Running your own affiliate program: recruiting, honest materials, and disclosure rules

Once you have a product, other people can help you sell it. That's what an affiliate program is. You let people share your product, and when someone buys through their link, they get a share of the sale.

If you've read Affiliate marketing, done honestly, you've seen this from the affiliate's side. This lesson is the other side of the table. You're the one running it.

By the end, you'll know how to set up a small program, find affiliates who fit, hand them materials that don't stretch the truth, and make sure they follow the disclosure rules.

The short version

• Start small with a few affiliates who already serve the people your product helps.
• Give them honest, ready-to-use materials so they don't have to make up claims.
• Require clear disclosure from every affiliate, put it in writing, and check that they do it.

What you're actually setting up

A few terms first:

• Affiliate: a person who promotes your product and gets paid a share when someone buys through them.
• Affiliate link: a special web link that tracks which affiliate sent the buyer.
• Commission: the share of the sale the affiliate earns.
• Cookie window: how long after someone clicks the link the affiliate still gets credit if that person buys later.

To run a program, you need four things:

1. A way to create links and track sales for each affiliate. Many checkout and store platforms have this built in. There are also separate affiliate tools.
2. A clear commission and a clear payout schedule.
3. Written terms the affiliate agrees to.
4. Honest materials they can use.

Check what your current checkout platform offers before you add anything new. For more on checkout and payments, see Getting paid in plain English.

Step 1: Write your terms before you recruit

Like any partnership, put it in writing first. Your affiliate terms are the rules every affiliate agrees to. Keep them short and plain. Cover:

• Commission: what share they earn, and whether it's on the sale price or after fees.
• Payouts: how often you pay and how.
• Refunds: if a buyer gets a refund, the commission on that sale is usually taken back. Say so.
• Cookie window: how long their link gets credit.
• Disclosure: every affiliate must clearly disclose that they earn a commission. Not optional.
• Banned claims: no income promises, no results guarantees, no made-up reviews, no fake discounts.
• Banned methods: no spam, no pretending to be you.
• Ending it: you can remove an affiliate who breaks the rules, and they can leave anytime.

An affiliate program is a kind of partnership. Joint ventures covers the bigger version.

Step 2: Recruit the right affiliates

The best affiliates aren't the ones with the biggest following. They're the ones whose people actually need what you made.

Where to look

• Your own buyers. People who bought it and liked it can recommend it honestly, because they've used it.
• People who serve the same audience. Newsletter writers, bloggers and creators who talk to the same kind of person.
• People you already know and trust. Friends in your niche, people you've worked with before.

How to ask

Send a short, personal note. Something like:

"Hi. I made a fillable tracker for people running small side hustles. Your readers seem like a good fit. I'm starting a small affiliate program and wondered if you'd want to try it. Happy to send you a free copy first so you can see if it's any good. No pressure either way."

Offering a free copy matters. Affiliates should only recommend things they've actually looked at.

What not to say

Don't promise affiliates they'll earn a certain amount. You don't know that, and neither do they. Results vary a lot, and many affiliates earn little or nothing, especially at first. Say that plainly.

Recruit people who'd recommend your product even if there were no commission.

Step 3: Give them honest materials

Most affiliates don't have time to write from scratch. If you don't give them anything, some will make up their own claims, and those claims might not be true.

So hand them a simple kit:

• A plain product description that says who it's for, what's inside, and what it doesn't do.
• Real images, like screenshots of actual pages and mockups that match the real format.
• A few sample posts and emails they can adjust to their own voice, with the disclosure already written in.
• The facts list: format, page count, what's needed to use it, refund policy.
• A "please don't say" list: the claims they shouldn't make.

Every sample should be something you'd be fine seeing next to your own name. In a way, it will be.

Step 4: Make disclosure part of the deal

Disclosure means telling people clearly that you earn something if they buy through your link. The FTC expects this from affiliates, and its guidance also says businesses should tell their affiliates about the rule and keep an eye on what they post.

In plain terms, a good disclosure:

• Is clear: plain words like "I earn a commission if you buy through this link."
• Is easy to see: close to the link or recommendation, not hidden at the bottom of a page or behind a "more" button.
• Comes before the link, not after it.
• Works on every platform: in a video, say it out loud and show it on screen. In a short post, put it in the post itself.

Vague words like "thanks for the support" or a lone hashtag that most people don't understand aren't enough.

Here's how to build it into your program:

1. Put the disclosure rule in your written terms.
2. Include disclosure in every sample post and email you provide.
3. Remind affiliates in your welcome message.
4. Look at what your affiliates post now and then.
5. If someone skips disclosure, ask them to fix it. If they won't, remove them from the program.

That last one feels awkward. Do it anyway. Their shortcut is your problem.

Step 5: Pay on time and keep it visible

Affiliates stay when they trust you. The fastest way to build that trust is boring: pay what you owe, when you said you would.

• Stick to your payout schedule, even if the amounts are small.
• Let affiliates see their own numbers: clicks, sales, refunds, commissions. Most affiliate tools have a dashboard for this.
• Explain any reversed commission, like a refund, without making them ask.
• Keep records of what you paid and when. Payments to affiliates can have tax reporting rules, so check the IRS site or a tax professional for what applies to you.

Do this next

• Check whether your current checkout or store platform supports affiliate links.
• Write one page of affiliate terms covering commission, payouts, refunds, disclosure and banned claims.
• List five people who already serve the audience your product helps.
• Build a simple affiliate kit with a description, real images and sample posts with disclosure built in.
• Write a short, personal invite and offer a free copy.
• Set a monthly reminder to check affiliate posts and pay on schedule.

You can't control everything an affiliate says. You can control who you invite, what you hand them, and who you let stay.