By now, most affiliates recognize the rules and risks involved with affiliate disclosures. The FTC wants visitors to know immediately that a link is a paid referral. For Amazon affiliates we have an in-depth post on Amazon and FTC disclosures — check it out.
The underlying philosophy is transparency. Readers should know before they click on any link that they are going to a resource from which you may be compensated.
You can read the full FTC disclosure information but basically for reviews and other pages a statement that discloses affiliate links are in the post should be sufficient, Something like …
“Some links may be affiliate links. We may get paid if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these”
The best practice for now for many is to have an FTC notice below the title of any page with affiliate links. you may also want to place a “full disclosure” link to your privacy and affiliate disclosure page. So … how do you do this?
By hand — Cut and paste. Not the end of the world.
Templates — Posts don’t have multiple templates in WordPress. They are managed by single.php. You could make custom post types and have these use a unique template if you have good WordPress and a bit of PHP. You could edit single.php to create logic to add the disclaimer to specific posts.
Functions.php — You can create a function to automatically ad a disclaimer.
Plugins — There is a plugin that can help automate disclosures.
Automate Affiliate Disclosure Function
Many affiliates want to automate the insertion of the affiliate disclosure notice. You can easily do that by adding a small function to your theme. This will add a disclosure below the page title for all posts with a specific tag. It’s very easy.
Step 1:
Backup your functions.php file. Ideally you are working on a child theme functions.php
Step 2:
Edit functions.php and add the following function:
function affiliate_disclaimer( $content ) {
if( is_single() ) {if (has_tag(‘paid’)) {
$custom_content = ‘<p style=”font-size: 85%; font-style: italic; color: #666; padding: 5px; border-radius: 3px;”>This article contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on a link I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.<a href=”/disclosure/”> full disclosure</a></p>’;
}
}
$custom_content .= $content;
return $custom_content;
}
add_filter( ‘the_content’, ‘affiliate_disclaimer’ );
Step 3:
Save the functions.php file. That’s it!
Now any post that has the tag of “paid” will display the disclosure under the title. A couple of details ..
- On line 4 — you can easily change the tag name from paid to affiliate or any other tag you like.
- On line 5-7 — You can change the disclosure statement and font size, add a background, etc.
- Remember to backup functions.php before you start
Go to our affiliate marketing guide for more tips.
WordPress Affiliate Disclosure Plugin
There is a plugin that can help with affiliate disclosures. It lets you create rules to add disclosures at the top or bottom of a page. It works fine though a bit confusing for many affiliate marketers. I would go with a simpler design if I were to build an equivalent plugin. Here is a screenshot …
Wrapping Up
If you have ignored FTC affiliate disclosure rules you are taking a risk. You may find that the disclosures do impact conversion (though I have not). Best to A/B test that in your niche and make a business decision.
Another benefit beyond compliance is trust. Your core audience may appreciate your transparency and honesty. They certainly know you are an affiliate so there is little downside.
