Bad News for Bloggers:You have to Face Disclosure Rules from Now on..!
Well, I have a bad news for all bloggers who post reviews about products or services and Do not disclose that it is paid or a sponsored Review. The Federal Trade Commission declared that the bloggers who review products on their blog must disclose any agreement with the advertiser; it might be receipt of free products or disclosing that the review is paid by advertiser.
Image Credits:Bizboint
According to FTC, discloser of material connections (such as free products or payments) is applied to celebrities also along with the bloggers. Federal Trade commission (FTC) is developed to stop fake, deceptive and unfair business practices which can mislead customers. Consumers can give complaint to FTC’s website if they are facing any fake advertising strategies.
The reason behind this law is to control advertisement activities on internet. Advertisers are using online social media like twitter and Facebook for pitching their products and services. Many advertisers mislead customers with fake review. Thus to take care of rapid growth of online advertisement and stop fake advertisements, FTC has declared this law.
After reading the above statements there are lots of questions will be making rounds in your mind. Let me try to address few of them.
Q. From when on the law will be applicable?
The law will be applicable from 1st of December 09.
Q. What will happen if blogger fail to govern by the law?
If any blogger or celebrity doesn’t disclose the material connections decided between advertisers and customers, than bloggers have to pay a heavy penalty. Thus, all bloggers and celebrities make habit to reveal that you are writing paid reviews or pay penalty.
Q. What are Pros and Cons of the law to the bloggers?
Pros:
Could not find any, apart from the fact bloggers will be following ethics while blogging for a review.
Cons:
1. Less number of advertisers since many of the companies and agencies pays for a non disclosure review in order to attract the customers.
2. If a blogger is found guilty having a review which is not disclosed and a paid review will have to pay a huge fine.
Q. Who will be benefited?
Customers will surely be benefited with this law since they will not buy a product or services blindly based on a false/paid review, since the review will have a disclosure stating that it is a paid review, so it will result in a less number of customers getting trapped by the advertisers.
Q. What blogging community is saying about this?
As usual few are saying it is a good idea to have such a law and few are against it.
In short I believe that it is beneficial for customer and good for society but for bloggers who are earning through this stream might face a big setback.
You can find the more information at:
- http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm
- http://en.newspeg.com/Bloggers-face-disclosure-rules-46307138.html
- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html?_r=2&th&emc=th
What you say about this law? Appreciate OR Oppose? Share with us! Happy Blogging!!
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As a customer I would appreciate it now we will be able to know which is a paid and non paid review and judiciously select a product/service, and as a blogger i am only a little bit disappointed since there is no Harm in having a full disclosure.
This may be good for some blogs like mine. People who read my reviews will clearly know if I got paid for a review or not. If they see that I am not paid for a review they will value that review more and may be it will turn out good.
On the other hand, if you disclose that your reviews are paid, then they will value your review lesser.
@Renino Most of advertisers don’t want blogger disclose as reviews paid..Because they also don’t want google know about their marketing strategy..Others advertiser are competing with google..
I’m for this legislation. As Ruchi said, I’d also like to know what is a paid and what is a non-paid review. It can very misleading if bloggers are posting paid reviews for obvious Reasons, just so they get a sale.
By reading if a review is paid or not you can decide if a product is worth your time or not. I am also for this law.
If I see a “paid” review, I think I will not continue reading the article because, chances are, the conclusion is biased.
I don’t know what this would lead in long run.
I am in two minds over this.
Let’s see what it leads to..
Yah, it is interesting to see how it will be going.
Let’s wait and see what happens next. for me, I’m ok with it. At least, if it’s paid review, I will not waste my time reading it and believing too much about it.
I’m with you. But Do we really think a US paid review blogger will comply? Again my question is, how can the FCC tell if its a paid review or not?
Do you mean because there is a lot of virtual rules not running well?
That law can be running well if only FTC serious and decisive.
One more thing..how Do they apply this law since there are billions trillions bloggers…hahaha
Maybe, they will coordinate with blogger and WordPress and implement this rule in their TOS. We all know that anyone who doesn’t follow TOS is subject for account termination. I think, this way, they will only talk to the big guys and then these big guys will “moderate” the small guys such as us.
If your blog is self hosted then I don’t think there’s a TOS or anything similar. Also I am not sure if Blogger or WordPress.com would put that in their TOS. They will just shoo away some bloggers to find another free blogging platform or people will just get a self Hosting blog.
I understand that this law make for costumer benefit but… (yah… there is always but) it may big decrease earn for blogger. Many advertiser choose blog to advertise because the advertisement is not like advertisement.
Yeah I agree with you Many advertiser choose blog to advertise because the advertisement is not like advertisement, it is a big set back for bloggers who are earning thorough that medium.
