If you earn a commission when someone buys through your link, your audience is entitled to know before they click. In the United States, the FTC's endorsement guides require that material connections be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and most other jurisdictions have equivalent rules. This is general guidance, not legal advice — but the practical bar is simple: a reasonable reader should notice and understand the disclosure without hunting for it.
What regulators expect
- Clear language a normal reader understands — 'I earn a commission' beats 'this post may contain partner content'.
- Placement near the link or recommendation, before the reader acts on it.
- Visible without clicking, scrolling to a footer, or expanding a 'more' fold.
- Disclosure on every placement — each post, video, and email stands alone.
Copy-and-adapt examples
- Blog post (top of article): 'This review contains affiliate links. If you subscribe through them, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you.'
- Newsletter: 'Disclosure: I am a partner of the tools marked with an asterisk and earn a commission if you sign up.'
- Social post: 'Affiliate link — I earn a commission if you subscribe.' (Not just #aff.)
- Video: say it aloud near the recommendation and repeat it in the description above the fold.
- Community reply: 'Full disclosure: I am an affiliate of this product, so I earn a commission if you become a customer.'
- Review or comparison page: 'This page includes affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.'
Wording that fails
- Footer-only or 'disclosure page' disclosures the reader never sees.
- Vague phrasing: 'some links may be sponsored', 'partner content', '#sp'.
- Disclosures placed after the purchase link or behind a click.
- Disclosing on the homepage but not in the article where the link lives.
Disclosure converts better, not worse
Affiliates avoid disclosure fearing lost clicks, but the evidence of practice runs the other way: audiences trust recommenders who are transparent about incentives, and trust is what converts considered B2B purchases. Serious programs require disclosure in their terms — ours does — because undisclosed promotion eventually burns the audience, the partner, and the brand at once.
Make it automatic
Put your disclosure lines in the same snippet library as your tracked links, so a link never ships without its disclosure. If you write in multiple formats, keep one approved wording per format and reuse it — consistency is easier to audit than creativity.