Tim's Wee Part of the World » New Website to checkout http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog Come along and join in. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:20:01 +0000 en hourly 1 New FTC laws in force from Dec 1 2009 http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/new-ftc-laws-in-force-from-dec-1-2009 http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/new-ftc-laws-in-force-from-dec-1-2009#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:39:24 +0000 Tim Brownlaw http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/?p=296

New FTC laws will be in force from Dec 1st 2009. Now I am not a legal eagle so this is my own personal summary of what I understand these new laws to be.

They are regarding the requirement to disclose any financial gain that will be made by any person making a product or service review/endorsement. In our case, on a website platform. Again, that’s my gist of the situation and I hope it’s close to the mark.

Is it Fair?

I think so…

For one thing, it gives the “would be purchaser” something to ponder before splashing their cash on something based upon someones recommendation. ie If this person is going to make a commission from this review, is it the truth or are they just wanting to make a quick buck?

Personally, I only review things I would and do use myself. It’s only those things that are worthy of the words I spend time writing about it. I do know there are those who will write anything to make a quick buck. Well I’ve got my name and contact details out in front here, so if I’m giving glowing reviews on anything that is going to end up with someone making a purchase and being pissed off… then I aint going to be very popular. And I don’t like pissing anyone off. It’s just bad business. I’ve also been at the other end, having had both good and bad experiences.

So again, these new laws will help increase the protection of the buyer, by having any reviewer give a really honest review, dirt and all, so the potential buyer can make an informed purchase.

Well that’s the idea anyway, as to whether some dishonest people find a way to work this to their favor, only time will tell.

As long as the FTC doesn’t go too crazy and start turning peoples worlds upside down unfairly…. The word’s still getting out guys and we’re doing our best!

Who does this affect?

Anyone that has a website, blog etc that talks about other peoples stuff and has an affiliate link. So if you have an affiliate link, you stand to make a commission and you need to have this stated on your website to that effect. That’s in my own simple terms… Remember I’m not able to give legal advice and this is just my own opinion.

What can you do to implement this?

I did find this website…http://disclosurepolicy.org ( I will not make any financial gain if you click on that link and use the service! After all its FREE! )

While it’s probably a good start and better than nothing, I can’t say for sure that this will “please” the FTC but hey, we are trying!

Now how do I put this on a WordPress Site.

This is something I’m a little more qualified to talk about. But I must state that there will be other, maybe better, ways to do this. ( I love disclaimers too).

So I’ve already gone to http://disclosurepolicy.org and checked the boxes and answered the questions and generated the resulting disclosure statements…Now I have to  put it somewhere! Well that’s what you are wanting to know.. where do you put it?

I created a New Page, ( not a post ) but a New Page. Called it disclaimer – all lower case – and saved the generated text in it…

Beware of having Your Email Addresses on Your Websites!

One thing and this is a major peeve I have with Email Addresses on anything out there that can be scanned by the “aholes that use our emails addresses for evil“. Never Ever have your email address written in it’s natural form. Now at the site http://disclosurepolicy.org, you will be asked to enter your address to add into the disclosure statement. This is solely up to you, but personally, I put mine in BUT I altered it a wee bit…

Never put your HTML Email Address on Your Site

Here’s what you DONT DO – Never Write your email address in it’s Pure HTML Form.

For Example ( and I hope this is a really bogus email address… ) thorax1099@theweebitinthemiddleofinsects1099.com

That’s a No No! You could use thorax1099 ‘AT’ theweebitinthemiddleofinsects1099 ‘DOT’ com with a note ( replace the words in ” with their symbols ). For one thing, this kind of email address has to be typed in… If it’s read ( scanned ) the “aholes that use our emails addresses for evil” software has to do some work… I’m not saying that their software does or doesn’t but it if it hinders them, I’m all for it…

There is way number 2 which looks more appealing. In the actual HTML – you can replace the ‘@’ with the characters ;#064 so you’d write thorax1099;#064theweebitinthemiddleofinsects1099.com

There are also javascript type solutions, but if your visitor has javascript disabled, well it’s not going to show up correctly at all!

I’ll just step off my High Horse on email addresses…..

