Blogs
A rare trend among some bloggers is to receive a small fee in exchange for reviewing a particular product or writing a blog post about it. Under the FTC’s new rules, all bloggers engaging in this practice would have to disclose that they are receiving a fee for their blog post. Bloggers will also have to disclose any gifts they receive, such as a free gadget, book, or toothpaste, since the free merchandise counts as compensation.
The strange thing about this new rule is that, in my experience, many bloggers already disclose when they are being paid for reviews. I’ve also seen disclosure on those rare occasions I’ve come a cross a PayPerPost model, when a blogger is basically working a product endorsement into their writing. Of course, even if a pay-per-post blogger didn’t disclose what they were doing, it is often painfully obvious they’ve been paid to insert something about ‘Super Wowee Shampoo’ into their blog.
But let’s say you are working an endorsement into your blog for shampoo and you end up talking about your experience with that shampoo. You must clearly disclose the typical results someone can expect to get from using that product. If your experience was not normal, a “results not typical” clause just won’t cut it.
Bottom Line: If you receive gifts, money or any other type of compensation from a product manufacturer or service provider you have to disclose it.
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thurai
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