For those of you who intend to, or luckily already are making your fortune through the use of blogs to review or endorse products or services then watch out. As reported in todays Guardian changes to US rules are on the way. No doubt we'll see the introduction of similar legislation at some point soon in the UK.
An extract from the article is below. The full piece can be read on the Guardian website at http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/06/us-regulators-rules-online-reviews-products
US regulators have tried to impose some order on the wild west of the blogosphere by introducing rules that force bloggers to disclose any payments or free goods they receive from firms they are writing about. Anyone failing to do so could be fined up to $11,000 (£6,895) per violation.
The changes are the first in almost 30 years to the guidelines on endorsements issued by the federal trade commission, and take into account the rapid growth of bloggers reviewing products and services online. The new rules also apply to social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
Alive to the growing influence of bloggers, companies are spending increasing amounts on "social media marketing", with some influential bloggers admitting they are inundated with free products.
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