Marketing on a Shoestring

I fought the law and the law won may be a good song title but, when it comes to internet marketing, the law is one land-mine that you don’t want to step on. Not knowing the law has never been accepted in court as a reasonable defense. One small mistake in internet marketing could result in something as simple as having your site shut down to having to pay thousands of dollars in fines. Just to protect myself here-no part of this article should be construed to be legal advice. If in doubt, you should seek legal counsel.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has a ton of regulations on how you may conduct business, advertise, use email and more. If you run afoul of the FTC, you could end up in serious trouble. How you write your Terms of Service (TOS), your Privacy Policy and any advertising that you do may bring you under the scrutiny of the FTC.

Even if you don’t break any regulations, some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are so gun shy of the FTC that they may shut down your web site because of a single spam complaint-even if you have proof that the reader who complained was a valid opt-in subscriber. You will probably get your site back but in the mean time, you may lose several weeks or months of income.

Certainly, you should review internet and advertising regulations at the FTC web site: www.ftc.gov. Another thing that you might do is check for internet law Ebooks. There are a number of them available on Click Bank and not only might they help protect you, it might also be a product that you might wish to promote.

Of course, the best advice is always consult a lawyer and I highly advise that. However, while the big cities will have lawyers familiar with the internet rules and regulations, small towns may be more problematic.

Even if you are not guilty, the FTC and your ISP may put you out of business for an extended period and I don’t know about you but, I can’t afford that. Remember the old cliche-better to be safe than sorry.