It’s a pretty complex issue and we’ve already touched upon it on this blog post.

Without repeating it all at length here, there are a couple of articles you might want to look at as well as the FTC draft regulations themselves.

From Yahoo Tech:-

FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments

From cnet News:-

FTC to go after blogger freebies

And the draft FTC Regulations themselves can be found here:-

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2008/11/P034520endorsementguides.pdf

The one difference we see in all the examples the FTC give is when a merchant approaches a site owner and gives them perks to write about something. The way most affiliates approach it is WE pick out the products to promote….so we’re still being selective and trying to pick out the best products for the reader. Even though we get paid, we’re not writing it simply because a merchant approached us and asked us to make a blog post or write a review in exchange for a gift or freebie.

It’s possible though, that we may require a disclaimer on a privacy or terms page making full disclosure that we get compensated for purchases through our links.

It’s likely this one will rumble on for some time so we’ll be keeping an eye on it. Feel free to add your views and comments.

In the meantime I’ll just add that if you decide to join Wealthy Affilate via any of our links on this blog we do indeed receive a commission but I’d also point out that you can’t join through your ‘own’ link anyway and that you won’t get our great bonuses unless you use our links!

(Do you think that’s the kind of disclosure they have in mind?)