If I have to read another blog post about the FTC’s new advertising standard, then I think I’m gonna puke.
Rather than bore you with the details, read Chris Rempel’s post entitled The Sky is Not Falling.
So I have some questions and I will be calling my attorney about this.
But here goes…
This only applies to US citizens or those with assets in the US, correct? (Last I checked, the FTC doesn’t have authority anywhere else).
If this is the case, couldn’t you have an offshore corporation and an address where you receive your checks, a server in Panama, domains registered in Panama with double ID protection and essentially bypass all of this?
I’m not saying I would go through the hassle, but it does make you wonder.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
You certainly could do that. I have a friend who has a “real money” poker site who runs it that way. It is indeed a hassle, though. Particularly if you are earning a significant amount of money….
to misquote Tony Robbins “wealth leaves clues”
I play the game “backwards”. Since I reside in Germany there are some disclosure requirements for websites that I’m not always interested in keeping (we Americans are an independent bunch). So, register and host on US servers to avoid it.
…now I’m going to have to rethink all that
Hey Keith,
I’m with you on this FTC thing. I have been seeing it in the forums and group discussion boards making a “mountain out of a molehill.” Currently, we have a good number of websites with “disclaimer” and “privacy” disclosures. All we have to do now is to add an “integrity” disclosure that our attorney can write up and insert in our sites and I think soon, it will be just another “day at the office” when putting up a site. The most of us are “up and up” and have nothing to fear.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep on this!
Regards,
Bruce
I also saw a lot of blog posts the last couple of days and I am really interested in the best way to handle that. Since I don’t have the means yet to ask my own attorney I would appreciate any insight you get, Keith.
I guess the solutions will be pretty simple. E.g. do it like Google does, have an “Ads by company X” sign next to any submit offers or something like that and at a little bit of wording at the right spots.
At the end you might loose some clicks through the disclosures, but that just means we need to drive a little bit more traffic on the site to balance that out. I guess we know how to do that
Cheers
Stephan