Zaidee’s Rainbow shoelaces in high demand. Making the message fun. WallCann is proud to support. http://bit.ly/MUOwN

How will the new FTC Endorsement Guidelines affect your online business if you are outside of USA? http://bit.ly/1ErIeB

Beginning December 1st the USA FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is bringing in new policy affecting bloggers, social media and affiliates. Anyone who publishes about a product or service on the internet, if they are likely to gain from it, they had better disclose the relationship. Currently improtant is you are marketing to US or hosting in US.

Personally I am not a fan of the new rules as being way too overbearing and impractical. I think the web is very good at self regulating.
As an Aussie I could ignore the new guidelines. However, transparency and integrity are important and also a cornerstone of WallCann. There are good reasons for providing your customers and visitors with all the information they need to make an informed choice.

Steps to take before December 1st 2009:

• If you live in USA or host your site in USA or promote to USA better to comply with the guidelines. As WallCannis a global sales and marketing organisation we will be taking reasonable steps to meet the intentions of the policy.
• If you have affiliate links, partner links or paid advertising banners then clearly add a Disclosure Policy to your site or in your About Us information. Be aware that affiliate links are a form of endorsement for monetary gain.
• If you have results claims in testimonials make sure they comply with the new rules. See this link  to review. http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf
• Watch for developments. Many changes are being made as people apply the policy to the real virtual world.

As for Twitter, the FTC expects you to fit in a disclosure regardless of the 140 character limit. Not sure how this will work as over 80% of tweets seem to be endorsing something, a local restaurant, an ebook, a movie, a holiday.

For twitter and facebook we will be watching to  see how it is managed. However if you apply honesty to your communications online and also make sure to add transparency you will build a more useful site.

The FTC will be after gross infringements like – unproven cures or unproven weight loss endorsements. As in all business choose carefully the products and services you endorse and how you let people know your reasons for endorsing.