Full Affiliate Disclosure
On this page, I’ll explain what affiliate marketing is, why I participate in several affiliate programs and disclose which affiliate programs I am a part of.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a form of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards individual Affiliates (usually a content creator like a blogger or YouTuber) for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.
Companies that offer affiliate programs do so in order to increase their own revenue and gain new customers. Affiliates are paid for ensuring that ads or links on their website bring potential customers to the advertiser’s product offering.
In short, a business pays individual content creators like me (the Affiliate) a small commission each time they refer a customer to that business.
What is an Affiliate Program?
An affiliate program is simply the way a company chooses to organize its affiliate activities. Each affiliate program has its own rules and commission rates.
Some companies use affiliate networks to run their affiliate programs, while other companies run their own affiliate programs directly.
Some examples of well-known affiliate programs are:
- Amazon Affilates
- Rakuten Advertising Affiliate Network (formerly E-bates)
- Ebay Partner Network
These are just a few. There are literally thousands of affiliate programs online today.
How to I know if a blogger or YouTuber is an affilate?
Reputable affiliate programs require that their Affiliates disclose the business relationship openly and transparently. This ensures that consumers are aware of the arrangement if they choose to click an affiliate link.
Affiliates in the United States are also required by the FTC to disclose affiliate relationships “clearly and conspicuously”, again, to allow consumers to choose whether they want to click an affiliate link or not.
Ethical content creators will always include a quick affiliate disclosure on pages, videos, or other media where they have included an affiliate link.
Is MandyArtMarket.com an affiliate?
Yes. I have affiliate relationships with several affiliate programs. This is why I include an affiliate disclosure at the top of each of my posts. The short affiliate disclosure at the top of my posts looks like this:
Which Programs is MandyArtMarket.com Part Of?
I am currently an affiliate for the following programs:
Why Would You Join an Affilate Program?
I love art and crafting, and I have done it my whole life. I am devoted to creating creative, free content for my audience because I love to share the joy of making and creating.
Unfortunately, like any business, running a blog and creating good content costs money.
There are supplies to buy for each tutorial, film equipment for videos, software to pay for, and hosting expenses for my website.
On top of business expenses, creating content is my full-time job, so I need to take a salary to help support my family.
Affiliate advertising is a win-win most of the time. It helps the companies bring new customers to their products. It helps me to be financially able to produce free content for you. I only promote products that I actually use and love, so my audience gets to discover well-researched products.