Next…

Ok, so we have our disclosure statement, we’ve put it in a new page called disclosure ( you can call it what you like but I’m guessing it’s more search engine friendly ) and what about Where will this page live… Well I made my about me page the “parent” to the disclosure page. For no real reason but to tie it to something… I’m also going to be adding a “privacy” and “terms and conditions” pages as well. So they’ll be hanging off the about me page…. Which means – the “about me” page is the Parent. You’ll see this in your WordPress Admin area when you create this new disclosure page.

I Want it in the Footer!

Well it’s where all this kind of stuff should live! Isn’t it? Now this involves a bit of “tinkering” with your worpdress files. While not for the feint hearted, hopefully I’ll explain this well enough that you won’t be too scared to attempt this if you are a bit hesitant to start altering things… Hey, this was made for changing…So let’s change it…

Now this depends upon the theme you are using ( I’ll write more on the details later, I’m thinking a video is required… Have you joined my news letter yet? ) Most Themes have a footer.php file. You can access this in your WordPress Admin section and if you go to…

Appearance -> Edit  and select the footer.php file. ( yep this needs some pictures at least <insert images here…> ) and I added in this line…

Now my Footer looks like this….

<div id="footer">
<?php wp_footer();?>
</div><!-- footer -->
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<div><p>Copyright &copy; 2009 <a href="<?php bloginfo("url"); ?>"><?php bloginfo("title");?> </a>| Powered by <a href="http://www.wordpress.org">Wordpress</a> | Designed by <a href="http://www.bingowebdesign.info">Bingo</a> - The Web Design Experts</p>
</div>

and I added in this line…

<br /><a href="<?php $page = get_page_by_path('/about/disclosure');echo $page->URL?>" title="disclosure">Disclosure</a>

For some reason the above wasn’t working….So to keep it simple (KISS)

<br /><a href="/blog/about/disclosure" title="disclosure">Disclosure</a>

Which I’m showing in the next section in Bold, so you can see where I placed it.

<div id="footer">
<?php wp_footer();?>
</div><!-- footer -->
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
<div><p>Copyright &copy; 2009 <a href="<?php bloginfo("url"); ?>"><?php bloginfo("title");?> </a>| Powered by <a href="http://www.wordpress.org">Wordpress</a> | Designed by <a href="http://www.bingowebdesign.info">Bingo</a> - The Web Design Experts</p>

<br /><a href="/blog/about/disclosure" title="disclosure">Disclosure</a>

<br /><a href="<?php $page = get_page_by_path('/about/disclosure');echo $page->URL?>" title="disclosure">Disclosure</a>
</div>

The WordPress Function get_page_by_path(‘/about/disclosure’) gives us the advantage of not needing to know anything more than where the pages lives. Remembering that I created the disclosure page with the about page being the parent. So there is no need to worry about the websites URL and under what path the blog is located. On this site, wordpress is installed under http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog and I don’t need to worry about that as the function get’s than information internally when wordpress was installed.

I’ve had to put in the path msyelf. Now my wordpress installation hangs of the folder called blog ( yours might be different.) It may even be straight from the public_html folder in which case you will only need “/about/disclosure”.

Try it and see. It’ll get you going.

Just note that the disclosure page will be a menu item under your about page menu item if you have that functionality on your menus. That’s not a bad thing! We had set the about page to be the parent to the disclosure page. You can use the very same methods to add in any other pages you wish… for example a “privacy” and “terms and conditions” page. I would recommend you name the “terms and conditions page” with hyphens between the words – never use spaces ( although WordPress will fix it if you do use spaces ) . So you’ll end up with terms-and-condtions.

If you have any questions or it’s just not clear, please leave a comment!

See the result!

And don’t forget to Check out my Disclosure page – see the link at the end of the page…..

[UPDATE] – Here is something I’ve seen on some sites that sits bold and proud at the end of every page…

Disclosure Note: We are affiliates of the products discussed on this website and we will earn a commission if you proceed to purchase via the links on this website.

All results posted here are ‘not typical’ and does not reflect that you will achieve the same results. This is because we cannot control how you use the information.

