Here are my tips for e-books bloggers need to read.

Do-It-Yourself Blog Critique

Author: Melissa Culbertson
Price: Regularly $14, but on sale for Cyber Monday for $10.50!

Melissa has made a name for herself by doing blog critiques at MomComm.com. She was receiving so many requests for help that she decided to create an e-book. Learn how to engage your audience via strong navigation, design, and content — Melissa will show you how. She’s having a terrific deal on her book for Cyber Monday, so now is the perfect time to buy. The book is usually $14, but for Cyber Monday you can pick it up for you or a blogging friend for $10.50! Just use code CYBERAWESOME on November 28, 2011 before midnight and you’ll get the deal.

Mom Blog SEO

Author: Kelby Carr
Price: $19.99

Search engine traffic is vital to the success of your blog. Learn how to set up your blog so it’s as SEO friendly as possible and find and use tools that will help you optimize your content and site so the search engine bots can find you. Kelby explains the ins and outs of basic SEO and how it affects the success of your blog. This e-book isn’t just for mom bloggers! Regardless of your niche, you’ll be able to use the information in this e-book to improve your SEO rankings and traffic.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Author: Darren Rowse
Price: $22.49

This book is one of the best-selling e-books online, helping over 19,000 bloggers build a better blog. Darren recently revamped this e-book and every day in the challenge has been updated for 2012, most days have new further reading and case studies, the workbook now has Twitter integration, and the e-book has seven bonus days (effectively giving you 38 days of content)! So even if your blogger already has the book, they’ll appreciate receiving the updated version.

30 Days to Make & Sell a Fabulous Ebook

Author: Ang England
Price: $11.99

One of the best and easiest ways to earn money from your blog is to create your own product to sell. When you’re a blogger, that usually means creating an e-book. Ang England is a successful e-book publisher and she’s sharing her experience and secrets with you so you can start creating your own e-books and establish a new income stream from your blog. The best thing about e-books is that, after they’re written, they are largely a passive source of income.

Please note that each of these links is an affiliate link. 

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Why consider using a custom Welcome page?

Let’s face it: Online, looks are everything. A great design can make or break your success. The more professional you appear, the more authority you’re perceived to wield. Your Facebook business page is no exception. Creating a custom Welcome landing page in Facebook tells your visitors you take social media seriously. And they appreciate that. According to Mari Smith, visitors who visit your page and land on a custom Welcome page are 47% more likely to Like your page than if they just land on your Wall (which is only a 23% conversion to a Like). I’d say that’s worth a look. So how do you create a custom Welcome page on Facebook? There are two ways:

1. Hire it out
2. Do it yourself

Hiring Someone to Create a Custom Welcome for Facebook

I work with Karen Lewis of Simply Amusing Designs to create custom Facebook Welcome pages. Karen is a master at taking your goals, preferences, and personality and creating a design that fits your brand across several platforms. She can create a cohesive look for your Facebook Welcome page, Facebook profile picture, Twitter background, blog and/or website, business cards, etc. She creates the Welcome page design and I code the finished product. You can see examples of her work in the Simply Amusing Designs Facebook custom Welcome page gallery.

Creating Your Own Custom Welcome for Facebook

If you think you’d like to try creating a custom Welcome page yourself, I have a few links you’ll be interested in. I haven’t tried all of these options, but you can check them out yourself and see what you think. Some are free, some are paid.

