Allowed vs Restricted Affiliate Promotion Channels

Below is a promotion policy you can adapt and add to your affiliate terms and the resources you share with affiliates. Change whatever doesn't fit your program: you set your own rules, and you decide who stays in your program.

What Reditus already covers

• Every program on Reditus runs under the general affiliate terms at getreditus.com/affiliate-terms. Their two paid-ads clauses (no bidding on your brand name, and no search or social ads that compete with your own marketing) apply unless your program's paid-ads policy explicitly allows those ads.
• Your program's landing page shows affiliates what is and isn't allowed, including your paid-ads policy, so they know the rules before they apply. The paid-ads setting is informational: it shows the rules but doesn't block or reject anything by itself.
• Reditus flags affiliate referrals from the same IP address, the same email address and Google paid ads. You can switch on auto-reject for each of these signals in your affiliate program settings (how fraud detection works). The same-IP and same-email checks don't apply to the in-app referral program, because Reditus doesn't always receive that information there.

The policy template

Why these rules exist

We want affiliates to promote [Product] in a way that protects our brand, gives people an honest picture of what we do, and keeps attribution fair for every affiliate. By joining our program, you agree to these rules. Not sure whether a tactic is allowed? Ask us first and get our written approval before you start.

Allowed: content, reviews and comparisons

You may publish blog posts, articles, tutorials, guides, reviews and comparison posts about [Product]. Comparisons have to be accurate. Reviews have to be based on your own experience with the product.

Requirements:

• Disclose your affiliate relationship clearly, for example: "This post contains affiliate links. If you sign up, I may earn a commission."
• Don't make false, exaggerated or unverifiable claims about [Product] or about competitors.

Allowed: email to your own list

You may promote [Product] by email to people who opted in to your own list.

• Don't use bought, rented or scraped email lists.
• Follow the anti-spam rules that apply to you, and include an unsubscribe option.
• Don't write as if the email comes from [Product].

Allowed: social media, communities and newsletters

You may share your link on your own social profiles, in your newsletter, and in communities where you take part.

• Follow each platform's and each community's rules on self-promotion.
• Disclose that you earn a commission.
• If we pay you for a post, comment or review, for example through one of our campaigns, it has to be genuine, in your own words, and disclosed the way each platform requires.

Allowed: video, podcasts and webinars

You may create reviews, tutorials and demos of [Product] on YouTube, in podcasts and in webinars, with the affiliate relationship disclosed.

Allowed: recommending us to your clients

Agencies and consultants may recommend [Product] to their clients and may sign up or pay on a client's behalf. If a client signed up without your link, import the referral in Reditus or tell us, so it can be credited to you. If we gave you a discount code, you may share it with your clients or your community.

Needs our written approval first: paid ads

Paid ads with your affiliate link, including search ads on our brand name: [allowed / allowed with our written approval / not allowed]. Our current paid-ads policy is shown on our program page in Reditus. Referrals from paid ads that our policy doesn't allow are rejected and earn no commission.

Needs our written approval first: coupon and deal sites

Publishing our discount codes on coupon or deal sites is only allowed with our written approval.

Not allowed

• Self-referrals: signing up or buying through your own link for your own account. Signing up on behalf of a client is fine.
• Spam: unsolicited emails, direct messages, comment spam or bulk posting.
• Misleading tactics: fake reviews, domains, profiles or ads that look like ours, and hidden or forced clicks that set a cookie without a real visit.
• Changing our logos, screenshots or other materials we give you, or using outdated versions of them.

When the rules are broken

Referrals that break these rules can be rejected, and rejected referrals earn no commission. We can remove affiliates who break the rules from our program.

How to set this up in Reditus

These notes are for you, not part of the template.

• Decide your paid-ads policy first. Joran Hofman, our founder, used to be against brand bidding. He changed his mind: affiliates' ads point to your own domain, so they don't compete with your own brand ads, and they capture searches your ads miss, for example when your budget runs out or in regions you don't cover. Once you're bigger, competitors often bid on your brand anyway. SaaS companies that were against it have changed their minds, and Reditus's own affiliate program allows it. Not sure yet? Start closed, allow one trusted paid-ads affiliate by written agreement, and open up from there. More on the paid-ads policy.
• Check what Reditus can't see. Reditus can't look inside an affiliate's ad account, so it can't tell which keywords they bid on. A "no brand bidding" rule is yours to check. If you don't allow paid ads at all, also switch on auto-reject for referrals from Google paid ads: the paid-ads setting alone doesn't reject anything.
• Don't treat agencies as fraud. Agencies often sign up and pay on behalf of a client and share an IP address with them. Keep that in mind before you switch on same-IP auto-reject.
• Coupon sites can't take over a referral. A link beats a coupon code: the link is recorded at signup, the code only at purchase. Someone who signed up through one affiliate's link stays with that affiliate, even if they later pay with another affiliate's code. Coupon tracking works with Stripe (how coupon codes work).
• Put it in your terms. Need a starting point for the full agreement? See what your affiliate terms should include.