Module 6 - Practical Implementation and Templates

Introduction

This module provides ready-to-use templates, checklists, and workflows for implementing compliant affiliate marketing practices. These resources are designed to help you start quickly while maintaining full compliance.

All templates are customizable. Adapt them to your voice, platform, and audience while maintaining the core compliance requirements.

Disclosure Template Library

Blog Post Disclosures

Standard Blog Disclosure:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE
This post contains affiliate links, which means I earn
a commission if you make a purchase through these links
at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products
I have personally used or thoroughly researched.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Minimal Blog Disclosure:

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links.
I earn commission on purchases at no extra cost to you.

Detailed Blog Disclosure:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
FULL DISCLOSURE
This article includes affiliate links. When you make a
purchase through these links, I receive a small commission
that helps support this website. Your price is not affected.
I maintain editorial independence and only recommend products
I use myself or believe will benefit you. Thank you for
supporting my work.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Product Review Disclosure:

REVIEW DISCLOSURE
This is an honest review of [Product]. I am an affiliate
and earn commission if you purchase through my link. I have
been using this product for [time period] and this review
reflects my genuine experience.

Comparison Post Disclosure:

COMPARISON DISCLOSURE
I am an affiliate for [Product A] and [Product B], earning
commission on both. This comparison is based on features,
value, and performance, not commission rates. My goal is to
help you choose the right option for your needs.

Instagram/TikTok Caption (Short):

#ad | I earn commission through links in bio.

Instagram/TikTok Caption (Standard):

#ad | AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE
I'm an affiliate partner for this brand. I earn commission
if you shop through my link in bio. I only share products
I genuinely use and love!

Instagram/TikTok Caption (Detailed):

#affiliate disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
When you purchase through my link in bio, I earn a commission
at no extra cost to you. I've been using this product for
[time] and truly believe in it. Your support helps me create
free content!

Twitter/X (280 characters):

#ad Quick review of [Product]! Really impressed.
Link below - I earn commission if you purchase. [link]

Twitter/X (Alternative):

Loving [Product]! Full disclosure: affiliate link
(I earn commission). Here's why I recommend it: [thread]

Pinterest Description:

#ad Affiliate link - I earn commission on purchases.

[Product description]

Click to learn more!

Video Disclosures

YouTube Verbal Script (30 seconds):

"Before we get into today's content, I want to be transparent
with you. This video contains affiliate links. If you decide
to purchase through these links, I'll earn a small commission
at no extra cost to you. This helps support the channel and
allows me to keep making free videos like this. That said,
my opinions are completely my own and I only recommend
products I genuinely believe in. Alright, let's dive in!"

YouTube Verbal Script (15 seconds):

"Quick disclosure: This video has affiliate links. If you
buy through my links, I earn a commission at no extra cost
to you. It helps support the channel. Now let's get started!"

YouTube Description:

⚠ AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE ⚠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
This video contains affiliate links. When you purchase
through these links, I earn a commission at no additional
cost to you. Thank you for supporting this channel!

PRODUCT LINKS (affiliate):
• [Product 1]: [link]
• [Product 2]: [link]
• Discount code: SAVE10

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

TikTok/Instagram Reels Verbal:

"This is an affiliate link - check my bio! I earn commission
if you shop."

Email Disclosures

Email Newsletter (Top):

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Affiliate Disclosure: This email contains affiliate links
(marked with *). I earn commission on purchases at no extra
cost to you.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Email Before Individual Link:

I've been using [Product] and love it.

Disclosure: The link below is an affiliate link. I earn a
commission if you purchase.

Check it out here: [link]

Email Newsletter (Mixed Content):

Hi everyone!

This week's newsletter includes some affiliate links
(marked with *). I only share products I use or recommend.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

FEATURED TOOL: [Product Name]*
[Description]
[Link]* (affiliate - I earn commission)

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK: [Title]
[Link] (not affiliate)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Podcast Disclosures

Podcast Verbal (Beginning):

"Before we dive into today's episode, I want to let you know
that this episode is sponsored by [Brand], and I'm an
affiliate partner. That means if you use my code or link,
I'll earn a commission. I want to be upfront about that
because transparency is important to me. That said, I
genuinely use and believe in this product, and I think
you'll find value in it too."