• Pagemodo. This free application gives you several templates to choose from and is easy to use. I’ve created temporary Welcome pages with this application, but I find that the end result is not crisp. It looks like the application takes a grainy picture of the finished product and displays that. Try it out and see what you think. I’ve had some people tell me they are completely happy with the end product. It’s free. What do you have to lose?
• iwiPage. This looks like a pretty easy-to-use application. You install the free application on your Facebook business page, then click the Welcome link in your page’s left nav bar (under the profile picture). This app offers several very short tutorials to help you get up and running.
• Fanpage Engine by Hubze. Prices for this app range from $37 (access to two templates) to $67 (access to all templates) or you can have them develop a page for you ($697-797). I haven’t tried this application, but I’ve had colleagues who have been happy with the results.
• Wildfire Interactive. This app is free for the next three months. After that, it’s possible Wildfire will start charging a fee for the service. With the Wildfire Interactive application, you can create a fan-gated Welcome page. That means a fan must Like your page in order to see specific information on the Welcome page (e.g., a special coupon). Not interested in that? No problem. You can also create a page without fan-only content.
• HyperArts Blog. These are tutorials for true do-it-yourselfers. HyperArts writes tutorials for those who want to learn to code a Welcome page by themselves with no outside software help or WYSIWYG editors. If you’re comfortable with code, I encourage you to give it a try!
• How to Build Your Facebook Landing Page (If You’re Not a Programmer). One more for the DIY-ers in the house. This is a pretty straight-forward tutorial, but if you choose this route, you’ll need to do it quick. This tutorial implements FBML (Facebook’s version of HTML) and Facebook is discontinuing support for FBML on March 11, 2011. Any FBML installed prior to March 11 will be grandfathered in, but you won’t be able to install new FBML after March 11. I’m hoping they’ll update this tutorial with directions for installing with the iFrames parameters.

What Should I Include on My Custom Facebook Welcome Page?

Your custom Facebook Welcome page is the perfect place to set expectations. What people want to know is why they should Like your page and be part of your community. Your Welcome page is where you can

• share a fan-only coupon code
• showcase specific products (don’t forget to include a specific call to action and a link so they can complete the action)
• share your Twitter feed in real time
• bring in your blog’s RSS feed
• share your company philosophy
• explain what kind of information you share on your Wall and what fans can contribute

The possibilities are endless. What are you doing with your Facebook fan page? Did you use a service to create it? I’d appreciate your feedback on the services you used.

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Luckily, a few months ago I attended a local blogger meet up in my city and I won a door prize! The prize was an online presence photography session with a local photographer, Kenny Ruggiano (pronounced rue-JAN-oh), owner of KMR Photography. I wasn’t sure what an “online presence photography session” would entail, so I asked. Kenny suggested it would basically be a headshot — which is awesome if you don’t already have a headshot (but I do). So I suggested the Flavors.me angle and explained that I thought it would be a better option for me if he was game. He was and we brainstormed some ideas.

We met over coffee and discussed my personality (introverted and off-beat), my likes (retro), and my dislikes (fake extroversion). And what I mean by fake extroversion is that I love seeing all those pictures of families at the dinner table who are laughing and babies are crawling on the table and everyone looks loud and at ease. To stage a picture like that of my family would put me over the edge. If you came to dinner at our house, you’d see that it’s a pretty quiet affair and I would not be laughing or at ease with a baby on the table. It’s not me. However, I would be completely OK overdressing for the grocery store and giving you the stink eye while I cram pork rinds in my basket and peruse the organic food aisle. And Kenny got all of that. He talked with me and understood exactly what I was going for. Don’t you love when people get it? Kenny and I came up with this (click to enlarge):

We also took some pictures of me relaxing in my husband’s ’67 Camaro (which really is more my style, but who can resist the hilariousness of the overdressed housewife in the grocery store?):

I’m incredibly happy with how the photos turned out and, in turn, how my Flavors page looks. Kenny was great to work with.

I know I was lucky enough to win my session with KMR Photography, but I want to encourage you to invest some time and money in yourself and your blog as well. Having a good headshot gives you a more professional look than a simple snapshot your friend took. And you can always use a headshot: avatars/Gravatars, your About Me page, your bio for speaking gigs, etc. If nothing else, you’ll look uber-professional on Twitter and Facebook.

I know many of you are thinking you have a digital camera, maybe even a fancy dSLR that takes great shots. Awesome. But you know what? The shots you and I take just aren’t going to be as good as someone who has a degree in photography (did I mention Kenny has a degree in photography? Because he does.). A camera in my hands or my husband’s hands is not going to wield the same power as that camera in a professional’s hands. And a professional is going to be able to massage those photos to hide blemishes and enhance color. If you’re serious about your online image, I encourage you to invest the money in some good photos. A good photographer will sit down with you and talk to you about what you’re looking for and how best to achieve those goals.

