Affiliate marketing is, first and foremost, about relationships. It relies on a relationship between our company and you, the affiliate/publisher, as well as a relationship between you and consumers. When you promote our product or service offerings (on your blog, website, social media feed, etc.) and a consumer purchases a product/service from the brand based on your promotion, we pay you a revenue share of the sale that you helped generate. Compensation can include joint incentives; special discounts or one-time offers to help you become more familiar with our brand; product giveaways; blog post bonuses; and, of course, commissions.

There is no certification needed. However, we do recommend that you learn as much as possible about what it means to be an affiliate. Fortunately, there is a lot of information out there to help educate new affiliates, including podcasts, blogs, webinars, research reports and much more.

Although you do not need training, we do have the power to approve or reject affiliate applications. We are looking for specific qualities in our affiliates and are more selective about who we choose to accept into our program. We will not approve sites that are sexually explicit, violent, violate international property laws, advocate discrimination, promote radical religious or political views, or advocate or promote any illegal activities.

Affiliates should take note that the FTC requires a disclosure statement within any and all pages, blog/posts, or social media posts where affiliate links are posted as an endorsement or review, and where it is not clear that the link is a paid advertisement. This disclosure statement should be clear and concise, stating that you may be compensated if a user purchases through your link. If you received a product for free, this also must be clearly stated in your disclosure.

• Disclosures must be made as close as possible to the claims.
• Disclosures should be placed above the fold; scrolling should not be necessary to find the disclosure. (e.g. Disclosure should be visible before the jump).
• Pop-up disclosures are prohibited.

For more information about FTC disclosure requirements, please review the FTC’s “Dot Com Disclosures” Guidelines; and the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines.

It’s important for an affiliate to align themselves with a brand that they are familiar with, are passionate about, and that relates to the content that they share on their blog or website. It’s important that what an affiliate is writing about is relevant to the brand they are promoting.