Net Neutrality! ...Again

When I heard the fuss about neutrality being raised up again, I thought to myself, “This issue has been around a while, hasn’t it?”  In fact, I remembered having written about it some time ago.  It turns out that was back in 2006.  I looked it up: http://sohoman.blogspot.com/2006/08/net-neutrality-and-you.html  I guess the wheels of regulation turn slowly.

Not that it’s an invalid concern.  Far from it.  It’s very important that the Internet, which has a long, tested, and sometimes sordid history of unregulated freedom, be kept free for all.

Here’s the deal:  There’s a lot of content on the ‘net, not just websites and silly blogs like this one.  There’s TV shows, and movies, and streaming music and talk, and all kinds of media and information flowing through these wires, fibers, and waves.  Much of that content is being provided by some pretty big corporations.  They feel that they should be able to have better service, with faster connections, and better stability than little mom & pop web shops or bloggers.

Others, mostly mom & pop webstore owners and bloggers, as well as a lot of folks that work on the ‘net daily, feel that the same wires, fibers and waves should carry everything.  Equally.  Neutrally.  Hence, “net neutrality”.

What they’re afraid of is that these powerful and wealthy companies will end up being able to restrict the usage of the network of their smaller competitors, or even of those that speak in ways that they don’t like. And in order to preserve that equality that has existed for so long, in order to keep it a free and open forum of ideas, they’re asking for some regulation.

Yes, you heard that right.  They’re wanting regulation, rules, in order to keep things fair and free.  Oh, the irony.

If you’re reading this, it’s very likely that you’re one of the smaller website owners.  It’s likely that you’re not a major, multinational corporation.  So, this is something that you should be concerned about.  Is it possible that they’ll end up squeezing you out of the picture?  Net Neutrality, then, becomes not so much a techie-sounding buzzword, and turns into a real-life concern.

The FCC recently presented some proposed rules changes.  These are not yet fixed, and there well be legislation that could come down as well.  It would be wise for all of us to contact our representatives and let them know how we feel.  To access your representatives, look to http://www.house.gov/ and http://www.senate.gov/





Mark is currently employed as an Internet Business Coach.

Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Listening to an FTC Lawyer: Clear as Mud, But it Covers the Ground

I recently sat in on a webinar given by the site "Blog with Integrity", with speaker Mary Engle.  Mary is the FTC's Associate Director of Consumer Protection.  I learned a lot about the new FTC guidelines, especially as it relates to blogging.  This is particularly timely, as the guidelines go into effect as of today, the day of this writing!

I came away from the webinar with a slightly more clear understanding of the concepts behind the new FTC guidelines, but I'm still a bit confused about how they want them to be implemented.  As I listened, I got the sense that they, too, haven't fully defined the details, and that they're still in the process of interpreting them.

FTC Guidelines for Existing Laws

The impetus behind the new guides is that a lot has changed and adapted since the '80s, when the laws were put into place.  The advent of blogging, social networking, and a vast landscape of interconnectedness has come along since then, and now they're trying to apply those existing laws and regulations to new circumstances.

That's OK.  A well-written law should be able to be applied fairly to new situations.  It does, however, make for some generalities that can be difficult to detail.  One thing that Engle mentioned is that these new FTC guidelines, by themselves, don't have the weight of law.  They are designed to show the application of the current laws.

Disclosure, Not Deception

The idea is that whenever someone writes or talks about a product or a company, the reader or viewer should be able to know if there's any connection between the writer/speaker, and the product or company being discussed. 

So, if I post to my Facebook page that I'm gonna hit McDonald's for lunch, do I have to add a disclosure statement?  Well, probably not, but it depends:  Did McD's pay me to say that?  Am I getting my meal for free in return for mentioning it on Facebook?  If so, I need to say so.  If nobody paid me anything, or gave me anything for free, I can say whatever I want.

What if I blog about my family life, and I put affiliate ads on the site?  Do I have to tell people that the affiliate links make me money?  Again, that depends.  If it's a big graphic ad off to one side of the blog, it's a pretty safe bet that everyone "gets it" that it's an ad, and that I'm getting compensated for it in some way.

On the other hand, what if I blog about a book, and put a link to that book over at Amazon?  In that case, it's a little less obvious and should probably be disclosed.

The overall focus, according to Engle, is to eliminate the deception.  If a blogger writes about something, the readers should be able to judge his/her fairness.  Did they get the product for free?  Were they paid to write?  Are they getting commissions for recommending a particular book?  The audience needs to know.

Linking to a Website.

Let's say that you blog primarily as an effort to promote an ecommerce website.  Let's say that you sell products at the site, and you want to blog about them.  You'd definitely want to disclose that, to be in compliance with these FTC guidelines.  Fortunately, that's not too hard.  "Come check out these products at our website! (link, link, link)"

Testimonials

Having testimonials on your website is a great way to build customer confidence.  If you get a spontaneous email about how good your product is, or how quickly you delivered it, then you've got gold, and you should post it on your website.  However, if you offer discounts or other premiums in return for testimonials, that has to be disclosed.

