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Weightloss flogs and FTC compliance? (23)

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A few years back when the "get ripped" and "300 workouts" blogs were big, I kind of got in at the tail end of things. I was doing about $1k/day profit, which I know was chump change compared to what some others were doing on the same sort of campaigns. It seems like no one runs flogs anymore, and everyone is up on the exact same "Men's Health" advertorial style squeeze pages for men's supplements these days. I don't really see anyone on the flog angle for women's weightloss anymore either. I spoke with one of my AM's for a bit the other day about it, and he pointed out that it likely had to do with FTC compliance regarding false testimonials. So is that the reason people moved away from flogs? Or did thy get saturated and quit converting when people caught onto the angle? I mean, if compliance is an issue, the fake article angle doesn't seem to be much mor legit in terms of testimonial credibility, and really seems to be walking the line waiting for a C&D from Men's Health magazine.

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Did they stop converting? Unlikely! Did the FTC come in and scare the shit out of the affiliate community... pretty much. Precedents were set and people wised up.

Nowadays, regardless of if it's flogs/farticles/etc., people need to be much more careful with FTC compliance and advertisers are a lot more cautious of this as well.

Not sure what else to say - comply with advertiser T&C, consult legal counsel if you are doing anything that could put yourself at risk.

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Can you show us some of these Men's Health Advertorials that you talk about?

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Or just get a lawyer that sets up an offshore entity for you.

Check this (if it's a site owned by a member here, please send me a message and I'll remove the link)

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I'm still seeing some super shady shit, if not one of the most shadiest things I've ever seen in my life recently on AU facebook, it goes a few steps further then mimicking health or news sites. If the person is on the forum lol, you're treading some serious hot water lol

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Don't get how anyone can run that and feel comfortable with themselves at all

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Think I know what you're talking about there.

The shit some people are willing to run blows my mind. It reaches a point where it's no longer 'aggressive' marketing, it's gouging eyeballs.

I still see a few flogs, especially in the male enhancement niche.

In fact, I just saw one 5 minutes ago written from a girlfriend's perspective explaining why she had to buy supplements for her tiny boyfriend to avoid wanting to cheat on him.

I think it's safe to say the industry is as brutal as its ever been if you look in the right shady corners!

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Yeah I see the same flogs on my FB AU profile, not even "Men's Life & Health" but straight up "Men's Health" with the proper cover etc. No effort made, but plenty of money no doubt.

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I'm running one, that is not near as uncomplient as that. it's hard to tell since there is so much grey area. but I had a lawyer look it over and he was so - so but did say its the cleanest he has seen. I am going to get another opinion. I am sure mine isn't converting as well as others because I don't use fake testimonials, before and afters or copy an existing publication.

anyone know where a good spot to get some compliant advice ? or are there any experts here that would be willing to lend some of their expertise pm me

I hired that aaron kelley dude for a consultation and it was a pretty big waste of money ... hmm

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What's ironic is that these risque farticles actually back out in terms of quality, yes even with the logos. I never recommend anyone to use them but it's what everyone ends up doing in diet anyways. The biggest risk as you all know is using celebs/logos copyrighted images, it's just a matter of time before you start getting C&Ds and/or a potential lawsuit. Nothing has really changed, only now, people go in and hit it hard and then lay low.

Hate to say it, but these landers work. Risk vs Reward.

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I've seen this as well. They also have fake celebrity endorsements all over the page. I can't believe people are doing this in 2014!!!

I suppose if you live in India & have loads of accounts lined up then this can be big $$$

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$500 will save your ass and you don't even have to leave your own country if you know what you're doing.
Most of the guys that are running these hardcore landers are not stupid affs from third-world countries but big guys that have a good setup in place.

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The legal implications are very different though. You will most probably get away with it even when you do get caught when you are in a 3rd world country. I doubt that a $500 virtual machine will deter the FTC from finding you.

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The FTC has always followed the money. An offshore server setup will not save you when the FTC subpoenas start flying and your Affiliate Network throws you under the bus.

Step 1
FTC: You are the owner of XYZ Diet product and we see that you are using deceptive advertising practices. What do you have to say about that.
Offer Owner: Well thats the first I am hearing about it I use SUPERCOOLAM Network and they have assured me that everything is running clean. I even gave them criteria on how they are allowed to market my product.

