There has never been a more exciting or a more scary time in history than now.

A lot of things have changed faster in the last two decades than in all of the 17^th and 18^th centuries combined. How people get and digest their information is evolving quickly. Old Media companies are having a tough time. Old economy businesses are mostly packing up or struggling to survive.

And to narrow things down to our sphere, this is also a time when bloggers have been faced with their biggest challenge and opportunity yet.

The U.S. government has now dabbled into the blogosphere. The most notable being the new FTC (Federal Trade Commission) regulations concerning disclosure. The trade watchdog is revising their guidelines to extend into the blogosphere.

All this has got to mean something irrespective of which ever angle you are viewing the situation from.

It’s better to see it as a time filled with excitement and opportunities though.

I live in Nigeria, West Africa where the government is very different to say the least. Fifty percent of the population doesn’t even pay taxes and there is almost no way to collect those taxes until some major policies are changed. There are no signs of that happening anytime soon.

So in reality FTC rules do not really apply to us in the so called “Third World” or do they?

The answer is simple: yes they do.

The world is a lot smaller than we can imagine now and failure to comply with generally accepted laws and standards because one thinks he is not really affected (thanks to geographic location) might be suicidal online where physical boundaries simply do not exist. So I am also very interested in what’s going on as it very much affects us here too.

The goal of this post is to show why 2010 is going to be a great year for some bloggers and a period of extinction for most. Another aim is to get you thinking ahead and moving towards creating a sustainable business based on the old and only sustainable business strategy which is to “Deliver valuable, recurrently needed services or products that can be easily used up and just as easily replaced over and over by all and sundry.”

The duration of use is dependent on the type of product though, as the shelf life of everything has being drastically reduced by design. In the case of bloggers, we can say “Deliver valuable information about …

FTC Regulations – A Blogger’s Doom or Opportunity?

In October 2009, bloggers and internet marketers alike woke up to the shocking announcement that the Federal Trade Commission would be implementing new regulations in regard to the blogging industry.

A couple of revisions were made to the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. This was the first update to those guidelines since 1980. And two big issues evolved with this revision:

1. A Policy of Full Disclosure: A requirement of full disclosure any time something is received by bloggers or internet marketers for a review. Posts from bloggers who receive any cash or payment in kind is now considered to be an endorsement.
2. Typical Results Testimonials: Any testimonial or statement relating to results of a product must now be coupled with a statement of the results that consumers can typically expect. Before this revision, a statement of “results not typical” would be enough to be legal. That is no longer the case. The effects of these new revisions to the regulations are actually rather widespread

What do these all mean for us in the blogosphere?

Bloggers now need to disclose any material connection between themselves and advertisers if they blog about any product:

• Commission Sales: If you receive a commission when somebody buys something, you have to disclose it now by law.
• Paid Reviews: If you are paid to do a review, you must disclose it also.

As stated by the FTC announcement, you even need to disclose if you get a free item for the purpose of reviewing that item – even if you have to return it later.

The whole scenario could be summed up in one word: Disclosure.

From an ethical point of view, the thing any blogger should do if there are perks attached to a review is to say so to his readers. Most companies who negotiate paid reviews actually require disclosure anyway.

I suggest you visit DisclosurePolicy.org and create a disclosure policy page on your blog just to be on the safe side of the law. Besides, when you create it, it’s once and for all.

**In part two, we will talk more about the issue of testimonials