Last year all we heard was talk about Disclosure and how it was important to disclose anytime you received compensation from writing a post. In the US, it’s required by the FTC that you must disclosure any material connections. Canada doesn’t have anything like this, but since I work with many US companies I also put them in my posts as well.
It’s hard to know when to disclose and what to say. I decided to get myself organized and write up some disclosure statements that can easily be copied into posts. I get asked this question a lot by other bloggers about what to say so I decided to share how to word them with all of you!
Here’s a list of all the types of posts you might write for your site and a suggestion with what your disclosure statement could say. Feel free to tweak to suit your needs and preferences.
Review & Giveaway (where you received a product, but weren’t paid):
*I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*
Review (where you received a product, but weren’t paid):
*I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*
Giveaway (where you were paid):
*I was financially compensated for this post. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*
OR
*This is a sponsored post brought to you by XXXX. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*
Book Reviews
*I received a copy of this book to review but I was not financially compensated in any way. The opinions expressed are my own and are based on my observations while reading this novel.*
Paid Posts (where you are paid to write about a particular topic/company/product, etc):
*This post was sponsored by XXXX. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*
OR
*I was financially compensated for this post. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*
Affiliate Posts (posts where you share affiliate links):
Can be done through a sitewide Disclosure policy (as ProBlogger does) or you can have a statement at the end of each post saying something like, “This post contains affiliate links”.
I have a Disclosure policy on my site and you can easily get one for yours too. Go to DisclosurePolicy.org and do the easy little policy generator!
Another site that you might find helpful is CMP.ly. It has examples of posts and the various disclosure statements that go with them!
About Stacie
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for posting this! I have just started to write reviews. This is very helpful.
Thanks for the info. I actually keep my disclosure statement at the bottom of my blog =)
This is a great starting point for writing disclosures, and very helpful as I’ve been brainstorming how to go about writing one for a new project. I just wonder if receiving products to review would be considered compensation under the new guidelines.
Thanks Stacie! I’m surprised by the number of bloggers I see who do not disclose affiliate links.
Thanks for this info
Oh thank you so much for this post! This is something that I did not really have to think about before, but now I am entering in to the realm of reviews and giveaways and affiliate and all that fun stuff, but I was never sure what I should write and when to write it. This is perfect!
As always…you are awesome! Thanks Staci! So very helpful!
I have a site wide disclosure up on one of my sites, which includes the fact that most of the links I use are affiliate links… I should probably put one up on my other one too but haven’t gotten around to it.
I hope they don’t bring the laws to Canada. Posting the same disclosure on every post would annoy me way too much.
Welcome to my life. My review blog has a disclosure on every single post. However, I made an image to disclose which makes life slightly easier.
Thanks so much Stacie. This is very helpful.
This was so helpful! Thank you!
Another great post Stacie! Thanks for sharing!
More fabulous info from you. Thanks so much!
Thanks for sharing! I include statements similar to yours in my posts. Plus, I have a general site disclosure.
Thank you for sharing your tips
I had a disclosure statement made as a page on my blog and at the end of each post it is automatically added to each blog post so I dont have to worry about including it each time or forgetting it. I always add an extra disclosure at the end of reviews/giveaways though that is directly in the particular post.
Great post I’ve used Disclosurepolicy.org for a few years
I got my disclosure policy off disclosurepolicy.org. Very helpful.
Thanks for this post, I really need to do this.
I already use this. It was so simple to do!
I’ve heard various things about disclosing affiliate links so I’ve added to my Disclosure policy and try to remember to add it to each post as well.
My theory is “when is doubt disclose” if a company doesn’t want me to disclose that it is sponsored, I don’t work with them.
Great, Great tips!! Thanks a ton for these Stacie.. Lovin’ all that you do for newer (and older) bloggers!
Bookmarked!! You always have the best stuff! This really helps a lot. My disclosures always look the same no matter what I’m disclosing. Thanks!
Hi, I enjoyed your article and stumbled, have a nice day.
Amee at http://www.madamedeals.com
your blog came up when I did a Google search on writing disclosure statements. thanks for posting. your advice made my things much easier for me as a new blogger with plans to monetize my content.
Easy and done! Disclosure statement done in minutes. I love it! Thanks!