This is chapter 8, Creating Your Affiliate Agreement, of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants.
This is a pretty quick and easy chapter. I just want to go over some of the key elements for an affiliate agreement.
If your affiliate program is in an affiliate network, they will generally have a boilerplate agreement for you to use, and optionally amend.
There are two different types of issues you will cover in your affiliate agreement: legal and monetary.
In essence, the affiliate agreement is a legal document that dictates the ground rules for your relationship with the affiliates.
Here are some basic issues you should address in your affiliate agreement:
- Commission amount and frequency - how much you will pay affiliates and when you will pay it.
- Trademark regulations that cover whether affiliates can bid on certain keywords in search engines or use your trademarks in title tags.
- Rules regarding where affiliate links may be displayed (i.e. e-mail, search engines, etc.).
- Adware and whether it can be used by affiliates.
- Policy on sending e-mail and how affiliates can go about it.
- Press issues, such as affiliates using the merchant name in a press release.
- Tracking and reporting; which technology is being used to run the affiliate program.
- Grounds for termination.
- Confidential and proprietary information.
In addition to the affiliate agreement, create an FAQ that serves as a common English version of your agreement.
The reality is the a lot of affiliates won't bother with the legalese of your affiliate agreement, so provide a more digestible version and you'll communicate your terms more efficiently.
