Legal Documents and Affiliate Marketing

     Every affiliate marketer is required to use some legal documents to run his business. Without these documents you may lose everything. Just a single complaint from your customer can shutdown your business. Here is the list of legal documents that you must have to protect your business and yourself.

1. Privacy Policy
This is the document that describes how you are collecting and using your visitors information. It should clearly indicate that you will not use the information of your visitors for any other purposes and you will not share their personal information. Without this document you may face problems from your visitors and other agencies like the Federal Trade Commission.

2. Terms of Use & Disclaimer
This document limits your responsibility to your website users. It really protects you. This document usually contains Use of Site licenses limitation of liability miscellaneous items etc. For example if you have a website where people are allowed to post their views about some products then you may want to mention that these views are just the opinions of the visitors and are not the thoughts of the site owner.

3. Affiliate Agreement
This form is needed if you are running an affiliate program. It is used to set the terms and conditions that must be followed by your affiliates. Affiliates are then required to observe these rules while they advertise your products. Affiliates will be required to sign this agreement before starting the business with you. You can freeze their commissions or cancel their membership if they are not following this agreement.

4. No-Spam Agreement
Spamming is an activity where you send email messages to a person who has not allowed you to do so. Also posting your ads in the newsgroups and forums where such activity is not allowed is also called spamming. You should only post your advertisements in the forums and newsgroups that allow you to do so or if they are on the same topic. Similarly posting your ads in the chat rooms and message boards is not permitted and is called spam. In a no-spam agreement it is stated that you have an anti-spam policy. It is also stated that you will not send any unsolicited emails to advertise your programs services or products without the permission of user.

5. Copyright Notice
Copyright notice is to protect your website content and graphics. It tells the visitors how they can use this content. If you don’t want to share your website content you should indicate it in copyright notices. Without this notice people may steal your website content and graphics. If someone wants to use your content or graphics then he is required to get the prior permission from you. Otherwise he is breaking the copyright laws and he may suffer from that. If you want to allow people to use you website information then you should mention it clearly in the copyright notice which content graphics or product is free to use by anyone.

6. Earnings Disclaimer
If you are selling any information package or running an affiliate program then you need this document. Without this document your business may be shut down by FTC. Before starting your online business make sure that your business is safe by using the above mentioned documents. Without these documents your business is in the danger.

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