Disclosure

As of December 1, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says, as a blogger, I need to disclose any connection to advertisers. For example, the other day I went to the store and stole a Nestea. I then came home and blogged about how much I liked Nestea without mentioning the store had basically “given” it to me. The new rules would require me to mention the Nestea was stolen given to me by Centra and The Coca-Cola Company.

Additionally, I’m no longer able to embellish about the results of a product that may “differ from what is typical”. Like the blog I wrote about my Nike Air Jordan’s. According to the FTC, you shouldn’t expect to suddenly be able to dunk from the foul line – like I did. Especially if you’re 5′8″.

In November, 2009 I was offered a two-figure advertising deal with Crest’s parent company: Proctor & Gamble. They wanted me to tweet, twice a week, about how whiter my teeth had become and how much brighter my smile is after using Crest Whitestrips. I told them it was “Shady, yo”. They thought I meant my name was Shady, like Eminem (Slim-Shady). With all the confusion I never got around to actually saying “No”. So, you may occasionally see my Twitter status as “If I had a 141 characters I could tell you how awesome Crest Whitestrips are”.

Lastly, I should disclose that I use GoDaddy.com as my web host. And, as part of that arrangement, instead of paying $6.99 a month for normal Linux hosting I pay $20 for the Danica Patrick package. It’s basically the same as the $6.99 package except I get to see naked photos of Danica Patrick when I log-in.