If you’re ready to think outside the box, set up an appointment with a local photographer and ask him or her to help you develop an idea for a Flavors page or even your blog’s header. If you’re in Tulsa, you’re in luck! KMR Photography is local and Kenny is fun and easy to work with. I recommend him highly. Give him a call and ask him about his online presence photography and see what you two can come up with.

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Flavors.me is fairly new — it launched in February, 2010 — and is a way for anyone, regardless of how comfortable you are with code, to set up a beautiful website. Even if you don’t have the slightest idea what HTML or CSS are, you can make a page that reflects your personality and links to your social networks, blogs, and whatever else you’re working on.

To start, you upload a picture and plug in the links to your social media networks. Although the free option is enough to get you started, if you want more than four links, the full library of fonts and layouts, and real-time stats, you’ll need to pony up the $20 annual fee (so cheap!). Keep in mind that if you want a custom domain (I did), you’ll need the paid version of Flavors. One of the nice things about Flavors is that, even with a free account, you have several simple design options that don’t overwhelm the page with content. Each link is expandable so content is hidden until it’s needed.

Once you have your photo, just upload it; Flavors.me automatically re-sizes it to fit the page. Then you can link your page to your blog(s) (and pull in your RSS feed) or any of your other social networks. It’s so easy you’ll be up and running in less than 20 minutes (and I bet most of that time will spent just playing around with which photo to use). Not only can you link to the social networks I mentioned earlier, but you can connect to etsy, soundcloud, TypePad, WordPress, Blogger, Netflix, and GoodReads as well.

If you check out the Flavors.me directory, you can see the very cool things people are doing with their pages:

I bought my vanity domain (http://MelanieNelson.com) and worked with a local photography shop (KMR Photography in Tulsa; I’ll have more on this in a later post) to get the image for my Flavors page. I’m extremely happy with how it turned out. Now my business card just lists MelanieNelson.com on one side and BloggingBasics101.com on the other; anyone who meets me just has to remember my name to connect. From my Flavors.me page I link to Blogging Basics 101, both my personal and BB101 Facebook accounts, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and even my posts at BlogHer.com. My Flavors.me page is my hub.

I have two pieces of advice for you related to your Flavors presence:

1. Use a great photo. Flavors is first and foremost visual. Give your readers something beautiful or interesting to ogle — that image can be brand-related or you-related, whichever fits your goal. It’s worthwhile to work closely with a professional photographer to achieve the look you want. Check out the Flavors.me/directory for inspiration.
2. Keep it simple. You don’t need a long bio here. Your Flavors page isn’t meant to take the place of your other blogs, social networks, or online store. It’s meant to be a jumping-off place that houses links to all your other places online. Instead of listing your vitae, just provide an overview of you (one or two sentences will be enough) and link out to the places that are most important to you (or your brand).

Are you using Flavors yet? If so, leave your link in the comments so we can check it out!

Which page from the directory is your favorite? (Confession: I could spend way too long looking at the cool stuff showcased in the directory. It’s a total time-suck for me.)

Sidenote: Last week I read a TechCrunch article about a new site called About.me. It looks to be very similar to Flavors.me. About.me is still in beta, but once it’s rolled out, I’ll take a look and do a comparison of the two services.

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What is a blog carnival? A blog carnival is when a blog owner hosts a party online and invites other bloggers to participate by writing on the same topic and linking back to the main host site. For example, when I was running BloggyGiveaways.com I held a Quarterly Giveaway Carnival. Every three months I invited other bloggers to host giveaways at their own sites, then come to BloggyGiveaways and list their giveaway with a link to their site (I’ll get to the mechanics of how you do that in a moment). So what we ended up with was a central blog (BloggyGiveaways.com) hosting a list of links to blogs with other giveaways. We were sharing link love (I was linking to them, they were linking to me) and people could find everything in a central place and didn’t get lost surfing from one blog to another. That carnival regularly generated over 1,000 links and my traffic increased by 300% during carnival weeks.

