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Are farticles frowned upon? (13)

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I want to get into nutraceuticals/skin care/etc soon, and one of my buddies who has done this for a long time (I'm completely new) seemed to suggest there was some sort of crackdown on farticles recently. Are they still viable in your opinion? I don't want to get in trouble before I get a chance to get going...

And I'm not going to straight up lie or anything, all scientific claims will be verified. But the whole "34-year old Houston mom loses 65 lbs" thing is questionable imo. I know in a recent Dr. OZ-related suit one of the complaints was that the LP looked too much like a news website, which definitely shouldn't be against any rules (who determines what's official "news" and what isn't? - this is the internet dammit), but apparently makes people mad.

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http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press...more-2-million

http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press...sing-fake-news

http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press...et-advertisers

http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press...ator-allegedly

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Seems like they've been doing this for several years... How then have affiliates been getting away with using these landing pages, since I know they were still doing them more recently than a few of these?

Maybe there's just a line that needs to not be crossed?

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Seems like they published guidelines for this. It also seems like the specific qualms with those farticles were using real news logos and citing bogus science. I think I'll include pubmed references in any landing pages I make for this type of thing to be on the safe side.

http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/busin...guide-industry

http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/busin...ts-or-services

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Yes you can make advertorials complaint with FTC, but idk many affs doing it. It helps if you dont want to cloak on like ClickBooth traffic platform or others.
I dont know whole requirements because FTC doesnt affect me as I'm not from US, but I didnt seen any requirements others than traffic sources terms for advertorials.

Of couse - allways when you use someones logo etc. you break copyrights/trademark law, most wont give a sh*t about that but as you may read few days ago - one of users got almost sued for using someones photo - 5k mistake made. It was private person so imagine how much you can lose by running big brand names etc.

I dont want to say you "oh dont use brand names" because they build trust and make you more money, but you have to know pros and cons of this move.

When you move into this niche there are also other types of LP's that you can run without any problems... you can use SEO to blog, fake blog testimontals etc.
Website that makes reviews of products and you can run it on search traffic or seo, you can allways build email list, manage it and build trust then just send to normal advertiser LP and it should convert too.

So you arent limited only to advertorials, and yes you can make them compliant.
And back to the subject - I dont see any crackdown on advertorials tbh. alot of ppl still run them and wont stop. It's just FTC that goes after some of affs but they do it quite constantly for few years.

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They are very viable, to answer your question. A lot of revenue is generated on flogs/farticles, etc. Yes, you need to be careful with what you use and what you say, especially in the US on diet (and skin to some degree). It's the reason a lot of US diet advertisers have pulled out of the US market or switched over from trial to straight sales.

This angle has been around for years now. I would always encourage new publishers to come up with new ways of promoting "old" products. If you truly think outside the box you can definitely make it work without having to worry about the FTC.

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This was my sneaking suspicion.

So you can still do them in foreign markets? And yeah, that's what a friend of mine was telling me like a year ago before I even knew I wanted to get into aff marketing. He was wary of continuity and wanted to get into straight sell.

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There are a lot of pubs still running these even in the US, but they are good at hiding. Nothing I'd recommend for someone new to jump into. Even 'experts' as seen above in the FTC examples can get burned.

I have seen people rebuild the GNC store to promote muscle and diet. Genius idea, but it's only going to get you so far and probably going to take down the advertiser with you.

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Yeah I'm definitely not looking to break any sort of FTC rules, the big thing for me is figuring out where the line is drawn so I don't cross it. Their guidelines are helpful but as with all legal issues, it's more of a gray area than a well-defined rulebook.

And yeah that seems really clever. I wonder how much their profit increased by doing that

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Here's the thing you have to understand about the "alphabet agencies"-- it's not whether you are strictly compliant or not compliant, it's whether what you are doing brings scrutiny to you. If they decided to investigate you, and decide that you are a bad guy (and that decision is up to them), then they will find something to get you on. I'm friends with Frank Kern (some of you know the name) and Frank told me that when he had his FTC issue, they all sat down at a table with him and said, "we know you've done nothing wrong, but we're going to take all the money in your business account anyways."

I was a testimonial on a Jeff Paul Infomercial back in 2006, and got a call from them one time, and I never want to have that conversation again. What triggered the investigation was the dislike of the FTC of both the media and the topic (biz opp). The judge wound up throwing that one out of court (after Jeff and his partners wasted years and hundreds out thousands of dollars in the fight), but Jeff (stupidly) made another one, and the FTC got him for a $30 million fine and he is currently broke.

My Dad worked for the IRS for 25 years and gave me some unique insight into how these Fed investigations work, and I assure you, you don't want to be part of one. If you use formats they consider deceptive, no matter how much you disclaim in markets that are heavily scrutinized, that dramatically increases the odds of them taking a look at you, and when they do, they don't come to pat you on the back and tell you what a swell businessman you are. They come to find some way to fine you and make themselves look good. The most important thing is to first and foremost avoid the things that trigger scrutiny, and flogs and farticles in weight loss, skin care, arthritis, diabetes, et al are a good way to get scrutinized.

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I hear you on this. It seems like a lot of people are anti-farticle on here. Why do so many people run them? I searched a footprint and ended up with a couple hundred farticle-ish landing pages.

I also get the sense the FTC pretty much doesn't like any of the big niches- weight loss, muscle, skin care, bizopp. How am I supposed to run those offers if I'm supposed to stay away from everything they might not like? Even if I can find a way to write my copy with no untruths...

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That and a sure way to get banned.

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Because they're money printers
Just stay away from countries they investigate

If you're INTL - ok run USA
If you're USA - ok run INTL

But again - thats not 100% secure way, we're just telling you pros and cons of each way you gotta choose which one will you follow and go on your goals.
Also there's alot of guys that do AM and doesnt know what's FTC and probably they wont even care in their life about it.
If you're afraid of FTC or few letters agencies, get servers in Russia lol, get paid on offshore company bank account etc. FTC power atm ends on USA borders.

And as @johna5150 said, if they decided no matter what you will do, they will get you. You can even run cleanest campaign on the earth.

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