So… What Are Affiliate links, and How do They Work?
If you've ever seen a creator say “link in bio” or “I'll pop the link below,” there's a good chance you were looking at an affiliate link. This article breaks down exactly what affiliate links are, how they work using Amazon as a real example, which platforms creators use to manage them (Make.com, Canva, and Impact), and what the law requires you to disclose when you use them.
What Is an Affiliate Link?
An affiliate link is a special tracking URL that a creator gets from a company or a “retailer“ when they join that company's affiliate (or “associates“) program. The link looks like a normal web address, but it has a unique code embedded in it that identifies you as the source of the traffic.
When someone clicks your link and buys something (or signs up for a service), the retailer's system recognises that the sale came from your link, and pays you a small commission - a percentage of the sale, or sometimes a flat fee - as a thank-you for sending them a paying customer.
It's essentially digital word-of-mouth marketing with a paper trail. The company gets a sale it might not have gotten otherwise, the customer gets a genuine recommendation from someone they trust, and the creator gets paid for the referral. Nobody pays anything extra to make this happen - more on that below.
How It Works, Step by Step (Using Amazon as the Example)
A creator joins the Amazon Associates program. This is Amazon's affiliate program, and it's free to join.
Amazon generates a unique tracking link for any product on the site. It looks like a normal Amazon product URL but contains the creator's unique “tag“ (e.g., ?tag=creatorname-20).
The creator shares that link in a video description, blog post, Instagram bio, or newsletter.
A follower clicks the link and lands on the normal Amazon product page. A cookie is placed in their browser that tells Amazon “this visit came from this creator.“
If they buy the product (or often anything else during that shopping session) within a set window - Amazon's is commonly a 24-hour window - the creator earns a commission on the sale.
Amazon pays the creator on a regular schedule (Amazon typically pays out monthly, once a minimum threshold is met).
A Worked Example: The Harry Potter Book Collection
Let's say a creator makes a “cozy reading corner“ video and recommends the Harry Potter box set (the complete 7-book collection) as a gift idea.
Product price: Let's say the box set retails for £85 / $90.
Amazon's commission rate for the Books category currently sits at around 4.5% (Amazon sets different commission percentages for different product categories - books, home goods, electronics, and so on all pay differently, and Amazon can and does adjust these rates over time).
Commission earned: 4.5% of £85 ≈ £3.83 (or roughly $4.05 on a $90 sale) per box set sold through that link.
It doesn't sound like much for one sale - but multiply that across a video that's watched thousands of times, and it adds up. It's also worth noting that many affiliate programs, including Amazon's, pay out on everything a shopper buys during that browsing session, not just the exact product that was linked. So if someone clicks the Harry Potter link but ends up also buying a coffee maker, the creator may earn a commission on that too.
When creators make “evergreen” content - videos, social posts and articles - that will continue to gain traffic over time by maintaining relevancy. This article, in fact, is a decent example - creators will want to know how affiliate links work for many years to come, so the traffic doesn’t just stop a week or two after posting. If you optimise the content for discoverability and longevity, it can be a big earner for you as you build a library of content that lasts years within a specific community.
Why This Doesn't Cost the Buyer Anything Extra
This is the part people often misunderstand, so it's worth spelling out clearly: the customer pays exactly the same price whether they use an affiliate link or not.
The commission doesn't get added on top of the retail price - it comes out of Amazon's own marketing budget, as a “thank you“ to the creator for the referral. Amazon would rather pay a small percentage to a trusted creator who brought them a paying customer than spend that same money (or more) on traditional advertising. So:
The buyer pays the same price as if they'd typed “Harry Potter box set“ into Amazon's search bar directly.
The creator earns a small cut, funded by Amazon, not the buyer.
The only “cost“ to the shopper is a moment of their time clicking a link instead of searching manually.
This is exactly why so many creators are upfront about affiliate links - using them doesn't disadvantage the audience in any way, and being transparent about it builds trust rather than breaking it.
