I was reading Carol Roth’s e-mail newsletter last week. Carol Roth is the author of The Entrepreneur Equation, a book that I went absolutely bananas over after reading it in April 2011. I still like it and I like her.  She is someone I whose advice I trust and I admire her personally for her accomplishments.  I got down to the very bottom of her newsletter and there was a curious little note at the bottom: 

*Denotes Affiliate Links. 

I have never noticed this before anywhere.  This struck me as a little curious, so I investigated.  Here’s what I have discovered. 

On December 1, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission published their final guidelines for endorsements and testimonials.  The changes affect “Testimonial Advertisers, Bloggers and Celebrity Endorsements.”    I can see the need to regulate celebrity endorsements. After all, celebrities are a very influential voice for some people…not necessarily me, but some people.  This also means that, since I am an affiliate for Amazon.com, Nightingale-Conant, YourSuccessStore.com, JimRohn.com and Success Magazine.  I have to disclose that if you click on a picture of a book or audio program on this site and you buy something, I make money.  Make money?  I forgot to make money!

It’s amazing how a little government regulation can help guide me to the secondary purpose of my blogging.  On this site there are not as many affiliate links, even though this post has got a bunch of them.  I intend for this blog to be more of a personal blog where I might talk about what it was like moving form one “place” in my life to another.  The Learn More to Earn More Blog (which I also own) is chock full of affiliate links.  The picture at the top of the site is a series of three pictures of one my personal bookshelves I connected through Photoshop.  I do not recieve any compensation from these authors.  I personally own everything I write about and I don’t write about it until I own it and have read it.   I also like to exchange emails with some of the authors later, especially if I really like their work.  That’s just how I roll!

 As I learn more about online marketing and apply it, over time I will be working to make a lot of money from this site by selling the products I have already bought, tested out and applied the knowledge to my life.  I do not receive any money from any of the authors, although Steve Farber did send me a copy of The Radical Leap Re-Energized pro bono as a pre-publish gift (I was going to buy it anyway).  I write about the books, audio programs and Success Media because it is information that I have used to create positive change in my life.  I also subscribe to Success Magazine and have bought items from Success Media that I have benefitted from.

 For more information, the link to my Disclosure Statement is available on the Homepage of this site.