The FTC ’s new guideline ( Federal Trade Commission ) for Bloggers (as well as other webmasters) is a much complicated one both in theoretical and practical sense… since  violating a single rule will make a blogger spend $11,000 as penalty (announced, but not 100% confirmed yet).

Please note that these rules are only applied to US residents. However, it doesn't need a high IQ to sense that the Canadian Government would copycat the same rules and apply them on canadian residents too!

I don't know, but marketers like Kevin Houshin were quick to comeup with FTC bullshit products to promote us, like his new FTC Business ToolKit product. Even Mike Filsaime is promoting that product, claiming that even international marketers should fear the new rules and therefore get his new product and learn how to protect themselves!

lol Yeah, right… the Federal Trade Commission will come after every single marketer on earth regardless of his/her location! LOL! The only thing international marketers should be careful about, is if they DO business in the US. But no jail, so don't worry.

Here is my take on the whole thing, which I thought I should share:    

In case you haven't heard, as per the new guideline, every blogger will have to expose all the long kept secrets of how he makes money online, openly before the public!

That means, a blogger will have to disclose all the many ways he earns money through. The blogging and affiliate marketing community, as well as other regular people as well, may classify this as loss of freedom- the right to free speech.

Let me share with you a coupla ways on how we make money online :

Need not mention, anybody and everybody gets paid for placing ads or sponsored links which is very simple and common way to earn money online.

In addition to that, we (honest bloggers with integrity!) also do some sponsored posts or product reviews which are done in the most sincere way that we can. The products are  given by merchants / advertisers and we will go through them thoroughly and express our NO-Fake opinions for our readers.

As readers are most valuable to us, we never compromise on trustworthiness or reliability… Sometimes we are affiliates of the service, but as a rule we follow, we ALWAYS test the service out before we decide to write a review post about it. It can be positive, neutral or negative.. depending on our experience with the service or product.

To tell the truth, many times some advertisers remain unhappy with the reviews.    

Again, another fact to be noted is that the new rules break into Facebook , Twitter and other social media networks with which online marketers are having much deals now a days.

In my personal view, though setting some rules are always good, a blogger should be permitted to express anything via his posts, tweets, emails or any other media as readers have the complete freedom to believe it or not.    

I could personally feel one more thing as not suited is the difference that the FTC sees between blogs and traditional media. If a college student asks a free copy of an i-phone application from Apple and he writes it’s very useful [if he felt it so], he will have to add the sentence “I got a free copy of this application from Apple” to avoid a penalty of $11,000… and the FTC does nothing when it is published in Traditional Media such as newspaper, magazine or television.    

Tracking millions of bloggers or social media users may be possible for the FTC and hence everybody is to be aware of the $11,000 threat. What about the disclosure of a tweet within those 140 characters?     

It should also be noted that the FTC claims no hidden agenda than protecting consumers via this type of rules and regulations (hmmm maybe). Though disclosure is the best policy to do this, people are to have the personal freedom of free speech- online and offline.    

To talk from the consumers’ side, they have the power to choose who to trust and who to be with. They can go for the ones who do NOT always rely on sponsored posts to make a living than giving sincere and trustworthy opinions.

After all, it’s YOU, for whom the rules are made! I kindda feel this is the 9/11 of online marketing. What is your opinion on this "New Age Online Marketing Era"? lol

P.S. FTC Disclaimer: I don't earn a single cent from this post above! If you find affiliate links, they are just there for decoration purposes… If I "accidentally" made a sale out of them, I donate 100% of the money to a charity: The Kiss my A$$ Charity!

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