I can see the perspective of the questioner, identified as “Freelance Friend Finder”, in their ability to locate work being somewhat limited. There is [...]]]> I was reviewing article titles on my Google Reader a few minutes ago when my attention was caught by a Forbes post from Susannah Breslin: Dear Pink Slipped: Can Freelancers Be Friends?

I can see the perspective of the questioner, identified as “Freelance Friend Finder”, in their ability to locate work being somewhat limited. There is no question for me that there is a drastic difference in how many freelance writers are in the marketplace, to how many jobs that marketplace has for them to compete for. And this was an observation by a freelancer out of New York city. I would have thought New York would have enough work to go around and then some, but apparently even the city that never sleeps has its problems with the economy.

Anyway, in her article, I had been prepared for Breslin to be starting out on a humorous note when she immediately said no, freelancers can not be friends. I expected that to be followed by a bit of fluffy fun before she turned serious and answered the question. The trouble is, she was serious, from the first unequivocal “No”.

I must admit that I felt a little ‘ow!’ at her comment about twenty-something writer’s having nowhere to go but their parent’s basement. I was once a twenty-something writer… and I have lived (or rather had my bedroom and office) in my parent’s basement. Was that because I could not make it as a freelance writer? No, I was actually starting to find my footing and by the time I was living in my parent’s basement I was making a full-time income off of my writing. I lived with my parents because I was their caregiver. That is all beside the point, though, the point is – can freelancers be friends?

Yes. I have friends that are freelancers. My best friends are other writers. We’re all women, and we all share mostly the same interests. Granted, my best friends all live over a thousand miles away, but that is because I am a hermit that lives in Alaska and they all live in the lower 48.

I think the evidence that freelancers can be friends lies in the popularity of things such as Writer’s Market and the many websites that offer information for how to find writing markets and resources.

Perhaps the perspective that freelancers can not be friends stems from a competitive market, but friends can compete. I would be delighted if my friend was able to make some money to pay her bills, even if it meant I had lost out on a job. At least I would know the person who had got the work and that they needed it as much as I did.

I freely share information, including how I come up with ideas, but I probably would not tell anyone but my best friends the exact particulars of “I found a great source of information on this topic here, so I am going to write an article about it focusing on this aspect of it, and hitting these target talking points, because that magazine is prime for such pieces, so I should have a really good chance to be published when I submit it.”

In short, I might tell everyone “That magazine publishes things on these subjects”, but I would think twice before I told everyone my full outline for how and where I will do research for a article covering a specific focus. And what magazine I think is primed for accepting such things. My friends I would talk to about it, mostly because they are my best source for brainstorming on what angles I am missing and how I could better narrow the focus of my proposed idea to best fit the magazine and what they look for.

And if one of my friends decides they want to submit a story as well, that is great. I know they would do their own legwork and we would most likely share everything we collected on the subject. Then we would likely read one another’s work to see how it could be improved and make critique suggestions.  And when the articles are shipped off, it would be no more of a competition than with anyone else that would have sent a competing article in. The only difference is, my friend and I collaborated our skills on making our articles a bit more polished and maybe, just maybe, one of them will stand out above the rest as being what the editor is looking for.

Who will get published? I don’t know, but I’d like to think it would be worthy of a free cup of coffee or tea being bought for the person who lost out while we got together to scheme on our next article attack.  We just need to make sure that we keep improving on our skills, and write to the best of our own individual capabilities, so that we stand out above everyone else when we submit.

On October 5, 2009 the FTC released a press release on the publication of their final guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials, it was this guideline that would [...]]]> In 2009 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began to look more closely at the guidelines that governed advertising, in particular as it applied to blogging and social media.

On October 5, 2009 the FTC released a press release on the publication of their final guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials, it was this guideline that would affect the way bloggers would work with advertisers. From their press release:

FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

“The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.”

