Affiliate Marketing, FTC; What does it all mean?

As of December 1,2009;

 The online world has been hit by changes made by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to its Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsement in Advertising

 As defined by the FTC, an endorsement or testimonial is “any advertising message of an individual or the name or seal of an organization that consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs and findings, or experiences of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser”.

 Below outlines some of the more significant changes made by the FTC:

-The endorsement message must reflect the true opinion, experience and findings of the endorser (whether a consumer, celebrity or an organization)

– All claims and statements made in an the endorsement message must reflect what consumers can generally achieve otherwise it should clearly disclose the generally expected performance

– All claims and statements must be substantiated

– All material connections between the advertiser and endorser must be disclosed (whether monetary, in form of gift or research funding)

 FTC Press Release can be found here: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

 So what does it all mean??

 – Less Guru’s 🙂

– Less Hype

– Less Products to sell for affiliate marketers

– Less CPA Networks

– More Fear

– More Consumer Confidence

– More Trusted Advisors

– More money for Lawyers..

 Did I miss anything?? 

 Although this might cause a big headache for allot of people, it will certainly be a good thing for the industry that has a reputation of deception..

 Please provide your thoughts below,