As a site with affiliate relationships, you need to meet certain standards, and make certain assurances to the merchants or advertisers who, in turn, need to make certain they are dealing with a responsible and honest business. One of the common clauses in a program agreement is that you do not and will not violate the intellectual property rights of other companies or individuals.

How does this affect you? You need to be certain that the content of your site was written, designed or otherwise created by employees or as work for hire that gives you full ownership rights to the material. This means also that you need to have strict, written policies for employees that forbid plagiarizing or otherwise copying the works of others. If you use contractors to write and design for you, you need to receive written assurances from them that they also are in compliance with this company policy. If you do use the works of others, such as the reprint of an article, be scrupulous about doing so only after receiving written permission.

Why is this so important for affiliate sites? Merchant partners have their branding at stake and cant be involved in practices that may in any way reflect upon them. If you are drawn into a messy lawsuit with an author or designer, or even worse, proven guilty of infringement, no matter how innocent you feel you are, you are likely to find that your merchants will take off in droves. Reclaiming your reputation will be difficult, if it is possible at all. So, put the procedures in place, and make no exceptions, because you want to run a site and make money, not pay lawyers and defend your reputation!