Add affiliate disclosure

If you run an affiliate blog, you need to put an affiliate disclaimer to be transparent with your readers and more importantly, to comply with laws like FTC regulations. But, manually adding affiliate disclaimers to every post can be tedious.

Today, I am sharing the steps to automatically insert an affiliate disclosure at the beginning (or end) of your post.

Add affiliate disclosure before your post or after iit
In about 2 minutes, you will be able to add such affiliate disclosure on every post of yours in one go.

We will use a lightweight plugin which allows you add any kind of content before or after your posts. So you can also use this method to add a Sign Up for your newsletter at the end of your posts.

What is an affiliate disclaimer?

An affiliate disclaimer is a disclosure that you might earn some commissions if a reader decides to click an affiliate link on your website and makes a purchase on the linked platform.

Why do you need an affiliate link disclosure?

You need an affiliate link disclosure for legal and ethical reasons.

  • U.S Federal Trade Commission mandates affiliate disclosures in endorsement posts.
  • This is to make the reviewer’s relationship clear with the product they are endorsing, in the interest of transparency to the readers.
  • Affiliate disclosures build trust with readers by show of honesty.
  • Violating this can lead to huge fines and costly lawsuits.

Guidelines for an affiliate disclosure

FTC recommends that affiliate disclaimers should be clearly visible to the reader. Make sure your affiliate disclosure is:

  • Easily readable.
  • Text color should stand against the background.
  • Font size should be appropriately large.
  • Should be easy to find.

Steps to automatically add affiliate disclosure

1. Install “Insert Blocks Before or After Posts Content” plugin. Click activate.

Insert blocks before and after plugin
Insert Blocks Before and After plugin

2. On your WordPress admin, click Before/after content under Appearance.

Before/after content appears after you install insert blocks before and after plugin.
Before/after content appears after you install Insert Blocks Before and After plugin.

3. Create a new before/after block.

You will find this in before/after content under appearance.
You will find this in Before/after content under Appearance.

4. Put the name of your affiliate disclaimer block in title. Create a paragraph and insert your disclosure text.

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Enter the text you want in your affiliate disclaimer block. The title becomes the name of your block.

Insert a hyperlink to your full affiliate disclosure page in Learn more. (Read my affiliate-disclosure page for a sample).

DISCLAIMER: Dear reader, this page may contain affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. These are products I’ve personally used and stand behind. Learn more.

5. Click publish (this will automatically create a reusable block, not a post, which is what we require).

6. Navigate back to “Before/after blocks” under Appearance menu. In before content, select the affiliate disclaimer block you created.

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Select the affiliate disclaimer block you created from the dropdown.

You are all set!

Final Result

In a few minutes, you will start seeing that your affiliate disclaimer is automatically added before all your posts.

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Affiliate disclosure will be auto added before your posts.

If it is not visible, it might be an issue with your cache. Clear the cache if you use a caching plugin.

How to individually select posts for adding affiliate disclosure?

Check mark the allow opt-out option on Before/after block screen. This will allow you to select each post in which you want the affiliate disclaimer to appear.

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Allow opt-out option allows to enable/disable affiliate disclaimer for each post individually.

You should show an affiliate disclosure in every post having affiliate links or paid endorsements.

5 Examples of Affiliate Disclosures from Popular Websites

Looking for inspiration? I compiled 5 examples of short and sweet affiliate disclosures that build trust and authority.

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Making Sense of Cents Affiliate Disclosure
Tech radar affiliate disclosure
Tech Radar Affiliate Disclosure
The shop files affiliate disclosure
The Shop Files Affiliate Disclosure
The wire cutter affiliate disclosure
The Wire Cutter Affiliate Disclosure
Smart passive income affiliate disclosure
Smart Passive Income Affiliate Disclosure

You can use keywords like reader-supported or mention the intentional use of no ads to add to your trustworthiness in the eyes of your reader.

Wrapping Up

I hope you now know how to write an affiliate disclosure and use it on your WordPress blog without much hassle. Remember, it is always better to be upfront with your readers. It not only builds trust but your followers will also feel more motivated to buy through your affiliate links if you make it clear that it supports the website they love to read.