For the first time the FTC specifically addressed the concerns of blogging and product endorsement. In particular the FTC looked at posts by bloggers that had received cash or in-kind payment for review of a product to be considered an endorsement and new guidelines that specified that bloggers were to be required to disclose when they had material connections to a seller, product or service.

Their concern was not that bloggers made money through product endorsement, it was in the ethical question of if bloggers were being paid to give a false positive in their endorsement of products. In their revised guidelines, the FTC defined endorsements as being any advertised message that the consumer might believe expressed the opinions of the person who offered the endorsement rather than of the advertiser who sponsored the advertisement.

In the Revised Endorsement Guidelines the FTC offers the following example for when a blog posting is considered an endorsement under their new guidelines:

“A consumer who regularly purchases a particular brand of dog food decides
one day to purchase a new, more expensive brand made by the same manufacturer. She
writes in her personal blog that the change in diet has made her dog’s fur noticeably softer
and shinier, and that in her opinion, the new food definitely is worth the extra money. This
posting would not be deemed an endorsement under the Guides.

Assume that rather than purchase the dog food with her own money, the consumer gets it
for free because the store routinely tracks her purchases and its computer has generated a
coupon for a free trial bag of this new brand. Again, her posting would not be deemed an
endorsement under the Guides.

Assume now that the consumer joins a network marketing program under which she
periodically receives various products about which she can write reviews if she wants to do
so. If she receives a free bag of the new dog food through this program, her positive
review would be considered an endorsement under the Guides.”

In section 225.1 General Considerations the FTC states that any endorsements “must reflect the honest opinions, findings, belief or experience of the endorser.” They also specify the liability of unsubstantiated claims made by a person who is being paid to write about a product. Under item c of that section they clarify how this pertains to blogging:

255.1 (c)

Example 5: A skin care products advertiser participates in a blog advertising service. The
service matches up advertisers with bloggers who will promote the advertiser’s products on
their personal blogs. The advertiser requests that a blogger try a new body lotion and write
a review of the product on her blog. Although the advertiser does not make any specific
claims about the lotion’s ability to cure skin conditions and the blogger does not ask the
advertiser whether there is substantiation for the claim, in her review the blogger writes
that the lotion cures eczema and recommends the product to her blog readers who suffer
from this condition. The advertiser is subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated
representations made through the blogger’s endorsement. The blogger also is subject to
liability for misleading or unsubstantiated representations made in the course of her
endorsement. The blogger is also liable if she fails to disclose clearly and conspicuously
that she is being paid for her services. [See § 255.5.]

In order to limit its potential liability, the advertiser should ensure that the advertising
service provides guidance and training to its bloggers concerning the need to ensure that
statements they make are truthful and substantiated. The advertiser should also monitor
bloggers who are being paid to promote its products and take steps necessary to halt the
continued publication of deceptive representations when they are discovered.

The FTC addresses the need for disclosure of material connections between an endorser and an advertiser in section 255.5 Disclosure of material connections and paragraph 2 of Example 3 defines it in terms of social networking sites using the example of a tennis player that discusses laser surgery that was received at a specific clinic she has been paid to endorse:

Assume that instead of speaking about the clinic in a television interview, the tennis player
touts the results of her surgery – mentioning the clinic by name – on a social networking
site that allows her fans to read in real time what is happening in her life. Given the nature
of the medium in which her endorsement is disseminated, consumers might not realize that
she is a paid endorser. Because that information might affect the weight consumers give to
her endorsement, her relationship with the clinic should be disclosed.