Which sounds like magic, doesn’t it? And I wish it were. Unfortunately, while a carnival can be a terrific traffic generator, it’s really hard to come up with an original idea that spreads like wildfire. It’s much easier to simply participate in carnivals and soak up the link love that way; you’ll still probably see a spike in traffic.

How to do you run a blog carnival?

What’s that? You’re not deterred? You’re set on hosting your own carnival? I say go for it! The carnival itself is fairly easy to run, it’s coming up with the idea that works that takes the most time. Once you’ve decided on the topic, here are some things to get you started on your way to hosting a successful carnival.

Establish rules and guidelines. You have to have guidelines or everyone and their dog is going to just come and link up at your site whether what their linking to is relevant or not. Then, when you delete them for not being relevant, they may be upset. It’s easier for you down the road if you know what you expect and convey those expectations to your participants.

Promote your carnival. You need to tell people you’re hosting a carnival, what the topic is, how they can participate, and what the rules are. So make yourself a pretty button and post it in your sidebar (include the name and dates of your carnival, your URL, etc.). Write up a post about what you’re doing and ask your readers to help spread the word via their social media outlets (and offer them the code for your button in case they’d like to use it in their own promotions). Give your readers about two weeks notice and remind them a week before and again two or three days before the carnival. Once your carnival is established, you might just need to remind them the day before or not at all once you really get going.

Use the right list-generating tool. Since a carnival is all about linking up together, you need a way to generate a list of blogs that are participating and have each one link to its respective post. There are several widgets you can use to achieve this:

• Mr. Linky used to be the only game in town. Unfortunately, the widget wasn’t always stable and it’s not much to look at so people started making new options. The Bloggy Giveaways Carnival used Mr. Linky.
• Linky Tools (formerly MckLinky) also creates a basic linked list of participating blogs. You can see an example at Works-for-Me Wednesday.
• Inlinkz is a really cool option because it posts a photo related to the person who leaves the link (h/t to Linda Sellers for alerting me to this tool). You can see it in action at Sweet Shot Tuesdays.

Monitor the links. This is the most time-consuming part of any carnival. In order for the carnival to be useful, you’ll need to keep an eye on who is participating. You’ll more than likely get a few spammers who are linking to irrelevant sites (delete them). You may also get a few people who aren’t using a permalink (the link to an actual article, not the main page of a blog). You’ll want to ask these participants to change the link because if readers click the link and don’t see what they expect to see (i.e., they see the main page of a blog that doesn’t have an article relevant to the carnival), they are confused and frustrated. The down side here is that you’ll need to delete the original link and ask the participant to re-submit her site with the permalink. She’s going to lose her spot in the list of links and be further down the list when she re-submits (which is another reason to ask your readers to use permalinks when you’re explaining the guidelines; if they do, they won’t lose their place on the list). If you find a link that doesn’t fit your carnival for some reason, you can delete it. If the blogger contacts you to ask why her link is down, you can point to your guidelines and explain why you deleted her link. I want to point out, though, that most people are happy to play by the rules if they know what they are. Once participants are used to how you run your carnival, you’ll see fewer and fewer issues.

photo credit: CatDancing

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I’m going to point out the obvious and tell you that you should seriously consider your blog’s name before you start blogging instead of just throwing something up there because then you won’t be in this predicament. But, since I didn’t do that and I’m hardly one to throw stones, I’m not going to dwell long on that sentiment. Before you change your blog’s name, though, you should take some time and think about what you’re going to use as your blog new title because your readers, though loyal now, will tire of your whimsy if you’re changing your blog’s name every year. I think it’s an un-written blogging law that you get one change and that’s it. Any more than that and not only are your readers confused, but you’re damaging the brand you’re trying to build. You can’t have consistency if you’re always changing.

