This is purely my opinion, but your disclaimer seems to cover it. If you’re at all concerned you can add a bit about which sites, specifically, you’re an affiliate for (i.e., Amazon, etc.) to make it clearer, but I’m not sure it’s necessary.

I can see where that’s confusing! My understanding of that issue is that if you’re doing product reviews and receiving products on a regular basis, you need to disclose those relationships. If you are receiving one product to review every year to 18 months, that isn’t what the FTC is looking for. My opinion on the matter is to include a disclosure sentence (or have a policy in place that you can link to) any time you receive a product w/o paying for it and you mention it on your blog.

“You should also note that although many of the links out of my site are purely for informational purposes, the Kitchen Kop site does earn a small commission on many such links including those to books, products and services.”

This is visible at every single post because it’s on my homepage. In your opinion, is this clear enough, or does it have to be right next to the affiliate link?

Thanks for your help!
Kelly

That said, I’m still confused about one thing. In the beginning of the post, you write: “Relationships with advertisers include any compensation received in exchange for a review–including receiving a free product.”

Then, Cleland says, “If we’re talking about getting one free product or something sent to you and you happen to write about it on your blog, that’s not the type of relationship that has to be disclosed.”

That’s a bit confusing. It sounds like he is saying if you are a part of a review network (ex. Mom Central), then you would have to disclose…but, if you are sent a pair of shoes (or a purse or a snack item or…), then you don’t have to.

Thoughts?

I’m not a lawyer (so take this for what it’s worth), but my opinion is that if you give the book away and are not linking to Amazon (or another site) with an affiliate link, you are in the clear. However, it’s always good practice to let people know that you didn’t buy the book yourself so there is no confusion.

If you listen to the radio interview at NHPR (linked above), you’ll hear that the women who own Cool Mom Picks do not keep the products they review, they give them away. Liz Gumbinner (one of my peers at BlogHer.com) is one of the owners of that site and she was also featured in the NHPR radio interview with Cleland. She discusses how they handle product reviews and giveaways and why they consider their business model to be within the FTC guidelines.

Really, the bottom line as I understand it, is that the FTC is trying to protect consumers from deceptive advertising and false claims. Many of us who’ve been blogging for a while understand that if a blogger is reviewing a product, she/he most likely received it for free (unless they tell us they bought it themselves). Sometimes, though, that’s less clear (e.g., acai berry weight loss campaigns). In some cases, people new to the blogosphere don’t know that it’s common practice for bloggers to receive product in exchange for a review or advertisement.

Wow, thanks for the great information. I’ve only been asked to review a couple of products in my lifetime. I wish it were more LOL. Knowing this is quite helpful, thanks again.

1. It does seem burdensome to discard the book (or product) after you’ve reviewed it, but keeping it does count as compensation because you’re receiving something in exchange for the review. Cleland acknowledges that his office can’t keep track of each blogger and it will be hard to enforce the new guidelines. However, my understanding from Cleland’s interview with Ed Champion (linked in the article above) is that the FTC guidelines already had this parameter in place for newspapers and magazines who do book reviews–they’ve just extended it to include online venues as well.

2. As for the Amazon links, let me clarify if I can. If you have an Amazon Affiliate store (like I do), you can provide links to products from your blog to Amazon. That link has a special code identifying that click-through as coming from your site and you’ll receive a percentage of anything that person buys (even if it’s not the product you originally linked to). You must disclose that you’ll be receiving an affiliate payment if they make a purchase. If you’re just providing a link to Amazon (no affiliate coding), then you don’t have to disclose because you are not receiving any monetary gain.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. This is an issue we need to discuss and clarify.