New blogger payola disclosure rules start

Starting today, bloggers must abide by the Federal Trade Commission's new disclosure rules. That means, for example, that a blogger who's getting paid by an advertiser to promote a brand of coffee needs to let readers know. Much confusion surrounded the new disclosure rules when they were announced last Oct. 5, particularly fears that bloggers who didn't disclose financial or product payments would get fined as much as $11,000 per violation. In short, the FTC says they aren't out to fine bloggers and that fears of punishment have been blown out of proportion. The FTC has been on an education campaign since then, with officials hosting Webinars and participating in conferences to help explain the revised rules. The agency revised its rules on advertising disclosures to update long outdated guidelines that didn't take into account new forms of media such as blogs and social media Web sites.