My Own Disclaimer!

The things I've said here are the things that I gathered as I was listening to the FTC presentation mentioned above.  I don't really know how the FTC is going to enforce these.  Frankly, I'm not convinced that they're too sure, either.  My best recommendation is to take some time and listen to the webinar and learn for yourself.  They can also be contacted via email with questions: endorsement@ftc.gov. 




Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Best of 5 Years of SOHOMan

Happy Birthday to Me!  Happy Birthday to Me....

So, five years ago, today, I started writing here at SOHOMan.  It's kept fairly steady, except for a big gap when I changed jobs in 2008.  But now it's back, going strong.

I thought I'd celebrate by sharing some of the better articles, some of the ones that have been a bit more timeless, more impactful.  Keep in mind that some were written 5 years ago, so they might contain a few dead links or references to old companies.  I feel strongly that the concepts in them are still vital and important today, however.

Some of these deal more directly with web marketing issues, like SEO, getting traffic, and making a great web business.  Other articles are all about motivation and persistence, two big keys in Internet success. 

Dive in and feel free to comment!


2004

• Five basic myths of the small business
• The Power of "Not Giving Up"

2005

• Making Your Website "Sticky"
• Finding Your Audience

2006

• How to Win at "Yabbutz"
• How to Start a Business on the Web

2007

• Top Ten Factors of SEO
• How to Make a Few $$ in a Few Minutes

2008

• Great Social Networking Resources
• Using Social Networking Well

2009

• Getting Ideas for Great Content
• Reciprocating Content
  

Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

New Rules: Endorsements, Testimonials, and Reviews

Web marketers have been reviewing products, getting their products reviewed, and gathering testimonials for many years, but the rules are changing.  The FTC recently announced new rules that apply to web marketers, bloggers, and social network users as well as more mainstream traditional advertising, like celebrity endorsements.

The basic gist of the new rules are that endorsements, reviews, and such are fine, so long as any benefit arrangements between the endorser and the company are disclosed.  For example, if a star quarterback endorses a sports/energy drink, they have to state in the ad that he's getting paid for saying so.  If a blogger reviews a product that the company provided him/her for free, he/she has got to say so.

Where before, to not say up front who's being paid for what was simply bad manners in the internet community, now it can actually result in lawsuits and fines.

Here are a few more articles you can read about it: "FTC Sets Endorsement Rules for Blogs", and "Bloggers Covered by Endorsement Rules, Says FTC".

So, how do you do it so as to not get into trouble?  Well, fortunately, the rules are really just saying what you should have been doing all along.  If someone sends you a product for you to review at your blog, and they expect you to keep it, say so.  If someone pays you for an endorsement, or for a review, post that. 

Unfortunately, it's a little unclear how the rules of affiliate links and other ads should be handled, according to the law. Do those fall under the "traditional advertising" stipulations?  Personally, if it were me, I would recommend noting the affiliate links as being such, even though savvy surfers should be able to recognize a link to amazon.com as an affiliate.

A lot also depends, I think, on how you write your product reviews.  If your reviews are little more than thinly-veiled ads for the products, then few people will take them seriously anyway.  On the other hand, if you write your product reviews from a very balanced perspective and ask yourself, "What would my audience need to know about this product to make a good buying decision?" your reviews will come across as very useful and balanced anyway.  If you write to inform about the product, instead of just to praise it, you'll do better. 

"If you like such-and-such, and you're wanting to do this-other-thing, then this product will help you because it does this.  However, if you're not interested in this-other-thing, then you'll probably pass on buying this item."

Writing the disclosure can be done in several ways.  You could simply put a "disclosure statement" at the bottom of your review post:  "This product was provided to the author for free for purposes of this review."  Or: "The author was paid for this endorsement".

You could include the disclosure information directly in the review:  "My first impression of the product was that their packaging was great!  I opened up the box they sent me and saw that..."

Testimonials could be shown the same way, with a notice at the bottom saying, "Uncompensated opinions", or whatever you do.

Another thing that's unclear is how retroactive these new rules will be.  As a blogger, I've got hundreds of posts over years of blogging on 4-5 different blogs.  Those blog posts are still active on the web.  Do I need to go back and make sure that I've carefully attributed all of those posts?  A lot of these questions, it seems, still need to be sorted out.

And while it's also not clear how the FTC is going to go out and police the millions of blog and social network postings that happen daily across the net, they do have two very strong ally groups in the fight to keep you compliant with the rules:  one is your competition, and the other is any disgruntled clients/customers you might have.  It will help to dot your i's and cross your t's from here on out!



Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

A Business Twitter Primer

You might have heard about Twitter lately.  It seems the world has been, if you'll pardon the obvious pun, all a-twitter about it.  But what if you're one of those who's never seen it or never tried it.  How do people know what it is in the first place?

It's kind of difficult to explain Twitter.  If you think of it as primarily a place where you can find and interact with the audience you're trying to build for your website business, it'll be a little easier to understand.  It's one of a number of sites that are referred to as "Social Networking" sites.  These allow you to find and communiciate with your audience.

You'll go to the Twitter site and sign up.  You'll spend a little time checking out some of the people that are already on there, and reading the short messages they're posting.  You'll sort out who's a part of your target audience.  Then you'll start joining in the ongoing conversation that these people are having, drawing them to your website in the process.

On Twitter, people post short messages about things they're doing and things they find on the 'net.  You'll want to read messages from people that are talking about your niche, and you'll want people interested in your niche reading what you have to say.  On Twitter, you read the messages of other people that you've chosen by "following" them.  Other people who read your messages are "following" you. This kind of interactivity is what social networking is all about.

It's much easier to experience it than it is to explain it  Let's jump in, shall we?

• Step 1: Sign up

The first thing to do is simply to go to twitter.com and sign up for a new account.  It only takes a quick minute.  You'll fill in some basic information, and you'll be ready to go.  It will offer you the chance to choose to follow some famous people, and to find some of your current friends to follow.  This can be fun, but I'd recommend that you not do that yet, because these people won't necessarily be a part of your web business' audience. 

• Step 2: Find some other twitterers

Do a search for your site's keywords and read the messages (called "tweets") that other people are posting.  You can click on the avatar or icon of the person right next to their post and visit their profile page.  Read their other tweets, and their bios.  Click to their websites.  It doesn't take much to discover what they're interested in.

• Step 3: "Follow" them

If it's clear that the person your looking at is a part of your website business' audience, then you can click the small button toward the top that says "Follow".  This means two things:  One, every time this person posts a tweet, it will appear on your twitter home page and you can read it.  Two, this person will get a notice via email that you're now following them.  Chances are, they'll at least check out your twitter profile page.  They might even check out your website.  It's very likely that this person will follow you back.  That means that whenever you post a message, they'll get it.

• Step 4: Begin "Tweeting"
  

The last step in this beginning primer is to start posting tweets of your own.  You can post about things at your website, like a new product line, or a new article of content.  You can post about a new blog entry at your blog. 

You can also do what I call "resource tweeting".  That means you find a good article or resource on the 'net, and you tweet about it.  Sharing this kind of information builds your own reputation, even if people know the article wasn't one you write.  You're seen as someone who's active in the community, spreading good information and help around.  You should post at least two resource tweets for every time you tweet about your own website.

Then, you keep doing this same process.  Find more people interested in your topic.  Follow them.  Get more information into your own tweets.  Read the tweets of others.  Before long, your follower list is growing, and you're interacting with your community.  You find you're understanding social networking better.  You get more traffic and a better search engine ranking.

And that makes your business grow!


Mark is currently in the curriculum Department of an internet and SEO training company. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

How High School sports prepares you for the workplace

Our society places a lot of emphasis on sports. We gather in huge herds to watch the competitions, and we pay the athletes horrendous amounts of money. And we start in on it very young. The competitive drive is taught alongside academics in our schools.

But it's all good. See, because scholastic sports teaches our kids valuable skills and prepares them for the workplace in very meaningful ways. Here's how:

Baseball

In the outfield, you have to be intensely focused on something that is not only boring, but seemingly irrelevant. If the person in the center messes up, the competition gets a hit, and you have to catch it and fix it. If you don't, the error is assigned to you, not to the pitcher who didn't get the strike in the first place.

Football

In the line, your job is to protect the guy who, moments before, was shouting at you. You do this so he can stay standing long enough to toss his problem off to someone else.

On the bench, you desperately want to be the one out on the field. You want your chance to get out in the game and show your skills. But it's also sobering to notice that the last guy who stuck his neck out, the guy you're replacing, was carried out of the game on a stretcher.

Tennis

In singles, each player in the game hits the problem back and forth, hoping to make the other person mess up while it's on their side. This is important preparation for something called "meetings".

In doubles, it's just like singles, except that if it drops on your side, your "partner" can blame it on you. This prepares you for the "Committee" or the "Project Team".

So, you can see that sports in school are very important. Maybe you can think back on your own high school athletic career. Why not send your old coach and email and thank him for helping you to so effectively climb the corporate ladder.

Anyone got any others?



Mark also has other sites and blogs, including Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Recipes, MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Mark's Other Recent Blog Posts: The Zeezrom Syndrome: Book of Mormon Psychology, Dutch Oven Beef Ribs