I found an interesting article in my local paper recently. It said that the Federal Trade Commission is working on guidelines that bloggers and companies who compensate them for reviews will be under scrutiny for false claims or faiure to disclose conflicts of interest.
What that means is that if I write a review of a Dell laptop (something I would LOVE to do, Dell) and they give me a laptop or pay me for the review and I am not up front about that, the FTC could “get” me. (Not sure what that would entail). Or if I give a fluff review because they pay me, that’s a no on too.
I get the idea. I am one of those few bloggers who disclose everything and refuse to do a review if it doesn’t meet my standards. But how will the FTC manage the millions of blogs out there? How can they prove that a review is false?
I am interested to see how this regulation will work. I do agree that we need some sort of regulation, as well as a system where bloggers get paid for their work. If you were taking out an ad, you would pay for it, so why shouldn’t you pay a blogger to give her honest opinion on a product?
What do you think? Can the FTC regulate blog reviews?
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Susan Payton is the Marketing Eggspert, and owner of 
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