Affiliate Marketing and Disclosure
295 words | Last Updated: December 14, 2006
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Are you promoting products in your web site or blog? Do you earn a commission if people buy those products using your affiliate link? Do you clearly disclose that relationship in your blog?
In FTC Moves to Unmask Word-of-Mouth Marketing (link via CopyBlogger.com), posts in a web blog can constitute word-of-mouth marketing. And if word-of-mouth marketers do not disclose those business relationships, legal action might be taken against them.
If the affiliate links are displayed only as a basic product catalog, do we need to mark those links as "(aff)" links? Or is disclosure needed only if we write a glowing review right next to our affiliate link?
If we bash a product and then offer an affiliate link, will we be required to disclose the potential commission earnings if the visitor or customer is from the United States?
Don't think that it's just the writers or bloggers that are going to be affected by this. Even the merchants may soon see an impact on sales generated by their affiliates. Then again, customers might become so used to seeing the (aff) mark beside clickable links, that they develop some kind of disclosure blindness.
Well, just as in BuzzMarketing, if you can get people to talk or rave about your product even if they earn zero commissions in the process, then this disclosure business will be moot. Or will people soon expect bloggers to disclose that they have NO business relationship with the merchants of the product they're praising?
Anyway, let's see how things go as business and the internet continue to evolve.
NOTE: None of the links in this post are affiliate links. 
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First Posted: December 14, 2006 | Filed in: Affiliate Marketing, Legal
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Hi,
I actually think that each blogger has a right not to mention that this is an affiliate link. Why? Alright... The blogger writes a review about the product or provides some useful information for the reader. So if reader is interested he might click on a link and check it out... The blogger doesn't force the reader to buy. No one can. So I don't think that it is 'illegal' to not tell the reader that this is an affiliate link. Every blogger wants to earn some money... They write useful content theirselves.. So nobody should tell them what to do with affiliate links. Just my 2 cents.
Have a nice day,
Egidijus
Eventually, readers will skeptically assume all links are affiliate links. I wouldn't be surprised if bloggers end up marking links as non-affiliate links.