I think most of us fall into the same boat where we don’t really know all the laws in every detail around advertising online. Most of us are just ignorant and just go by what we see elsewhere to determine whether our pages fall within the guidelines of the FTC. Today was the first time I’ve actually had an issue with one of my landing pages and using the word “Free”. I did what most people do, the FREE and then * (FREE*) and then in light text at the bottom of the page put the disclaimer. Well the HRS Dept. in the State of California called the company I was advertising and of course I was pulled off the offer pending changes to my landing page. Here’s what I found out. The FTC says you cannot “qualify” use of the word Free with just an asterisk and disclaimer. The word “Free” has to be qualified with a term that is in the same color and touching the word “Free” and at least 50% of the size of the font used for the word “Free”.

Example of something ok: