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Affiliates : Time To Come Out Of the Closet
Is there really any doubt or debate about the fact that compensated referrals should be disclosed? Would anyone not feel a little deceived if they read a glowing review of something and purchased it only to find out later that the ‘review’ was in fact a compensated promotion? Of course not.
“Buyer Beware”. I can hear the responses already. BS. If you’re suggesting, enabling, facilitating, referring, recommending, redirecting, or otherwise driving people to buy something AND a reasonable person (who doesn’t live in the affiliate world) would not know or assume that you were getting compensated to do so then it is your obligation (and it looks like soon to be legal requirement) to inform them that this an isn’t entirely magnanimous gesture.
Banner ads, and other typical forms of advertising and promotion I would personally exempt. A reasonable person knows what an ad looks like and understands its intent. But for reviews, links buried in casual references, recommendations, and all the rest - start writing those disclaimers now.
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Whether people like it or not, this is spot on Craig. “Buyer Beware” has been dead as a legal concept for decades, with the government increasing consumer protection at a rapid rate every year.
I agree on banners, etc. but we all know this is not where the real money is in affiliate marketing. The key will be creative copywriting to make the disclosure work, and to add enough value so that the consumer wants to buy specifically from you and is fine with you getting paid for it.
Here’s the rub - an affiliate gets NO benefit by disclosing that they’re providing a compensated endorsement of a merchant’s product or service. In fact by keeping the nature of that relationship discreet, it lets the blogger or website author blend compensated with non-compensated. Think of it like dollar-cost-advertising.
The reality is this: If a blogger or publisher writes a compensated review for a junk product, that consumer may turn around and write their experience. Consumers today have the ability to directly communicate with the market at lightning speed, which means that the next customer won’t be so fast to make the same mistake. And the most important thing - if a respected publisher or blogger writes about shoddy products - he or she will lose their readership.
The only people that should worry about the FTC getting involved in anything are those up to no good. So that’s not a deal at all to most. As far as disclosure. Not a big deal either. Most affiliate sites are pretty self explanatory. If anything you might have to disclose on some Terms Of Use page on your site that nobody reads that you get compensated when sales are made off your links. I’ve had that for years and again for those that don’t and if the FTC says you must disclose. A few minutes of work adding it in. So when I read this, it’s just business as usual. It’s getting blown up into a bigger story than it actually is.
Great points, Craig.
The most clear win-win intersection of compensation and full disclosure is when the publisher is a nonprofit organization. It works just as well for for-profits that use affiliate revenue to raise money for a favorite cause.
This is one of the fastest growing segments of our AM program, so it’s nice to see that it doesn’t shrink from the light of day; rather, it shines.
-David Yaskulka
President,
Harris Michael, Inc.
Great thoughts Craig (Aldus alum
However, I’m not so sure that banners are imune from any potential FTC oversight. Why? Some are just plain misleading. I’m sure we have all seen them: “You have won…. or Congrats, you are visitor number xxx, click here to recieve your bla bla.
The potential irony of this is that about 4 years ago an advertiser sent me a faux text advert to run which was really a banner. I was a bit uncomfortable with the verbiage so I inserted a little graphic above each banner region which pointed to the creative and indicated it was paid advertising and the same in the alt text. Guess what? My CTR increased!
Finally, their is a significant amount of money in the “banner” world (It’s called CPM!) as in BILLIONS which I respectfully believe contradicts some of the thoughts here at RN