Podcast Verbal (Mid-Roll):

"Let's talk about today's sponsor. Full disclosure: This is
a paid partnership and I earn commission through my affiliate
link. [Brand] has been incredibly helpful for [use case],
and I want to share it with you."

Podcast Show Notes:

EPISODE SPONSOR & AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
This episode is brought to you by [Brand]. I'm an affiliate
partner and earn commission when you use my code or link.

SPONSOR LINKS:
• [Brand Website]: [link] (affiliate)
• Use code: PODCAST15 for 15% off

Link Marking Templates

Inline Link Marking

Method 1: Parenthetical:

Check out this tool [link] (affiliate)

Method 2: Asterisk System:

Check out this tool [link]*

*Affiliate link - I earn commission

Method 3: Visual Indicator:

Check out this tool [link] 🔗 affiliate

Multiple Links in One Post

Clear Marking:

DISCLOSURE: Links marked with * are affiliate links.

Resources mentioned:
- Tool A [link]* (affiliate)
- Tool B [link] (not affiliate)
- Tool C [link]* (affiliate)

Special Situation Templates

Free Product Review

DISCLOSURE: [Brand] sent me this product for free in exchange
for an honest review. I am not being paid to write this review,
and my opinions are completely my own.

Free Product + Affiliate

FULL DISCLOSURE: [Brand] sent me this product for free, AND
I am an affiliate partner (I earn commission if you purchase).
This review reflects my genuine experience with the product.

Mixed Compensation

DISCLOSURE: I have multiple relationships with [Brand]:
1. I received this product for free to review
2. I am an affiliate (I earn commission on purchases)
3. I also do consulting work for them on unrelated projects

I want you to have full context to evaluate my recommendation.

Own Product + Affiliate

DISCLOSURE: I sell my own [product type], but I'm also an
affiliate for [Tool], which complements what I offer. I want
to be transparent about both relationships so you can make an
informed decision.

Discontinued Recommendation

UPDATE [DATE]: I no longer recommend this product due to
[reason]. I've updated this post to reflect my current opinion.
The affiliate link has been removed.

Pre-Publishing Checklist

Before Publishing Any Affiliate Content

Disclosure Verification:

Disclosure is present
Disclosure appears BEFORE affiliate link/recommendation
Disclosure uses clear language (commission, paid, affiliate)
Disclosure is prominent (readable font, contrasting color)
Disclosure is close to affiliate claim/link
Disclosure is platform-appropriate

Platform-Specific Checks:

Blog/Website:

Disclosure at top of post (before main content)
Individual affiliate links marked (if multiple products)
Disclosure visible without scrolling
Mobile-friendly (tested on phone)

Instagram:

#ad or #affiliate in first 1-3 hashtags
Clear statement in first 1-2 lines of caption
Not hidden by “read more”
Story has text overlay (if applicable)

YouTube:

Verbal disclosure in first 30 seconds
Visual text overlay (at least 3-5 seconds)
Disclosure in video description (at top)
All three methods used

TikTok:

Text overlay on video (visible 3+ seconds)
Verbal mention if speaking
#ad or #affiliate in caption

Twitter/X:

Disclosure in same tweet as link
Clear hashtag or statement
Not in replies only

Email:

Disclosure before first affiliate link
Prominent in email body
Not only in footer

Content Quality:

Information is accurate
Claims are substantiated
No false or misleading statements
Balanced view (includes negatives if applicable)
Genuinely helpful to audience

Legal Compliance:

FTC disclosure requirements met
Platform policies followed
Merchant agreement terms followed
No prohibited claims
Appropriate for audience (age-appropriate, etc.)

Content Creation Workflow

Phase 1: Product Selection

Step 1: Evaluate Product

Research thoroughly
Try product if possible
Compare to alternatives
Read other reviews
Check company reputation

Step 2: Determine Suitability

Does it solve a problem for my audience?
Would I recommend it without commission?
Is it high quality and good value?
Does it align with my brand/values?
Can I create genuinely helpful content about it?

