New Guidelines...No more Googinator...

Saturday, December 12, 2009

New Guidelines...No more Googinator...

So - if you all take a lookie at my sidebars you will notice my Google ads are gone.
I got them taken down by Google as they do not allow ads to be placed on adult content sites.

All my other sites are allowed (I have 4 others) - it was just this site that is not. This is ok with me, I love Google, so if those are the rules then I guess I gotta follow them. They have great tools for webmasters/bloggers and I use them all the time, and they have no problem with my other sites so all is well.

This actually opens up more opportunities for me. Because I have other people/sites asking me to place ads on my site. Which I will be adding in the next few days.

Speaking of which - Just so you all know (and I'm sure you all heard it) The FTC has indeed placed new guidelines on us bloggers to follow. It was final in October and becomes a new guideline as of December 1st 2009. It's not a law - but a guideline. And it's really to try and stamp out advertising fraud. There are so many fradulent sites out there that promote, promote, promote without lifting a finger to even try the product, etc...

Can't say that the new guidelines are bad. I kinda like em.

Here is the link (in PDF format) for all of you to read if you feel you need or want to.

What does it mean to all us bloggers?

Well in the most simplest terms it means........

1. Whenever you place an ad on your blog, be it a paid link (one you get paid for if someone clicks on it) you need to let the reader know by telling them.

2. Do a review of any kind. For toys, computers, companies, movies, fellow bloggers (if he pays you for it) you need to disclose that you are indeed getting paid for doing the review and or blog review.

3. Ads placed on your site also require a disclosure as well. Basically, if you receive any goods, services, money WITHOUT disclosing your connection to the provider you are going to be a target under the new FTC guidelines.

And yeah - it counts even if you do an occasional review.

So - write a disclosure people because if you don't - you could be subject to being fined $11,000.00.

This also extends to Twitter and Facebook as well.

The easiest way I think is just to make a static page that stays permanently and placed where the reader can easily view it. In all my Wordpress blogs I have it as a page that shows up in the front of my blog. Since I am using Blogger for this site - I placed it in my category list.

Make it clear and concise as best as you can. And you can ad to it when you think of other things. The new guidelines are still very new and also very broad as to exactly who, what, and when...

But, it's not hurting me to place some type of disclosure on my blog - ya know?