Shortcode Buttons Plug Ins
I just came from a great pet industry conference for bloggers called BlogPaws. Experts from the blogging world like Dino Dogan of Triberr keynoted, and there were seminars on everything from using social media effectively to how to's on photography for your site to FTC rules for bloggers and legal compliance, which was given by attorney/author and blogger, Carleen Pruess Coulter. Very enlightening and I'll be writing something about what I learned re the most up to date compliance shortly.
One of the things Carleen suggested which helps to cover us legally when we have affiliate links or have received a product for review for free, if we have a sponsored post or, even, that we actually bought something we are reviewing, is to have buttons on our site we can put at the top of a post (where the FTC now requires disclosure to be). She suggested a plug in program called Easy Shortcode Buttons. When I went to download it, a warning came up saying the program hadn't been updated in 2 years and may conflict with certain Wordpress versions. I saw another option called Buttons Shortcode and Widget, which was updated this month and seems to do the same thing.
Is anyone familiar with either of these and what is your experience with them? Thanks!
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Every day some new rule comes up. Always new ways someone can sue us, wonderful.
So anyone reviewing any product has to spend their own money purchasing all of their review products whatever they may be???? Great :(
I will be watching for more updates on this
I know what you mean, but I don't think we need to do that. I wrote a post last night with the updates. Surprised didn't get many responses, as there were people waiting for the update, like you. But it's there. If you can't find, let me know and I'll re-do.
Hey Jody,
I have not used any myself. One suggestion would be to create a test siterubix.com website here at WA (call it whatever's available) and then install those plugins on that. This way if it is not compatible with the latest version of WP you will know right away and can take an alternative course of actions.
I will be interested in seeing what you come up with as far as a post on the FTC rules. From some of my research I have seen that it is now against FTC rules (at least in the US) to review products that you don't own (however you happen to acquire them) and have never used before. I would love to see you incorporate information about that as well.
Best Regards,
Jim
Hi Jim - I think I'll just try the plug in and can always disable it if it doesn't work out. Re the FTC rule you mentioned, Carleen never said that and that would make it impossible for internet marketers to survive/make a living. So I wonder if that is true. I did hear back from my request to Carleen re a doc that had all of the latest requirements, and now have a link, so I'll be writing about and posting shortly.
Thanks!
Hey Jody,
New York has recently cracked down on 19 companies for either posting negative reviews on sites like Yelp.com and others. While those sites may seem different to the kind of review sites that WA members may provide, it wouldn't take much for a company like Empower network to file a complaint on members who write bad reviews about Empower that have never actually signed up for the service and used it. It's a fuzzy line but could easily get caught up in legalese.
I'm not a lawyer so this should only be taken as my opinion and interpretation of the information that thus far I have seen. It could be worth an inquiry to your lawyer contact.
Best Regards,
Jim
Jody, fascinating! Every point made here. Please do tell more. (And, unfortunately I am much to new at this to advise. Instead, I am looking to you for updates on all this, ok?) Do write more.
Will do! Have asked Carleen if she has all of the FTC requirements for bloggers in one doc, which would make it easier and guarantee it's complete. Either way, I'll be back shortly with what the newest info is. Thanks!
LOL, you mean in my new pic? figured I'd go more pro. got new pics done. have some with Sophie, too. I'll change it up.
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Something like Latest Rules for FTC Compliance