Careforlifee is basically a commission based website.
Affiliate disclaimer and disclosure are essential under both, US law and Amazon Associates legal requirements.
Amazon strictly requires you to identify yourself as an Amazon Associate. They are very specific about this and have even provided example paragraph affiliates may copy to their website:
Careforlifee.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
The reason Amazon is so specific about full disclosure is that the blogger or content creator develops a certain trust with its users – they follow their posts, look for their opinions and trust their reviews and recommendations.
Getting paid to write something positive about a product is not very ethical and will be considered as betraying your users. Therefore, Amazon requires you to clearly state if you’re endorsing a product out of fondness or getting something in return.
Moreover, putting this statement will also help you in abiding the FTC’s online endorsement guidelines and you’ll be able to avoid legal trouble with them.
FTC and Amazon both demand to put the disclaimer statement explicitly on the website where it’s clearly visible. You should not place it as part of the “about us” or “information” pages.
For example, displaying it prominently on the page with a product review or even next to the affiliate link is what many bloggers do. This will catch the attention of users who are about to click the affiliate link and make them aware of it.
The language used to state the “affiliate link” should be clear and obvious. It should mention that the website is being compensated for putting up the affiliate link
I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.
To sum it up – anyone who is part of the Amazon Associates program and earns money through it should put a disclaimer on their website which should be available all the time. In case of non-compliance, Amazon can close your account so why risk losing your hard-earned commission over such small detail.
Placing a full version of the disclaimer at the bottom of the site or within your other legal pages is also a good idea to ensure you cover all other aspects of running a website and not just the affiliate part of it.
Privacy policy
A privacy policy is another essential requirement for Amazon associates program participants (and many others!). Amazon wants a comprehensive privacy policy to be displayed on all associates’ websites and blogs.
It should clearly state that you and your website guarantee to follow all applicable privacy-related laws.
Though Amazon does not explicitly mention privacy policy as a requirement, the subtle statement – you must follow applicable laws – including the privacy protection ones – is enough to warn that in case of any violation of laws, Amazon can end the arrangement.
Associates have to place their privacy policy at an obvious and noticeable place. Usually, an acceptable and very common place to link to your legal pages in the footer of your site. This applies to the privacy policy as well.
This privacy policy should include details about what sort of information is being collected, how it is collected, who this information will be shared with, where it will be used, and how you will protect the sensitive data of the users.
Although many blogs and small businesses that simply review products don’t intentionally collect personal data of users (for example, by asking them to sign up for an account), they still actually collect privacy-related information in the background.
One such source of collecting personal information is through cookies which can store the IP addresses, demographics and other personal details of users.
And if you use any third-party affiliate or advertising services, then you most definitely collect personal information from your users which is passed on to those companies.
Final words
As laws worldwide are getting stricter towards the online privacy of users (such as the European Union GDPR law), putting up privacy policy is not only a smart business move but will also ensure your legal compliance and help you avoid falling into any legal trouble.
Affiliate programs are great for small businesses and bloggers and help them generate more revenue from their websites and sometimes even be their primary source of income.
But it’s always critical to pay attention to the terms and conditions whenever getting into a contract to avoid any legal trouble in the future.
Thoroughly evaluate your website’s content, bring it in line with the legal requirements of Amazon, protect your users’ privacy and put up a noticeable disclaimer.
This will help you avoid legal violations and will ensure a long-term relationship with Amazon and other affiliate programs and services.