HELP! How do I properly satisfy FCC Guidelines RE: Affiliate Proclamations?

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5.8K followers

I Just received this comment on my WA Review via my website (http://firedordenied.com/a-wealthy-affiliate-revie... )....

...and I need help in figuring out the "proper verbiage" to be used to proclaim on all my pages and posts that I am an affiliate of these products/services and I make a commission from them....if this is in fact an FCC Guideline.

Here's the comment that was just left on my site.....



And no mention of your affiliate links? To whit:
http://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/a_aid/5385ca02

You’re violating FCC guidelines by not stating your affiliate links.

Better fix that by telling people that this is an affiliate link filled advertorial for WA.



I tried searching WA's database for an answer but couldn't find anything specific. Please Help! Thank you!


All The Best,

Jeremy Wilson

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Recent Comments

59

All you have to do is have a statement in your footer of your site this way it appears on every page.

Here's what I have:

Just A Heads Up I Do Make A Small Commission On The Products And Services That I Use And Talk About Through Affiliate Relationships With Those Merchants

I also have a earnings disclaimer on my site. I have a policy section in my sidebar that links to all my disclaimers.

I have a affiliate and earnings disclaimer that you can copy that I posted here a while back.

Leo, I was told by several merchants that I am an affiliate with that I will be kicked out of their program if I do not comply with FTC guidelines. Specifically I need to advise my reader on each post that contains affiliate links that these links are there. This disclaimer must appear before the affiliate links, therefore the footer is not good enough (and apparently the sidebar isn't either).

I have only been adding the disclaimer to posts where I have a link to there merchants.

Other than that I have a disclaimer in the footer and sidebar

Wow, never heard of that before from any merchant. But if that's what they want, you don't have much choice

I hadn't either. Until I got an email from the merchant letting me know that I was not following FTC guidelines and that I would be removed from the affiliate program if I didn't make the changes ASAP

My understanding is that the FTC will reject it if the visitor has to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the disclosure.

Ok, I have not set up a structured centralized page for this yet, however, I at least just added the following statement to the article of which this comment was left on...please let me know your thoughts/opinions/recommendations for improvement/etc.

Here it is:


Endorsement Disclosure:

"Please note: This website along with the pages & posts within may contain 'affiliate links.' This means that if you click on such a link and make a purchase of any kind, I may receive a small percentage of the sale, otherwise known as a commission.

This helps me cover the costs of maintaining and updating this website as well as giving me the ability to continue with providing you (and the general public) with ongoing valuable information.

Please consider making a purchase through my website today simply by clicking on any of the links within, and if you do help support me in this manner, please comment below and inform me as to what topics you would like to see me write about so that I may know best as to what information to provide to you in my upcoming articles.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support!"


Jeremy Wilson

I don't think you need something quite that long on the page. That kind of info can go on your affiliate disclosure page. I would keep it to one to 2 sentences. You don't want to lose readers by having them read all of that first. Here is an example of how I did it in one of my articles (the merchant told me this had to be included each time I link to their website)
http://seemeandliz.com/how-to-encourage-pretend-play-with-a-child-with-special-needs

Hey Tanja,

yeah, I see your point....Your site looks awesome by the way!

Question, how do you set up your site so that none of the text can be highlighted and copied?

I tried highlighting/copying your endorsement disclosure and realized that your text is locked somehow....I would love to learn how to apply such a lock to my site as well. Would you mind sharing that info with me?

Thank you!

Wilson

I also REALLY like your Social Share buttons and your Cookie Notice/Opt-in/Opt-Out feature.

What plugins are you using for these two features on your site?

Wilson

Yes, they are all plugins.

Wordpress protection lite is so that people can't just copy and paste your work - this is why you couldn't highlight and copy anything from my site.

Cookie Law Info is the plugin that tells users the site uses cookies

I am using shareaholic for the sharing buttons. I am thinking of getting rid of this and switching to another share plugin once I upgrade to the premium version of my theme. The reason I use shareaholic is because I like the option of showing related posts to keep people on my site longer. With the paid version of my theme there is the option of having related posts.

I am glad you liked my site!

I have misgivings about the word "may". It either does or doesn't. I put a disclosure on every page that actually has affiliate links just above the first affiliate link on a page.

I just put *Affiliated Partner in my right sidebar "For Your Protection" menu and linked it to my Affiliate Disclosure Statement. That way I can put the asterisk in my text next to any mention of an affiliated partner. I'm going to have to beef up my Affiliate Disclosure Statement, but that's another project. Hope this helps. Ted

That's good info, thank you Ted! :-)

I think the rule about affiliate disclosure is that it has to be visible to your visitors I had mine as part of the privacy however I will split it and add it to the side bar, mine is generic to cover all the products that I promote

Thanks Katie! :-)

What's really, REALLY FUNNY about this is that this guy left this comment on my site's Wealthy Affiliate Review and one of the first things I state within the first fold is that "I am a Premium Member at Wealthy Affiliate"....

...so that statement alone should have me in the clear...at least that would be my assumption...

