Transparency – Reason Why I Don’t Care About Disclosure

With the news coming out yesterday about the FTC requiring all bloggers to disclose any ads on their sites that pay commissions or give free samples, some have been in an uproar.  If you want more information about this, there are plenty of places to get the scoop.  But this blog is about why I don’t care about all this hoopla.  And this is because of one word: transparency.

Transparency is key to having trust.  You can’t build trust with your readers if you are not being up front with them to begin with.  That means that from day one, I have been up front about any commissions, samples, demos etc.  So when this statement came out from the FTC, I just thought “oh well, I’m already doing that anyway”  The only people that this is going to potentially hurt are all of the bloggers that have been getting paid for reviews or via Sponsored Tweets, Social Spark, Pay Per Post, or any other paid post programs, that have not been up front with their readers from the beginning.  Now all of a sudden viewers may not respect your opinions and views on certain products anymore because you are being paid to write that.  As a reader, I will feel lied to for however long I was reading your blog.

Bottom line is simple.  Transparency is the key to trust.  If you have built trust with your readers then you should have no problem with the whole FTC disclosure issue.
photo credit: @jbtaylor via photopin cc