Lots of sky is falling posts came out immediately following the news that the FTC would be going after bloggers for not disclosing material relationships on testimonials.

Fast Company's Jennifer Vilaga managed an interview with the FTC's own Richard Cleland who said in yesterday's article,

That $11,000 fine is not true. Worst-case scenario, someone receives a warning, refuses to comply, followed by a serious product defect; we would institute a proceeding with a cease-and-desist order and mandate compliance with the law.

So there you have it. The sky isn't falling. You're not going to get taken down for 11 grand for any transgressions. That worst-case scenario doesn't sound so bad. And you'd have to be a pretty big knucklehead to let it get even that far.

But that doesn't change the rules. The message is pretty simple. If there's potential for conflict of interest, consumers should be notified.

My take, if you're engaging in word-of-mouth or blogging product or service recommendations, just disclose and make no apologies for it. If you're for real, people will on average think well of you for it, perhaps even better.

Isn't it just ethics? Dare I say common sense?

Do the Right Thing

Is it so wrong to just do the right thing?

But what is "the right thing?" What do I have to do to be compliant?

You've now heard it from the horse's mouth, again from the FastCompany article. The "right thing" is up to the blogger's own discretion as Cleland says,

The bloggers have to look at how they do their blogging, their business practice, and figure out the way that consumers will best get the message that this is a sponsored post. In terms of clear and conspicuous, the criteria there is that the consumers will notice the disclosure. Disclosures can be made in different ways, whether you make it outside of the text but in proximity to blog, or incorporate it into the blog discussion itself--those are the issues that bloggers will have discretion about."

You don't know what the right thing is? Srsly? Take your best guess and you'll be fine. No big deal right?

Unless of course you are toeing the line of misleading consumers and profiting from it. But then I don't feel bad for you.

The Real Risk to Affiliate Marketing

But wait, there is a risk to affiliate marketing from the new FTC guidelines. That's overreaction.

• What if industry thought leaders make more of this than it is and get everybody up in arms?
• What if the lawyers latch on to this and start advising extreme caution?
• And then what if as a result, merchant advertisers (who are ultimately responsible for the actions of their citizen marketers) get scared and start tightening the reins on their publishers to the point of choking bloggers out of their affiliate programs?

Results are Not Typical

Now, the removal of the "not typical results" language as acceptable CYA language, that's another matter that seems to me will have much broader impact. This is a change that hasn't been talked about so much by the run-of-the-mill bloggers and affiliates. I suppose it simply doesn't affect us as much as it does the hard-core mass-marketers. I have to say, as a consumer I'm pretty happy to see that one go.