Comment The Original Post is Totally Missing the Point (Score 2, Interesting) 299
Viral marketing is quite often an attempt to encourage users to pass on your marketing material without any financial inducement.
As soon as there is an additional incentive, it becomes much more like affiliate marketing.
Some incentives might be included that are not financial, such as unlocking access if you get 3 friends to sign up.
The biggest problem with the FTC statement is with Affiliate marketing, especially where a marketer is offering a recommendation regarding a specific product, with the ability to link directly through to that product with a CPA or affiliate link.
On stuff like this you listen to lawyers, and consult with them if you are in any kind of internet business.
Here are some references to what 2 lawyers have written about this.
http://www.copywritersblog.com/2006/12/13/ftc-crac ks-down-on-word-of-mouth-advertising/
http://www.copyblogger.com/affiliate-marketing-dis closure-now-required-by-law/
This affects Amazon, Google, Ebay, Clickbank, Commission Junction, Linkshare and a host of other billion dollar companies that allow affiliates to link directly through to a particular product or service with a recommendation.
Disclosure: I practice disclosure on my blogs and use affiliate links recommending products, and have an interest with this as I just launched a disclosure policy plugin for Wordpress. It is available free of charge and is GPLed
As soon as there is an additional incentive, it becomes much more like affiliate marketing.
Some incentives might be included that are not financial, such as unlocking access if you get 3 friends to sign up.
The biggest problem with the FTC statement is with Affiliate marketing, especially where a marketer is offering a recommendation regarding a specific product, with the ability to link directly through to that product with a CPA or affiliate link.
On stuff like this you listen to lawyers, and consult with them if you are in any kind of internet business.
Here are some references to what 2 lawyers have written about this.
http://www.copywritersblog.com/2006/12/13/ftc-cra
http://www.copyblogger.com/affiliate-marketing-di
This affects Amazon, Google, Ebay, Clickbank, Commission Junction, Linkshare and a host of other billion dollar companies that allow affiliates to link directly through to a particular product or service with a recommendation.
Disclosure: I practice disclosure on my blogs and use affiliate links recommending products, and have an interest with this as I just launched a disclosure policy plugin for Wordpress. It is available free of charge and is GPLed
