How To Legally Promote CPA Offers With Blogs?

18 replies
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
#blogs #cpa #legally #offers #promote
  • Profile picture of the author Forest_Parks
    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".
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgeC
    Thanks Forest, is it REALLY necessary to put that after each aff link? That sucks, is there another way?
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    • Profile picture of the author Forest_Parks
      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...
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      • Profile picture of the author Sylonious
        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.
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        • Profile picture of the author BethanyTbloosky
          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
          Signature
          Bethany Taylor :: vintage-mod.com
          Affiliate Manager- Bloosky.com
          AIM & Skype: bethanytbloosky
          btaylor@bloosky.com

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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgeC
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgeC
    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgeC
    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!
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  • Profile picture of the author Globe_Trotter13
    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.
    Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgeC
    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
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    • Profile picture of the author Forest_Parks
      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.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgeC
    Yep so maybe for those running their sites with offshore hosting companies this is not a problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan Mizel
    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
    Signature

    Your First Paid Traffic Campaign
    www.MarketingMonopoly.com

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    • Profile picture of the author ruless
      Do you make a separate blog/separate page for each offer?
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  • Profile picture of the author Tahiti Joe
    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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