Compliance
Affiliate marketing compliance, done right.
Who regulates affiliate marketing, what the FTC actually requires, how to disclose correctly on every platform, the taxes you owe, the fraud to watch for, and a quarterly audit to keep it all clean. The complete reference — for affiliates and the merchants who run programs.
Start here · The Playbook
The Affiliate Compliance Playbook
The end-to-end walkthrough — the regulators (FTC, IRS, CAP/ASA, ACCC), the rules that apply to you, disclosure placement, and how to keep a program or a portfolio of sites on the right side of the line.
Compliance tool
Affiliate Disclosure Generator
Pick your platform — blog, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, email, Amazon — and copy an FTC-compliant disclosure plus exactly where to place it. Runs entirely in your browser.
Original study
We checked 56 top affiliate sites — 1 in 4 aren't clearly compliant.
The essentials
Disclosure, the law, and your taxes
FTC Disclosure
Affiliate Link Disclosure
FTC-compliant disclosure templates you can copy — for blogs, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and email. Why "affiliate link" alone isn't enough, and where to place it.
Legal
Legal Requirements
The five legal requirements, what's actually illegal (cookie stuffing, trademark bidding, fake reviews), and how the rules differ outside the US.
Tax
Affiliate Marketing Taxes
The 2026 tax guide — 1099 forms, Schedule C, self-employment tax, quarterly estimates, and every deduction you can legitimately claim.
Protect & verify
Fraud, legitimacy, and a recurring audit
Fraud
Affiliate Fraud Prevention
The fraud types that drain programs — cookie stuffing, click spam, fake leads, coupon abuse — and how merchants detect and shut them down.
Audit
Affiliate Marketing Audit
A step-by-step checklist to review your compliance, links, tracking, and content — plus a program-health pass for merchants. Run it quarterly.
Legitimacy
Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?
The honest answer — legal status, the major publishers running on it, the FTC rules that keep it above board, and how to spot the scam version.
Definition
Affiliate Cloaking
What link cloaking is, the legitimate uses (clean, branded links) versus the deceptive ones that violate network terms and platform policy.
Keep exploring
Compliant links still have to be tracked.
Once you're compliant, the next question is attribution — getting credit for the sales you drive. The tracking hub covers click IDs, postbacks, and the pixel-vs-API decision.