The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) passed new regulations that will affect Internet Marketers in regards to the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising section.

The changes they’ve made affect bloggers and website owners who use testimonials or those with celebrities. If you’re an affiliate marketer, it affects you, too. While most of the buzz was about celebrities who fail to disclose they’re being paid or receiving freebies when touting a certain product, it’s smaller entrepreneurs we’re concerned about.

You’ll want to do ample investigating on your own before you start promoting anything for a paid commission. This article isn’t meant as legal advice for you – it’s simply an observation about the new rules and how we might feel their impact.

The point of the changes is to connect the dots for consumers between advertisers and endorsers. Not everyone has an Internet marketing background and can spot an affiliate review compared to an unbiased, unpaid one.

This will affect marketers who make up their testimonials. Some of them have written up their own testimonials and bought a stock picture of the “testimonial giver” – falsely making the consumer believe people have gotten good results with the product, when it fact not a single person had tried or purchased it yet.

Traditionally, advertisers could simply put an asterisk next to a real testimonial with the words “results not typical” in fine print. This was still shady because it wasn’t blatantly exposed on the site.

Now, if you get paid a commission, or if you got a freebie in exchange for recommending a product, then you’d better openly disclose that connection to your readers or you could face an FTC fine.

There’s no broad laws governing bloggers and marketers, though – the FTC says each case will be investigated individually. Aside from the payment being disclosed, you also have to be honest. You can’t say something helped you make $10,000 in revenue if it didn’t – and if you get caught, you could be forced to pay up.

Now if you’re caught, the burden is on the FTC to prove their case and how it violates the FTC Act. You can order a copy of the FTC’s updated Act here: FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. The bottom line for 2010 is – don’t cheat your readers out of an honest review, even if that means you admit you’re getting paid for your opinion!

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How Will The FTC Affect Internet Marketing in 2010?

Anyway I have received quite a few emails, texts etc about Jeff Walker pulling his prduct of the market and people saying "OMG what can I do, even Jeff Walker is panicking". Well stop right there. Sir Jeff (yup he is one of the few marketers knighted by me for his services to my bank balance) is merely doing some really clever marketing as you would expect.

Personally I think it is a very clever piece of marketing on his part. All the talk at the moment online is about the ftc and the new guidelines (which aren’t actually new just the interpretations provided by the feds) and he has created the ultimate linkbait.

Basically he is giving away a ton of free content, which amounts to stuff he has used before to promote his previous launches as well as stuff you could only previously get by owning PLF1 and PLF2 so will have a big appeal.

There is no doubt that his stuff on launching a product has been the blueprint for every big launch in the last few years and works with lower end stuff too so we are talking about someone who knows his stuff.

I am lucky enough to have all his stuff and although I have never done a bona fida launch as such I learned tons from his courses, I have also been lucky enough to meet him a couple of times and he is not only a really nice guy, but a REALLY smart one too. Anyway I digress.

So Jeff has released this awesome linkbait for one purpose only. To promote his new launch. It is pure PLF. Give away a ton of great free stuff then ask the "Wowed" freebie grabbers to buy the new and improved version.

He is basicaly piggybacking on one of the major human emotions fear. Fear of the ftc. Now his product plf3 or whatever it is going to be called actually has nothing to do with the ftc although he has changed it dramatically to comply with new guidelines.

However it does not matter one bit. The whole point of linkbait is to draw the crowds, create controversy etc. And here is one of the most respected marketers online saying I’m taking my product of the market, come see why! Cha Ching!

Right or wrong this is simply brilliant and if you think its not just watch this space for Mr Filsaime, Sir Kern and all the other top gurus to jump on this proverbial nuclear bandwagon and use this method to either re promote their old products or launch new ones. Click on the link to see what I mean and NO THIS IS NOT AN AFFILIATE LINK!

Watch The Video

P.S. I am not suggesting for a minute that anybody goes and buys his new course, it is just another shiny shiny bauble in the IM world so unless you have a big product to launch then carry on concentrating on what you are doing!

P.S.S. Here is the link to that webinar with the FTC guy.

http://www.igottatellyou.com/blog/ftc-change-interview/

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Is Jeff Walker Scared Of The FTC???