A bit farther down in Example 7 they define what is expected in product endorsement disclosure in a blog post:

Example 7: A college student who has earned a reputation as a video game expert
maintains a personal weblog or “blog” where he posts entries about his gaming
experiences. Readers of his blog frequently seek his opinions about video game hardware
and software. As it has done in the past, the manufacturer of a newly released video game
system sends the student a free copy of the system and asks him to write about it on his
blog. He tests the new gaming system and writes a favorable review. Because his review is
disseminated via a form of consumer-generated media in which his relationship to the
advertiser is not inherently obvious, readers are unlikely to know that he has received the
video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product, and given the
value of the video game system, this fact likely would materially affect the credibility they
attach to his endorsement. Accordingly, the blogger should clearly and conspicuously
disclose that he received the gaming system free of charge. The manufacturer should
advise him at the time it provides the gaming system that this connection should be
disclosed, and it should have procedures in place to try to monitor his postings for
compliance.

And of interest to anyone in social networking is Example 8 which addresses disclosure in forums:

Example 8: An online message board designated for discussions of new music download
technology is frequented by MP3 player enthusiasts. They exchange information about
new products, utilities, and the functionality of numerous playback devices. Unbeknownst
to the message board community, an employee of a leading playback device manufacturer
has been posting messages on the discussion board promoting the manufacturer’s product.
Knowledge of this poster’s employment likely would affect the weight or credibility of her
endorsement. Therefore, the poster should clearly and conspicuously disclose her
relationship to the manufacturer to members and readers of the message board.

In reading through the guidelines it is clear that the FTC finds nothing unethical in a blogger, or someone participating in social networking, being paid or given in-kind payment for their opinion on a product or service, they simply require that the average reader of such information be able to identify when someone is being compensated by a company to write about their product or service. Their ethical stand is simply that they require any such endorsement of a product or service to be an honest representation of the product or service based on the personal experience of the person who writes the blog entry, with equal responsibility being on both the advertiser and the endorser to assure that all statements and claims made are true and able to be substantiated.

The FTC is also very clear in their caution that the guides do not cover every possible instance of endorsement, and that any instance of endorsement would need to be weighed on the actual circumstances of the advertisement.

The best advice I could offer to anyone that is looking to incorporate advertising into their blog or social networking would be to pause, take a good look at your blog, and ask yourself – “If this blog belonged to someone else, and I was a new reader, would I be able to easily identify endorsements where the blogger was paid in some way to write about something?” Another question that you should, in my opinion, ask yourself is “Would I have recommended that without having been paid in some way for the recommendation?” If not, you need to make doubly certain that the average reader can identify that you are being paid in some manner for making endorsements on your blog. You do not have to disclose how much you were paid, although it is usually appropriate to indicate if you received the product for review, you simply need to be sure that your reader can identify endorsements where you were paid in some way by the advertiser to recommend their product or service.

So, that is the FTC’s perspective on the ethics of blog advertising, now I want to hear what you have to say. What do you think? Is it unethical to publish advertising on a blog? Why or why not?

My mom [...]]]> So, midlife crisis strikes and most people will go out and buy a sports car, or quit their job, or maybe get divorced. Me? I’m three days shy of the big four-oh and have come to the determination that I have to stop letting external influences sidetrack my dreams of being an author.

My mom never faltered in her belief that I would be a published author. She believed strongly in my writing, encouraged me to follow my dreams. There were more than a few months over the past six years when the only way that we got from month to month was by the margin I added to the month’s income from my writing work. And this came to be enough for me. My mom felt that I had made it as a writer when my writing earned enough money to pay the bills.

Still, I wanted to be a published novelist and she encouraged me to reach for that star.

After she passed away, in late 2008, I let my dreams slowly get snuffed out under the pressure of others and other needs. I worked at writing, kept working to pay the bills, but the dream to be a published novelist was a lost dream for well over a year now.

I am no longer going to be afraid to pursue my dream, my mother’s dream. I am going back to the How to Think Sideways course that I was a part of when my mom passed away. The course that she encouraged me to take, and take it over from the beginning. As I work my way through that course I will use this website to track my progress and share my thoughts on writing.

I would like to offer the most heartfelt of thank yous to Holly Lisle, the course creator, for creating the course and for giving me a chance to return to it all these months later to work my way back through it and move toward my and my mother’s dream of me being a published writer.