So, if you must change your name, let’s look at some things you need to think about:

• Match your blog’s new name with a domain. If at all possible, your blog’s name and domain (URL) should match. As you’re considering what to change your name to, do a search to see if the domain is available (and try to get the .com and .net). Having your blog name and URL match isn’t just good SEO, it’s an easy way for people to find you. If a reader can remember the name of your blog, she can remember your URL and find you. For example, if I meet you at a conference or just around town and you tell me your blog’s name is I Like Pie, chances are, when I try to find you online, I’m going to type in http://www.ilikepie.com. If that’s not your blog, I may or may not type the title into Google. It depends on how much I want to find you. If your blog’s name and domain match, problem solved; if they don’t, it can be a hassle for your new fan.
• Match your brand throughout your social media accounts. Ten years ago, most bloggers just had to worry about their brand on their blog (and we didn’t even call it a brand). Now you have a social media brand on your blog, Facebook, and Twitter at least. If you decide you need to change your blog’s name, consider how that will affect your other accounts. I went from Chilihead to Melanie Nelson a few years ago and I still have people calling me Chili (which, actually, I love). In fact, many times I introduce myself and I get the blank look. Then I say, “I’m Chilihead on Twitter” and the person usually has at least a glimmer of recognition. If you change your blog’s name, will people still be able to recognize you throughout the social media community?
• Change your name early in the game. If you think you want to change your blog’s name, do it sooner rather than later. When you’ve established an entire brand or identity around your blog, it’s harder to change that when you have 1500 posts instead of 500.
• Tell your readers as soon as possible. Let your readers in on your decision and keep them in the loop. Let them know that you’re going to change your name, how the change will affect your content (if at all), and whether your domain will change as a result. Tell your readers your thought process and lead them through the transition. Your readers are your community and, though it is your blog, they are your readers and they’ll be more inclined to make the jump with you if they’re part of the process.

More Articles on Choosing a New Name for Your Blog

• Advice for New Bloggers: Choosing a name for your blog via Absolutely Bananas. This article discusses not only what to consider when you’re naming your blog, but the comments are also interesting and offer great discussion on how others have faced this dilemma.

• What to do when you outgrow your blog name? by DawnieMom at BlogHer. This is the post that inspired the post you’re reading now. It’s such a common thing to want to change your blog’s name at some point. Click over to join the discussion and add your advice.

• Starting a Blog: Picking Your Name via Empowering Mommy: “I have found that bloggers can tend to change their themes and ideas after about 6 months – they find what they are good at and love.  By that time, their name defines them and they are often concerned that by changing their name they will lose their readers.”

Questions for Comment

Have you ever changed your blog’s name? Were you able to retain your readers or did you have to start over? How long did it take you to re-build your brand once you made the change?

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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The signature is short, informative, and, best of all, easy to set up! To set up your own signature, just follow the steps below.

1. Go to http://www.wisestamp.com/
2. Click the Download Now button. This will download the software to your computer (it’s safe) so you can customize it an use it. (You may have to re-start your browser in order for it to recognize you’ve installed new software.)
3. Find the WiseStamp icon in the bottom right corner of your browser (it looks like the old-fashioned ink stamp with a handle that they in their logo).
4. Click on the WiseStamp icon and choose Edit Signature. A new dialog box will come up with information you can customize. At the top of the dialog box are two tabs: General and Settings

The General Tab
This is where you’ll be able to see what your signature looks like as you build it. You can even build different signatures to appear on business or personal e-mails.

To start building your signature, choose whether this is your personal or business signature, then start typing your information into the text box. This is the info I included (but you can use whatever is relevant to you):

You can use the dashboard to add formatting to your signature. Just highlight whatever you’d like to format and choose the related button from the dashboard. For example, if I wanted to bold my name, I’d highlight Melanie Nelson, then click the B button on the dashboard. To add a link, highlight the URL or word(s) you’d like to make into a link and click the link button (looks like the earth with a chain link). Then type in the URL or permalink you’d like to include. In my own signature, I linked all of the URLs to their respective web sites and the title of the book to Amazon.

Once your text signature is complete, look underneath the text box and start filling in the relevant social media accounts, IM, and RSS information. I like to include my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. I also included links to the BB101 Tumblr blog and the BB101 Amazon store. If you look at my signature above, you’ll see the social media icons for each item.

Settings Tab
The settings tab gives you even more options relating to how your signature will display. I won’t go into each of the options because that would take too long. However, you can try things and tweak or change them as necessary until your signature looks exactly as you’d like it to appear.

A version of this article was posted at BlogHer.com.

