Creator Desk

Affiliate disclosure generator

Clear and conspicuous is measured on your audience, so shorthand like #aff or a tag buried in a hashtag block gives way to plain words placed before the recommendation.Illustration: LinkToLooks

Part of: For creators

Pick the relationship and the placement. The tool writes a disclosure in plain words and tells you where it has to sit. No email address, no sign-up, and nothing you select is stored — the tool runs entirely in your browser.

What is the relationship?

Where will it appear?

Name the brand?

Your disclosure

Choose the options above.

Why the wording is this boring

Because boring is the standard. The FTC's Endorsement Guides require that a material connection — one that "might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement" — "must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously" when your audience would not reasonably expect it, at 16 CFR § 255.5. Clear and conspicuous is measured on your audience, not on your intentions, which rules out most of the shorthand creators reach for.

Instead of	Use	Why
#aff, #sp, #collab	I earn a commission if you buy through my links.	Abbreviations that require decoding are not clear to a general audience.
Thanks @brand!	Paid partnership with [Brand].	Gratitude is not a statement of a commercial relationship.
#ad at the end of thirty hashtags	The same words in the first line of the caption	A tag buried in a hashtag block reads as decoration, not information.
A disclosure only in your bio	One on every individual post	Posts are seen and reshared individually, without the profile.

A hand signing the signature line of a printed contract with a silver fountain pen, a pair of glasses blurred in the foreground. — Photo: energepic.com, CC0 1.0, via StockSnap

The three questions the tool is actually asking

Did you get anything of value? Money, a free product, a discount, a commission, a competition entry. If yes, there is something to disclose, whether or not anyone ever buys.
Would your audience already assume it? The rule targets connections the audience would not reasonably expect. An obvious, labelled advertisement needs less; a personal recommendation that quietly pays you needs more.
Will they see it before the recommendation? Placement is where most otherwise-honest disclosures fail. Before, not after; visible, not truncated.

The last option in the first menu

"I bought it myself, no relationship" produces a disclosure too, and it is the one creators forget is available. If nothing pays you, saying so plainly is worth more to a sceptical reader than silence — silence is what an undisclosed relationship also looks like. We use a version of it on this site: every page ends with a line saying that LinkToLooks holds no affiliate approvals and that no link on the page pays us, with the date that was checked.

This is a drafting aid, not legal advice. We are a linking desk, not lawyers. The tool produces wording that follows the clear-and-conspicuous standard as we read it at 16 CFR Part 255; it does not know your jurisdiction, your contract, or what a specific brand agreement obliges you to say, and several platforms and countries impose their own additional requirements. Where a brand contract specifies disclosure wording, that wording wins. We also publish no penalty or enforcement figures here, because we could not verify any against a primary source.

Last verified 10 October 2026 against the text of 16 CFR Part 255, sections 255.0 and 255.5. The tool runs entirely in your browser; nothing you select is transmitted or stored anywhere.

Frequently asked

What should an affiliate disclosure say?

In plain words, that you earn a commission if the reader buys through your link. "I earn a commission if you buy through my links" satisfies the substance; abbreviations like #aff or #sp do not, because they require decoding.

Where do I put an affiliate disclosure?

Before the recommendation and where it cannot be truncated: the first line of a caption, spoken early in a video as well as shown on screen, above the first link in a blog post, and near the top of an email.

Do I need a disclosure if the product was a gift?

Yes. A free product is a material connection under 16 CFR 255.5 whether or not money changed hands and whether or not you were free to criticise it.

Does this tool store what I enter?

No. It runs entirely in your browser, nothing you select is transmitted, and there is no sign-up or email gate.

Sources

16 CFR Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising — the material-connection definition and the clear-and-conspicuous disclosure requirement at 255.5, and the definition of an endorsement at 255.0(b).