An
affiliate disclosure
needs to be prominently displayed any time an affiliate link is listed on your website.
This was put into place in 2009 by the
FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to make sure consumers knew that there might be a monetary relationship between a website, and the
products it recommends through the links on its site.
In the past, buyers had no clue that a website was being compensated financially if they bought from an affiliate link on the website.
So the FTC wanted to make sure that there was
full transparency when it comes to commercial relationships intact on a website, and a consumer’s awareness of this relationship.
Therefore, all affiliate marketers are required to have an affiliate disclosure listed on their website whenever affiliate links are present.
But what exactly is an affiliate disclosure?
What Is An Affiliate Disclosure?
An affiliate disclosure is a disclaimer that lets web visitors know that if they click on an affiliate link on a landing page or blog post, the site owner will
earn a commission.
It highlights the fact that you’re an affiliate for the product(s) that you’re promoting, and it makes the consumer
fully aware that you’ll earn money if they buy from your affiliate link.
Affiliate disclosures are
mandatory, and they are mandated by the
US Federal Trade Commission. The FTC offers the following tip to affiliate marketers:
“If you disclose your relationship to the retailer clearly and conspicuously on your site, readers can decide how much weight to give your endorsement.”
When stating the affiliate disclosure on your website, the disclosure and the affiliate link on your website must be connected to each other. You have to make sure that your affiliate links are tied to your affiliate relationships.
Why You Need An Affiliate Disclosure
An affiliate disclosure is needed to give consumer protection from
shady business practices.
For example, imagine that you want to visit Chicago and you find a travel blog that lists a specific hotel as the best in town.
You read the review about the hotel,
click on the link to book the room, and then fly to Chi-town.
You get to Chicago, only to find that the hotel is
under construction in a drug-ridden neighborhood, with illegal activity rampant everywhere.
You’re obviously upset, and your trip is ruined.
So you decide to go back to the travel blog to give the blogger a
piece of your mind and to leave a terrible review.
But when you visit the blog again,
it’s no longer there. It’s been deleted, and your entire experience has been awful.
It’s scenarios like these that the FTC wants to prevent from happening. Because if you knew that the travel blog was earning a commission from your booking via their link, you would think twice about it.
At the end of the day, there are unscrupulous marketers out there who will
promote anything to earn a dollar. And it’s for this exact reason that you need to use an affiliate disclosure whenever you promote affiliate links on your website.
So your affiliate disclosure needs to state that you’ll
earn money for recommending an affiliate program on your website.
Do YOU Need To Use An Affiliate Disclosure?
Well, if you offer affiliate links on your website,
Youtube videos,
social media profiles, blog posts, Twitter Tweets, etc, you need to use an affiliate disclosure.
And if you’re an influencer, you have a bigger target on your back. As an influencer, you have a large following, which means your recommendations can
sway the minds of many.
So you’re one of the first people that the FTC will look at to make sure you’re using affiliate disclosures in your marketing.
Where Should You Place Your Affiliate Disclosure?
You should
make it obvious.
If you asked a wide variety of different affiliates, you’d get a ton of different answers.
An official
FTC document states that you need to make it obvious (in a nutshell).
But here are some things that you DON’T want to do with your disclosure:
- Don’t hide your affiliate disclosure in your “Terms of Service” or “Privacy Policy” page
- Don’t hide your disclosure in an obscure area of your site’s navigation menu
- Don’t make vague statements such as “There are affiliate links on my blog” on your “About Me” page
- Don’t hide, be ambiguous, or make a confusing statement about your affiliate disclosure
- Don’t only put an affiliate disclosure in your footer
An affiliate link in the footer of your desktop website may be visible, but it may not be visible on the mobile version of your site.
And don’t make people
search hard for it.
My advice is to place it at the beginning of your blog posts and make it obvious to see. And in all honesty, your transparency can actually boost response in some cases.
Affiliate Disclosure Tips
When creating your affiliate disclosure, follow these tips to make sure it’s easy to understand:
1) Make it clear
Most people don’t even know
what affiliate marketing is, or what an affiliate link is. So don’t use industry jargon, because most people won’t understand it.
Just clearly state that you’ll receive a payment if they buy the product your links point to.
2) Make it easy to find
Make it obvious and easy to see. Don’t bury your affiliate disclosure at the end of the page. It’s best to display it near the top, where people can find it.
3) Keep it short
Your affiliate disclosure doesn’t have to be 200 words long. Make it short and to the point. Here’s an example of a simple affiliate disclosure:
“We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page”.
Or…
“This page/review contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you buy a product from the links on this page”.
Simple.
4) Obey the rules of a network
Some networks like
Amazon Associates require that you have an affiliate disclosure on your site to promote their products.
So don’t break the rules and not have one. You’ll only be doing yourself a disservice.
Final Thoughts On Affiliate Disclosures
Now that you know about affiliate disclosures, you should go and put them
everywhere on your site where you have affiliate links at.
Don’t be afraid of affiliate disclosures. You can even
inject some personality into it, but make sure it states that you’ll earn a commission if someone buys from your link.
You don’t want the
FTC breathing down your neck about it.