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Twitter Trends for 2009

If you weren’t on Twitter this year, you weren’t getting your breaking news. Here are two articles that look back at what happened on the second-biggest social network this year:

• Twitter Reveals Most Discussed Topics of 2009 by Ben Parr via Mashable. This list provides a break down of what we Twittered this year. From Michael Jackson to Google Wave to Harry Potter, Twitter was the way news broke and was dissected and discussed.
• Twitter’s Top 10 Tech Trends of 2009 by Jolie O’Dell via Read Write Web. Not surprisingly, Google Wave is number one. As techies, you’ll be interested to see what the other nine most talked about topics were. It was interesting to me that conferences made the list. If you’ve had any doubt that your hashtags are important, worry no more.

Most Popular Downloads for 2009

I love efficiency. This year iPhone apps, Mac apps, and even Windows apps enabled me to achieve a higher level of efficiency. Oh my word, I love technology and it’s ability to make my life faster and easier.

• The App Store’s Biggest (Official) Hits of 2009 by John Herrman via Gizmodo. Mr. Herrman provides Apple’s official list of what’s hot and what’s not this year in the App Store. The lists include apps and games divided into best sellers and top rated. I was surprised there weren’t more free apps included in the lists. I’d love to know what your favorites were this year. Will you leave me a comment and let me know what apps or games you can’t live without? (If you happen to remember the cost, please include that as well.)
• Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2009 by Adam Pash via Lifehacker. Two things in my life that I love? My Mac and efficiency. So many times those two things go together. This list provides some of the most fun and efficient tools you can download for your Mac.
• Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2009 by Adam Pash via Lifehacker. Although I love my Mac, my family also has a PC running Windows. This article lists some of the most popular downloads for that OS.

More Best of 2009 Lists

• Check out Lifehackers entire Best Of series. It includes lists for Linux, photography, how-tos, and more.
• Jennifer Wagner links to 15 Best of 2009 lists including The Best TV Lines of 2009
• 2009 Best of What’s New via Popsci is broken into categories like Engineering, Home Tech, Gadgets, Health, Green Tech, and more.
• Gina Trapani breaks down why Google had a banner year in 2009 in her article This Year in Google: The 2009 Edition. She says, “When technologists of the future look back in time, they’ll remember 2009 as the year Google got serious about an internet operating system, speeding up the web, and indexing EVERYTHING in sight. Take a look at the year 2009 in Google.”
• AdWeek Media has their picks for the best of marketing and media Best of the 2000s.
• Mashable has several lists, but I found The 10 Most Innovative Viral Video Ads of 2009 to be quite entertaining.

This article is cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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What do the new FTC guidelines expect from bloggers?

The newest FTC guidelines require bloggers to disclose any relationship with an advertiser and to make “verifiable” claims. Relationships with advertisers include any compensation received in exchange for a review–including receiving a free product. As BlogHer.com’s own Liz Gumbinner has said, “The intent of the FTC guidelines is to protect consumers from deceptive marketing practices.”

Richard Cleland is Assistant Director of Advertising Practices at the FTC. He’s been providing interviews around the country and clarifying the FTC’s expectations for bloggers and disclosure. In a phone interview with Ed Champion of Reluctant Habits, Cleland told Champion that “the FTC’s main criteria is the degree of relationship between the advertiser and the blogger. . .If there’s an expectation that you’re going to write a positive review, then there should be a disclosure.”

However, the FTC does acknowledge that some cases are different from others. In an interview with Virginia Prescott at New Hampshire Public Radio, Cleland had this to say about receiving sample products versus being paid for a review:

“That’s going to depend on the circumstances. 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. But if you’re part of a network and you’re consistently receiving products to test and blog about, then that raises the implication that these gifts are quid pro quo and that’s why you’re writing the positive reviews.”

In answer to Ms. Prescott’s question about how the FTC will hold bloggers accountable for false claims, Cleland said, “It’s going to be on a case-by-case basis. It’s going to have to be a situation where it’s actually justified, the extent of the injury is such that it justifies using our resources to look at the possibility of an enforcement action.”

