The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing new guidelines about the kinds of disclosures bloggers and website owners should make when they endorse a product on their sites.

No question, the guidelines clearly apply to affiliate marketers who, if they have not done so before, may now have to let visitors or readers know when they are clicking on affiliate links.

As Peter Kafka recently wrote in his All Things Digital Media Memo column, the FTC has a legitimate concern about bloggers, reviewers and others not being transparent when it comes to promoting products or posting articles on a ‘pay-per-post’ basis.

But do affiliate marketers risk being caught in the FTC crossfire?

Will affiliate marketers now have to spell out to all and sundry that the links used in clearly promotional emails, reviews, blogs, etc are affiliate links?

From my reading of the FTC’s guidelines, it seems that affiliate marketers who are clearly promoting a given product will not be under an obligation to emphasize that a given link is an affiliate link.

Affiliate marketers who position themselves as authoritative experts giving objective advice or reviews will, however, need to disclose that they are affiliates for a given product.

Hurray.

Affiliates claiming to be objective and independent when they have a stake in a sale… and who don’t disclose that stake… are just plain misleading people. Why they do this, I don’t know, as it really doesn’t do much for their credibility.

In fact, various Internet marketers cottoned on to this some time ago – that’s why you often see them disclosing the fact that they’re affiliates. They tend to weave this into their sales pitch – usually along the lines of “yes I’m an affiliate but here’s why I really think you should get this product.”

But what about article marketers who write articles and include an affiliate link in their author box or bio? Do they also have to include somewhere that a given link is an affiliate link?

For example, if someone writes an article about how to care for parrots and then an affiliate link to parrot food is included in their author box… do they need to tell readers that their affiliate link is an affiliate link?

It probably depends on how the author box is written but I’d suggest that an author box written along the lines of ‘Arthur Brown breeds parrots and recommends Pots Parrot Food’ might be problematic.

Under the FTC’s proposed guidelines, it might be necessary to say instead that ‘Arthur Brown breeds parrots and is an affiliate for Pots Parrot Food’ or something similar that makes it clear that there’s an incentive for Arthur to make such a ‘recommendation.’

You can see, however, how tricky this might be.

And clunky. After all, saying ‘I am an affiliate’ and ‘this is an affiliate link’ in every email or review might get tiresome for both marketers and their audiences. And is it necessary for marketers who are clearly sending out promotional emails to tell people that they’re an affiliate?

One solution may be to use some kind of heading or notation somewhere that makes it clear that you are an affiliate or promoting something as an affiliate. For example, you’ll notice that in the Kikabink News email newsletter we’re now using the word ‘ADVERTISEMENT’ at the top of any affiliate offer or ad to make it clear that the item is an affiliate promotion or an advertisement (as the case may be).

But this may not work for everyone in every circumstance. Again, I’m thinking of the Internet marketer who pounds his or her list with affiliate promotions every day. Whether or not you appreciate the barrage of promotions… you know they are affiliate promotions without the marketer having to spell it out for you. Or am I assuming too much?

I am the first person to applaud the FTC for clamping down on affiliates who position themselves as objective when they are as subjective as it gets. But hopefully sane minds will prevail and affiliate marketers who are, by common sense standards, not misleading anyone will not be caught in the crossfire.

Bottom line: the FTC has Internet marketers in its sights, so we ALL better be prepared !!!!!

Here is the FTC’s Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials.

Article Source: Peter Kafka, “Adding an Amazon or Apple Affiliate Link to Your Blog? The Feds Want to Know,” MediaMemo, All Things Digital, June 22, 2009

UPDATE:

On another note – are your websites or blogs compliant with current FTC legislation ? Do you have a privacy policy, terms of service, disclaimer, contact address etc etc… If not – get working on it.. or face heavy penalties..  Im currently putting together 6 free templates / forms that you can customise to your own “name” and upoload to your site.. they will be available in a few days time in my VIP members area for Free download.. I dont wannna see you guys & gals get FTC slapped..  if your not currently on my VIP subscriber list .. you can grab an access code by signing up to my newsletter on the top of this page…

PS – I wouls appreciate a ReTweet on this post as it is quite important our friends in the IM world know about this ASAP … and they will thank you too!

PPS – UPDATE: Internet marketing expert Jim Edwards did a recent in-dept webinar with a leading FTC official, Rich Cleland.. I highly recommend you check it out here…

-JD