The Federal Trade Commission has published new guidelines that we've all been hearing would be on the way for a while now, go into effect (as I understand it) in December, and mostly are concerned with bloggers and other online outlets. I've read the report, and it looks like this blog wouldn't really fall under what they're aiming at. The guidelines are written in some rather vague ways, though, without very clear definitions of "We mean this. We do not mean that." With the possibility of fines up to $11,000, most people seem to be saying, "Better safe than sorry."
Thoughts on the New Guidelines
Quite honestly, the only impact I expect anyone to see from the new guidelines is the uproar and court challenges that will come when someone is judged to not be following them. A lot of this seems to indicate that the FTC has no real clue what's going on online. The guidelines are aimed at bloggers and social media, with traditional journalism being rather exempt from having to follow them, and the one thing that really jumps out as having the possibility of effecting things offline is this:
"Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor."
If this were to result in weight loss product commercials with the skinny person who chants, "If I can do it, so can you!" being followed by someone who is still overweight saying, "Liar! I stuck to the program exactly and I weigh more now!" I might actually start watching commercials again. And I think I'd actually pay money to see a Wal-Mart commercial with the smiling people going on about the friendly greeters, helpful staff, and the happy shopping experience mixing in footage of actual Wal-Mart stores... with the greeters who look at everyone like they must have come to steal something, the staff that doesn't know where anything is and clearly resents you asking, and the customers treating the carts like the world's most angry bumper cars while children constantly scream because someone won't buy them a toy.
I doubt we'll get that from it, though.
Bloggers who run their blogs as if they are freelance journalists should probably be held to some standards of journalistic integrity. That's not what all bloggers do, though. Not only are many bloggers (and, within the context of the new guidelines, that seems to include people posting on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc) networking with people and making posts in a casual conversation type of way, they are fairly transparent about their recommendations... for that very reason.
The average person is going to be jumping up and down with glee as they type, letting the whole world know that a company sent them something for free! The average person is more likely to say, "I go to my aunt's restaurant for Mexican food... she lived in Mexico for ten years and and knows what she's doing in the kitchen!" than simply, "Hey! Eat at Abuela Maria's! It's the best place in town!" and neglect to mention that they know "Abuela Maria" in any way.
And the FTC can only tell Americans what to do on our blogs. When I first got a computer, somewhere over ten years ago, I remember being surprised to find out that a lot of countries didn't have as many people with access to the internet as America did. I'm not going to pretend to know exactly where things stand now in other countries, but I do know that as time has gone by I've come in contact with a lot of people online who have never even set foot on American soil. They have computers in the workplaces, their homes, their schools, and they are people of all different ages and backgrounds who spend a lot of time online. They are on the same internet that Americans are, and the FTC can't tell them what to do.
How Recommendations Work on This Blog
So that everyone will know I'm not refusing to follow the guidelines just because I don't like them, I'll spell out how things work here.
When I link to things on Zazzle - whether I do it here, on Twitter, or somewhere else - whether it's my own store, or someone else's, there is a referral ID in the link. It tells Zazzle that I sent you there, and I get a referral commission if you buy something. It also works for the widgets on the sidebar and Other Zazzlers page, and when I put a picture link in a post. When it's for my own stuff, that means I get two commissions if you buy something - a designer's commission because you bought something from Zazzle that they use my work on, and a referral commission because I sent you there. As far as I know, the referral commission counts even if what you buy isn't the product I linked to, but something else you found while wandering there after following my link.
Note the emphasis on "if you buy something". I could link to stuff all day long, and you could even click every link, but as long as you don't buy anything I won't get any money from it.
I do not make deals with people for linking to their stores or products. Not even a promise of reciprocal linking. I'd be surprised if I found out anyone that I've featured here as another Zazzler even knows that I've done so. I'm happy to support other Zazzlers, but I do link to things I actually like.
That goes for my links page, as well. I do actually know Gymshoes of Gymshoes Music, and there are a few people on that list (like Llanor Alleyne and the person behind Vincent's Yellow) that I've connected with on Twitter. They didn't ask me to link to them, though, and I've recieved nothing more than thank you's and smiles for doing so. (Full Disclosure: Those thank you's and smiles are worth so much that I could buy several small countries if they could be converted into money.) The only thing I've gotten from the Sons of the Storm was a response from Samwise Didier to a comment I left. And that's because I left the comment on their site. If I had any reason to believe Samwise even knew this blog exists, I'd swell with so much joy that I'd just burst and become a splash of giggles all over my living room walls.
Long story short: I link to people because I want to. It's not even necessary that they know I've done it.
Books, magazines, artist tools... anything along those lines that I review... I've either bought it myself, or it was given to me as a gift from someone who had nothing to do with creating or marketing it. If I am ever sent something at no cost other than taking time to review it, you'll know. I'll either be so happy that I have enough of a regular audience that it's worth sending to me, or so amused that someone thinks I have enough of a regular audience that it's worth sending to me, that the post will probably start with, "OMG! They sent me this FOR FREE! I get to keep it!" But only if I like it. If I don't, it's likely to say, "They wasted money on shipping this to me that could have been better spent on improving the damn thing."
And if anyone thinks that's just the talk of an idealist who hasn't been given the opportunity to sell out yet, I invite you to test me on it. Send me free stuff so I can prove myself. :)
(Just in case you ever wondered how geeks say, "I love you.")
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