Blogger Responds to New FTC Rule

As I discussed before, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that bloggers who review products must disclose any ties to the manufacturer of that product because of advertising or other factors. To me, this was a good thing - it gives readers more information by holding bloggers accountable for any conflicts of interest that may arise. However, now at least one blogger has spoken out against this. Britt Aboutaleb, a blogger at Fashionista, said this is actually unfair to bloggers because print reporters are not held to the same standards. She wrote that fashion magazine are not required to publicize that certain products are chosen as features because of an advertising relationship.

While this may be true, it does not change the fact that the intention of the new rule is just and beneficial for readers, which is who writers are working for, in a sense. Furthermore, the blogger made sweeping statements that all magazines do this, which I think is just not true. This past weekend, I visited several magazine offices in New York City — including W, a high-fashion magazine, and Woman's Day, a women's magazine aimed at middle-aged mothers — and found this wasn't the case at every place. The editors at W and Woman's Day said they receive products that they or other members of their team test in order to see which would be best for their readership. At least at these two magazines, the products received are not part of a business relationship where coverage is based on advertising dollars. While I agree that magazines should disclose that they receive these products free of charge, it doesn't change that the new FTC rule was made with good intentions to help blog readers.

In short, I think the FTC should hold print publications to this standard, but that doesn't change the fact that the rule is necessary to improve the quality of the work being done on the Net as well. Would you agree? Or, do you think the FTC should have cleaned up the print industry before moving on to independent blogs or Web sites?

Lessons from Mark Finkelstein

On Tuesday, our Independent Media class was visited by Mark Finkelstein, a conservative blogger. He got his start blogging for NewsBusters, a Web site that aspires to document and expose instances of liberal bias in the media. He later started his own personal blog, called FinkelBlog, but found that his personal site did not even close to the amount of hits his work for NewsBusters did. For that reason, his last post on FinkelBlog was July 28, 2009. The personal site still exists, but he has only posted on NewsBusters since then because it generates more hits due to linking on outside sites, including the Drudge Report.

This all begs the question: What can bloggers do to generate more hits to their blogs? Can personal blogs, like Finkelblog, ever compete with larger sites, such as NewsBusters? Should bloggers abandon smaller blogs in order to get more hits on other sites? Here's a few suggestions I had for generating some more hits: Actually break news. Link to other Web sites. Encourage reader comments to keep them on your site and interested in what you have to say. Use photos, videos, charts, and the like to make your blog more visually appealing. Optimize your blogs for search engines. And, of course, update frequently. Do you have any other suggestions?

1,000 True Fans

1,000 True Fans - that's all a creator really needs, this article argues. It says that all one needs is a certain number of people who will buy anything you put out, see any show you perform and follow your work religiously. After reading the piece, I had a few thoughts: First, the basic premise of the theory is more or less correct. It is more advantageous to have a number of completely dedicated patrons than to have many minimally dedicated fans, or people who buy something you do once and then move on to something else. (The writer call these fans Lesser Fans.) Obviously, Lesser Fans can boost sales and help move a product too, but they aren't the type of fans one hopes to generate to sustain a long career.

Additionally, the Internet has helped put this concept into practice. The writer of the article touched on this somewhat by discussing how someone can put out a new song on their Web site, post a new update to their blog or put up a new gallery of their work online in order to please True Fans who crave new content constantly. The writer, however, missed small simple ways that a producer could appease their legion of loyal fans with new technology online. Simply posting a Twitter update or new Facebook status can get fans talking. Or, better yet, actually communicating with a fan by posting on a fan's Facebook page or sending them a personal Tweet can really make that fan's day, which would influence them to buy your product when it is released later.

For bloggers, this means they should update their page at least on a daily basis. By continually updating a page every day or several times a day, a blogger can drive traffic to their page and give True Fans the new content they are craving. This practice will then spur fans to remain loyal to a blog, thereby helping to increase ad revenue to keep the blog afloat. Furthermore, a blogger should respond to comments if it's possible to do so. Of course, in the case of a story that generates hundreds of comments, it would be impossible to respond to them all. For a blogger just starting out, however, it could help to turn a Lesser Fan into a True Fan by responding to their personal comment.

FTC to Change Advertising Rules for Bloggers

A New York Times article that appeared earlier tonight reported that the Federal Trade Commission announced it would be revising rules about endorsements and testimonials that have been on the books since 1980. Beginning December 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with the product their reviewing, including free giveaways or payment from an advertiser, which occurs more frequently. Celebrities must also disclose their ties to companies if they promote a product on a talk show or Web site.

The new rules are no surprise - they've been under consideration since November. This change means that the previously uninhibited flow of free stuff to bloggers may come to an end. Furthermore, as reporter Tim Arango suggests, this move hints that the government might attempt to regulate the Internet in the same way it regulates other forms of media, like television or newspapers.

In my opinion, I view this move as a good thing. Bloggers need to be held accountable for their potential conflicts of interest in the same way as television or print reporters. Hopefully it doesn't mean that more regulations are on the way for the Net, but this change, as its stands, is a positive one and will help readers to get the facts, rather than misinformation bloggers could have been paid to provide from advertisers.

Read a Review & Hear the Music!

Last week, I was bored and surfing around the Net, and I stumbled upon Fluxblog, which calls itself "the very first MP3 blog." I'm not sure how accurate that statement is, but for what it's worth, I've never come across another one so far. Fluxblog reviews albums and singles from well-known, emerging and unknown music artists. Unlike print media and other Internet sites, however, this blog actually provides readers with playable MP3s so that readers can hear the music for themselves. Readers can then use the review, as well as the actual song, to decide if they'd like to purchase the entire disc. (The songs cannot be downloaded and only remain on the site for a limited amount of time in order to protect the artists from piracy.) I've always wondered why more music sites didn't provide clips of songs with reviews or news articles. With the technology available today, it seems only natural to provide people with as much information as possible. In the case of a music Web site, that means providing actual music to accompany the text. Fluxblog is just another example of an independent site using the technology available to provide its readers something not found elsewhere in the mainstream.