I had to read the letter a couple of times to make sure I got it.  It seems that I had written an article last year about the interesting and profitable niche of selling coupons on eBay.  (Here is a link to the article).

In the article I showed a list of recent coupon sales on eBay as an example of the types of coupons that sell and what they sold for.  One of them was a coupon for a large bottle of Bertolli Olive Oil that had sold on eBay for just over $12.

Well it turns out that the coupon was fake –a counterfeit.  There are a lot of completely legitimate Bertolli coupons –but none of them were for a free bottle of oil. (Which is too bad as Bertolli is my favorite olive oil).

So Bertolli and the nice folks at Grupo SOS hired this law firm to get everyone who was promoting the sale to cease and desist. In my case they felt that mentioning the value of the coupons on eBay would incent others to try and reproduce and sell more of the counterfeit coupons.

I called the attorney in Houston as instructed in the letter to see what this was all about. Not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised that she was actually a very nice lady whom I enjoyed speaking with. She explained her client’s position and asked me to remove the offending line from the article.  I explained my position, that I was reporting on a fact that had occurred –not promoting others to do that.  In the end I made a counter offer. I said I would remove the offending passage, if Bertolli would send me a free bottle of olive oil to compensate me for the web costs. She said she would pass my request on to Bertolli.

The offending passage is now gone and I am waiting for my bottle of olive oil.

Yes, I could have objected and played hardball. Since I carry advertising liability insurance, a court proceeding wouldn’t have cost me any money. But heck –my time is more important. And the fact that Bertolli’s attorney took the time to be pleasant and reasonable, instead of belligerent, went a long way towards finding a solution. Also, the cost to remove the line from the article was not that great, so why get in a fight over something so minor?

If you blog or write newsletter articles, this points out some of the pitfalls. Even when you are working with the best of intentions, an innocent mistake can cause you problems. As things go this one was pretty minor, but that is not always the case.  A couple of years ago, I inadvertently broke some arcane consumer law in a state where a company I was writing about was located and it cost my insurance company $5000 to settle the case.  So you do want to be careful.

Carry Advertising Liability Insurance

Always check your facts and carry advertising liability insurance.  If you blog for a hobby, you can get this protection as a rider on your homeowners insurance. If you blog for money, like those who read my book, How to Make Money Blogging From Home, then you should take out a basic business liability policy with an advertising rider.  This type of policy pays attorney’s fees, court costs and even damage awards if you are sued or threatened with a lawsuit. Had this been a more serious case, I would have called my State Farm agent and he would have put me in touch with an attorney in Houston to deal with the matter.

So all’s well that ends well.  But my current bottle of Bertolli Olive oil is about half-full.  I hope the new one gets here before I have to buy a new one.

Skip McGrath

One of my blogging heroes is Yaro Starak who runs a blog called ProBlogger. I was looking at his site and he is offering a great 23 page free eBook called Blog Profits Blueprint. Yes, Yaro is trying to sell something, but his material is great and even if you don’t buy anything from him, the eBook is excellent. Blog Profits Blueprint is not a sales pitch –it contains real “how-to” information.

Here are some of the topics Yaro explains:

• The one vital skill that most bloggers lack, and how YOU can easily acquire it.
• His “Pillar Method” for creating great content that magnetically attracts links and pulls in wave after wave of traffic for months or years to come.
• How he builds multiple, ongoing streams of blog traffic using “Communication Channels”.

Plus, you get access to a LIVE VIDEO that let’s you look over his shoulder as he gives you a guided tour of exactly how he makes money from his blog.

Yaro’s blog gets over 25,000 visitors a day so he really knows what he is talking about.

And don’t forget to check out my latest book, How to Make Money Blogging From Home. We take you step-by-step through setting up your blog and showing you how you can start earning money your first month blogging.