Interview With Clickbooth CEO About Their New Guidelines

As many of you have probably started to hear, the FTC is really trying to crack down on affiliates.

They have gone as far as to say they are trying to make people liable for even things they say on facebook. The list of changes which you can read a bit more in depth about at many sites including here say something to the effect of:

As part of its review of its advertising guidelines, the FTC is proposing that word-of-mouth marketers and bloggers, as well as people on social-media sites such as Facebook, be held liable for any false statements they make about a product they’re promoting, along with the product’s marketer. This could present a significant issue for marketers, including the likes of Microsoft, Ford and Pepsi, who spend billions on word-of-mouth and social media. PQ Media projects that marketers will spend $3.7 billion on word-of-mouth marketing in 2011.

Along with the changes in the FTC, Clickbooth has also updated a few of their own policies.

These policy changes literally changed the affiliate marketing world as we know it and as such created quite a bit of an uproar among some of the affiliates.

That being said, Eric From Clickbooth helped me out (a lot!) get an interview with the CEO of Clickbooth about all these changes. So, Thanks Eric! (PS > Make sure to check out the Clickbooth Comeptition)

Without Further Ado:

Why did Clickbooth feel the need to create these guidelines?

Our publishers are our biggest asset so we wanted to do as much as we could to ensure they were protected. There are a lot of guys out there doing things the right way and we wanted to make sure that they weren’t lumped in with those marketing the wrong way. Being in our unique position, at the forefront of an exponentially expanding industry such as affiliate marketing, means we are the ones that need to be thinking about the future, and for our own publishers best interest we see self-regulation as the preferred choice for protecting the integrity of the industry long term. These guidelines allow us to draw a line in the sand between acceptable marketing methods and deceptive marketing methods, and as a result, we can ensure the success of all of our partners by giving them a voice in the process of self regulation.

You mention giving your partners a voice in the process, what did you do to include your partners in the process of creating these guidelines?

Our director of Compliance, Ziare Brown spent the last 3 months interviewing hundreds of publishers, consumers, and advertisers in order to first understand things from an affiliate marketing perspective. Then, he used that information to audit the opinions of various legal counsel which led to more research consulting case attorneys and regulatory bodies. We wanted to do this because we understand most affiliate marketers don’t have the time and energy to do this type of research on their own.

Who are these guidelines designed to protect?

These guidelines, at their core, are designed to protect the consumer. It’s enlightened self protection – by protecting the consumer the publisher and advertiser are protected as well. Most importantly it protects the image of the affiliate marketing industry we have all worked so hard to create. Actions like these help solidify the long term success of our industry.

What response have you seen so far from affiliates?

We have seen a lot of positive feedback from publishers. The biggest guys out there have been looking for a set of guidelines to follow to ensure they are protected and we’ve provided that. They’ve made any necessary changes and are still seeing the same great results, while knowing they don’t have to worry about anyone knocking on their doors. All of our AMs are working closely with their publishers to explain each of the guidelines and make sure they are as protected as possible.

From advertisers?

Our advertisers are very supportive as well. They’ve seen an increase in order volume and in customer satisfaction. Also, as a result, backend conversions have been much higher because of a better informed consumer. We are estimating that, in time, this will increase user value to an advertiser, thus allowing them to pay a higher CPA to affiliates, so in the end everyone wins.

From other networks?

Most networks were relieved to see that somebody stepped up and put some guidelines in place, especially the ones that we do a significant amount of business with. However, we have noticed a small group of networks making changes to their terms and not notifying their publishers – these networks are protecting only themselves and not their publishers.

So if I am an affiliate and want to make sure I am compliant, what’s my next step?

You can check out our guidelines. We’ve created templates explaining the basic “Do’s and Don’ts” and have an audio webinar with some of our top AMs and our Sr. Director of Compliance, Ziare Brown. Our AMs are available 24/7 and are willing to work with any publisher (current CB pub or not) to walk them through the guidelines.

Thanks again to both Eric and Clickbooth’s entire staff! You guys rock! Now that you’re armed with all that information… You know what to do.