Is This The E-N-D Of Affiliate Marketing, As We know It?  Details Inside.

There's been news that the America Federal Trade Commission are planning to force blog and website owners to "disclose" the fact that you and I are profiting from our recommendations.  

In other words, when you recommend something to someone and someone buys a product based on the confidence on your recommendation, the FTC believes it's the customers "right" to know they are being profited from. 

The argument with marketers and promoters is that they have every right NOT to tell people they are profiting from their decisions to buy as long as the customer is satisfied with their purchase, what does it matter to the buyer? 

Is it because the seller is afraid the buyer won't purchase because they know someone is profiting from the sale? 

Besides, when you walk into a cell phone dealership store and a salesman/woman approaches you and sales you with a brand new plan and phone...are they required to disclose to you what percentage of the sale they make? 

No. 

In fact, I bet you could care less one way or the other WHO makes money from your purchase, as long as you get the cellphone you've been dying to have in your hands for months. 

What the FTC doesn't know, is that disclosure of income and profit is already being done in most industry's including network marketing, direct sales, insurance salesmen, real estate investors, and so on. 

The question you ask yourself, given the above examples, is if you believe it's your right to be told who's making money off of your purchase possibly influencing your decision to buy, or not? 

In my opinion, it can go both ways. In some industries, you want to know who's profiting so you're not supporting a bad cause or scam...and in others, it really doesn't matter so much because the likelihood of being ripped off is almost unlikely. 

It seems like the higher the risk to the buyer, the more they want to know whose pockets they’re lining with their purchases. In contrast, the LESS risky the purchase and the more the industry is perceived to be "legit", the less cause for concern about being ripped off. 

And consequently, as more buyers are getting ripped off and cheated on their online purchases by zealous affiliate marketers, the cry for "regulation" gets louder.  

This system can be abused by agencies like the FTC for their own personal agenda of sticking their hands in the cookie jar and getting more "control" over something the government know's it has no control over. 

As you can see, there is no cut-and-dry answer to a very complex question full of holes. But is affiliate marketing coming to an end? I doubt it.  

 Back to the Affiliate Marketing Article Page