Disclosure Requirements - FTC

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I know there has been a lot of talk in the live chat and in the classrooms about affiliate disclosures. One affiliate network that I belong to recently addressed this in their blog - 7 Must-Know Answers . Apparently, the FTC is also sending out letters to businesses on this issue - here's a link to that letter.

Cindy

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Recent Comments

16

This is great information, Cindy. I appreciate you sharing this with the community. I'll have to save for when I can read this entirely.

You're welcome !

Thank you for this heads up.

Man, it is nice to have a LOT of people looking all over the 'Net to find things that the government wants us to do!

snicker -

I like to throw a snicker around every once in a while.

Ugh. One more complication. I'll do my best to follow it, obviously, but I'm not sure that I am 100% clear on it. For example, if I post on Facebook or Twitter and link to an article on my site that has no affiliate links, do I have to put the disclaimer simply because my *other* posts on the same site fo have links?

What if I make a post about, say.... playing with my dog. It would have nothing that I am trying to sell, but perhaps at the bottom pf the page I have my WA link. Would that need a disclaimer, even though it's not the focus of the post? That's not clear to me. I suppose, as they say, we should err on the side of caution, but if I have disclaimers and "Sponsored!" all over, I suspect that will be the end of me.

Ok - if you write an article on facebook with no affiliate links in it, you don't have to have a disclosure cause you aren't selling anything. The WA link at the bottom of your page -- just two words - affiliate link - next to the WA link should suffice. I just want to note that on my site I have 3 links at the bottom of my page http://fouracesmercantile.com/ - one for privacy policy, one for terms of use, one for affiliate disclosure. All of these point to the same page, but different sections on that page so it is clear. But I do try to pul the words affiliate link close to my actual affiliate links. If that makes any sense.

Cindy

I do have disclaimers on my site (well, for Amazon, anyway).
I have a handful of banners for another site that I am affiliated with, but it seems pretty clear that it is to sell something. It seems redundant to mark it with a disclaimer, but that's fine too.

My question was more along the lines of whether linking to a page Which has a disclaimer) through Facebook requires a *second* disclaimer, on Facebook. IE if I post "hey check out this review of Product X!" on Facebook with a link, would that Facebook post need a disclaimer, even though the page it links to already has one? It sounds that way, so I would assume so. But if My Facebook post linked to my About Me page, for example, I wouldn't expect it to need the disclaimer even though my site is an affiliate site...

From my reading -- your facebook posting for check out a review & that review has an affiliate link of yours then yes the facebook posting should have a notice like "affiliate link". The whole reason for the posting is to send them to the article in the hopes that they buy - correct? But if you said check out my website and not pointing to a specific page or you put a specific page but there is nothing for sale on the page you point to - then you aren't selling something (other than yourself) so NO "affiliate link" disclosure.

Clear as mud?

Cindy

Yes, thanks.

I... have a tendency to freak out a little. Ha ha.
I am putting a lot of hope for the future into WA and anytime that something like this comes up, it makes me feel that much less likely to succeed, so I panic.

I'll work on that.

Thanks Cindy. Legal matters are important!

Yep :)

thank you for sharing i do not know what to say just good luck

Thanks !

Hi Cindy, many thanks for this really helpful information, Sue :)

You are most welcome !

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