I buy books, ebooks, and other printed/online resources based on what I know about the professionalism, depth of knowledge, and reputation of the writer/creator. You have a known great reputation in the careers industry, and that suffices for me. To me, your disclosure is fine just as it is, and for those who want to nit pick, I suggest—get a life! It should be obvious from your disclosure that you are not hiding anything of consequence. I agree with your view –where do you begin and where do you stop.

Cheers,
Kathy

Full Disclosure: I am not an expert on full disclosure.

Furthermore, Adwait may or may not have ever signed up on JibberJobber, but I can’t say because that would breach private information, in my opinion. Having may or may not signed up, he may or may not use it, and he may or may not have upgraded. He may or may not have recommended it to others.

He may or may not have purchased my book, and he may or may not have recommended or endorsed it,

… see my point? I feel like the line between a proper disclosure and an artificial bunch of blabber is confusing.

But I’m certainly not going to not recommend things if I have any relationship with them. That’s silly.

I hate the idea of not recommending “when there is a connection.” Why? Because when I started JibberJobber I approached organizations (religious and government) who “could not recommend” JibberJobber because I had an OPTIONAL upgrade. That’s right, they could only recommend stuff that was totally free.

How did this serve anyone? Maybe the free stuff was good/great, but what about all of the other stuff they could not recommend, because of some lame policy? A complete disservice, imho.

The reason I am tired about disclosures is because you don’t know where to start and where to stop. For example, in my post, I disclosed that I would get a few bucks if someone actually bought the book. I don’t care if you buy the book, but I wanted to share what I recommend (btw, I recommend that in on-site presentations, and don’t get a penny when I do, no credit, no nothing – I recommend it because I like it).

I get little benefit out of my HA relationship when I do this, or recommend HA to potential authors. Just a thanks, but that’s it. That is not compelling for me. If I can genuinely endorse a product then I do. It’s as simple as that.

If a reader loses faith or belief in my recommendation, sorry about that. Maybe the “your mileage may vary” concept applies… for everything.

I recommend Wordpress, and I know someone who works there, do I have to disclose that?

I recommend Barbara’s book and services, and we’ve met in person, do I have to disclose that?

What about things I don’t recommend? Blogger sucks – do I have to disclose all of the experiences I have, or ties? I use Gmail, Google Alerts, and even advertise on Google – do I have to disclose all of that??

Where to stop and where to start on the disclosures is silly stupid, and the whole idea of a blogger having to disclose too much or too little is just a tired discussion.

You either trust me or you don’t. And if I recommend something that doesn’t work for you, then you might trust me less next time. That is my fault. But if it’s something I can heartily or sincerely endorse, I’m going to recommend it.

Maybe what I need to do is create a “full disclosure” page that has some kind of legal mumbo jumbo that covers every possible aspect of the disclosure discussion… but guess what? Even that won’t be enough.

So I guess it all comes down to trust. And it’s my responsibility to keep the trust.

If you’re tired of disclosures, perhaps you shouldn’t be recommending (when there is a connection).

Disclosure is not about you making money from any source … it’s only from a derived benefit such as your recommending “Happy About” books when you have a relationship with it or the fact that Barbara is a JJ partner (even though she did not ask you to write the post).

Otherwise, the reader is not going to have faith or belief in your recommendation and will always wonder what the ulterior motives are.

Look forward to your other post about the disclosures

- Adwait

Here is another part of the disclosure that I didn’t fit into the post (because I wanted it to read like a blog post, not a legal letter): Barbara is a JibberJobber partner.

However, she didn’t ask me to write this post, didn’t know I was going to write it, etc.

One of the things I dislike about this notion of “full disclosure” is where does it stop? Are there other things I should disclose, like the exact amount of money I get from each sale (which is pretty inconsequential – not enough enough to get a cheap breakfast at Denny’s)? Or when I get paid?

This is a topic for another blog (maybe JasonAlba.com/blog)… it does drive me nuts, but I think with this I’m fully disclosed. Unless there is something I’m missing :p

It’s relevant coz if there is any association between the author, publisher and you, it should be disclosed. Full disclosure is the best policy (even if it’s not seemingly relevant) and let the reader make up her/his own mind.