Step 3: Join Affiliate Program

Read full affiliate agreement
Note disclosure requirements
Understand commission structure
Save agreement for records
Set up tracking

Phase 2: Content Creation

Step 1: Plan Content

Decide on format (review, tutorial, comparison, etc.)
Outline key points
Plan disclosure placement
Identify where affiliate links will appear

Step 2: Create Content

Write/record content
Add disclosure at appropriate location
Mark affiliate links clearly
Include honest pros and cons
Provide genuinely useful information

Step 3: Add Disclosure

Use appropriate template
Customize for your voice
Ensure prominence and placement
Test readability and visibility

Phase 3: Review and Publishing

Step 1: Self-Review

Go through pre-publishing checklist
Test on mobile device
Check all links work
Verify disclosure is clear and visible

Step 2: Publish

Publish content
Test live version
Verify disclosure displays correctly
Check affiliate tracking works

Step 3: Document

Save copy of published content
Note disclosure used
Record in tracking spreadsheet
Set reminder for periodic review

Phase 4: Maintenance

Ongoing:

Monitor comments and questions
Update if product changes
Refresh disclosure if standards change
Remove or update if you stop recommending

Quarterly:

Review all affiliate content
Update outdated information
Ensure disclosures still meet standards
Remove dead links

Annually:

Comprehensive audit
Update to current best practices
Review all affiliate relationships
Update disclosure policy page

Tracking and Documentation

Affiliate Content Tracker

Spreadsheet Columns:

Disclosure Log

Track which disclosures you use where:

Disclosure Version | Date Created | Used On | Content Types | Notes

Example Entry: Standard Blog v1 | 2024-01-01 | Personal blog | Reviews, tutorials | Updated formatting

Merchant Relationship Tracker

Compliance Review Log

Review Date | Content Reviewed | Issues Found | Actions Taken | Next Review

Example Entry: 2024-03-15 | Q1 blog posts (15 total) | 2 posts needed updated disclosure | Updated disclosure, screenshot saved | 2024-06-15

Response Templates

For Audience Questions

Question: “Are you just recommending this for money?”

Template Response:

Great question! Yes, I am an affiliate and earn commission
if you purchase (which I disclosed in the post). However, I
have affiliate relationships with many products and I choose
what to recommend based on quality and fit for my audience,
not commission rates. I only promote products I genuinely
believe in. If you have specific concerns about this
recommendation, I'm happy to discuss them.

Question: “Why didn’t you mention you’re an affiliate?”

Template Response:

I apologize if the disclosure wasn't clear enough. I did
include disclosure [describe where], but I want everyone to
see it. Let me know how I can make it more prominent.
Transparency is important to me, so I appreciate you bringing
this to my attention.

Question: “Do you have a non-affiliate link?”

Template Response:

You can visit [Brand] directly at [non-affiliate URL]. I
include affiliate links to support my content creation, but
I completely understand if you prefer to go directly to the
company. Either way, I hope you find the product helpful!

For Merchant Communications

Requesting Disclosure Guidelines:

Hi [Name],

I'm interested in joining your affiliate program. Before I
apply, could you provide your disclosure requirements? I want
to ensure I'll be compliant with both FTC regulations and your
program terms.

Specifically:
- Are there specific disclosure phrases you require?
- Are there prohibited promotional methods?
- Do you have examples of compliant promotions?

Thanks,
[Your Name]

Reporting Compliance Concerns:

Hi [Name],

I wanted to bring to your attention that I noticed [describe
issue with disclosure/promotional practices]. I believe this
may not meet FTC standards. I wanted to flag this in case the
affiliate program wants to address it with affiliates.

