True Story:  Last week on Wednesday, December 2 in fact just one day after the new FTC regulations for testimonials, endorsements and affiliate promotions went into effect, I received an email from an affiliate for the highly recommended (and yes I’m an affiliate)  FTC compliance product from info-marketing mogul Joel Comm and attorney Kevin Houchin.

Guess what?  No disclosure anywhere in the email.  No kidding.  I could not believe it.  I read and re-read the email thinking surely I must have missed it, but nope, not there.  Here is someone who is promoting as an affiliate a product on FTC compliance and he was not in compliance.  As Forrest’s mom would say, “Stupid is as stupid does.”   Dude, get with the program!

Don’t let this happen to you!  Feel free to model or out right copy, with my blessings, the following statements to disclose your affiliate and endorsement relationships.

1) Blog options:

“Products and services that I review and recommend on this blog may be products that I have a financial interest in promoting or have received some other non-financial compensation.   As a valued reader you can be assured that whenever I recommend a resource to you, it is because of my firm belief in the merit and value of the product based on either my direct assessment of the product and/or of my first hand knowledge of the expertise and integrity of the person or organization behind it.”

2) “Products and services displayed on this blog via banner and other methods of paid advertising include those and only those that I consider directly relevant to the valued readers of this blog.  You may be assured that I allow only advertising of resources that I have direct knowledge of  the merit and value of the product or service and of the expertise and integrity of the person or organization behind it.  Compensation is never a factor in determining suitability of advertising.”

3) Be honestly silly: “Clicking any link, banner or other advertising on this site may result in a deposit to my Caribbean Get Away fund (or the Smith Family Refrigerator Fund).” Etc….

Affiliate Email Options:

4) In the subject line: Your Subject Followed or Preceded by {Affiliate Promotion}

5) In the subject line: Your Subject Followed or Preceded by <Yes! I’m an Affiliate

6) If the subject line feels a bit too disclosed, open or close an affiliate promotion email with: “I am excited to be an affiliate for Company XYZ and to share this information/product/service/resource with you.  I value your time and I appreciate your trust.  You can be assured that now and every time I share resources such as this one, it is my firm belief in the potential of the information/product/service/resource to deliver the stated results and in the integrity of the person/company/organization behind it.”

7) Or: “I’m an affiliate for this exceptional product/service/resource because I whole-heartedly believe in it!  As an affiliate, I may receive a commission and/or other non-financial compensation if you choose to take action.”

Be bold and just tell them it’s an affiliate link: “Make sure you click my affiliate link for more details <affiliate link>”. Have fun and match your link disclosure statement with the unique language you use to communicate with your list members.  This is a great option for promoting on social media outlets such as Facebook and Linked In, or use the same techniques as for Twitter:

9) Include in your tweets #affpromo or {afflink}

Mary Kay Morgan is founder of AffiliateWealthPartners.com the only affiliate and joint venture resource exclusively serving the needs of the conscious business community.  Sign up now for our FREE membership into our Affiliate Community and gain access to our library of affiliate tutorials and to our approved list of high integrity, proven affiliate opportunities.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 11:48 am and is filed under Relationship Marketing, affiliate marketing success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.