Whilst thousands of marketers are scampering away in fear of the FTC’s December 2009 decisions, I genuinely welcome the changes because it simply spurred me on to write this long-overdue post on disclosure.
I am a true believer in full disclosure because transparency always wins out in the long run.
Affiliations – Brass tacks
As well as promoting my own sites, I sometimes suggest products as an affiliate and I might make some cash when you buy using my links. If you are unsure or I haven’t stated any affiliation, just assume that every link is an affiliate link and you can’t go wrong. If that makes you uncomfortable, fair enough, just please don’t buy through my link. That being said, I’d like to disclose how I select products to review / promote…..
Primarily, I write about products that I have tried out myself and found that they solved my problems. The product comes first and if it has an affiliate program, then that’s gravy. Faced with a choice of two programs that are equal but where one would give me more of an affiliate commission, the greedy (human) part of me might make me sway towards the cash. My more ethical side would say that I’d present a neutral stance, focus on value, and leave the decision to you but that’s subjective anyway.
I will always try to present the most objective point of view I can but we are all human and our perception of value can differ. Be responsible for your own decisions. At the end of the day, I want to recommend the right products for you because if I don’t help solve your problems, I have failed.
Testimonials
Testimonials are a little trickier. Subjective, opinion-based feedback is 100% acceptable to the FTC but fact-based quantitative feedback isn’t. It is no longer acceptable to present an image of a 12-stone man holding out the waistband of a massive pair of jeans and disclaim “results not typical”. Instead, you must state the actual typical results that the average person should expect. This exacting level of reporting is near impossible (in fact there are probably data-protection laws that prohibit the use of such info).
The easiest thing to do is to avoid results-based testimonials altogether. However, based on the Pareto principle, it is safe to say the the average result approximates to zero. Most people who purchase a product will never implement it and will never see any results. Ergo – zero output.
Where do I stand? – exceptional results take an exceptional people. That’s why we’re not all brain-surgeons and nuclear physicists. But if you want to succeed at anything, you have to be better than average.
Disclaimer
I am not a lawyer and have not sought the advice of a lawyer on this subject – to me it’s just common sense. Don’t sue me.
PS. If you think that’s fair, unclear or totally misleading please let me know in the comments below. And if you think I’m simply digging a hole for myself, please chime in and save my ass.