Best regards,
[Your Name]

Quick Reference Cards

The 4 Ps Reminder Card

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ THE 4 Ps OF DISCLOSURE          │
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│ ✅ PROMINENT                     │
│   Easy to see, readable font    │
│                                 │
│ ✅ PRESENTATION                  │
│   Clear language, no jargon     │
│                                 │
│ ✅ PLACEMENT                     │
│   Before link, where people look│
│                                 │
│ ✅ PROXIMITY                     │
│   Close to claim, obvious       │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Platform Quick Guide

┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│ PLATFORM DISCLOSURE CHECKLIST    │
├──────────────────────────────────┤
│ BLOG: Top of post + near links   │
│ INSTAGRAM: First 2 lines + #ad   │
│ YOUTUBE: Verbal + visual + desc   │
│ TIKTOK: Text overlay + caption    │
│ TWITTER: Same tweet as link       │
│ EMAIL: Before first link          │
│ PODCAST: Verbal + show notes      │
└──────────────────────────────────┘

Red Flags Checklist

┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│ STOP IF YOU SEE:                 │
├──────────────────────────────────┤
│ ❌ Disclosure after link          │
│ ❌ Vague language (collab, thx)   │
│ ❌ Hidden in footer only           │
│ ❌ Buried in hashtags              │
│ ❌ Too small to read               │
│ ❌ Comments only (not caption)     │
│ ❌ End of video only               │
│ ❌ Separate page only              │
└──────────────────────────────────┘

Implementation Timeline

Week 1: Setup

Read all training modules
Create disclosure templates
Set up tracking spreadsheet
Review existing affiliate agreements
Identify content needing updates

Week 2: Template Creation

Customize disclosure templates for your voice
Create platform-specific versions
Test templates on sample content
Get feedback from trusted peers
Finalize templates

Week 3: Content Audit

Review all existing affiliate content
Add disclosures where missing
Update inadequate disclosures
Document changes made
Create maintenance schedule

Week 4: New Content Process

Ongoing: Maintenance

Weekly: Review new content for compliance
Monthly: Spot-check random existing content
Quarterly: Comprehensive audit of sample content
Annually: Full review and update of all templates and content

Final Checklist: Ready to Launch

Before starting affiliate marketing, verify:

Documentation:

Disclosure templates created
Tracking spreadsheet set up
Affiliate agreements reviewed
Compliance calendar created

Knowledge:

Completed all training modules
Understand FTC requirements
Know platform-specific requirements
Familiar with common mistakes

Systems:

Pre-publishing checklist ready
Response templates prepared
Documentation process established
Review schedule set

Content:

Existing content audited
Disclosures added where needed
New content workflow established
Quality standards defined

Summary

This module provided practical tools for implementing compliant affiliate marketing:

Templates: Ready-to-use disclosure language for all platforms
Checklists: Step-by-step verification before publishing
Workflows: Processes for creating and maintaining compliant content
Tracking: Systems for documenting compliance efforts
Responses: Templates for handling common situations

Key Takeaway: Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. With good templates and systems, you can maintain full compliance while focusing on creating great content.

What’s Next

You now have everything you need to implement compliant affiliate marketing practices. The remaining module will cover advanced topics and keeping current with regulatory changes.

Module 6 Complete

You now have practical templates and workflows for implementing compliant affiliate marketing.

Module 6 - Practical Implementation and Templates

Introduction

Disclosure Template Library

Blog Post Disclosures

Social Media Disclosures

Video Disclosures

Email Disclosures

Podcast Disclosures

Link Marking Templates

Inline Link Marking

Multiple Links in One Post

Special Situation Templates

Free Product Review

Free Product + Affiliate

Mixed Compensation

Sponsored + Affiliate

Own Product + Affiliate

Discontinued Recommendation

Pre-Publishing Checklist

Before Publishing Any Affiliate Content

Content Creation Workflow

Phase 1: Product Selection

Phase 2: Content Creation

Phase 3: Review and Publishing

Phase 4: Maintenance

Tracking and Documentation

Affiliate Content Tracker

Disclosure Log

Merchant Relationship Tracker

Compliance Review Log

Response Templates

For Audience Questions

For Merchant Communications

Quick Reference Cards

The 4 Ps Reminder Card

Platform Quick Guide

Red Flags Checklist

Implementation Timeline

Week 1: Setup

Week 2: Template Creation

Week 3: Content Audit

Week 4: New Content Process

Ongoing: Maintenance

Final Checklist: Ready to Launch

Summary

What’s Next