Comments on: FTC Compliant Endorsements & Testimonials

By: 5 Ways To Prepare For The FTC Crackdown

5 Ways To Prepare For The FTC Crackdown — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:41:55 +0000

[...] FTC Update – In Plain English New FTC Guides Go Into Effect Dec 1st… FTC Compliant Endorsements & Testimonials How FTC Guides Affect Social Media Marketing Subscribe to [...]

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:02:15 +0000

Thank you Ed – nice catch

Welcome to ClickNewz!

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:52:34 +0000

This is my first reading of your material and discovered a spelling error. I offer this only as “suggestive criticism” that readability is improved when not interrupted by typos.

It occurs in the following statement: “I have a glowing endorsement from Willie Crawford for my Fast Cash Strategy that remains “complaint”, and serves as a good example:”

Great post!

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:56:40 +0000

Great question, Susan! The answer is yes, because the affiliate has a relationship with you, regardless of price (or free). So that relationship needs to be disclosed. –Assuming that they are using a referral link to recommend your free products, and will earn commission (or receive other incentives) on any sales that result from that referral in the future.

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:31:49 +0000

Thanks so much for your informative blog post.
Do you think our affiliates have to disclose if they are promoting our free products… such as helping to spread the word about our free teleclasses or eBook?

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:12:19 +0000

I see what you’re saying Kevin, but the FTC was very clear on wanting transparency – and wanting atypical results qualified. The sales page should clearly state what the product does and what the consumer can expect, but it can also discuss what *can* be accomplished – as long as those statements are current, true, and qualified to the detail.

This was explained in their example of a weight loss product very clearly. Ultimately it’s up to the merchant or site owner to read the documents for themselves, and give careful consideration to how they apply to their particular business model.

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:09:34 +0000

I’m not familiar with your site or business model, but you should read all the updates and documents and figure out what you need to do to make sure you are compliant – assuming you are selling a product that provides these results?

By: Kevin Houchin

Kevin Houchin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:15:52 +0000

Lynn,

I like the way you’re helping people see the bright side on the FTC issue. However, in the case of the testimonial listed above – as a lawyer for information entrepreneurs, those atypical claims MUST COME DOWN until you can show what generally expected performance results are, or until the FTC gives an example that says these are OK – otherwise you will be in the cross-hairs and nobody wants to be the specific example on this one.

Looking at your example statement:
—
On the actual sales page you could display a glowing testimonial that reads:

“after reading your guide I went from making a thousand dollars a day to making 10 thousand dollars a day” find out how John did it!

Each blog post will contain the text, audio or video testimonial in detail – qualifying their results and making it FTC compliant. That post will then link back to the sales letter (”return to the ABC page”), which will ultimately give you some very nice internal linking structure as an SEO bonus.

—

It’s my legal opinion that doing this will subject people to deceptive advertising charges from the FTC. It is NOT going to be seen as OK. In this case you would have to have REAL DATA showing that the 10 thousand dollars a day was withing the generally expected performance data OR you would have to display ON THAT PAGE, in a CLEAR AND CONSPICUOUS manner what the generally expected performance results are.

Your example is little more than the “results not typical” disclaimer that the FTC has clearly stated will not be good enough anymore.

Everyone SHOULD be very nervous about this and act very conservatively until we have some specific enforcement action examples from the FTC.

If you would like to know more about these areas and have more in-depth discussion, I would be happy to do a Webinar with/for you to clear up some of this confusion (to the extent it’s possible). It would be close to the same Webinar that I presented with Joel Comm a couple weeks ago for the new http://www.sitecompliant.com materials.

By: Gina Parris

Gina Parris — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:41:07 +0000

The thing that makes me nervous is on my niche-specific Romance Rescue. I mean people are talking about their sex lives, for heaven’s sakes. The issue is so personal that they sometimes just use their initials. And truly, with something so subjective, how do you describe what is typical? I think I’m just going to put it out there like it is, but I love your idea of links to whole mini-interviews.

By: Darlene (Dee) Bishop

Darlene (Dee) Bishop — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:36:53 +0000

Thank you, Lynn! That’s what I needed to know.

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:16:30 +0000

Yes, you simply need to disclose that in your review, which isn’t really that big of a deal. See this post for video & examples:
http://www.clicknewz.com/2131/new-ftc-guides-go-into-effect-dec-1st/

By: Darlene (Dee) Bishop

Darlene (Dee) Bishop — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:08:09 +0000

Okay… I understand the issues with specific claims (thanks to your explanation!), but what about writing reviews for products received free? I review books that publishers send me and post the review on my blog. Is it enough to say “This book was received free” or some such statement?

By: How To Keep your Endorsement and Testimonial Ads in Line With the Updated FTC Act | Boomtown Internet Group

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:14:03 +0000

[...] Newz has recently published a helpful article “FTC Compliant Endorsements & Testimonials” that you may wish to read for further information. Share and [...]

By: Money Tips

Money Tips — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:48:46 +0000

Great Article, thanks Terry for the ideas.

By: Juli

Juli — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:08:06 +0000

Thanks for the great post – it means a lot that you’re discussing the issue in a straight-forward and positive way.