All opinions on this website are our own and not influenced by anyone else. The products (mostly) reviewed are complimentary from the merchants.

We hope you’ll enjoy your stay and we look forward to continue to bring you the best and unbiased reviews

[This hasn't been fully proof read yet - it's more important to get the message out there than worry about getting bad marks for Grammer and Spelling..But it will get fixed up...]

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]]> http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/new-ftc-laws-in-force-from-dec-1-2009/feed 3 This is about MyLot.. http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/this-is-about-mylot http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/this-is-about-mylot#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:08:44 +0000 Tim Brownlaw http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/?p=251

No this isn’t going to be some ranting about everything I’m doing and everything that makes me what I am….

A New Social Network Adventure

Nope, MyLot is a new discovery of mine – prompted by my good friend Lou Roggio. It’s rather interesting, in fact it could very addictive and for a lot of Good Reasons.

I think Community is a more appropriate term for MyLot

You can open Discussions, you can start up your own little blogs, you can ask for help on getting articles done etc (you have to pay of course). But it’s number one feature as I see it is it’s ability to expose you to a whole new world. I say a Whole New World as you are going to read and participate in a very broad range of topics.

It’s much much better than FaceBook and MySpace.

It’s a very well laid out, easy to use system and in my opinion it’s going to outshine the likes of Facebook and MySpace.

It’s quite “busy” as there are a lot of things you do – useful things. Umm there is NO Farmville and all thoes games that have polluted facebook. I do hope MyLot does not go down the same path.

So join and open up a discussion on your Niche!

It’s as simple as joining up and starting a discussion on your Niche. What better way to start building interest in your Business.

Make sure it’s a fair discussion.

Those that haunt MyLot are either going to love you if you play fair or if you choose the path of being pushy with your business you’ll be promptly dispatched. There’s no other way to say it.

It’s just a fun place.

I’ve been in there for about 10 minutes and I’ve learnt alot, about stuff I’d never get to read anywhere else. It’s very interesting just to see what people are finding popular topics. Could be an idea for a Niche waiting for you in there. I know I’m scouring.

If you are into Being A Social Spectator

This is definitely the place for you.

Now I am looking to build a group in this..

And I would really love for you to be a part of it. For one it’ll give us a presence on there and let us have discussions on various matters. There are a number of folk looking for Biz Ops on there. Plus it’ll give you a great place to research and have fun at the same time.

How to join?

Simple – go to MyLot (clicking on my link ) and sign up and start experiencing MyLot.

Now that is My lot on MyLot for now! Promise…

PS- I have to change this font and color scheme on this website – YUK :)

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]]> http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/this-is-about-mylot/feed 2 Not to forget this website. http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/not-to-forget-this-website http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/not-to-forget-this-website#comments Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:17:28 +0000 Tim Brownlaw http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/?p=145

It’s funny how things come up. You’ll get sick of me writing that repeatidly on this site, but it’s true!

Now I’ve got a mate that is totally in love with his Iphone. It’s so bad in fact thatwe started calling him an Iwanker.

Hmm IWankers.com was a suggested website name. Somewhere where he can go crazy about his Iphone stuff ( when he gets time. ) Just visited the site. Add to my ToDO list… Fix his Template as well.

Gee it never ends :)

[Update] My Son Matt just got a new Ipod Touch for his Birthday. Now these things are just like an Iphone without the Phone part. I certainly love the interface on these things. But now, it seems he’s become an iWanker

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]]> http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/not-to-forget-this-website/feed 0 Todo – Relayout this site. http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/todo-relayout-this-site http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/todo-relayout-this-site#comments Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:08:49 +0000 Tim Brownlaw http://www.timbrownlaw.com/blog/?p=142

Ok, this templates Layout is stressing me out somewhat.

So the TODO is to have a play with this templates CSS. It’s something I know how to do as I’m doing it on everyone elses at the moment.

Just completed this and handed it over to my mate so he can go crazy with his newly found place on the internet.

He’s a songwriter, specializing in the music writing and he’s looking for help with the word writing bit. I’d help out but I’m not sure he’d like my crazy lyrics.

Check him out – http://www.StevieBarnes.com

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