On December 1st, the FTC is changing the rules about testimonials.

In the past you were able to publish reviews with the disclaimer that “results are not typical”

Now the new FTC rules say that disclaimer will no longer be acceptable.

You will need to state what results ARE typical.

If you write a review on a product you will be required to declare if you have received any compensation for the review.

In plain English if you are paid or given freebies in exchange for writing the review that must be stated in the review.

As I understand it (please correct me if my interpretation is wrong) this will also affect all sites that have those nasty hard to read earnings disclaimers that are in almost unreadable color and size. Having big headlines claiming you can make hundreds and even thousands of $$$ a day/week/month will no longer be permitted. They will have to publish realistic Typical earnings.

To get more information go to http://www.ftc.gov

Hi Bill,

I've thought about that before, especially online with things such as Clickbank that has over 100,000 affiliates, and maybe 2 of them earn a million per year or more, and 999,000 of them maybe earn less than $100 or a big zero. BUT the average would not be half a milion dollars, of course not! LOL. Clickbank has brought in over $1,400,000,000 (billion) in 10 years, BUT not all from affiliate payouts, lots of that was payouts to vendors AND intake FROM multi-vendors who pay nearly $50 per vending account, many have more than 1. So it's all very detaily and debatable about income and how it all came in and who's earning what and how. Clickbank doesn't give any average income predictions but when they say they have 100,000 affiliates and have paid out $1,400,000,000 in 10 years, our minds just try to do the math as an average when that's not really how it went.

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Hi Bill,

I've thought about that before, especially online with things such as Clickbank that has over 100,000 affiliates, and maybe 2 of them earn a million per year or more, and 999,000 of them maybe earn less than $100 or a big zero. BUT the average would not be half a milion dollars, of course not! LOL. Clickbank has brought in over $1,400,000,000 (billion) in 10 years, BUT not all from affiliate payouts, lots of that was payouts to vendors AND intake FROM multi-vendors who pay nearly $50 per vending account, many have more than 1. So it's all very detaily and debatable about income and how it all came in and who's earning what and how.

The income of clickbank also includes the theft of affiliate fees through the charges they apply to affiliates accounts which have not made sales for 3 months, which I am sure they do not declare.

However clickbank is a go between for product owners and affiliates. As I understand it These rules apply to the statements made by the product vendors on their sites and the affiliates who make their own sales pages

I added a little more during your quote, Clickbank has stated the fees somewhere, it's a dollar plus a percentage...whatever. It is good for doing business and avoiding personal ripoffs to do business within a large hub like that.

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Another thing, MLM companies, lots of heavy hitters have their own mailing lists, and I know one of them (ABM American Bill Money) has a top performer in that company and he's also the top in many other companies and they use his testimonial of $30,000 per month, when he has his own personal mailing list of 10,000's of names that other people don't have. So whether people are following the company plan or doing their own huge list mailings is a completely different story, and not included with the testimonials either.

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I added a little more during your quote, Clickbank has stated the fees somewhere, it's a dollar plus a percentage...whatever. It is good for doing business and avoiding personal ripoffs to do business within a large hub like that.

Yes I know that the deductions are in the terms ofs service but this does not make it any less theft of affiliate earnings. They have the money in their bank account earning them interest so why is it necessary to steal it through leaglees in the TOS?

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Another thing, MLM companies, lots of heavy hitters have their own mailing lists, and I know one of them (ABM American Bill Money) has a top performer in that company and he's also the top in many other companies and they use his testimonial of $30,000 per month, when he has his own personal mailing list of 10,000's of names that other people don't have. So whether people are following the company plan or doing their own huge list mailings is a completely different story, and not included with the testimonials either.

What the Heavy hitters say in their mailings is still covered in my opinion, after reading this document.
http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf