There seems to be a lot of people concerned about the new rules of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). And rightly so. I took the pains to read over the 81 page PDF and quite frankly they are not very specific on certain areas, especially in the area of affiliate marketing.

However, my overall conclusion of the changes was that the FTC is not out to get anyone. The FTC is simply trying to protect the consumers from false or misleading advertising. And in my honest opinion, it is about time someone stepped in and held these scammers accountable for their actions.

I think those who are making an honest income will not have anything to worry about, as the changes they will be required to make will be minimal. It is those who are using false forms of advertisements, fake testimonies, or simply give the consumers a false impression of the product.

Basically people who are using testimonies to help sell their products will no longer be able to use them in the way in which they have up until now. That is to only use the best testimonies, with the highest success rates, which gives the consumer the impression that these rates are average.

The new rules state that the testimonies used will have to be realistic and give the consumer an impression of the average outcome. They will also have to include more detail as to how the success was achieved so that the consumer has an idea of what will be expected in order to achieve the same success.

Also you can only use testimonies of people who are current customers.

Disclaimers will also no longer work as a loophole to use phrases like "results may vary", or "results not typical". Same as with the testimonies, the disclaimers will have to be specific as to why the consumer might not achieve the desirable results.

All forms of advertisements, salespages, and reviews will have to give consumers a truthful impression of the products or services.

It focuses a lot on paid product reviews, where one is given a free product in exchange for a review. The new rules state that these reviews will have to state the fact that the product was received at no cost in exchange for the review.

If you buy the product yourself, then write the review, you will not be liable under the new rules. However, the rules do not state whether you can post your affiliate links to this product without disclosing your affiliation. This is where most affiliate marketers are confused, because the rules are not clear.

Neither do they state what method to use to disclose the affiliate relationship. To be honest I have no problem telling people about my affiliate links, but I do think it would look rather silly to put "this is an affiliate link" next to each link on my site.

I think a disclosure page where we could simply state which affiliate programs, or companies we receive revenue from should be sufficient. But the new rules don't give any instructions on what to do.

Hopefully they will provide us with more information on this before it is too late.