appreciate the heads up. Really liked the video on this topic as well.
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