Who is responsible for regulating affiliate marketing? This is one of the most common questions that affiliate marketers around the world have. As an affiliate marketer, you will come across the need to figure out an answer to this and make informed decisions based on the regulations enforced by these organizations.
The short answer to the question on who regulates affiliate marketing is the same organizations that regulate advertising. In fact, it is true that there is no direct regulator for affiliate marketing as of now. However, you will still be able to find different local organizations and communities, which work closely along with the local government to take control over affiliate marketing up to a certain extent.
I will be looking at the larger organizations that regulate affiliate marketing in the United States of America. If you are looking for affiliate marketing regulations for another place in the world I suggest researching the rules and laws for advertising on the internet in that area.
In order to get a better understanding about the regulators of affiliate marketing, we thought of analyzing the question from different perspectives. Then it will be possible for you to find a solid answer to the question that you are going through.
Who is Responsible for Regulating Affiliate Marketing Publishers?
Marketers and affiliate marketing publishers are the entities who specialize in influencing people and sending traffic to affiliate marketing initiatives. In fact, they increase the likelihood for a sale to happen. You can think about calling these affiliate marketers as online marketing experts. You will also be able to go ahead and categorize these online marketing experts into several segments.
In order to get to know about a regulatory authority that is controlling affiliate marketing publishers, you will need to go ahead and search for the community groups and associations who work as the local regulators. You can do a simple search for this on the internet. Your search term can be associated with phrases such as “affiliate marketing laws, digital marketing laws and internet marketing laws” in your city, state, and country.
Be sure to disclose your affiliate links, not be dishonest in your advertising, not representing yourself as the company you are promoting and tell the truth.
Who Regulates Affiliate Marketing Advertisers and Vendors
As the next part of the article, let’s take a look at who are responsible for regulating the affiliate marketing advertisers and vendors. The vendors are businesses who seek the assistance of affiliate marketing as a marketing channel available. Regulations of them will be local trade control organizations. When you take a look at United States, FTC or Federal Trade Commission will be the local trade control organization.
It is also possible for you to get the help offered by various business associations such as BBB or Better Business Burrow to get a better understanding about the regulatory matters. They can offer much-needed support and assistance for you to get the information you need.
You also need to consider the rules given by each individual affiliate program you join. Each affiliate program and affiliate network has its own unique rules that affiliate marketers need to follow. These are often found on their the affiliate resource page or on the website of the product or service.
Who Regulates Affiliate Marketing Companies?
Many different companies out there are working along with affiliate vendors or affiliate marketers. Affiliate networks, affiliate forums and affiliate marketing agencies are some perfect examples available for the affiliate marketing companies that you can find out there. All these affiliate marketing companies are controlled by the government. In addition to that, trade regulatory organizations are also responsible for controlling them. For example, FTC is responsible for regulating all the affiliate marketing companies that are based in United States.
How to Get Information on Who Regulates Affiliate Marketing?
Below are some simple and effective facts that you need to know about the entities that are responsible for regulating affiliate marketing. However, there are some deep facts, which are important for you to understand as well.
The scope of affiliate marketing is not a small one. You can think about calling it as the combination of many different things. In other words, a large number of activities are associated with affiliate marketing. This is the main reason why there is not an easy or straightforward answer for who the regulator of affiliate marketing is.
If you are looking for a regulator of affiliate marketing for any case, you need to follow two simple steps. Here is a quick overview of the two steps that you will need to follow.
– As the very first step, you should understand the exact question that you have. When you have a solid understanding about the exact requirement you what to understand better, you will be able to search for who the exact regulatory body is.
– Secondly, you can think about asking for help from others. This is where you need to approach the affiliate marketing community. Affiliate marketing community will have lots of information and they can offer the support and assistance that you need. There are numerous affiliate marketing communities available to consider, such as forums, facebook groups or clubs. You can take a look at the different communities and locate the best one to answer your question.
Federal Trade Commission Rules For Affiliate Marketing
To get a better understanding of what the Federal Trade Commission rules for affiliate marketing are you should review the pages to FTC website I have added below.
This first FTC link goes to a page that contains what I would call their FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions. These questions, asked by affiliate marketers, have been submitted to and answer by the Federal Trade Commission.
This next link goes to the Federal Trade Commissions Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. As an affiliate marketer you need to understand and follow the rules contained in this guide.
This next link goes to a guide created by The Federal Trade Commission. This guide is called .com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising. I highly recommend that you read this. It will teach you how to disclose your affiliate links as well as the rules associated with doing that.
The Best Way To Start Making Money Online With Affiliate Marketing
In the article below I talk about what I think the best way to start making money online with affiliate marking is. If you would like to learn more about it feel free to read the post.