Affiliate Disclosure Examples for Blog Posts
Written by Casey Botticello
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Read our full affiliate disclosure here.
An affiliate disclosure is a statement on your blog or website that informs users that you are compensated by companies for promoting, reviewing, or recommending their products or services.
Affiliate disclosures are both a legal requirement and a best practice that every blogger should be aware of. Legally, consumers have a right to know when someone is getting paid as a direct result of a sale (as is the case in affiliate marketing). Affiliate disclosures also help maintain trust between a blogger and their audience.
What is an Affiliate Disclosure?
An affiliate disclosure, also known as an affiliate link disclosure or affiliate disclaimer, is a statement on your blog or website that informs users that you are compensated by companies for promoting, reviewing, or recommending their products or services.
An affiliate disclosure alerts users to the presence of affiliate links, which are URLs that link to another business’s products or services. Site owners typically earn commissions when users make purchases through the links.
Having affiliate link disclosures on your site is an FTC requirement and a best business practice. Product reviews or recommendations can influence users’ purchasing decisions, so an affiliate disclosure is essential in establishing transparency with your users, and allowing them to make informed decisions.
For example, on our website, Blogging Guide uses a standard disclosure for every blog post:
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase. For more information, read our full affiliate disclosure here.
While there is not a “standard affiliate disclosure” that every blog can or should use, bloggers can craft their own affiliate disclosure based on FTC requirements.
Affiliate Disclosure Requirements
Recently, the FTC updated its affiliate disclosure policy and endorsement guidelines to include more disclosures aimed toward social media influencers. Some of the most important highlights that pertain to bloggers include:
Affiliates must clearly and conspicuously disclose relationships with merchants, brands, or products on their sites.
Disclosures must be placed close to the “triggering item” or recommendation.
The disclaimer must be written in language that is clear and understandable.
1. Clear and Conspicuous Disclosure
The language you use to write your disclosures can and should be simple and direct. It’s important to keep in mind that consumers may not necessarily know what an “affliate link” means. That’s why the FTC requests these notices be clear and easy for anyone to understand.
It’s best to avoid complicated or fancy industry jargon. Aim to be as brief yet specific as possible. The main point you’re trying to communicate is that you may receive payment as a direct result of the sale.
The disclosure must clearly convey the relationship without requiring a click. The FTC does not expect you to put a three-paragraph disclosure at the top of all your content. However, just having a link at the top of a post that says, “Please see my disclosure before reading this post,” with the word “disclosure” linked to your disclosure page does not meet FTC disclosure requirements. It’s not clear to users what is being disclosed or why it might be important for them to click through to the disclosure policy.
2. Location of Disclosure
Another crucial aspect of affiliate disclosure is placement. Per FTC guidelines, disclosures must be in obvious places, meaning easy to see and virtually impossible to miss.
Ideally, they should be made before the endorsement to precede consumer purchasing decisions. Putting a disclaimer at the bottom of a blog, for example, is not acceptable. The closer the disclosure is to the “triggering item” – such as an affiliate link or product recommendation – the better.
To err on the safe side, you might consider adding a disclosure to the top of all your blog posts. What you want to avoid is burying them in the footer or “About Me” page. They should be on any and all pages that contain affiliate links:
3. Clear Language
The language you use to write your disclosures can and should be simple and direct. It’s important to keep in mind that consumers may not necessarily know what an “affliate link” means. That’s why the FTC requests these notices be clear and easy for anyone to understand.
It’s best to avoid complicated or fancy industry jargon. Aim to be as brief yet specific as possible. The main point you’re trying to communicate is that you may receive payment as a direct result of the sale.
In addition to displaying your disclosure prominently, the disclosure itself should be styled and formatted in a way that’s noticeable to users. For example, make sure that your text size and color stands out enough so that the disclosure is readable.
The FTC digital advertising guidelines require websites to avoid elements that obscure or reduce noticeability of your disclosure, such as extra graphics, buttons, or links.
Sample Affiliate Disclosures
Next we will take a look at several examples of affiliate disclosures from actual blogs. These examples will include both recommended affiliate disclosure examples as well as examples of insufficient affiliate disclosures, based on our teams’ opinions.
While we hope you find this article useful, none of the examples or comments should be construed as legal advice, and you should always check with an attorney and the current FTC guidelines to ensure your blog content is compliant.
Examples of “Good” Affiliate Disclosures
Example 1
Our first example of a well written affiliate disclosure comes from Website Planet:
This affiliate disclosure is relatively concise, while still covering the three main areas required by the FTC:
Our website contains links to affiliate websites and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchase made to the affiliate website by clicking the links in our website. Learn More. Our reviews are not affected by participation in such programs.
