How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs?

GeorgeC · 12-28-2009, 08:20 PM

Ok so we all know that FTC has cracked down "Fake CPA Blogs", you know, those "blogs" with fake stories, fake comments and fake images promoting CPA offers with false endorsements by Ophrah and other celebrities... The question now is...

How can we still promote those offers using "money sites", blogs?

I mean how to create a site with a story and content to legally promote this type of offers and that is not illegal for the FTC?

What's your opinion on this?

Regards

Forest_Parks · 12-28-2009, 08:36 PM

From what I gathered...

If you show a banner than is obviously an paid advertisement or affiliate link then that is ok, no additional disclosure is needed.

If you use a link, so in a blog post, and it's not obviously an affiliate link then you need to make an obvious disclosure for the reader. I have been adding bracketed disclosure after links or giving a general disclosure before any links are added to a post.

Something like " Sign ups to offers through links within this post may gain us a small commission".

GeorgeC · 12-28-2009, 10:43 PM

Thanks Forest, is it REALLY necessary to put that after each aff link? That sucks, is there another way?

Forest_Parks · 12-28-2009, 11:13 PM

I listened to a very long interview with a guy from the FTC and it seems to be reasonably flexible.... I think just once before the links start could be sufficient.

Here is the link to the interview, well worth listening to:
FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Clarifies New Internet Marketing, Blogging & Affiliate Advertising Guidelines With Jim Edwards |

It seems they are being very reluctant to issue exact guidelines so you just have to try something hope for the best! But it does also mention that due to limited resources they may be going after the big boys only and not have time for small fry like me...

Sylonious · 12-29-2009, 08:02 AM

You have to disclose if you make an endorsement of a product. So if you do a review of the product or you recommend it then you must disclose your affiliation. If you are just advertising affiliate links on your site without reviewing or recommending products then it would simply be just another advertisement.

BethanyTbloosky · 12-29-2009, 12:12 PM

I recommend being over-the-top compliant to start and then when the FTC weeds out the majority of blogs and bans crap-sites, then you can loosen up your standards a bit. The following should help:

Guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials:
·Need to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect if they use the advertisers product. For example, the advertiser cannot describe unusual results in a testimonial even if they have a disclaimer.

·Requires bloggers to clearly disclose of any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. ‘Material connections’ (i.e. payments) between advertisers and endorsers must be disclosed.

·Celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationship with advertisers when making endorsements. Advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims.

The FTC voted 4-0 to approve these changes. Effective start date: Dec 1, 2009.

‘The FTC works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop and avoid them.’

Just follow these to a 'T' for a few months and soon you'll be able to soften up, you just don't want to wave any red flags while the FTC has their eyes wide open. Gain trust from these guys and you'll be setup nicely to build sustainability within your business.

I hope this helps!!

Bethany

GeorgeC · 12-29-2009, 12:24 PM

Thanks for your help everyone, this is really great, so the main thing was that those "Fake Blogs" were just single page sites with no real value for the consumer, just a fake story, fake testimonials and fake images, so if we provide real value with no fake stuff and add those things we shouldn't have a problem, right? Besides, as Forest said, they don't have enough resources (time, people) to track every single website, they must be after the big fishes, aka big scammers making millions per year from this, still we have to be careful.

BethanyTbloosky · 12-29-2009, 12:27 PM

Looks like you got it! What type of offers are you promoting? In what vertical?

GeorgeC · 12-29-2009, 12:36 PM

Hi Bethany, well I mainly promote health related offers, what's why I was concerned about this, but I think I've found a good way to promote them.

BethanyTbloosky · 12-29-2009, 12:47 PM

Good to hear! Good Luck

Forest_Parks · 12-29-2009, 11:58 PM

Yes, good luck.... I guess w are all nervously waiting to hear who gets hit first, so we can actually start to get an idea about what is acceptable!!

GeorgeC · 12-30-2009, 12:21 PM

cool, so I'll try to stay in line with the new regulations, and give it a "legal" twist to all this LOL and see what happens.

cheers!

Globe_Trotter13 · 12-30-2009, 01:38 PM

One question I have is:
Does all this FTC crap apply to those of us lucky to be non American and not living in the "land of the free" ? LOL How about if we're promoting in other markets outside of the Yew Ess and in other languages?

Tx.

GeorgeC · 12-31-2009, 12:36 AM

That's actually a good question, actually I don't know, maybe someone could clarify this for us, what happens if you're running your entire CPA business outside the US, and I mean everything, from hosting to domain registry etc, but trageting US costumers mainly?

Regards

Forest_Parks · 01-02-2010, 06:39 AM

I'm not base din USa but my hosting is so am following FTC's just to be careful!

I guess they couldn't actually catch up with me if I did break their rules!

My UK blogger friends on UK hosting don't seem to be giving a damn about it at all.

