← Back to Affiliate Disclosure Checker
Two separate obligations sit on top of each other here, and mixing them up is the mistake this page exists to prevent: a general legal standard from the FTC that applies to any affiliate or sponsored content, and a specific contractual term from Amazon that applies only to Amazon Associates links.
The FTC's position, stated in its Endorsement Guides, is that a material connection between an endorser and a seller — including an affiliate commission — must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, in plain language, close to the claim it relates to, and before the reader has to act on it (click the link, add the item to a cart). A disclosure that exists only in an about page, a footer, or after several affiliate links have already appeared does not meet that standard for a reader who arrives partway down the page from search.
Separately, and in addition to the FTC standard, Amazon's own Associates Program Operating Agreement requires that every page carrying an Associates link include a statement to the effect of:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
This is a contractual requirement with Amazon, not a suggestion, and it is specific wording — a generic "this post contains affiliate links" note satisfies the FTC's general standard but does not satisfy Amazon's own term. Amazon has terminated Associates accounts for missing this statement, which ends the account's entire earning history, not just future commissions on the page in question.
| Placement | Meets FTC guidance? | Meets Amazon's term? |
|---|---|---|
| Near the top of the post, before the first affiliate link | Yes | Yes, if the exact Amazon statement is included |
| Immediately beside the first affiliate mention | Yes | Yes, if the exact Amazon statement is included |
| Only in a sitewide footer or About page | No — not conspicuous to a reader landing mid-page | No — Amazon's term is per-page, not sitewide |
| After the affiliate links, at the bottom of a long post | No — too late for a reader who already clicked | Present, but likely too late to be "clear and conspicuous" if ever reviewed |
Run the CLI against a built site's output directory as part of your publish step:
node cli.mjs check dist --strict
Exits non-zero if any page has an affiliate link with no disclosure before it, or an Amazon link missing Amazon's own exact statement. It reads only the local files you name — no network call, ever.
No, and meeting one does not automatically meet the other. The FTC's Endorsement Guides are a general legal standard: a clear and conspicuous disclosure, in plain language, before a reader encounters the affiliate link. Amazon's Associates Program Operating Agreement is a specific contractual term with Amazon: it requires that exact statement, on every page carrying an Associates link, regardless of how clearly you have disclosed some other way.
FTC guidance treats a disclosure buried at the bottom of a long page, after several affiliate links, as too late — a reader who clicked the first link never saw it. A disclosure near the top of the post, or immediately next to the first affiliate mention, is the safer placement. This tool checks exactly that: whether the earliest disclosure phrase it finds comes before the earliest affiliate link it finds, in the page's own reading order.
Not under FTC guidance, and not under this tool's check either — a disclosure that exists somewhere on the site but not on the page with the link is not "clear and conspicuous" to a reader who lands on that page from search or a shared link, which is how most affiliate content is actually read.