Everything you said up to this point seemed even handed. You’ve omitted a very specific paragraph in the guidelines you linked to which, to my mind, elucidates a bit of a grey area into which this type of affiliate linking falls.
I’m an affiliate marketer with links to an online retailer on my website. When people click on those links and buy something from the retailer, I earn a commission. What do I have to disclose? Where should the disclosure be?Let’s assume that you’re endorsing a product or service on your site and you have links to a company that pays you commissions on sales. If you disclose the relationship clearly and conspicuously on your site, readers can decide how much weight to give your endorsement. In some instances, where the link is embedded in the product review, a single disclosure may be adequate. When the product review has a clear and conspicuous disclosure of your relationship – and the reader can see both the product review and the link at the same time – readers have the information they need. If the product review and the link are separated, the reader may lose the connection.
It reads an awful lot like they are saying you could proximately publish an acknowledgement of the endorsement and label affiliate links, this would be the best practice as customers can then make the best kind of informed decision.
If the product review and the link are separated, the reader may lose the connection.
Well, in this case, they are separated (and unspecific, except for the edited disclosure). Whilst this is obviously not what the FTC is promoting as ‘best practice’, it does seem to at least fall into ‘practice’.
Something your post seems to be trying quite hard to characterise as ‘not practice’.
I always appreciate more specifically noted relationships with advertisers and do find them many times in boingboing reviews or in journalism where the author is affiliated (pun not intended) with the organisation being reported on, directly or through family associations.
Perhaps there is a case for asking boingboing to individually annotate such posts but I don’t think they are required to go any further than they already are.
