Affiliate marketing agreements can be an inexpensive way to build online sales for your business, with minimal ongoing effort on your part. An affiliate marketing program is essentially an online, commission-based referral system. An affiliate typically has a popular website, blog, or social media feed, and they agree to feature your product or service in exchange for a small commission. You only pay a commission when someone clicks on the affiliate’s link to your website and subsequently makes a purchase.

Before starting an affiliate marketing program, you first need to ensure that the terms of the agreement make sense for your particular business. A skilled Florida cyberlaw attorney can help you make sure that the terms of any agreement are attractive to potential affiliates, but also profitable for you.

Here are a few key terms to pay attention to in any affiliate marketing agreement:

Online reseller agreements have become a popular business model in recent years. Formed between a product owner and an online reseller, these agreements can produce substantial and incremental income for both parties. Success, however, is heavily dependent on having a well-written online reseller contract.

The Basics of Online Reseller Agreements in Florida

An online reseller is responsible for attracting customers and taking orders for the product. The reseller may obtain orders through their own website and/or through an online marketplace website, such as Amazon or eBay, depending on the terms of the agreement.

The product owner may be a large manufacturer,  U.S. distributor, or even an artisan. The product owner is responsible for shipping orders directly to the end customer. In the case of digital products, such as software or photographs, a customer may download their purchase from either the reseller’s website or the owner’s website, depending on how the reseller agreement is written.

If you are refreshing your business’s existing website or building a new one, where will you spend most of your time? Optimizing your home page? Making sure all of your product and service offerings are described to best advantage? Streamlining your check-out process to maximize e-commerce sales? 

In the process of perfecting your website, there is one page you might easily overlook: your Terms of Service, or TOS, agreement (sometimes called the website’s Terms of Use or User Agreement). You should know that a well-written Terms of Service agreement could actually prove as important to your business as any other page of your website.

What Is the Purpose of a Terms of Service Agreement?

As a business owner, you know how important your website is for attracting new customers and generating sales. But are you confident that your Terms of Service and Privacy Policy pages are up-to-date with current laws and fully protecting you from potential lawsuits?

A Privacy Policy is required by law when your website collects customer emails, phone numbers, shipping addresses, or other personally identifiable information (PII). The Terms of Service can be equally important to protect your business from legal liability. This article will focus strictly on Privacy Policy, with a future article addressing Terms of Service.

Consumer Privacy Laws Are Becoming More Strict

Whenever two businesses expect to have an ongoing relationship, with one providing services to the other on a project-by-project basis, a master services agreement can simplify their repeated transactions.

Many types of businesses can benefit from using a master services agreement, including those who sell website creation and maintenance services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and cloud computing services. 

But what exactly should be included in your MSA? Here are some tips for creating a strong MSA for your business: