New FTC Regulations
The FTC (The United States Federal Trade Commission) is implementing new regulations starting December 1, 2009.
These regulations have to do with anyone that has testimonials on their websites.
Yes, I hear the collective “Whew!” from anyone into buying and selling used cars but this isn’t about you.
The FTC states in typically vague lawyer-speak about how all testimonials on websites must show what they are calling “typical results.”
I say “vague” because wouldn’t it be nice if lawyers weren’t in charge of writing laws?
“Lawyers not write laws?! But that is what they do!”
Yes I know lawyers write laws and are somehow able to tell us mere mortals what those laws mean, but wouldn’t it be great if those laws were handed to “normal” people to re-write into normal easy to understand layman terms BEFORE they became frikkin laws? You know, where we could read and actually understand what the hell was being said…so we didn’t need a lawyer to decipher them for us?!
Yes, that would be nice but it ain’t going to happen.
Anyway, back to the testimonials from my readers and “typical results”…
Well, regarding “typical” – I know that Nick Roys Testimonial where he made a $30,600.00 PROFIT on several exotic cars has nothing to do with being a “typical result.”
Yeah, profits of $30,600.00 from selling a few cars is NOT typical and I clearly stated that from the first day I put that on my home page…
But how the heck can I possibly prove that Hector from Chicago who made over $3000.00 in profits on two car deals isn’t typical?
Or Mark from Maryland who averages about $500.00 to $700.00 in profits isn’t typical?
I can’t prove their results are “typical” – and that is why all the testimonials on my site that specifically mention dollars and cents profit will be pulled down or at least heavily edited in the next couple days.
Even though I have proof of the testimonials I received from happy readers, its a shame I have to remove those since profits made are what I look for when I read a testimonial, but that is the way it is and little ol me doesn’t want to risk getting on the bad side of the FTC.
If you want to read the testimonials on my home page or my testimonials page then go ahead and check em out now before I remove them.
If you want to send me a nice testimonial telling me how awesome ‘The Lazy Way‘ was in how it helped you get started in buying and selling used cars (without mentioning specific money made), then it would be greatly appreciated if you would please email me your testimonial. 
Thanks for reading this.
Steve
P.S. I hope you all in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
P.P.S. My new updated version of The Lazy Way To Buy And Sell Cars For Profit is almost done and I will be notifying all my readers when its ready so you can download it for free. Thanks for your patience.
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November 28th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Unless the person writting the testimonial has left their name and phone so we can contact them, the testimonial has no value.
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admin reply on November 30th, 2009 12:15 pm:
I have one reader that on his own left a testimonial with his address and phone number but most people aren’t willing to divulge that information so I have never bothered to ask them for it.
Steve
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November 29th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Hi Steve, you have a point here; I haven’t read anything about this law until I saw this article you sent me. Maybe we should have a law written that states all laws should be written in laymen terms. Let the Lawyers try to interpret how to write for that word (laymen). Anyway, would it not be safe to say that out of all the testimonies you receive that there is possibly some sort of average result that may be considered typical? I was just pondering the idea in hopes of helping in some sort of way. I know that when folks get excited about a big win they want to tell the world, but if their day is just average they tend to not write about it because they feel “who wants to hear about that”; and really that is somewhat true. Good luck with this dumb law thing.
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admin reply on November 30th, 2009 12:21 pm:
I don’t think I could realistically satisfy the FTC by finding out what everyone’s “typical results” are so I’m going to opt for doing some heavy editing instead. The same thing will apply to weight loss sites where people say they lost 300 pounds or whatever from following that program, etc. These regs only effect U.S. hosted websites which means that any website hosted outside the U.S. will still be able to have testimonials on their sites.
Thanks for your comment LJ.
Steve
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November 29th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
These laws are kind of a rip off considering any site from outside the USA will still be allowed to have as many testimonials on their sites as they want.
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December 10th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
UPDATE:
Well, instead of pulling off the testimonials of success stories I’ve received from my readers of The Lazy Way, I opted to put a very specific disclaimer at the bottom of my home page and on my testimonial page which basically says that “these results aren’t typical” and I have no way to know what results are “typical” because everyone is so different. You know, some people are happy to make a $2000.00 on average per car and others are happy to make $200.00.
Steve
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