Yup! there is a huge possibility of set back for many bloggers but the bloggers who already got some Reputation may not be affected much by it.
Ya..As far as i know many review site include in their TOS that disclosing is not allowed..Then i feel they too should change their TOS.
Yeh you’re right, but if you look at it from their point of view, they would be paying for what readers would see as a totally false review. Ethics don’t count much for people wanting to make money.
Hmm! is that the case. I had no idea.
It depends on the advertiser..Some of the advertisers want bloggers include the disclosure..some of them don’t want bloggerss include the disclosure..As I make make money through this medium I know what’s going on between the advertiser and blogger..
I’m agree about advertisement which not like advertisement, because review in blog is just like reference of the blogger itself. But too bad, it’s no longer “pure reference”, it’s a business. And i think the decision to make that law is good decision. It’s all for customer. Customer is KING
When we received a paid review, we can decide which product are good for customers. So, we blogging about good product, be honest.
Do you mean even you’re never use that product yet, you’ll review it? That’s why FTC law created, friend. You can’t do it since it’s not pure.
Maybe there is a company who willing to giving sample in way to get their product reviewed? So, it’s not against FTC law
The customer deserves unbiased information. anything that is about a certain product or company that is paid by that company is most likely be biased. If you are the company you’re not gonna be happy if you see a review (that you paid for) is against your product, right?
I don’t really see any big problem with this. As long as they are honest they will not get in trouble. I’m guessing this is an american law, so what happens if you move the blog to Sweden?
Honesty is a very important thing. Bloggers should always be honest. It increases your Reputation and this type of law won’t affect you much.
Agreed with you Agent001, the readers like a honest review..
What is called by “Honest” in this case is, only reviewing product which ever used by the reviewer right?
Being honest means, stating only correct observations, information. It has to be both negative and positive and the conclusion must be in favor of the customers and not of the company (that owns the product).
If the blogger feels the product is inferior, he/she must tell his/her followers that the product is indeed inferior even if it’s a paid interview.
But then again, If I’m the customer and I saw a review that I paid is against my product, I’m not gonna be happy and I might refund the money that I paid to that person.
Just a quick question. Another article was written about online Reputation but how Do I know exactly the value of my reputation? Is there an institution in the net that administers this? Or just a subjective thing that depends on individual perception about you?
It is subjective thing though..We can make all peoples like us..Sometimes we get positive feedback sometimes we have negative feedback..so be alert to your surrounding..
Even i am not sure what will happen to blogs out side American, since FTC is an American body, i think as the time passes by more clarifications will come on the same.
I think the law is not running for people outside america, because :
It’s hard to manage if their implement it for worldwide. If there is people against the law and it’s outside on america, their will hard to punish them since actually their have no right to Do it.
But CMIIW, need real info about this…
Hmm, that might get quite confusing. So Do you think it means the legislation is only applicable for American bloggers? If you’re not the sole owner of the website, and other members live in different areas it could get quite confusing. Only time will tell, I guess.
Maybe. We have to wait for sometime for better clarification.
Or Philippines? So how can they impose the law there?
Yes, that’s in my mind too. But, internet is a huge network can be accessed from all around the world.
That’s why I don’t think its going to be effective. You could be down under (Australia) and yet your blog market is up North (America) so how the FCC can charge you with $11k penalty?
i agree with Stefan and i also want to know about it.
Hmmm, will see how this goes. However it is going to be a massive blow to bloggers how are earning this way.
Yeh, it will be, however I bet some will find holes in the system. On the other hand, being totally honest with readers could lead to improved Reputation, which could pay off in different areas.
After reading so many comments, I am also getting that kind of impressions too.
I am not against this law. I am a reviewer and I think it is not a great deal of problem. I am ready for it.
But as many are saying. It will decrease the income of bloggers. Advertisers will decrease.
Mostly review nowadays only purposed just for get more exposure and link. So, i’m as customer pros with it. But it’s too bad for reviewer, their will get their job decreased.
yes this is true, as reviewer this is very bad but for customer it is good.
Actually there is a time when i want to jump into PTR business
. It’s because i have friend which get $300 per month just for reviewing.
Lucky me. Maybe if i’m seriously into it, i will get dissapointed now. Because it will surely decrease my earning.
If a reviewer is truly reviewing products he/she will find a way to keep up his earning in some way.
Exactly. You can review products you already use like mobile phones, LCD tv’s, Phone services, etc.
Even if you get a paid review, you can still give your honest opinion.
Now! we can have fairness in our blogging activities. Most bloggers today often Do free review a sites or products in their first site just to make more post on their blogs.
Now that we have the rule, we can determine which article is a paid review or not…
This is isn’t bad for me…
As long as you are fare, I don’t think you will have any problem.
Question: How the FCC can monitor if the review is paid or not? How can they tell? Anyone?
