Affiliate Disclosure: a Simple Solution
As you may or may not know, the FTC (and therefore your affiliate network, e.g. Amazon) requires that you declare that you have affiliate links in your content. It cannot be in the sidebar or top menu because those don't display on phones or tablets, and it cannot be in the footer because nobody ever looks at the footer. It needs to be at the top of the page that contains the affiliate links, so that visitors are immdiately aware that what they are about to read contains affiliate links.
An easy solution is a new free plugin called MWW Disclaimer Buttons.
All you do is create a page with your affiliate disclosure on it, then for each post that has affiliate links you mark a checkbox and it displays a little clickable button at the top of the post:
I have tested this plugin with P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) and it's really light so it won't slow down your website.
My affiliate disclosure page just contains the following text, adapted from the Amazon terms:
[My website URL] is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This is at no extra cost to you.
UPDATE: I no longer do it this way. Instead, I include the disclosure text on each page/post.
Recent Comments
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Thanks for the advice Marcus. Amazon has approved my site with my Amazon disclaimer placed at the bottom in my footer, so they did not seem overly bothered by that position. But, you are right, if you want to make it more visible, a footer is not the place for it.
Can you tell us though, is the plugin you suggest free of charge? Thank you. Giulia
Thanks for the info. I have simply added a disclosure statement on the same page as my privacy policy.
That's no good if people don't get to read it before they click the affiliate link. See the FTC guidelines:
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking#affiliate
Can you customize the buttons? I am just wondering if "affiliate links" is enough. It might be better if it said "click for affiliate link disclosure" or "this post contains affiliate links"
For those wanting to avoid another plugin a simple solution would be to use this handy tool (credits go to you Marcus for sharing it) http://buttonoptimizer.com/ and make your own button. Upload to your media library and add a link to your affiliate disclosure page!
I made this image, but I hadn't thought about making it clickable to link to my affiliate disclosure page. I am going to do this now though.
I did wonder whether "Affiliate Links" was enough, but in the end that's what I decided to go with. You way is a good alternative, though.
Sorry, that was for Marcus. I wish there was a way to reply to a specific person. But no matter where you hit the reply button it does a general reply.
The problem with Tanja's button is that it may not actually be readable on a phone. When viewed on a phone, images just get squashed. An image that consists of text will just end up with really small unreadable text once viewed on a phone. Please take a look and tell me whether it is still readable.
Taking a look at the FTC guidelines again:
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking#affiliate
"Is 'affiliate link' by itself an adequate disclosure? What about a 'buy now' button?
Consumers might not understand that 'affiliate link' means that the person placing the link is getting paid for purchases through the link. Similarly, a 'buy now' button would not be adequate."
The question is, is it enough to have a button saying "affiliate link", which when clicked leads to the affiliate disclosure?
Or is it actually best just to have the text itself at the top of all pages/posts that have affiliate links?
But one thing is for sure, it's no good to have it in the sidebar, top menu, or footer because they often won't even get seen.
Thanks for the info Marcus. I have checked the image on my phone and it looks fine. It's a bit small but I can still read it.
Wanted to see it but it is not on your music site, right?
But this sounds like an elegant solution. The question is, is this enough? What makes the difference, this is again a link, so why not in the sidebar?
No, I've not got round to putting it on my synth site yet. Only just installed it on my tablet site, and just about to set it up on all posts.
The reason why you shouldn't put it in your sidebar is because the sidebar won't show when your site is viewed on a tablet or phone.
For clarification, here's what the FTC says:
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking#affiliate
They just want it to be on the same page as the affiliate links, before the links, and not hidden away obscurely. I think a clickable button saying "Affiliate Links" should be enough.
Yes, you are right, I forgot about mobile (do not use any).
In fact I have it as a link in the sidebar plus as a readable widget in the footnote.
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ooh... that's good. But what about if you're an affiliate to multiple programs, should you include a disclosure that is more general, rather than just saying Amazon? Nat
Yes, you could make a more general disclosure.
You need to have the amazon specific one in the footer as per their guidelines. I am part of several affiliate programs. One requires I have it in the sidebar because I have a link to their site there. So they required that I put it just before the link to their site.
It's strange that they they recommend putting it in the footer because the FTC has said it's no good being that far away. The sidebar is daft too because many people won't see it.
Ya, I always wondered why Amazon is ok with it being in the footer since they have so many other strict guidelines. As far as I know (last time I checked) Amazon doesn't require it anywhere else. Have you heard otherwise?
I'm going by what the FTC say. But here are the Amazon terms:
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/agreement
"You must, however, clearly state the following on your site or any other location where Amazon may authorize your display of Content: '[Insert your name] is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to [insert the applicable site name (amazon.com)].'"
Notice they say "clearly state". The footer is not a place to clearly state anything.
I've got the amazon one in the side bar of the main sites I use it for - I still need to add it to my main site, but I barely link to amazon on there affiliate wise. For that site, I guess I could just state it in the posts where I actually link to Amazon, as it's hardly ever anyway? :/
Yes you could do that, but make sure to have the amazon wording visible.