FTC Disclosure for paid writers to my blog/freelance writers

[Captain_Picard]

Does anyone know what the requirements are for disclosure for hiring freelance writers to write articles for your blog and you paying them?

FTC disclosures are required if a product manufacturer is paying someone to blog about their product in a positive light. If I own a website with freelance writers, and I pay money for the writer to write articles for me to review hockey sticks for example, do I have to disclose something like:

"The writer of this article has received monetary payment for this article."

 

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[lludwig]

No. I'm not aware of any such thing.

I mean if they write for your site, no FTC disclosure should be needed.

One should assume if they are on your site they were paid to write the article. People aren't altruistic to write articles for free.

What YOU should be aware of is the common technique of writers adding backlinks to sites in which they get paid for (ie see many Forbes articles). But you the editor/manager of the site are not.

That's not only a FTC no no, but also in the eyes of Google can get your site blacklisted. Paid backlinks MUST be disclosed and use rel="nofollow".

You need setup your own editorial guidelines and rules for your writers and what you accept and what you do not.

 

[Captain_Picard]

No. I'm not aware of any such thing.

I mean if they write for your site, no FTC disclosure should be needed.

One should assume if they are on your site they were paid to write the article. People aren't altruistic to write articles for free.

What YOU should be aware of is the common technique of writers adding backlinks to sites in which they get paid for (ie see many Forbes articles). But you the editor/manager of the site are not.

That's not only a FTC no no, but also in the eyes of Google can get your site blacklisted. Paid backlinks MUST be disclosed or use rel="nofollow".

You need setup your own editorial guidelines and rules for your writers and what you accept and what you do not.

Thanks for this. This is really helpful.

Interesting thing about Forbes. SEO and SERP ranking will be another thing I will have to pay attention to.

Great job on the liquidation event btw.