Affiliate success depends on authenticity

[kalvink]

I've receievd a non compliance message from Skimlinks. Apparently they want me to also display text for all ebay links to tell them the link may be monetiised /monitized

Any help on how to achieve this would be most gratefully received? (display text next to each ebay url)

Hello, In a recent review of your site, and in particular, pages that were generating clicks to eBay, we were unable to find your disclosure that you may be earning revenue from affiliate links. Disclosure of affiliate links/articles is required by both the United States Federal Trade Commission and the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standard Authority. It is also required to comply with the Skimlinks’ Program policies. Our recommended disclosure implementation can be seen here: https://skimlinks.com/blog/affiliate-success-depends-on-authenticity/ Please take immediate action to clearly disclose affiliate relationships on the articles/pages where any links are placed. Unfortunately, failure to do so may lead to your removal from the eBay program. Please confirm with us, by replying back to this email, when updates have been made and the appropriate disclosures are in place.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Her's a good example of transparency regarding affiliate links:

13 Eco-Friendly Products You Should Replace Your Plastic Stuff With

There's an eco-friendly alternative for almost everything.

www.buzzfeed.com

 

[kalvink]

Im not short of examples, its the code/how to that I need that im requesting

 

[Old Nick]

The best way IMO is to display a link to the disclosure page in the footer, you will be certain that no ebay link will be missed.
Just create a node-page with the disclosure text then link it.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Im not short of examples, its the code/how to that I need that im requesting

Ah, OK I’d just do it with a custom thread field per thread or a notice per forum. No code needed.

 

[kalvink]

Ah, OK I’d just do it with a custom thread field per thread or a notice per forum. No code needed.

I'll look into custom thread fields, it is not something i've used before. I am assuming these can be pre-populated as 'read only'

 

[VBX Co]

We had the exact same notice. We replied to show them our affiliate disclosure is in our site terms (and has been for years - so they didn't look very far!!!), which is linked at the bottom of every page on the site, but apparently, that isn't good enough.

We explained we don't have editorial content, that it is all user generated, and that the ebay links are created by their very own Skimlinks link generating scripts, but that doesn't seem to be adequate.

We'd be interested to see what others come up with if you manage to do something that satisfies them?

 

[Mr Lucky]

We explained we don't have editorial content, that it is all user generated, and that the ebay links are created by their very own Skimlinks link generating scripts,

Is this one of those things that turns specific words into a link? And so people writing posts don't even know what they say will become a link? I've come a cross ings like that and I think it is really insidious. A forum I was on once did it. It lasted about 4 days and lost a lot of members.

If it's one of those then it's a very good thing that they have to make it transparent.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

 

[VBX Co]

It is, but members are aware and we limit them. When we first tried it, without any restraints, it was horrible and put links everywhere a brand or product was mentioned. A very real turn off, for us and for members. We compromised on a maximum of three brand links per page, with a max one link per post, so no repeats and no massive-multi-link spamming.

Members understand the need to fund the operation of the site and are okay with a few links, and while we probably limit our income from doing this (and from only showing a max of four banner ads per page), it strikes a good balance of being able to fund the site and giving a good user experience for members and guests.

I suspect eBay have moved the goal posts and Skimlinks are simply reacting to it. We'll keep a dialogue open with them and try to find a solution that works without being too onerous.

 

[kalvink]

Have you found any solution yet? skimlinks are chasing me

 

[Mr Lucky]

Having looked into custom thread fields, I think a site wide notice is the best solution to comply with step 2

2. A clear description at the top of every article or post

I wouldn't be able to say whether it is acceptable for the notice to be dismissible, however the ASA would always see it unless they register to your site and dismiss it!

 

[woody]

Advertising > Thread view: Above message list

Place your text there.

What the FTC Says About Affiliate Disclosures - Free Privacy Policy

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires affiliate marketers to disclose that they are getting paid to promote the product. This is to keep transparency and honesty in advertising, and to keep consumers informed. This article explains what FTC affiliate disclosures are...

www.freeprivacypolicy.com

 

[Mr Lucky]

Advertising > Thread view: Above message list

Place your text there.

What the FTC Says About Affiliate Disclosures - Free Privacy Policy

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires affiliate marketers to disclose that they are getting paid to promote the product. This is to keep transparency and honesty in advertising, and to keep consumers informed. This article explains what FTC affiliate disclosures are...

www.freeprivacypolicy.com

That will also work (but not be dismissible of course but maybe it shouldn't be.

I also just thought, a notice can be easily limited to specific forum nodes which might be useful.

 

[VBX Co]

Ideally, we’d like a template code that insets a text phrase at the bottom of the postbit where a link occurs - this way can be open and explicit, but only where there is a skimlink in a post; as opposed to global (often unnecessary) notices across the tops all pages/posts.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Ideally, we’d like a template code that insets a text phrase at the bottom of the postbit where a link occurs - this way can be open and explicit, but only where there is a skimlink in a post; as opposed to global (often unnecessary) notices across the tops all pages/posts.

I agree that would be ideal but then pigs probably think wings would be ideal

But maybe it can be done.

 

[VBX Co]

Have you found any solution yet? skimlinks are chasing me

@kalvink - we've resolved it using an add-on we already have - @Siropu's Ad Manager 2. There's also a cheaper Lite version.

But we did get a basic notice going using the built-in advertising option:

• Admin CP > Setup > Advertising
• +Add Advertisement
• Title: Affiliate Disclosure
• Position: Thread view: Above message list
• HTML: <div style="font-size:10px; padding-bottom:5px;">Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.</div>

 

[woody]

eBay is now cracking down even tighter.

 

[Mr Lucky]

eBay is now cracking down even tighter.

In what way?

 

[alex2k5]

What needs to be done if you want it only on pages where affiliate links exist - scan the links of every post on the given page (inside each post), and if affiliate links are found in any of them, display a message.

So, if you have 10 posts per page, you need to run something like this on each one aka 10 times and add to a master array.

wp_extract_urls() | Function | WordPress Developer Resources

Uses RegEx to extract URLs from arbitrary content.

developer.wordpress.org

Then scan against that combined set of results for words or url fragments (aka your affiliate IDS, etc).

And if present, post something above the first post on page. I'd assume heavy server resources wise.

I can do this outside of Xenforo on a per post basis, and probably figure a way to do it per-post in Xenforo eventually. But I don't think the message is required more than once per page. Plus shoehorning it in while people are reading breaks flow of discussing, it's jarring to reader.

How to get this done x 10/20 posts per page on demand, and then only post one message above the first post in it's own div is the problem.

Another potential way - javascript. Scan all links on page on load, if url patterns present, insert div at X point in template. Skimlinks etc use similar methods to alter links into affiliate code in the first place, but creating this specifically for this purpose is beyond my skill set.

If any plugin devs want to tackle this, and then publish and sell themselves, I'll contribute to development costs.

 

[Travis-Mc]

I agree that eBay is cracking down. I received a similar statement from Sovrn regarding eBay. I'd love to be able to post the disclosure only on thread pages that actually have links, but I don't know how to do that. So for now, I've included the text in a notice on every page. Ugh.