It’s worth noting that those of us with Amazon Affiliate links are expected to disclose those as well. Champion says Cleland “didn’t see any particular problem with a book review appearing on a blog, but only if there wasn’t a corresponding Amazon Affiliates link or an advertisement for the book.” Though that example is specific to books, it could apply to any product linked to an affiliate.

Do the new guidelines include Facebook and Twitter?

Yes. Many bloggers type paid tweets and/or become Facebook fans of certain products, then share those tweets and fan pages with their friends. Just because the advertising relationship is outside a blog, it’s still a relationship and the blogger is still compensated–the rule for disclosure and true testimonials applies. Caroline McCarthy at Cnet gives this example of how the FTC guidelines apply to a blogger (or, in this example, a celebrity) on Facebook:

“[A] celebrity or other prominent figure with loads of friends on Facebook receives free hotel stays from Hotel Chain X in exchange for running Hotel Chain X ads on his or her blog. If that person then signs up as a Facebook fan of Hotel Chain X–which, remember, could mean that the person’s name can show up for his or her Facebook friends alongside Hotel Chain X display ads on the social network–he or she could be held liable by the FTC.”

As for Twitter, the FTC expects you to fit in a disclosure regardless of the 140 character limit. Cleland told McCarthy, “There are ways to abbreviate a disclosure that fit within 140 characters. You may have to say a little bit of something else, but if you can’t make the disclosure, you can’t make the ad.”

How can the FTC monitor every blog out there?

As Richard Cleland made the rounds of interviews, this question often came up. Cleland’s answer was that the FTC’s goal right now is to educate people on what is expected of them. He also indicated that the FTC would be “looking primarily at the advertisers to determine how the relationships exist” (from Ed Champion’s interview).

In an article on CNN, Eric Kuhn reports that “Richard Cleland . . . admits there will be no new team to monitor all the blogs, and that enforcing these guidelines would be a ‘game of whack-a-mole’ given the numbers involved.” Kuhn goes on to say that, “The new guidelines are viewed as more of an educational tool than any kind of requirement, and geared at advertisers more than bloggers. If numerous complaints are filed regarding a blog, the FTC is likely to investigate that the advertiser has properly advised the blogger of these guidelines.”

In his interview with Caroline McCarthy at Cnet, Cleland said, “…in the bigger picture, we think that we have a reason to believe that if bloggers understand the circumstances under which a disclosure should be made, that they’ll be able to make the disclosure. Right now we’re trying to focus on education.”

What about the $11,000 fine for bloggers who don’t disclose payment?

Mashable.com, TechCrunch, CNN, and several other trusted news sources were reporting early Monday that bloggers who don’t disclose payment will be fined $11,000 per violation. In fact, the updated FTC regulations (link downloads a pdf) don’t mention an $11,000 fine at all. Eric Kuhn of CNN tweeted Monday night, “I just spoke with an FTC spokeswoman. She said there is NOT a $11,000 fine for breaking the new guidelines re endorsements.” Unfortunately, none of the original articles with erroneous information have been updated to reflect that there is not currently a fine for violations.

Do I need to go back to my old posts and disclose for previous gifts or payments?

Lisa Stone, one of BlogHer.com’s founders, gave this advice:

“Since we started this network in 2006, BlogHer’s editorial guidelines have prohibited putting advertising in editorial space on blogs. So if you’re talking about posts you’ve made on BlogHer.com or in your blog IF it’s in the BlogHer publishing network, this question should not apply — it’s against the rules!

If you’re not in the BlogHer Network, we recommend that you update your “About” page with your blog policy about payments and review your blog for the current year and disclose any gifts or payments. For previous years, I think you can disclose on your “About” page the date on which you began your disclosure practices. We are not your lawyer, but as a a general practice we recommend that bloggers disclose any kind of payment at the top of every post written because of a payment of cash, goods, or services.”

Most of us are already doing the right thing and we’re not who the FTC is after. To be sure you’re in the know, download the current FTC guidelines. Then write up a disclosure policy and post it clearly on your blog. Not sure exactly how to write your policy? DisclosurePolicy.org can generate one for you.

This post was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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