Alot of people have written alot of things about the new FTC Endorsement rules… And a few things I’ve gathered from it all (and reading the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising) is this…
Old Blogposts that still are being read as people visit your site would be current (i.e. new) activity. If someone clicks an embedded link in and old post.. That’s a new sale. And this fact alone means you need to disclose. If someone complains about an old blogpost of yours that contains an endorsement (i.e. real person, or a not so honet competitor) you could be in trouble… Along with the Network and the Advertiser.
Here’s what I would do… I would find a way to add a universal disclaimer to every blogpost you have. More than likely (I havn’t found a Wordpress plugin for this yet) would be to modify your template and simply include a quality universal disclaimer.
The other thing I would do would be to change the way you write. Start with the disclaimer. Then write your blogpost and then do your editing. This way you can still produce a quality post knowing that your covered by your disclaimer. And yes, I would put a disclaimer into every single post.
Speaking of putting a disclaimer in every single post… And knowing that I didn’t include a sample disclaimer earlier. Here’s both an example and official disclaimer for this post:
But I’m not going to make it that easy for you. Why? Because you need to consult an attorney and I’m not one. And no, nobody has paid for this posting, no free product received, no free trials, nothing, zip, nada. Advertisers pay for banner space but if they don’t like what I write.. Tough Noogies.
So, there you go. I’m assuming you’ve already put full compliance into place on your current and new blogposts. Now it’s time to CYA and get your old posts and archives in order too.
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