Step2
FTC: You are owner of SUPERCOOLAM Network we have been in contact with one of your clients and we have concerns on how his product are being advertised. We have evidence of deceptive practices being using and we need to get to the bottom of it.
Network Owner: That is not possible we specifically train our AM managers on what is allowed and we have specific terms on how our clients products can be marketed. Do you have the AFFID of the landing pages you are referencing.
FTC: Yes AFFID's xxxx,xxxx,xxxx and xxxx. Here are the url's in question.
Network Owner: Wow yes that is not allowed on our network and is against our terms of service here is all relevant information for those affiliates.

Step3
FTC: We have been given your information by SUPERCOOLAM Network and we are contacting you today in regards to some advertising you are running on behalf of XYZ diet product.
Affiliate: Oh shit! But how did you find me





Step4
Offer Owner pays fine.
Network Pays fine.
Affiliate pays fine and signs his life away saying he will not market in the diet space and use the above mentioned practices.



You had better also have offshore payment setup in a way that will not be able to be tracked because you might be able to hide your server info but good luck hiding the money trail.
Also most people who are cloaking on these pages are not hiding themselves I have contacted a few of them while doing competition research. Most of the time to tell them they have open directories and or they have whois info set to public.

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To frame things in a different way: If you are advertising using methods prohibited by the advertiser and network, there is absolutely no reason for anyone involved to not out you in a heartbeat.

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I am not talking about getting hosting offshore, this won't help in this case. I'm talking about shifting your entire scammy business offshore.
I'm not into the US legislation, but I would be surprised if there wasn't a way to plan out a bullet-proof company setup. You might not be able to get it done for under 5k, especially when you get international (tax) lawyers involved, but there are always ways to have companies act as scapegoats when shit hits the fan so that your assets are safe.

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And if you're the 'brains' behind the company, you're still fucked.

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Not if you live on a barge in the middle of the Indian ocean... or in a pineapple under the sea

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Most likely if you have the wrong setup.

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What if you are running your own physical product?

Then who gets burned?

Also, these guys are probably running 20k/mo cloakers... the type that avoid adwords bans.

And they are using them on not-so-intensive secondary ad networks.

It's pure $$,$$$,$$$ at the expense of stupid emotional consumers.

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I am personally always completely focused by the stuff that I see on my FB account specifically. We all know the FB T/C's but yet I see copious amounts of "Mens Life & Health" advertorials with every actor thats every played in an action movie plaster all over it. I literally see the same ads/url's daily, weekly and monthly. I keep checking to see if its a new domain or the same one that hasn't got banned yet. It's all really surprising that they are able to get all this approved and running long term.

In the last 24 hours I have seen in my newsfeed:

1. Countless Advertorials for Muscle offers
2. At least 3 offers to have sex tonight - click thru to a lander that has naked women
3. Side Bar ad with a girl getting pounded from behind that promotes growing your man unit 5+ inches. LOL

All this shit just blows my mind.



I ask myself the same question every time - how does this get approved? Or stay approved?

I guess my limited tech savvy around cloaking is probably the answer.

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The majority of people doing this live overseas and have good setups. STILL some just don't understand the risks and do it from their living room in Texas

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I know someone that is doing it, it's just pure greed with him. Risk vs Reward really, he doesn't have much to risk so the reward is worth it to him I suppose. Same reason there are drug dealers at the street level. When you have nothing and within weeks are up to spending 5k a day or more, pulling in 5-20k profit daily it clouds your judgement. It's really hard not too when you hear about the easy money all the time.

To be honest I was tempted to take the shortcut to the next level myself but after running it for a few days(with insane ROI) I stopped. I happened across the story about the french news reporter and everything that went down, decided that wasn't the path I wanted to take. Before that, I knew it wasn't allowed to be ran at many traffic sources but really never put much though into why since I wasn't around then. I can't run many things at those traffic sources but they don't tell me why or why not. I can just assume someone before me already abused whatever they don't allow.

I always thought about it the same as I think about most advertising I see. Example, every week I glance at the car snail mail spams I get, some of the most deceptive shit I've read but as long as they put *, **, *** and explain in fine print at the bottom it must be legal for them?

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