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I have seen websites openly state that some of their links are affiliate links and that they will be earning a small commission each time someone clicks through their link and purchases.
I am wondering why they do that? Is it a law in some countries, what about UK?
What other reasons might there be? I am wondering whether or not to state something like this on my site and what might be the best practices for it.
I can't answer about laws, but some of us are transparent in our affiliations and other issues. It builds trust.
I run a web hosting business and learned a lot from my early days when I was with Dreamhost. They have a policy of honesty and transparency with all sorts of issues. Like I said, it built a huge level of trust.
On the other hand godaddy are so secretive and opaque about issues, going as far as denying them, I won't have anything to do with them.
I doubt there is a 'best practice' for this, or even a law, but I can tell you that being honest, even when things go really wrong, is appreciated by customers.
I expect that it is all about trust. Obviously lots of websites earn some money from either affiliate links or advertising and while most do not make any mention of this it is not a bad idea to be upfront about it.
I am based in New Zealand and here it is quite okay to earn money from a website or blog, as long as that income is declared for tax purposes. The issue is people from anywhere in the world can visit my website so income can be earned in jurisdictions that I have no idea about the laws etc.
Still, does no harm to be upfront about the potential to earn income.
In US, at least, it is a required by Federal Trade Commission to inform visitor that a link is an affiliate link.
