"Your son's website business and abilities seem to be just about what I need, and I very well might be taking him up on his services sometime soon.My son’s website is called MidnightDonkey and he has some testimonials from happy customers featured in the right column of his home page.
Just wondering, though, doesn't he need to be concerned about the FCC ruling I'm hearing so much about online? And if not, why not?"
Should he be concerned about the FTC guidelines, which come into effect tomorrow, December 1st?
I don’t think so.
From what I understand so far, the FTC is not worried about testimonials of this kind.
What they will be targeting is testimonials like any of the following:
“I lost 30lbs in 30 days!”When they are being half-way honest, companies typically take the very best results their products or services have achieved, and highlight that best result in a testimonial. What the FTC guideline requires is that these companies also declare the typical result achieved. It is no longer enough just to say that “results may vary” or something like that.
“I made a million dollars in 30 days!”
“I beat cancer in my sleep!”
This guideline, which is a good one in so far as it will hopefully cut back on some of the more outrageous and misleading claims in advertising, is currently causing many marketers some headaches.
For instance, I sell some products of my own. I can no longer use a testimonial which talks about how someone took my course and then started making a six-figure income within six months – unless I also declare what the TYPICAL results are. The trouble is, I have no way of measuring or knowing what the typical results are. I just don’t have access to those figures. All I know is what people choose to tell me.
My situation is shared by thousands of legitimate marketers, both online and offline.
Anyway, returning to the original question – I don’t think testimonials that simply praise the quality of someone’s services are going to be a concern for the FTC.
And certainly in the short-term, the FTC will be using its resources to target the big fish who are genuinely and deliberately misleading their readers.