I believe they can’t tell it, it is being said that they customer have to give complain to FTC site and they will take some kind of action. So i guess it customer dependent.
Maybe their will make agreement and joint venture with payment system such paypal/alertpay to tracking it?
But there are man such services, and i am not sure whether they will approve to show the transaction made by there customers to FTC.
I am not sure on this.
I hope Indian Government will also apply this.
I agree with you aashish, it is in benefit of customers. But I feel govt. will take quite a bit of time to apply this. Do you have any idea in india who is the acting body like FTC in USA?
This is no responsibility of govt. Internet is chaos, pretty difficult to control.
I feel it has both good and bad in it..Thanks for sharing this info..
i think this law is benefit for customer to know that which is paid review.
I’m curious how they check whether the post is a paid review if we review the product in the blog naturally? I’m sure they will have some system or tool to track it.
2 more months to go, ready for it.
Regards,
Lee
Thats my same question. I don’t think they have a tool unless they can read minds from thousands of miles away
Also how bout those blogging from other countries? FCC doesn’t have any say in that I supposed.
The review which created naturally will be different from review which only purposed for money. I’m sure the pure review will more deeply and detailed. So, no need to use system or tool…
Well only people who Do paid reviews for the first time may do a review in a different way. If you ask me those who review products know how to do it.
I do it. No one can tell the difference between my paid reviews and natural reviews except the advertiser himself.
I’m sure all search engine especially google will support FTC since their want to give visitor “pure rank of good Quality blog” and not fake top rank blog (because the blog become top rank because joining as advertiser on PTR)
But how google will not whether the post is paid or not , i mean Do they have this mechanism ?
Google won’t know it. But as you have started discussion with Google, here is a piece of Info. Disclosing about paid review is bad for Google ranking. Google absolutely hate few words like pay per post, paid reviews etc.
The disclosure policy has it’s advantages and disadvantages for the bloggers but i think this post would help to others who are using the DP.
Yes Karen it has advantages and disadvantages.
Advantage for consumer and disadvantage for bloggers thats been doing it.
i am happy to hear this news….this will make blogging more transparent and the reader can confirm that the blogger is reviewing the product because he has been asked to Do so…he is getting DOLLARS
Yup IndianCashMaker , i am also very happy since this will make the blogging world clean and the customer will not be fooled anymore.
The question I have is where is a blogger going to hear about this new legislation. I mean, if I didn’t read this blog I wouldn’t know about it. Am I missing something here?
FTC sure that their will get the information spreaded over the internet, so their don’t Do own big announcement. That’s the power of internet.
You made a good point Ben, I am also wondering how will they reach to every blogger , the only way they can reach out to others bloggers is through social media sites.
Well, they can try to spread the news, but if people persist in not disclosing paid reviews, then their defense can just be that they didn’t know about the new law.
Yes that might become a common excuse.
If the law is coming then it will reach most of us soon. Internet is viral. This kind of news become front page stories.
To be honest, I don’t think that if I was ‘average Joe’ I would know about this. Even if I surfed a few websites now and again. As for front page news … hmm, I’d doubt it.
Anyway, shoemoney (the success internet marketer) writing about “What You Don’t Know About The New FTC Rules On Disclosure” in him site. I recommend you to go there and read, since there is many things we don’t know about that law. It’s all also to answer the confuse about the usage of FTC law.
Thanks for the recommendations.
Will this law be applied for all countries.
Even sweden and netherlands?
Nothing is sure yet. Wait and watch.
I’m go around on many blog and find this FTC law become hot topic…!!! Especially about the $11,000 fine which probably not true…!!! So, i’m waiting for update from you, Lax.
I found that its $11,000 fine..But i didn’t find it correct source…So, i’m not sure to be frank
I feel it’s true..I saw it in Hindu Newspaper..
I think its true.
11k fine is high but I doubt they can impose it. 11k is the Maximum so it means the usual fine is just about half of that. Not sure though if any one will be caught.
Hmm..I like write about a product and services. I just want to share to each other, am I wrong?
Since you’re not going to be paid (which mean, you Do reviewing by ownself for some reason), you’re not wrong at all.
I’m fully supporting this new law. It’s about high time we protect consumers for we too are consumers ourselves.
This is a good law since it can protect consumers..If I’m not mistaken, this law is just apply at United States right??
If this is to protect the consumers, I’m fully supporting this law. I hope it just applied in US only..
That’s a little contradicting statement you got there brother.
This is going to be interesting to see how it affects bloggers. Although i think it is a fair rule, i think its a big set back for some bloggers
Another ethics to be applied. Is this also applicable to bloggers outside US?
You should read what everyone had discussed..the law is only applied at US..
Any way, i think its not affecting me……..
Seem there is no update yet? This topic hot in temporary time and now shinking suddenly
Or the law is cancelled?