Beyond Amazon: Platforms That Power Affiliate Marketing
Amazon Associates is the most famous affiliate program, but it's really just one storefront's version of a much bigger ecosystem. Plenty of software companies run their own affiliate or “partner“ programs, and some of them are especially generous compared to Amazon's retail-category rates. A few worth knowing:
Make.com
Make.com (formerly Integromat) is a no-code automation platform, and its affiliate program is a good example of a recurring commission structure rather than a one-off payment. Affiliates earn a percentage of what a referred customer pays - currently around 35% of their subscription payments for 12 months after they sign up through the affiliate link. Because Make is a subscription product, a single referral who stays subscribed can be worth far more over time than a one-off product sale ever could.
Impact
Impact isn't a retailer itself - it's an affiliate marketing platform and network that many major brands (including Canva) use to run their affiliate programs behind the scenes. Instead of every brand building its own tracking system, dashboard, and payment infrastructure from scratch, Impact provides that infrastructure for them. For creators, this is genuinely useful: once you're set up on Impact, you can browse and apply to dozens of brand partnerships through a single dashboard, track clicks and conversions across all of them in one place, and receive payments without having to juggle separate logins and payout systems for every brand you work with. As an example - our affiliate partnership with Elgato runs though impact, so when you tap this link and purchase anything through their store, we earn a percentage of that sale.
Why These Platforms Matter for Creators
Together, tools like these make affiliate marketing far more sustainable as an income stream:
Diversification - relying on Amazon alone caps you at fairly low retail commission rates. Software affiliate programs (Canva, Make.com, and many others) often pay significantly more, especially on recurring subscriptions.
Centralized tracking - networks like Impact mean creators aren't stuck manually checking ten different dashboards to see what they've earned.
Passive, recurring income - subscription-based programs (like Make.com's 12-month recurring commission) can keep paying out long after the original content was published, unlike a one-time product sale.
Lower barrier to entry - most of these programs are free to join and don't require a huge following, just genuine, relevant content.
Disclaimers: What Creators Are Legally Required to Do
Using affiliate links isn't just a “nice to have“ disclosure - in both the UK and the US, it's a legal requirement. Regulators in both countries take the position that audiences have a right to know when a recommendation comes with a financial incentive attached.
In the United States
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires that any “material connection” between a creator and a brand - including earning a commission from a link - be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. Under the FTC's Endorsement Guides, this generally means:
The disclosure should be easy to notice and understand - not buried in a wall of hashtags, hidden behind a “more” button, or written in tiny grey text.
Something like “affiliate link,” “I earn a commission from purchases,” or “#ad” placed near the link (not just once at the very bottom of a long description) is the kind of language regulators expect.
The disclosure needs to appear on the platform where the audience will actually see it - a disclosure on a landing page doesn't cover you if the affiliate link was shared on Instagram or TikTok.
In the United Kingdom
In the UK, affiliate marketing disclosure is governed primarily by the CAP Code, enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), alongside consumer protection law enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The core requirements are similar in spirit to the US:
Content must be obviously identifiable as advertising - the ASA's general guidance is that ads should be labeled “Ad” (or similarly explicit language) in a way that's upfront, not hidden in a caption.
The disclosure should appear before or near the affiliate link itself.
The CMA has also taken enforcement action specifically around hidden affiliate marketing relationships, treating undisclosed commercial relationships as potentially misleading commercial practices.
The Practical Takeaway
Regardless of which country your audience is in (and many creators have audiences in both), the safest approach is to:
Clearly label affiliate content - “affiliate link,”“ad,” or “#AD” near the link itself, not just in a bio or at the very end of a long description.
Make it plain that you may earn a commission if they buy through your link.
Reassure your audience (accurately) that using the link doesn't cost them anything extra - which, as covered above, is true for the vast majority of affiliate programs.
Disclose on every platform where the link appears, not just once somewhere central.
Being upfront about affiliate links isn't just a legal box to tick - it also tends to build more trust with an audience, not less. People are generally fine with creators earning money from recommendations, as long as they aren't being misled about it.
This article is for general educational purposes and isn't legal advice. Affiliate program terms, commission rates, and disclosure regulations can and do change - always check the current terms of any program you join, and consult a legal professional if you need guidance specific to your situation.