Affiliate marketing for creators pays you a commission when someone buys through a tracked link or code you share, but the program's written terms decide how much of that commission you ever receive. Before you post a single link, score each program on what its terms actually say: what the commission is calculated on, how long a click stays credited to you, the minimum balance and schedule for payouts, which promotion methods are banned, and what disclosure the program and the law expect. The scorecard below turns those terms into a comparison you can fill in one sitting.
What you are agreeing to when you join
An affiliate program is a contract, and it is rarely one document. Most programs pair a short agreement with policies that are pulled in by reference, so the rules you are bound by live in several places. Amazon's Associates Program Operating Agreement is a clear example: registering means accepting the agreement together with its Program Policies, and the agreement reserves the right to stop paying any commission at all, whether or not it relates to the breach, if you break the terms. One careless habit on one link can therefore put a whole account's unpaid balance at risk.
Regulators also treat you as an advertiser the moment you earn from a link. The UK Advertising Standards Authority's affiliate marketing advice describes affiliates as effectively acting as a secondary advertiser and says the business and the affiliate are both responsible under the advertising code, even when the affiliate wrote the content alone. That is why the scorecard covers disclosure and permitted channels alongside the money: a program with a generous rate is still a poor fit if its rules clash with how you publish.
The affiliate program scorecard
Open the program's agreement, its policies and its payment page, then work down the rows. Score each row 2 if the term suits you, 1 if you can live with it by changing a habit, and 0 if it is a deal-breaker. Any 0 ends the evaluation, however attractive the commission looks.
| Row | Where it usually sits | What to write down | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commission basis | Fee or commission schedule | Percentage of what, flat bounty per action, or a recurring share, and which categories pay differently | A rate quoted without saying what it is a percentage of |
| Qualifying purchase | Definitions section | Which orders count and which product types or buyers are excluded | Exclusions kept in a separate policy nobody pointed you to |
| Revenue deductions | Definition of revenue or net sales | Whether shipping, tax, returns and discounts come off before your share is worked out | Commission on a net figure that is never defined |
| Attribution window | Cookie, session or referral period | How long after a click a purchase still credits you, and what ends that window early | No explanation of what happens when the buyer later clicks another affiliate's link |
| Reversals and holds | Returns, cancellations or locking period | How long commission stays pending before it becomes payable | Pending periods with no stated end |
| Payout minimum and timing | Payment section or payment chart | Threshold, delay after the earning period, currency, method and any fees per payment | Balances below the threshold that are forfeited when the account closes |
| Permitted channels | Participation or promotion rules | Whether posts, video descriptions, email, direct messages and print are allowed | A ban on the channel where most of your audience actually sees you |
| Banned methods | Prohibited activities list | Rules on paid search, coupon sites, incentives, cloaked links and link shorteners | A ban you would break by routine, such as the shortener in your bio |
| Required disclosure | Identification or disclosure clause | Any exact wording the program demands and where it has to appear | Wording that satisfies the program but not the law where your audience lives |
| Termination | Term and termination clause | Notice period, treatment of unpaid commission and which clauses survive | Earned commission lost when the program ends the agreement without cause |
| Reporting | Dashboard or reports terms | Which clicks, orders and reversals you can see and export | Reports you cannot reconcile against the money that arrives |
| Audience fit | The product pages and your own use | Whether you have used the product and would mention it without a commission | A product you would only feature because of the rate |
Worked example: Amazon's US terms against the scorecard
To show the scorecard in use, here is how Amazon's US Associates documents answered several rows as they read on 1 October 2026. The agreement page showed an update dated October 15, 2025 and links to a comparison of what changed, so treat this as a reading exercise and check the live version before relying on it. Amazon's separate, country-specific Influencer Program has its own policy and is not covered here.
| Scorecard row | What the US documents say | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Attribution window | A session runs from the click until 24 hours pass, the customer places an order, or the customer clicks another associate's link, whichever comes first; an item added to the cart in that session can still count if the order is completed within 89 days of the click | Program Policies |
| Revenue deductions | Qualifying revenue excludes shipping, gift-wrapping, handling, taxes, service charges, credits, rebates, card processing fees and bad debt | Program Policies |
| Excluded traffic | No commission on purchases from paid search ads bid on Amazon trademarks, or from redirecting links that send people on without a click | Program Policies |
| Payout timing and minimum | Paid approximately 60 days after the end of the month the commission was earned; the US chart lists a 10 USD minimum for direct deposit or gift card, and 100 USD for a cheque with a 15 USD processing fee | Program Policies |
| Permitted channels | No offline promotion, including printed material, ebooks, mailings or oral solicitation; links are allowed in email, SMS and social direct messages only when the recipient opted in | Program Policies |
| Banned methods | No rewards or incentives for using your links, no shorteners or buttons that hide that the link goes to Amazon, no bidding on Amazon trademarks as keywords | Program Policies |
| Required disclosure | A clear and prominent statement: “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases,” or a substantially similar statement previously allowed | Operating Agreement |
| Termination | Either side can end the agreement with notice that takes effect 7 calendar days later, and Amazon may hold accrued commission for a reasonable period afterwards to account for returns | Operating Agreement |
Two rows change how a creator works day to day. The ban on links in ebooks matters if you plan to sell your own guide, so keep affiliate links out of the file itself; our checklist on selling digital products as a creator covers the product side. The opt-in condition on email and direct messages means a list built with proper consent is a requirement rather than a nicety, which our guide to building an email list you own sets up step by step.
