So you have probably heard about the dreaded FTC guidelines and how they have come to end the marketing world's chances, am I right? Well I think we need to look at what they are actually saying and not saying, and see if we can make any sense out of the FTC guidelines.

To start with we have the issue of testimonials on products.
Under the FTC guidelines you cannot just receive a testimonial and put it on your website. What you need to do if you want a testimonial on your website, is to keep all the persons details in case you are ever checked to see if it is a real testimonial. Worse yet is the fact you are actually supposed to show the persons email address according to some readings.

You see the problem at the moment is that not only do most of the people using the internet not have a clue what the FTC guidelines actually are, it appears the FTC themselves are just as bewildered. If you are going to use testimonials on your website or blog you clearly need the person's name and city written under the testimonial, but I wouldn't show their email as you could also get in trouble for that due to privacy laws.

Now on to affiliate matters, and here at least it is far more clear cut. If you are promoting something as an affiliate, then you need to add a disclaimer to the website or email that makes this known. This will have a huge effect on review websites.

For a number of years people have been building review websites. On a website of this type the web master will claim he is giving an honest review but actually is just trying to make an affiliate sale. The problem is that people have been tricked into buying a product because they thought others had already found it useful. Well this was never going to last, and now the FTC guidelines say that if you want to promote it, then you need a clear unmissable disclaimer saying you are trying to promote it for a commission. But how much can they actually do??

Well it seems not a lot, because when asked by a consortium of bloggers recently they replied that there was no cause for panic, and at this stage they are just trying to educate people. They even went so far as to say they don't have nearly enough people able to monitor the internet, and if the FTC guidelines were to be enforced at this point, it would only be because they had received specific complaints.

I would not celebrate their ineffectiveness too soon. I suspect it will just be a matter of time until they have an automatic software running, that can locate people breaking the FTC guidelines and send an automated email. Their real problem is the fact they can only do anything about websites from US territory, and this doesn't really clean up the internet so much as give American web masters a disadvantage. What do you think. Are they doing the right think or not. And if not what would you suggest they do differently.