Field notes
Playbooks, teardowns and the occasional argument — everything we have learned helping creators grow across every major platform.
The first line, before anything else. Every other placement is a judgement call, and two of them have been ruled against — the hashtag block and anything below the fold.
Almost every disclosure that draws a regulator's attention has perfectly good wording. What it does not have is placement. Here is what to say, and where it has to sit.
Receiving something free is a material connection whether or not you were paid. Whether it also needs the ad label depends on one question: did the brand have any say?
The Endorsement Guides are shorter and clearer than their reputation. Here is what they actually require, which labels the FTC has ruled out, and what trips people up.
A commission is a material connection. The disclosure belongs next to the link, not only in a bio or a pinned comment — and that is where most affiliate posts fail.