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Last Updated on January 20, 2024 by Work In My Pajamas
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing wherein one could earn a commission by promoting other people’s or company’s products. It is actually one of the oldest forms of marketing. To explain it simply, the affiliate will receive commissions for every sale that they will influence through online or personal advertisements and recommendations. For instance, a blogger may post advertisements about other entities and every time someone visits their site through you, you will receive something in return.
Affiliate marketing had recently gained a bad reputation for being particularly high risk. While the industry is unlikely to ever be risk-free, it is possible to manage your risk by staying in line with the goals and mission statement of the company. You can find affiliates who understand the relevance of working in a market where you feel comfortable.
Although there are means to fix any affiliates violation, it is still advisable to just set ways on how to avoid those. As always, prevention is better than cure. If you have affiliates advertisers, you indeed, will be liable for any of their actions that may violate the law. Recent feat of the Federal and Trade Commission shows that the lack of control over affiliates will be no defense to an enforcement action. These actions that FTC took should be a wake-up call to all marketers to be more vigilant in ensuring that their networks are properly monitored.
The list below by www.crimelawyer.co.nz will help you avoid liability in affiliate marketing:
In This Post:
1. Know your Affiliates
Having knowledge about your affiliates is very important to avoid fraud partners. If you are trying to negotiate with a broker or network, you can ask them to identify the affiliates and publishers they already have. They should be able to be very transparent. Besides preventing illegal activities, you can also have a successful marketing through them if you can identify their traffic sources before approving their proposals. Being very meticulous in choosing an affiliate can be the key to the achievement of your business goals.
2. Establish Procedures
To make sure that your affiliates are still doing what they are supposed to do, you can establish procedures to regularly check the ads and the traffic they bring to your website. You should routinely try if the link that they post on their site is working and can really direct the clickers to your business website. If you already saw that they are complying, you can also look for ways on how to improve your ads.
3. Provide Clear Guidelines and Terms of the Program
If you want to protect your brand and your business as a whole, you can set an application process to clearly discuss the guidelines and the terms of the program. You should be able to set standards for your affiliates to meet. For instance, you can include a personal interview with the manager, the applicant’s review of your products, you can observe the moral and ethics of the applicant, and an examination of the applicant’s audience and influence.
If someone does not want to go through the process, it is already a sign that the applicant is not worth your time and they are not committed to your brand and message.
4. Stay Within the Tax Laws
You have to be familiar within the tax laws that exist in your state. If you live in the United States, you have to remit 1099 form to identify the funds if you are to pay someone or another company over $600 for a whole calendar year. The thing is, you can also pay through platforms like Paypal. They will even remit the said form for you without charge.
Another option you can choose is to hire a Certified Public Accountant to deal with your taxes. You will just have to pay for a minimal amount and that amount is even deductible. The thing is, getting affiliates to be paid over $600 is not actually included in your tax liability because it will be shifted to them.
5. Provide Legal Tools
If you are to provide tools to be used by your affiliates to market your site, make sure that they are free from copyright infringement violations. For instance, never let them use stolen images and logos or plagiarized words of other people.
Moreover, if your affiliates will use your logo and images, make sure you guide them on how they can utilize them properly. For instance, take a look at the license of the photographer for your headshots if it allows them to alter or crop the pictures. If the license does not allow them to do so, you should inform them.
If you have a registered trademark, be sure to inform your affiliates about it so they will be able to use the trademark according to your filing.