Disclosure: the program's sentence is not the whole rule
A disclosure line required by a program satisfies that program. It does not automatically satisfy the advertising rules where your viewers live, and the regulators do not agree on wording.
In the United States, the FTC staff publication The FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking suggests a plain sentence such as “I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post,” warns that “affiliate link” on its own may not be understood and that a “buy now” button is not a disclosure, and says “paid link” right next to the link should be adequate. For a review video with links in the description, the same publication says to disclose the affiliate relationship both in the video and near the links. The FTC's Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers adds that a disclosure only on a profile page, at the end of a post or behind a “more” click is likely to be missed.
In the UK, the ASA's affiliate guidance says content with affiliate links or codes counts as advertising, naming Amazon Associates and networks such as Awin, Skimlinks and LTK, and that social posts featuring affiliate-linked products should be identifiable as ads upfront. It considers a disclaimer at the bottom of a post unlikely to be enough, calls a vague “may earn a commission” line likely to be unacceptable, and the regulator's influencers' guide to making clear that ads are ads advises against labels such as “affiliate” or “aff” in favour of “Ad”. In Australia, the ACCC's report on its influencer sweep named undisclosed brand relationships as the most common problem it found, followed by vague terms such as “sp” and “spon” and disclosures formatted to be hard to notice.
Because the FTC accepts “paid link” while the ASA wants “Ad” at the start, a creator with an international audience is safest stacking the requirements rather than choosing between them:
- Start the caption, title card or post with “Ad” whenever the content features products you earn commission on.
- Add a plain sentence that you earn a commission if people buy through your links, rather than saying you “may” earn one.
- Include any statement your program requires, such as Amazon's Associates line, next to the links rather than in your bio.
- In video, say it out loud and show it on screen, then repeat it beside the links in the description.
- On a link-in-bio page, mark each affiliate link individually instead of relying on one line at the bottom.
- Where a platform offers a branded-content tool, use it as well as your own label; our guide to the Instagram paid partnership label explains when that tool applies.
Running your programs month to month
Joining is the easy part. The programs that stay worth it are the ones you can audit, so keep a simple log from the first link onwards.
- Save a dated copy of each program's agreement and policies when you join, and again whenever the program notifies you of a change.
- List every live link with the program, product, the post or page it sits on, the date published and the disclosure wording used.
- Each month, record clicks, orders, reversals, pending commission and paid commission from the program's own reports.
- Match each payment that lands against the report it should belong to, and query gaps while the period is still recent.
- Remove or replace links to products you no longer recommend, are discontinued, or now point somewhere you did not intend.
- Re-score a program whenever its terms change, especially the attribution, payout and banned-methods rows.
- Keep commission statements with your other business records, because affiliate income is generally taxable; a registered tax agent or accountant can tell you how to report it where you live.
Programs that already have their own guide
Platform-run programs set eligibility and commission rules inside the app, so they need more than a scorecard. For TikTok, start with how to become a TikTok Shop affiliate and then read how TikTok Shop affiliate commission is set and paid. YouTube's version is covered in our guide to the YouTube Shopping affiliate program.
Creator-platform referral schemes, where you earn for referring other creators rather than shoppers, work differently again: see the OnlyFans referral program guide and the Fanvue referral program breakdown. Whether a given brand deal should run through a tracked link or a discount code is a separate decision from whether its program terms are acceptable, so settle the scorecard first.
Limitations of this scorecard
The scorecard tells you whether a program's terms are workable; it cannot tell you what you will earn, because that depends on your audience, the products and the program's own tracking, none of which you control. The Amazon example reflects US documents as they read on one date, other Amazon marketplaces and other programs use different rules, and every program reserves the right to change its terms.
The disclosure summaries come from US, UK and Australian regulator guidance and do not cover every country your audience may be in. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. For a contract with unusual clauses, a large exclusive deal or questions about how commission is taxed, speak to a lawyer or a registered tax agent before you sign or file.