Doing an affiliate marketing may require some legal documents, though some are having difficulty to realize that. Your business may be even closed if a customer files a complaint about you so it is essential for you to be aware about such documents.
Below I have provided a list of documents that you may need to have to protect your business and yourself personally.
Terms of Use & Disclaimer
It is common to publish the Terms of Use and Disclaimer to limit your responsibility in front of your website users, thereby giving you some protection. Such sections as the Use of Website, Limitation of Liability, Licenses and other miscellaneous items can be included here. For example, if you run a website where you allow visitors to publish their views you may want to mention that such views represent the opinions of the visitor and are not necessarily shared by you as the site owner.
Privacy Policy
You may want to let your visitors know how you collect and use the data they supply. It is advisable to indicate that this information cannot be used for any other purposes and you will not share their personal information with third parties. You may experience problems with authorities such as the Federal Trade Commission if you do not comply with this.
Earnings Disclaimer
If you have an affiliate program or sell an information package you need to have an Earnings Disclaimer, otherwise The Federal Trade Commission may suspend your business.
Copyright Notice
A copyright notice is used to protect your website content and graphics. It is designed to tell your visitors what the legal uses of the content can be. Here you can indicate that you don't want to share your website content. In such cases the visitors will need to approach you to get a prior permission. Otherwise, it is in violation of the copyright laws. If you do want people to copy-paste your website information, you should mention this expressly in the copyright notice, indicating what content, graphics or products are freely distributed.
No-Spam Agreement
It is advisable to design an anti-spam policy, stating that you would not engage in send-outs of any unsolicited emails to advertise your services or products without a prior consent of the user.
Spamming techniques include not only sending emails to people without their permission to do so, but also publishing your ads in newsgroups and/or forums where such activity is not welcomed. Posting your advertising chat rooms or message boards can also be considered as spam.
Affiliate Agreement
This document is needed if you have designed an affiliate program on your website. In it, you set out the affiliate terms and conditions which must be followed by participants. In the activities promoting products and services on your website, the affiliated members are required to comply with the rules laid out in such agreement. Should they fail to observe the rules, you are then entitled to freeze payments of the earned commission or cancel membership at your discretion.
The above documents need to be furnished before you start your affiliate business to prevent possible closure of your business without prior notice by such bodies as the FTC.
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Karen Thomson is a Super Affiliate thanks to the Simple Cash Blog. If you found this article useful and wish to learn more on how you can become a Super Affiliate too AND get some FREE bonuses, head over to => http://simplecashblogbonus.com
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