by Diane
Why is it Important to Disclose your Affiliate Relationship?”
January 26, 2011 in Blog Education by Diane
Having a game plan as a blogger, also means knowing when to be able to adapt your plans for whatever reason.
Case in point, I had intended to continue with the series Having a game plan today, but because of a question being asked on the Megatraffick.TK forum, I have decided to answer Dorothy Sander’s question here. Dorothy by the way, is a very cool lady who owns the Blog Aging Abundantly. she is a great writer which will either inspire you or will give you food for thought. That by the way was my plug for Dorothy and my disclosure is ” I am not getting paid to say nice things about Aging Abundantly and my association with Dorothy and her blog comes from just liking her/it“
Disclosure..an interesting topic that is being talked about by many people and most recently by Danny Brown on his blog.
Yesterday on MegaTraffic ( a ning forum that I like going to), I had posted about Danny Browns post titled “Why Affiliate Vendors Need to Start Taking the Rap“. to me it was a very important post not just to bloggers but also the vendors who should be telling their affiliates to make sure they disclose what they are doing.
In that forum Dorothy wrote: “I have a question: Why is it important to disclose your an affiliate relationship?“
It was such a good question that I decided to answer it here, rather than on the actual forum.
Funny enough back in 2008, On Success BlogNet I had written a post on the very topic of disclosures, which I then updated this last November (2010) The title was “Disclosure Policy – A Tool – A Necessity!” and while this post is an important read and to my way of thinking a necessity, it does not answer..at least not properly, Dorothy’s important question “why?“
So here is my answer Dorothy ( long and drawn out – lol, but I got there). To me it is important to disclose what you are doing because it gives you credibility, it gives you authenticity and it is showing that you are being transparent in all that you do in your blogging life. In plain and simple language it is all about ethics and being professional.
From the standpoint of a blogger, here is a great explanation about what this all really means to you Dorothy and to everyone else who is blogging and was done by Whitney Hoffman on her blog Reading Whitney on Oct 6,2009.
This is a longish post by the way, but a MUST read to fully understand the scope and the meaning to understanding about endorsements and disclosure.
In part what she says is: no longer as bloggers can we go around saying this or that and get paid for doing it (or be given gifts) and NOT SAY ANYTHING We need to be and act as professionals just like any big time company.
“The whole point of having FTC guidelines regarding endorsements and testimonials is to try to ensure truth in advertising, so that if the typical consumer sees an ad on TV, in a magazine, or online, they are aware it is an ad, and that the information contained within it is reasonably truthful and reliable.”
When you become an affiliate in any way, then just do the right thing, disclose, disclose….DISCLOSE!
Have I explained well enough… Do any of you have any questions?
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