This article will appear in the December edition of Saathee Magazine

The Federal Trade Commission has revised Endorsement Guidelines to include bloggers who receive compensation for endorsing a product, so that they will have to disclose in their writing, that they have either received cash or in-kind payment. The FTC states that, " bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."

Personally, I've got no problem with this. If anything, I think the added protection to consumers is beneficial. I only wonder why anyone needs it. Do people honestly believe everything they read on the web? We don't believe everything we see on TV. I am skeptical that with the generous income Christie Brinkley earns, that she actually uses a folding home gym. Does Paris Hilton truly eat Hardy's burgers? Or perhaps, did she only pretend to in the commercial?

Sure, I understand that sometimes what we read online is not clearly defined as an endorsement or an unpaid product review. Like Mary Engle from the FTC says, they're applying the same guidelines that have been around since the 1980's to the realm of Social Media because you can't always recognize an advertisement online just by looking at it.

Only bloggers who are trying to pass themselves off as genuinely unattached to a company are going to have a problem with this. I used to blog for a satellite TV company. My posts were almost always about what had been on TV the night before, soccer, and movies. At the end of my posts, I placed a disclosure with links to XYZ's satellite dish company which made it clear that they were either paying me in cash or in-kind. I know of "Mommy bloggers" that receive free products in order to write about them. Some of these bloggers are very popular, so they're using their online celebrity status to spread the word. A good review from one of them can go a long way in promoting a product or service.

What does this mean to you? As a consumer, it means you will be better able to tell when someone has been paid to review a product, or if it is a genuine opinion about a product they have purchased and wrote about. I recently made this comment on Twitter, "I'm not getting paid to say this but (dish washing soap) just made my dishes and glasses the cleanest EVER!" I was thrilled with the results of this soap because I'd been having problems with the condition in which my dishes and glasses were coming out of the dishwasher. Since I wasn’t paid to mention the soap, my comment actually received feedback from one of my followers saying they were going to try it, too. Another simply said, "really? That's cool…"

What this means to you as a business owner, is that you'll need to make sure whomever you hire to blog for you or if you are doing your own blogging, you must divulge your relationship with the product, company, or service. This is not a big deal, but the $11,000 fine is!

Blogging is one of the best ways to engage with your core audience. You can find out who your core audience is and target them in your advertising, marketing, and inventory. Staying in touch with consumers through conversations is the only way to build a community and include them in it. Being honest and transparent creates a meaningful relationship.

The FTC has actually done us all a favor. They're making us introduce ourselves.

Wendy D. Wells is President of WD Wells Writing and Editing, LLC

She is a Charlotte, NC based, Telecommuting Copywriter, Professional Blogger and Editor. Follow me on Twitter! @WendyWells

wwells@wendywellswrites.com