Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to start earning income, you can even start without any investment, but there are some things you need to do to succeed in this industry.Â
One of the things you are required to do as an affiliate marketer is to have a privacy policy, you need to do this if you treat affiliate marketing as a business and not a hobby, in this article, I am going to explain what is the privacy policy for affiliate marketing and why you need one.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays a commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.
You go to a merchant such as Clickbank, you select a product to promote, they give you a link and you start recommending that product to people and if someone buys the product using your link you get paid a percentage of that sale.
What is a privacy policy?
A privacy policy is a statement or document that details what information you collect from users and what you are doing with it.
As an affiliate marketer, you are responsible for complying with laws regarding privacy and disclosure.
Where should you display the privacy policy?
The privacy policy must be displayed prominently on your platform and should be easy to access.
The most common way to display privacy policies is by including a link in the footer of a website, a blog, or a landing page.
Why do you need a Privacy policy for affiliate marketing?
There are three reasons why you need a privacy policy for affiliate marketing business:
It is required by law
For me, this is the biggest reason why you need to have a privacy policy for affiliate marketing business, the laws require you to have it.
You see, many laws govern the collection of personal data from consumers that have been passed by countries around the world including Canada (PIPEDA), the European Union (GDPR), and the state of California (CalOPPA).
These laws affect affiliate marketers who collect personal data from their blog/website users.
Whether or not you live in these jurisdictions, you’re still required to comply with these laws if you collect personal data from citizens of the jurisdictions.
Departments like America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) exist to protect consumers, and so naturally they’ve drafted rules for affiliate marketers.
Failing to comply with any of these laws will put you in hot water, probably when you make nothing there is nothing to lose but failing to comply with this law might results in fines or time in jail, sometimes even both.
It increases trust
Having a privacy policy will make you appear upright and truthful. People will appreciate the fact that you are not concealing your reality of being an affiliate marketer.
The privacy policy will instill a sense of frankness up front and people who you are getting information from. People like to know what information you collect and what are you going to do with it, give them a reason to trust you.
You will be seen as an authority
Having a privacy policy on your blogs and landing pages will increase your authority, people do business with people they trust.
Having the privacy policy page shows you that you know what you are talking about and you know what you can do with the information from them.
How to create a privacy policy?
If you are going to create a privacy policy page for your business, here are some general rules that your privacy policy must follow.
It must be easy to understand
We know you have a major in the English language, do not overcomplicate this, make your privacy policy easy to read and understand, and use simple language and short paragraphs.Â
It must inform people of their rights and explain how they can protect those rights
Your privacy policy must tell people what are their rights and how they can protect their rights, for me since I collect email addresses, I usually tell people that they can unsubscribe at any time with just a single click, simple and easy to understand.
It should disclose whether or not you receive a commission for the products promoted on your website
If you create content or sell affiliate products and you make money for every action your prospects take, you should disclose that.
Most new affiliates think that if they say they make money from the visitor’s purchase people will not buy, this is not true, most people are smart enough to know that you will somehow benefit if they buy through your recommended link.
It must contain a clause disclosing if cookies are being used
If you are using any tracking software, they use cookies to track the visitors, you need to include this in your privacy policy.
A link to it must be prominently posted, usually in your website footer
It is recommended to add your privacy policy to every page, it should be visible and easy to access, and the most common place to put it is in the footer of your blog, landing page, or website.
How to generate a privacy policy for affiliate marketing?
I am not a lawyer, and to be honest with you I can not put the privacy policy for my business either.
I use a free privacy policy generator, just fill in the information required, and they generate the privacy policy for me, I copy and paste it into my privacy policy page.
The privacy policy generator I use is https://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/free-privacy-policy-generator/
Conclusion
That is it, we have seen what is the privacy policy for affiliate marketing and 3 reasons why you need to add the privacy policy to your content, landing page, and sales page, whenever you send someone a link, they need to know that you will get paid if they do so.