I Finally Put My Affiliate Disclosure on My Tablet Site

byMarcus1978

4.1K followers

8 years ago

So, Amazon Associates require us to state the following clearly on our Amazon affiliate sites:

“[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)].”

And the FTC say it needs to be as close to your affiliate links as possible, not hidden in a footer or via a menu link.

These are facts you can't argue with.

The risk is not that you will get into legal trouble yourself. The legal risk rests with the affiliate network, so by extension you could then jeopardise your membership of the affiliate network. So it's quite possible you could spend time earning affiliate commissions and then Amazon could refuse to pay you because your website doesn't meet the terms you agree to by being an Amazon Associate.

If you think that's not likely to happen, I should let you know that a while back I briefly got booted out out Amazon Associates just because I mistakenly had the wrong website in my account information. Big companies like to throw their weight around sometimes.

I've put disclosure in as a block quote in all my pages that contain affiliate links:

Where NOT to put your disclosure:

• Footer - nobody will see it. Nobody ever looks at the footer of a website.
• Menu link - there's a high chance people won't click that link before they have clicked your affiliate link in your content.
• Sidebar - many people browse the web using tablets and phones these days, and on such small screens your sidebar won't display.