GeorgeC · 01-02-2010, 12:12 PM

Yep so maybe for those running their sites with offshore hosting companies this is not a problem.

Jonathan Mizel · 01-02-2010, 01:35 PM

The FTC doesn't care about valuable content, or thin pages. What they do care about is deception and the disclosure that you are a paid agent for the company you are promoting. It's annoying not to have clear guidelines, but as Bethany said, now's the time to play it extra safe until we see what the actual implications are.

Jonathan

ruless · 01-04-2010, 06:15 PM

Do you make a separate blog/separate page for each offer?

Tahiti Joe · 01-05-2010, 06:09 AM

I use anchor text for related keywords to my offer.

For example: I will write an article for fitness. In that article will be words of phrases such as "diet", or "lose belly fat". I will link my offer to those "phrases".

It's a very subtle way of presenting an offer. I doubt anyone ever feels like it's an advertisement. It comes across as additional info that is requested because the visitor clicked on it. It actually works VERY well.

12-28-2009, 08:20 PM	#1
GeorgeC Worldwide Famous War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: California Posts: 233 Thanks: 32 Thanked 27 Times in 19 Posts Social Networking	How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Ok so we all know that FTC has cracked down "Fake CPA Blogs", you know, those "blogs" with fake stories, fake comments and fake images promoting CPA offers with false endorsements by Ophrah and other celebrities... The question now is... How can we still promote those offers using "money sites", blogs? I mean how to create a site with a story and content to legally promote this type of offers and that is not illegal for the FTC? What's your opinion on this? Regards

12-28-2009, 08:36 PM	#2
Forest_Parks HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Cairo, Egypt Posts: 120 Thanks: 40 Thanked 24 Times in 23 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? From what I gathered... If you show a banner than is obviously an paid advertisement or affiliate link then that is ok, no additional disclosure is needed. If you use a link, so in a blog post, and it's not obviously an affiliate link then you need to make an obvious disclosure for the reader. I have been adding bracketed disclosure after links or giving a general disclosure before any links are added to a post. Something like " Sign ups to offers through links within this post may gain us a small commission".
	ONLY 18 LEFT $$$CHEAP$$$ Acne PLR with Custom Wordpress Template....

12-28-2009, 10:43 PM	#3
GeorgeC Worldwide Famous War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: California Posts: 233 Thanks: 32 Thanked 27 Times in 19 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Thanks Forest, is it REALLY necessary to put that after each aff link? That sucks, is there another way?

12-28-2009, 11:13 PM	#4
Forest_Parks HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Cairo, Egypt Posts: 120 Thanks: 40 Thanked 24 Times in 23 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? I listened to a very long interview with a guy from the FTC and it seems to be reasonably flexible.... I think just once before the links start could be sufficient. Here is the link to the interview, well worth listening to: FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Clarifies New Internet Marketing, Blogging & Affiliate Advertising Guidelines With Jim Edwards \| It seems they are being very reluctant to issue exact guidelines so you just have to try something hope for the best! But it does also mention that due to limited resources they may be going after the big boys only and not have time for small fry like me...
	ONLY 18 LEFT $$$CHEAP$$$ Acne PLR with Custom Wordpress Template....

12-29-2009, 08:02 AM	#5
Sylonious Orange Head War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: orangeheadville Posts: 244 Thanks: 94 Thanked 19 Times in 15 Posts	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? You have to disclose if you make an endorsement of a product. So if you do a review of the product or you recommend it then you must disclose your affiliation. If you are just advertising affiliate links on your site without reviewing or recommending products then it would simply be just another advertisement.

12-29-2009, 12:12 PM	#6
BethanyTbloosky =) Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Irish Gal in Orange County, California Posts: 51 Thanks: 7 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts Contact Info	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? I recommend being over-the-top compliant to start and then when the FTC weeds out the majority of blogs and bans crap-sites, then you can loosen up your standards a bit. The following should help: Guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials: ·Need to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect if they use the advertisers product. For example, the advertiser cannot describe unusual results in a testimonial even if they have a disclaimer. ·Requires bloggers to clearly disclose of any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. ‘Material connections’ (i.e. payments) between advertisers and endorsers must be disclosed. ·Celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationship with advertisers when making endorsements. Advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims. The FTC voted 4-0 to approve these changes. Effective start date: Dec 1, 2009. ‘The FTC works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop and avoid them.’ Just follow these to a 'T' for a few months and soon you'll be able to soften up, you just don't want to wave any red flags while the FTC has their eyes wide open. Gain trust from these guys and you'll be setup nicely to build sustainability within your business. I hope this helps!! Bethany
	Bethany Taylor :: vintage-mod.com Affiliate Manager- Bloosky.com AIM & Skype: bethanytbloosky btaylor@bloosky.com

12-29-2009, 12:24 PM	#7
GeorgeC Worldwide Famous War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: California Posts: 233 Thanks: 32 Thanked 27 Times in 19 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Thanks for your help everyone, this is really great, so the main thing was that those "Fake Blogs" were just single page sites with no real value for the consumer, just a fake story, fake testimonials and fake images, so if we provide real value with no fake stuff and add those things we shouldn't have a problem, right? Besides, as Forest said, they don't have enough resources (time, people) to track every single website, they must be after the big fishes, aka big scammers making millions per year from this, still we have to be careful.