...but I do want to follow the FCC rules, so that's why I'm reaching out to you all on this topic to further investigate what Actually needs to take place on pages/posts that has affiliate links in them.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread so far...you all are awesome! :-)

All The Best,
Jeremy Wilson

This is a cut and paste from https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking#affiliate.

The site referenced above has all the information you will ever need about making endorsements.
******
What About Affiliate or Network Marketing?
I’m an affiliate marketer with links to an online retailer on my website. When people read what I’ve written about a particular product and then click on those links and buy something from the retailer, I earn a commission from the retailer. What do I have to disclose? Where should the disclosure be?

If you disclose your relationship to the retailer clearly and conspicuously on your site, readers can decide how much weight to give your endorsement.

In some instances – like when the affiliate link is embedded in your product review – a single disclosure may be adequate. When the review has a clear and conspicuous disclosure of your relationship and the reader can see both the review containing that disclosure and the link at the same time, readers have the information they need. You could say something like, “I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.” But if the product review containing the disclosure and the link are separated, readers may lose the connection.

As for where to place a disclosure, the guiding principle is that it has to be clear and conspicuous. The closer it is to your recommendation, the better. Putting disclosures in obscure places – for example, buried on an ABOUT US or GENERAL INFO page, behind a poorly labeled hyperlink or in a “terms of service” agreement – isn’t good enough. Neither is placing it below your review or below the link to the online retailer so readers would have to keep scrolling after they finish reading. Consumers should be able to notice the disclosure easily. They shouldn’t have to hunt for it.
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.
What if I’m including links to product marketers or to retailers as a convenience to my readers, but I’m not getting paid for them?

Then there isn’t anything to disclose.
Does this guidance about affiliate links apply to links in my product reviews on someone else’s website, to my user comments, and to my tweets?

Yes, the same guidance applies anytime you endorse a product and get paid through affiliate links.
It’s clear that what’s on my website is a paid advertisement, not my own endorsement or review of the product. Do I still have to disclose that I get a commission if people click through my website to buy the product?

If it’s clear that what’s on your site is a paid advertisement, you don’t have to make additional disclosures. Just remember that what’s clear to you may not be clear to everyone visiting your site, and the FTC evaluates ads from the perspective of reasonable consumers.

I hope Kyle will forgive my breaking the cut and paste rule, but this is relevant to your question.

There are lots of people out there trying to scare us into buying their expensive instructions. All you need to do is tell people you get a commission if they act on your recommendation. Keep the endorsement and the disclosure together. Hiding your disclosure in the footer will not do the job. If your website is structured with an index of your reviews with links to the reviews a disclosure on the index page is not good enough because people may land on the review without ever seeing the index page. KEEP THE ENDORSEMENT AND DISCLOSURE TOGETHER and you will be OK. I am not a lawyer. This is based on my layman interpretation of an FTC document.

That's great info Bill....thank you so much!

Bill,

What about putting the "Endorsement Disclosure" in one central location and then providing a link after each endorsement titled, "Endorsement Disclosure" that links back to the central location of such? Would that be sufficient enough?

Wilson

I put a short statement about affiliate links in my sidebar with a "Read More" link at the end that goes to my full affiliate disclosure. It seems that we constantly have to be adding new verbiage so having it in one place makes it easier to update.

I also have links to my Privacy Policy , Cookie Policy and Affiliate Disclosure in my footer.

I'm sure there are some people who think that is not enough and that the disclosure should be located right with each affiliate link. I can't bring myself to go that far though.

Tom

Thanks Tom, That totally makes sense.

Wilson

You can add an affiliate disclosure to your side bar as well as within your post. Before an affiliate link you can include a statement such as "Please note: This post contains affiliate links. This means if you click on such a link and make a purchase I will receive a small commission. This helps me maintain this website and provide you with ongoing valuable information" Or something like that. You can word it anyway you like.

You can take a look at my site http://seemeandliz.com to see what I have in the sidebar (I also have one in the footer that is just for amazon because they require it)

Is it enough to just have a link to a disclaimer page in the side bar?

Good stuff Tanja,

Thank you for your suggestions on this matter. I'll check out your site to see how you have it all put together. :-)

Wilson

This is what I use. I got a similar complaint during another venture.

Disclosure: some links on this website have affiliate codes in them. Should you purchase anything I may receive a percentage of the sale price. Thank you for your support.

Yeah, at first I thought it might just be spam, however, they did not include any website links except for my own affiliate link, so then I thought that I might need to do some further investigation into it to see if it's something that I really need to do or not to keep my site legit with the FCC.

Thank you for that info my friend!

All The Best,
Wilson

Jeremy,
The comment did not show up or I am missing it here.
Not sure!
Sheila

The comment is between the lines and it states:

"And no mention of your affiliate links? To whit:
http://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/a_aid/5385ca02

You’re violating FCC guidelines by not stating your affiliate links.

Better fix that by telling people that this is an affiliate link filled advertorial for WA."


.................
Do you see it now?
:-)

Wilson

Yes, I do see it now! Sorry about that!
I have no idea why you received that and am anxious to see what others have to say!
Sorry, could not help you!
Sheila

Thank you Sheila. :-)

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