This affiliate disclosure is written in straightforward language and there is no complex terminology. Specifically, it does not assume a reader knows what an affiliate program is and it spells out the financial arrangement:
“we receive an affiliate commission for any purchase made to the affiliate website by clicking the links in our website”
Additionally, if the reader wanted to learn more about their affiliate policy, they can clearly click on the “Learn More” link, which directs a reader to a more detailed page covering their affiliate policy. While this link/section is not required, I would highly recommend it, as it is a great way to offer total transparency to your audience. Remember though, you MUST include a section in the affiliate disclosure that explains the financial benefit to you WITHOUT needing to click on a link to learn more.
This affiliate disclosure is placed at the top of the page, before the body of the article text. This is correct (in terms of placement) because it gives the reader the opportunity to understand that content may confer financial benefit to the writer, before a reader reads your article.
The disclaimer text is clear in terms of readability (the white text of the affiliate disclosure can easily be read when viewed against the purple background). Also, there are no extra graphics obscuring the affiliate disclosure.
Example 2
Our second example of a well written affiliate disclosure comes from QuickSprout:
This second sample affiliate disclosure is more brief than the previous example. It is short and effective, though, touching upon all the major points of the FTC guidelines, without sounding robotic. This is probably the shortest acceptable length I’ve seen for an affiliate disclosure.
While it lacks the “learn more” link seen in the previous example, it scores extra points for being completely free of any confusing terminology or industry jargon. It is also highly visible, consisting of a featured banner with bold white text and a bright green background, preceding the text of any post or page.
Example 3
Our third example of a well written affiliate disclosure comes from TechRadar:
This third sample affiliate disclosure is a bit of a hybrid of the first two examples.
Similar to the second example, it uses the “supported by its audience” language to avoid any complex terminology, while still explaining the general concept of affiliate marketing. It contains a “learn more” link at the end (as seen in example 1), but also conveys in clear language that TechRadar may earn money “when you purchase through links on our site.”
Examples of “Bad” Affiliate Disclosures
Example 1
Our first example of an incomplete/poorly written affiliate disclosure can be seen below (unlike the positive examples, we’ve decided not to explicitly link to the negative examples):
Our first example of an incomplete/poorly written affiliate disclosure is seen above. But as noted in the red box with the arrow, there is some type of affiliate disclosure…so why are we flagging this blog post as an example?
There are actually a few reasons.
First, the affiliate disclosure is not placed before the article. There are affiliate links to product reviews and tools before the affiliate disclaimer.
Second, the affiliate disclaimer itself is lacking in detail. It reads:
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.
While this is an OK attempt, it falls short in several ways:
- The disclosure must appear before links. The disclosure must always appear before the first instance of affiliate link, above the fold, without needing to scroll or look past the affiliate link to see it. It should be as close as possible to the first place a user will look within the content when they arrive.
- The disclosure must clearly convey the relationship without requiring a click: The FTC does not expect you to put a three-paragraph disclosure at the top of all your content. However, just having a link at the top of a post that says, “Please see my disclosure before reading this post,” with the word “disclosure” linked to your disclosure page does not meet FTC disclosure requirements. It’s not clear to users what is being disclosed or why it might be important for them to click through to the disclosure policy.
Example 2
Our second example of an incomplete/poorly written affiliate disclosure can be seen below (unlike the positive examples, we’ve decided not to explicitly link to the negative examples):
Our second example of an incomplete/poorly written affiliate disclosure is seen above. But as noted in the red box with the arrow, there is some type of affiliate disclosure…so why are we flagging this blog post as an example?
Well this website fails to list an affiliate disclosure before the start of the blog post. And as illustrated in the screenshots above, the article includes demonstrable affiliate links (you can see the affiliate ID in the URL of the link that the affiliate link takes you to).
Also, while there is a tiny banner at the bottom with a small attempt at an affiliate disclosure, it is far from being FTC compliant. For starters, the affiliate banner is fixed to the bottom of the page, which goes against the FTC requirements for page positioning.
Sample Affiliate Disclaimer Statements for Your Blog
Still looking for ideas for your affiliate disclaimers? Check out some of our sample affiliate disclosure statements below:
This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
Our blog is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We try our best to keep things fair and balanced, in order to help you make the best choice for you.
If you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. This keeps it 100% reader-supported and free of advertisements or sponsorships. Thanks for your support!
Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links. I use all of the products listed below and recommend them because they are companies that I have found helpful and trustworthy.
Our website is supported by our users. We sometimes earn affiliate links when you click through the affiliate links on our website.
We might receive commissions if you click on our links and make purchases. However, please know this does not impact our reviews and product comparisons. We try to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for your needs.
Many products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and how the products appear on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article has helped you understand the importance of affiliate disclosure statements in blog posts. With these affiliate disclosure examples for blog posts, you should be ready to craft your very own affiliate disclaimer.