12-29-2009, 12:27 PM	#8
BethanyTbloosky =) Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Irish Gal in Orange County, California Posts: 51 Thanks: 7 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts Contact Info	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Looks like you got it! What type of offers are you promoting? In what vertical?
	Bethany Taylor :: vintage-mod.com Affiliate Manager- Bloosky.com AIM & Skype: bethanytbloosky btaylor@bloosky.com

12-29-2009, 12:36 PM	#9
GeorgeC Worldwide Famous War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: California Posts: 233 Thanks: 32 Thanked 27 Times in 19 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Hi Bethany, well I mainly promote health related offers, what's why I was concerned about this, but I think I've found a good way to promote them.

12-29-2009, 12:47 PM	#10
BethanyTbloosky =) Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Irish Gal in Orange County, California Posts: 51 Thanks: 7 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts Contact Info	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Good to hear! Good Luck
	Bethany Taylor :: vintage-mod.com Affiliate Manager- Bloosky.com AIM & Skype: bethanytbloosky btaylor@bloosky.com

12-29-2009, 11:58 PM	#11
Forest_Parks HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Cairo, Egypt Posts: 120 Thanks: 40 Thanked 24 Times in 23 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Yes, good luck.... I guess w are all nervously waiting to hear who gets hit first, so we can actually start to get an idea about what is acceptable!!
	ONLY 18 LEFT $$$CHEAP$$$ Acne PLR with Custom Wordpress Template....

12-30-2009, 12:21 PM	#12
GeorgeC Worldwide Famous War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: California Posts: 233 Thanks: 32 Thanked 27 Times in 19 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? cool, so I'll try to stay in line with the new regulations, and give it a "legal" twist to all this LOL and see what happens. cheers!

12-30-2009, 01:38 PM	#13
Globe_Trotter13 HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Geographically Independent Posts: 204 Thanks: 177 Thanked 24 Times in 24 Posts	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? One question I have is: Does all this FTC crap apply to those of us lucky to be non American and not living in the "land of the free" ? LOL How about if we're promoting in other markets outside of the Yew Ess and in other languages? Tx.

12-31-2009, 12:36 AM	#14
GeorgeC Worldwide Famous War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: California Posts: 233 Thanks: 32 Thanked 27 Times in 19 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? That's actually a good question, actually I don't know, maybe someone could clarify this for us, what happens if you're running your entire CPA business outside the US, and I mean everything, from hosting to domain registry etc, but trageting US costumers mainly? Regards

01-02-2010, 06:39 AM	#15
Forest_Parks HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Cairo, Egypt Posts: 120 Thanks: 40 Thanked 24 Times in 23 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? I'm not base din USa but my hosting is so am following FTC's just to be careful! I guess they couldn't actually catch up with me if I did break their rules! My UK blogger friends on UK hosting don't seem to be giving a damn about it at all.
	ONLY 18 LEFT $$$CHEAP$$$ Acne PLR with Custom Wordpress Template....

01-02-2010, 12:12 PM	#16
GeorgeC Worldwide Famous War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: California Posts: 233 Thanks: 32 Thanked 27 Times in 19 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Yep so maybe for those running their sites with offshore hosting companies this is not a problem.

01-02-2010, 01:35 PM	#17
Jonathan Mizel HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Maui, Hawaii, USA Posts: 292 Thanks: 63 Thanked 93 Times in 42 Posts Social Networking	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? The FTC doesn't care about valuable content, or thin pages. What they do care about is deception and the disclosure that you are a paid agent for the company you are promoting. It's annoying not to have clear guidelines, but as Bethany said, now's the time to play it extra safe until we see what the actual implications are. Jonathan
	The only traffic system that allows you to target keywords and competitors in one campaign: http://www.TrafficInterceptor.com/

01-04-2010, 06:15 PM	#18
ruless Active Warrior Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 61 Thanks: 9 Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? Do you make a separate blog/separate page for each offer?

01-05-2010, 06:09 AM	#19
Tahiti Joe Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 231 Thanks: 19 Thanked 11 Times in 10 Posts Contact Info	Re: How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs? I use anchor text for related keywords to my offer. For example: I will write an article for fitness. In that article will be words of phrases such as "diet", or "lose belly fat". I will link my offer to those "phrases". It's a very subtle way of presenting an offer. I doubt anyone ever feels like it's an advertisement. It comes across as additional info that is requested because the visitor clicked on it. It actually works VERY well.
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