Tiger Woods.
Some would say he’s having a rough year.
I’d say he made bad decisions and now is experiencing the consequences.
We all do.
Good and bad decisions have results. Good and bad.
Nothing strange about it.
Nothing weird.
That’s the way life works, right?
Now then.
With all the changes the FTC is bringing and how it affects marketing online – it’s more important than ever to shoot straight.
(Of course, you’re already doing that.)
But do it even better.
Less crazy copy and more “this is the way it is” copy.
More clarity about the end results and what folks will be getting when they buy from you.
The sneaky Tiger Woods days of online marketing are hitting the FTC spotlight.
Here’s the stand I take…
You may know that Zig Ziglar suffered a fall that affected his short-term memory. When the whole Woods “scandal” hit the media his family joked, “It’s a good thing you have a short-term memory now you can’t remember all those girl friends.”
Obviously, that’s funny because of his incredibly visible love for “The Red Head.”
Zig’s response to the comment was, “When you always tell the truth and do the right thing you do not have to have a good memory.”
Exactly.
And that’s the easiest way to stay clean and proctected from the FTC. Do what they say do, completely above board. Always base yourself in honestly and integrity. Period.
Success is NOT an Accident,
Paul
Paul, that’s one of the best articles I’ve read on the subject of the new FTC regulations.
So often we focus on strategies to find loopholes or new badges to show we’re compliant.
Really, simply getting to the heart of the matter by always telling the truth, always being authentic and trustworthy, does far more to build confidence and trust than all the funky badges and gimmicks combined!
Thanks for clarifying the real issue and solution!
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Amen Brother!!
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Thank you, Paul, for this post. Transparency is really the only policy for a business code of conduct online or offline. Business longevity is a function of honesty.
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Paul,
Thanks. Keep it simple , ask for help, and use the utmost integrity in approaching the market. I like that.
Stephen
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Well said Paul and Zig! That is why I subscribed to Nicheology…you are such an honest and up-front person…refreshing in today’s society!
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I agree with you but I also think that the Web Marketing fraternity is being picked out unnecessarily – for years we´ve had actors and celebs on TV promoting products – do you think for one minute that Andie Mcdowell who promotes home hair colouring products has ever used it – no way – same goes for most of the testimonials they give. The recent trend on the UK TV is to get actors to look and sound like “the ordinary person in the street” to validate their products – this is no more of a scam than me saying I like the product I´m promoting. maybe somebody should point them in the direction – but oh no – we´re talking Top 10 companies with massive ad budgets!!
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People of principles make right choices because their hearts and minds are right, their beings are centered in relationship with a higher being who is holy in nature. For me that relationship is with a loving God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
For what price would a person sell integrity? To which loved one would they prefer to explain why they made that “sale”?
Not all the laws of our country are just, but most do not conflict with what God has revealed about principles by which He wants us to live in relationship with each other. Making a decision, once, to live in right relationship with God (you may call Him by another name) sets our compass to live in right relationship with others, thus making countless small moral dilemmas go away – we simply do right things. Christians are not alone in understanding this universal truth.
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Paul, Zig was right!
Yeah… I remember a girl back in my childhood. She was always inventing stories. Only problem was, of course, she couldn’t remember all the details the next day.
Even half truths are better than lies, of course, but the king would be to be always honest – in business especially.
There is a saying around here where I live, dunno if there is any perfect equivalent in English:
“You may trick a person into buying only once, but you may have a customer for life otherwise” – I hope it is translated clear enough.
Same with these FTC rules. I don’t have to comply with them myself, not living in the US, but I was actually doing it even before they were laid out.
I think it only helps the market be more mature and helps the customers be safer even if not necessarily smarter, he, he…
Nice post; I enjoyed visiting!
Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso
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So true. I’m an old friend of Zig’s from Texas. Sorry to hear about his accident. The way we used to say it is if you tell the truth to everyone, you don’t have to worry about getting your stories mixed up.
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I couldn’t agree with you more! Life would be so much simpler if everyone adopted this philosophy for their business (and their girlfriends).
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Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Ha, Ha….
How so true, Jillian…
It is working both ways, though, did you know?
He, he… so nice, I’m still laughing!
Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso
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I agree with you on the honesty and integrity part. I actually like what the FTC is doing because it was getting out of hand.
I mean my inbox is flushed daily with new easy, fool proof and done for you ways to become a millionaire in no time that if that was the case
there would be more millionaires and less inbox junk
The only thing I disagree with you Paul, is saying that Woods made wrong decisions. Who’s to say if they are wrong or right, who’s judging.
But than again that is besides the point.
I always look forward to your posts and that is a rare thing
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Amen. I’ve seen Zig speak, and I have some “cassettes”. Nuf said on my age…
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Totally agree.
I wonder if they’ll apply these FTC disclosure rules to all the politicians in DC that are supposed to vote “for the people” and end up voting “for their wallets”.
I have never been too keen on using hype in my marketing…guess I should stick with that strategy!
)
Keep the good stuff coming, Paul!
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Yes, if more people followed that principle maybe the FTC wouldn’t have turned up the heat like they did. Thanks for this post.
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Hello Paul,
good article. Here is what I am getting out of this whole FTC thing. It looks very much like another case of ‘an unacceptable amount of collateral damage’ .
Too many innocent marketers are going to get severely hurt or put out of business altogether thanks to the careless carpet bombing approach of this new marketing regulation the FTC has come up with.
Case in point:
The fine for not abiding for this new regualtion is $11,000.00 from what I am hearing. That might sound good on the surface, until you really start to thin about it.
For starters, this new regulation is way too vague on a lot of things, and vague laws always lead to persecution of honest minded people about as much as the not so honest.
So going back to the $11,000.00 fine, we realize, when we stop and think about it, that this is a substantial enough amount of money that will severly penalize a lot of the more honest, ma and pa businesses, but won’t be enough to even effect the big boys. It will cost the big boys more in lost sales if they all of a sudden start marketing honestly (after all, lies make much better converting sales copy than the truth in does) than what they will lose if they just pay the $11,000.00 fine.
So that being the case, the results will be the exact opposite of what most of us want or expect from the FTC. Too many marketers who already play by the rules, will be the one that will be penalized the most, and very few of the dishonest marketers will even feel the effect of an $11,000.00 dent in their profit margin. The vast majority of the big players can pay that fine out of their petty cash,
No, this will hurt the wrong people. I agree that the dishonest and fraudulent marketers should have to answer for all of their white collar crimes, but this particular FTC rule is not the way to do it.
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