Last Updated January 2022 by Crystallace
Affiliate Link Disclosure 101: How to Properly Disclose Affiliate Links
One of the most common ways to make money blogging is through affiliate marketing. In fact, there are bloggers out there who claim that they earned their first $200 from it, even with no website traffic at all.
If this is your first time to hear about affiliate marketing, below are free guides to help you get started:
Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: 7 Steps to Success
Affiliate Marketing in 2021: FREE Guide for Beginners
But if you’ve been blogging for a while now, and you want to start monetizing your blog through this method, today’s topic is going to be super helpful for you. Because we will talk about how to disclose affiliate links on your blog.
Let’s get started.
What does an affiliate link mean?
An affiliate link is a unique URL that is provided by a merchant to its affiliate partner. Usually, an affiliate link comes with the affiliates id number or username.
How does an affiliate link work?
For example, you published a skincare product review on your blog. As an affiliate partner, you encourage your readers to purchase the product themselves using your affiliate link.
Then, the merchant will track the number of sales acquired through your link. This will be their basis for your affiliate commission.
How do you get an affiliate link?
Getting your very own affiliate link is not as hard as you think. In fact, there are affiliate marketing platforms that are perfect for beginners like you. These are:
As soon as you signup from any of these platforms, your affiliate link is generated so you can start promoting products and earn commissions right away.
Best practices for affiliate link disclosures
Before we dive into the best practices for affiliate link disclosures, let’s talk about your affiliate disclaimer.
What is an affiliate disclaimer?
A disclaimer is a legal statement that protects you and your blogging business. This informs your audience about the nature of your partnership with the products you are promoting on your blog. Moreover, it tells your audience that you will receive commissions when a purchase is made using your link, at no additional cost to them.
Affiliate disclaimers are very important because it is required by the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. and all over the world.
Lastly, having affiliate disclaimers is not just a common business ethic, but it builds transparency and trust with your audience. This way, you’re audience will feel comfortable knowing that you recommend products that are safe, effective, and beneficial to their well-being.
For this, I highly recommend my Website Disclaimer template. Simply download this template and customize it according to your brand.
Then, log in to your WordPress blog > go to Pages > Add new > Put DIsclaimer as the page title > Copy and paste my Website Disclaimer template > click Publish and you’re all set.
Aside from my Website Disclaimer template, you can also check out my Blog Website Legal Bundle. This bundle not only has my Website Disclaimer template, but also my Terms of Use template and Privacy Policy template.
My Blog Website Legal Bundle is all you need to protect you and your blog legally.
Alright, so now that you have your legal templates ready, let’s go back to the best practices for affiliate link disclosures.
Blog post
Place your affiliate disclaimer before the first paragraph of your blog post. Keep it short and simple.
Here is an affiliate link disclosure example:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Please read my Disclaimer for more info.
Then, highlight the word “Disclaimer” and insert the link to your disclaimer page.
Social media post
For Facebook and Instagram posts, you can use #ad #sponsored or AD in the description.
Avoid using #thanks #collab #brandambassador because these seem ambiguous. Use clear and simple hashtags and statements that are easy to understand. I wrote an entire blog post on how to stay legally compliant when doing social media sponsored posts. I felt that this topic warranted its own blog post because I see people making mistakes with this every time I get on Instagram.
BTW, are you following me on socials? Let’s keep in touch! I’m on Pinterest, IG, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok
Email newsletters
Honestly, I don’t see this often. But I’ve been getting emails from a blogger who does it all the time. Not only does she say that the email includes affiliate links. She also includes a disclaimer that I’m getting her emails because of a recent purchase or a freebie.
This is actually a nice simple gesture, considering that we receive hundreds of emails every week. But having disclaimers like this shows how much we appreciate being in someone’s inbox and taking the time to read their emails.
YouTube video descriptions
You may use statements such as:
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting _____
Or you can insert “Includes paid promotion” in the actual video
Pinterest pins
The same thing with social media posts, you can insert #ad #affiliate #sponsored in your pin description. Sometimes, I see other bloggers write Disclaimer: Affiliate link in the pin description. However, we are only allowed 500 characters, so hashtags are much preferred.
Pinterest doesn’t like when you send Pins directly to affiliate links. It’s best practice to use your affiliate links within the content that your Pinterest Pin is linking to.
Btw, if you still aren’t sure that you’re using Pinterest correctly as a content creator, I recommend this affordable Pinterest course. Pinterest is more complicated than people think it is. It’s a visual search engine and SEO plays a huge role with Pinterest. This course helps you with Pinterest as a content creator.
Conclusion
Having affiliate link disclosures not only is a legal necessity, but also a way to build transparency and trust in your audience. Doing so will increase your chances of having a solid following and allows you to promote affiliate products ethically.
Don’t forget, your affiliate disclaimers should go hand in hand with your Disclaimer page on your blog. For this, I highly recommend my Website Disclaimer Template.
Or, you can also get my Blog Website Legal Bundle templates so you can also have a Terms of Use page and Privacy Policy page.
Any questions about affiliate link disclosure?
Let me know in the comments. Pin this so that you have the information saved.
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