On your posts that you write about your own guidebooks, it’s a given that you earn money from the sale of them, so disclosure is not required.

On the links to products on Amazon, it depends on where the link is and how unclear it might be to the reader whether or not it’s an affiliate link. Is it a text link in the content of a page or post? Then yes you should disclose that it earns you some revenue. If it’s on a page that is clearly labeled as your “Store” from which you encourage people to “purchase” using clear wording to that effect, then it’s clear to the reader that you will earn some revenue.

The idea is that it should be clear to the reader that when they click on a link, you are being compensated.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is indeed simply a US Government body with no jurisdiction over companies or individuals outside of the US, so legally you are not required to disclose anything.

What the new guidelines WILL do though, is ‘train’ readers to be aware of, and watch out for, such disclosure. Thus, it’s my personal opinion that voluntary disclosure can’t hurt, because it will let your readers know that you are not trying to do anything deceptive, and while we both know that promoting things on Amazon via an affiliate link is certainly NOT wrong, the perception by readers may vary.

My gut tells me that the FTC is really aiming this new requirement squarely at the many websites that are selling ‘get-rich-on-the-internet’ schemes using unverifiable claims, fake testimonials, and paid endorsements, and will in all likelihood leave the average bloggers alone. But better safe than sorry!

This is a USA thing from the looks of it. How does it effect people not from the USA but still sell items to Americans?

E.G. I’m a Brit, living in Oz and sell stuff from Amazon.com? Do I HAVE to disclose it or is it at my discretion? I’m not affiliated with the country but I am with it’s consumers and producers.

Not that anyone buys anything through my Amazon links anyway haha