Have you been asked by a business to become an affiliate and include affiliate links on your website? Congratulations! It can be a great way to get some extra affiliate income. But, before you hit go and load up those links, you should be aware that you have some legal obligations and disclosures that you need to comply with if you say yes.

What is an affiliate link?

An affiliate link is a link that you place on your blog or website as a recommendation to your audience to use the goods or services that are being sold through the link. This could include offering a specific discount or deal related to the affiliate business that you are linking to.

When one of the visitors to your website clicks on your affiliate link, they will be tracked through a unique ID allocated to you, so that if your visitor makes any purchases during their session on the affiliate’s website, you will be credited with their purchase.  For every one of your visitor’s purchases, you will receive some sort of compensation – this can be financial or may be in the form of other benefits, such as complementary goods or services provided to you.

Do I have to tell anyone about my affiliate links?

The short answer is yes!

The long answer is, under the Australian Consumer Law, you have an obligation not to make any misleading or deceptive claims. If you are receiving any kind of compensation in return for promoting a certain good or product by another business, then you need to be open and transparent about this. If you fail to disclose your affiliate relationships then this can be seen as a misleading act by omission (meaning you can get in trouble by not doing anything at all).

You also need to comply with the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Code of Ethics. While this is a self regulated system, it applies to all advertisers and sets a standard for advertising using any medium. Section 2.7 of the ANAA Code of Ethics requires that all advertising should be clearly distinguishable as such, which essentially requires you to make sure any commercial relationships (including affiliate relationships) be prominent and visible to your audience.

What should an affiliate disclosure look like?

At the very minimum, you will need a 1 word sentence or hashtag to mark out your post as an affiliated link, such as #sponsored or #ad. This is likely most suitable for any affiliate links that are included on Instagram or Facebook.

If you are writing a long blog post or have room for something more detailed with a link on your website, you might want to include a more prominent sentence at the start of your post, such as: Disclosure: the links provided in this blog are affiliate links and I will be paid a commission if you use this link to make a purchase.

It’s also a good idea to include an Affiliate Disclaimer on your website, which will provide you with more general protection around all the affiliate links you might include, and to limit your liability.

The Remote Expert top 5 tips to manage an affiliate relationship

1.     Be open, honest and authentic.

2.     Always disclose your relationships.

3.     Use clear, plain English to ensure your audience understands your commercial relationship.

4.     Make sure you disclose all links – it’s better to “over” disclose than the opposite.

5.     Buy the Remote Expert Affiliate Disclaimer on our website right here.

And happy affiliating!