Most bloggers would be aware of google’s dislike of paid posts – more importantly, paid links in paid posts. If the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) gets its way, paid posts as such will be illegal.
The FTC is looking at plans to update its policies and their sights are set fairly and squarely on bloggers, paid posts and viral marketing. For bloggers who earn their small dollars each month writing paid posts – the time may have come to look else where.
Why the attack on paid posts? I said Google doesn’t like the paid links. For the FTC, they see paid posts as dishonest reviews – in other words, rather than writing a truthful review of a product or site, you are being paid to write a positive review.
Now I know there are a couple of pay for post sites that pay for the link. You don’t have to actually review the site or the product. If the link is to a kitchen sink site, just write any old post about kitchen sinks and include a link, it doesn’t have to be a review. Now, I wonder if the FTC will include them in their ban?
The next question is what will the FTC do to those bloggers that do write paid reviews? Will they prosecute and turn them into criminals? That is fine if you are based in the US. What if your based in Britain, Europe or Australia – will the law cross borders?
This is the biggest hurdle to any government agency trying to control the internet. You may be able to control what is happening within your own border, you cannot control the events from outside your borders. Still, I guess they will try. In the meantime, the poor old blogger is the one that will cop it on the chin – again!
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Hi Les, It seems like there are far bigger online issues for the FTC to worry about. With all of the online scams and various forms of spam it seems ridiculous for them to go after paid reviews. In other words, it’s exactly what we would expect from the US government.
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Hi Brian
I worry that governments everywhere are trying to ‘control’ the web. The trouble is, unless every government comes to an agreement – international borders make control ludicrous,
But I agree – that bureaucracy for you. Thanks for stopping by an leaving a comment.
les
Why is the goverment getting bigger??? Can’t they let free enterprise take place somewhere? Go after some of the disgusting porn sites first. Let bloggers have their way, they are not hurting anyone.
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That was very interesting, thanks for your insight.
I agree with Brian, they have more important things to look at. Anyway, why punish the blogger when companies are approaching them to advertise? After all it’s a form of advertisement. Could the FTC be bowing to Google’s wishes? I hope not.
Well done, great post!
A really well explained point, thanks for sharing.
Hello Guru, what entice you to post an article. This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday. Susan1962
Very nice post, actually I was looking for this. Thanks for sharing.
It looks like some Turkish bloggers have grown sick and tired of being treated like criminals and now they are fighting back. TechCrunch and TheNextWeb Dot Org have more on this story.
Wow great post.. thanx for sharing this information….really helpful…i have enjoyed reading it.
I think the gov should stay out of this one. They should think like this what about the news. We as people read post from bloggers because we want to be informed about something else besides what they want us to know.
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There is obviously a lot to know about this subject. Some interesting points made there.
Wow I came here because your site uses keywordluv, but I came across this post and it caught my attention.
I wonder how this is going to affect legitimate review sites – makes me wonder now. Glad I came across this – I know someone who actually does pay for reviews. Im gonna have to turn him on to your post.
Thanks for the heads up
This is a clear case of the FTC and the government overextending their power. The people have a right to earn money for writing whatever they wish. It’s called free speech and freedom of enterprize and unless we’re a communist nation then those freedoms should still be in effect.
totally unrealistic, unnecessary, impractical and just a total waste of everyones time. It will not happen.
hmm…. I then maybe out of work! haha
doesn’t the FTC have better things to do, like make sure chinese imports don’t have lead? i think people are smart enough to tell when a blog is a mickey mouse paid blogger operation, and when its someone like walt mossberg doing a serious review.
probably too much of a logistical nightmare to enforce this silly rule. might as well make it illegal to make fun of mullets.
The courts have applied US law to foreign countries, but what are the odds they will go after them ? I think what is likely to happen is that this type of work is going to move overseas, probably to India and the Phillipines. There will remain small independents, but I know there are some organizations that have many posters and they will likely get wiped out. All the bigger business will move out of the country.
What??? I just came back from a 3 months vacation and just came across your topic in the web. If that’s the case, I will agree with Kathy, chances are they are going to find someone in the souteast asian countries to do this job.
The FTC should worry other problems. Why should they waste it in this one?..Surely, this would just be one of those laws where nobody gets persecuted anyway. Besides, I agree with Adam and Kathy that this one would just work out overseas, most probably on asian countries.
There are lots of things that FTC should concentrate. We are in a middle of crisis and focusing on this thing is just a waste of time. I am a businessman and if this thing happened I would rather assigned a job someone outside US.