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This first video discusses the fact that many of these rules have been in place since 1980 but now they’re applying them to the latest social media programs. Endorsers must always reveal their relationship with advertisers because in the world of social media you cannot always tell what is an advertisement and what isn’t.

The second video discusses the fact that the FTC is interested in protecting consumers. Consumers want information about a product or service and often go online to do research. The FTC feels that we should want to know whether the person who’s getting the endorsement was paid for the endorsement or not, whether in actual money or a steady stream of free products.

The third video asks “What does the new FTC guide mean for bloggers?” For most, not very much. Most are just out there talking about their daily lives in such and it won’t mean much to them. But if you’re one of those bloggers involved in the marketing program with an advertiser and are being paid to blog about a product they need to disclose that relationship with the company.

The fourth video asks “How do bloggers follow the Endorsement Guides?” It’s quite simple. If the blogger does have a relationship with the company that needs to be revealed. For example they could say “ABC Company gave me samples of this product a try. Or, XYZ Company gave me free passes to their theme park to try it out for a day.” It’s not too complicated and it should be just straight forward and up front.

The fifth video asks the question “Is the FTC planning to sue Bloggers?”. They state that that is not why this guidance was created. Everybody needs to be playing by the same rules with other professional reviewer or an amateur reviewer. Just be upfront about the connections you have with the company and what conflict of interest you might have with them.

It seems that we need to be careful of using “sales phrases” in your endorsements. This is the thing they are most concerned about. Make things factual and real. You can’t put across that you are Betty Boop when you are really Steve Jones saying how much you love this eye-liner.

I personally feel that there is too much concern over this issue even though there are several big-time bloggers and marketers that are going to have to change their websites. This is all probably a good thing even I actually don’t want them involved in everything we as marketers do. I know that the FTC is just trying to protect people but 2 things need to happen: Marketers need to be honest in their dealings (I know that is asking a lot from some!) and secondly, people need to take responsibility for their actions.

Universities that teach Internet marketing programs require you to sign a Global Professional Standards (GPS) form. One of the most important items of this professional standards agreement is that you won’t plagiarize what other people have written on the Internet. If you want to sell an affiliate product or do something with Google Adsense you may have purchased an Internet marketing program from some of those big-name gurus. I don’t need to name any names here, there are too many to list.

But almost everyone that I’ve ever seen who claims to be a guru in this industry teaches people to write articles to create back links to your products in an unethical fashion. I can’t tell you how many of them say something like this, “Many people have a hard time trying to find information about what to write. Just go to _ _ _ _articles.com and look up your subject. Just reword each sentence so you aren’t plagiarizing, and there you have it! Voilà an instant article!”

This is clearly against the Global Professional Standards that should be maintained by anyone in this industry. No wonder there’s so much junk out there that you have to wade through when doing a proper search for something you’re interested in!

It’s one thing to do research on a product you are selling but it’s another one just take an article that someone has written and rephrase it, line by line to fit your needs. I know that there are people that have made a lot of money in Internet marketing and there are those who want to make a lot of money in this industry, but this isn’t right.

And here’s something you may want to consider, a standard by which you may judge whether something is right or wrong: anybody who claims that you can make instant cash, and then teaches you an unethical method to get it, should be avoided.

If you have purchased a program from any of these big-name gurus who openly flaunts an unethical method of reaching the goal, I would send it back and demand a refund. Remember the 10 Commandments, at least the one that says “thou shalt not steal?” That’s what plagiarism is-stealing.

Every commandment given has a blessing and a curse associated with it. After 3500 years you would think that we would see the wisdom of following all of the 10 Commandments. But alas, we only think about today and a quick buck would sure make a nice change in our life. “To heck with the Commandments, I need to pay the power company.”

And so our society slips a little bit lower and we wonder why we feel like were being cursed.