Show an affiliate disclosure on your WordPress blog posts
The Endorsements kit in TermsFeed AutoTerms adds a disclosure box to your blog posts, before or after the content, on every post or on posts with a chosen tag. The FTC Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255) require a clear and conspicuous disclosure of a material connection, such as a commission you earn on affiliate links. Setup takes 3 steps and about 10 minutes. Sign in as an Administrator, or as a user with a plugin role and the WordPress unfiltered_html capability.
Where the Endorsements disclosure appears
The disclosure appears only on the single view of a blog post, the page that shows one post of the WordPress type "Post" on its own. The plugin adds the box to the content of that post and to nothing else on the page.
The disclosure never appears in these places.
- Pages, legal pages included, do not show the box.
- Posts of custom post types, such as WooCommerce products or portfolio items, do not show the box.
- Archives, category pages, tag pages, search results, and the blog list do not show the box.
- Excerpts, such as related posts and meta descriptions built from the post content, do not carry the box.
- Other posts shown on the same page, such as posts in a widget, do not carry the box.
- A legal page embedded in the post with the
[wpautoterms page="..."]shortcode does not carry a box of its own.
The plugin adds the box through the WordPress the_content filter. A WordPress theme or page builder that prints the post without that filter does not show the disclosure. Run the check for that cause in Disclosure Box Missing in WordPress.
Step 1: Turn on the Endorsements kit
Turn on the Endorsements kit with the "Enable" button on the Compliance Kits screen, because its settings screen has no "Enabled" field.
- Open TermsFeed > Compliance Kits in your WordPress admin.
- Click the "Enable" button in the Endorsements box. The kit turns on with no "Save Changes" click, and the notice "Endorsements enabled." appears.
- Click the "Configure" button in the same box to open the "Endorsements" settings screen.
Step 2: Set the Endorsements options
With the defaults of the "Endorsements" settings screen, the kit adds its default disclosure to the top of every post. Every field, style fields included, takes effect only after you click the "Save Changes" button. The fields at the top of the screen set what the box says, on which posts it appears, and where in the post.
| Field | Values | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Disclaimer message" | Rich text | 3 paragraphs about affiliate links | The text of the disclosure box |
| "When to insert the disclaimer note" | "always", "if tag exists on a post" | "always" | Adds the box to every post, or only to posts with the chosen tag |
| Tag | "Choose a tag from your current list of tags:" with every post tag and "new tag...", and "Add a new tag:" | The first tag in the list, or "new tag..." when the site has no tag | The tag a post needs, shown only for "if tag exists on a post" |
| "Where to insert the disclaimer note" | "at the top of the post (before post content)", "at the bottom of the post (after post content)" | "at the top of the post (before post content)" | The place of the box in the post |
The kit places the box before or after the post content, never beside a single link. A box after the content sits far from the links it covers, and readers miss it on a long post or a phone screen. Check on desktop and on mobile how far the box sits from each affiliate link. Add a short disclosure beside each affiliate link in the post text if the box sits far from it. Read the placement rules in ways to disclose endorsements.
Write the Endorsements disclaimer message
The "Disclaimer message" field is a small editor with the Bold, Italic, Underline, bulleted list, numbered list, Link, and Unlink buttons. The 3 paragraphs of the default message say that some links are affiliate links that earn you a commission, that the price stays the same, and that you thank readers. Rewrite the message to name what you earn and from whom, in the words your readers use.
The "Insert shortcode:" links under the editor add the site name, website URL, company name, company address, or country from the General Settings of the plugin. The link "revert message to the default one" puts the default text back into the editor. Look up what each shortcode prints in Legal Page Shortcodes for WordPress.
The plugin runs the shortcodes in the message once, so an escaped shortcode such as [[wpautoterms site_name]] prints as text. The box prints the saved message through the WordPress rules for post HTML, so it keeps only the HTML that WordPress allows in posts. It adds none of the automatic paragraphs WordPress adds to post content.
Show the disclosure only on posts with a chosen tag
Limit the box to posts that carry a tag you choose, such as the posts with affiliate links.
- Set "When to insert the disclaimer note" to "if tag exists on a post".
- Pick a tag in the select under "Choose a tag from your current list of tags:". For a new tag, pick "new tag..." and type its name in the "Add a new tag:" field.
- Click the "Save Changes" button, which creates the new tag.
- Add the tag to each post with affiliate links in the Tags panel of the post editor.
A tag the plugin creates stays in WordPress after you delete the plugin. Use a name that tells your editors what the tag does, such as "affiliate".
Style the Endorsements box on your WordPress website
Color the box and set its font with the fields under the "Disclaimer message" editor.
| Field | Values | Default | What it styles |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Background color" | A hex color | Empty | The background of the box |
| "Font" | "default", "Arial, sans-serif", "Georgia, serif", or "custom..." with any text without HTML tags | "default" | The font of the box and its links |
| "Font size" | "default", "12px", "13px", "14px", "15px", "16px", or "custom..." with any text without HTML tags | "default" | The text size of the box and its links |
| "Text color" | A hex color | Empty | The color of the text |
| "Links color" | A hex color | Empty | The color of the links in the box |
| "Additional CSS" | CSS rules, saved only by an account with the WordPress unfiltered_html capability |
Empty | Your own rules for the box |
Write rules in "Additional CSS" with the class wpautoterms-endorsements, which the editor lists under "Available CSS selectors:". Find the selector of the links in the box in TermsFeed AutoTerms CSS Classes and Containers. Fix rules the plugin refuses to save with Code or HTML Not Saving in WordPress.
The plugin does not print any style for an empty color field or a "default" font value, which leaves the look of your WordPress theme on the box. Check why a color or font stays the same in Colors or Fonts Not Showing in WordPress.
Step 3: Check that the disclosure appears on your posts
A working box sits before or after the content of each blog post it applies to, and on no page or list. The box shows to every visitor, logged in or not, so a check while logged in shows it too. Check it on a live post after every change. Clear your page cache first with WordPress Caching Plugins, because a cached page keeps the box as it was when the cache stored it.
- Open a blog post on its own page, a post with the tag when you chose "if tag exists on a post". Then open Chrome DevTools, select the Elements tab, press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac), and search for
class="wpautoterms-endorsements". Check that the search finds the box. - Check that the box sits before or after the post content, as "Where to insert the disclaimer note" sets.
- Open a page and the blog list, and check that neither shows the box.
- With "if tag exists on a post", open a post without the tag and check that the post does not show the box.