YAUPICKS
YAUPICKSBack to Home

Affiliates

YAUPICKS affiliate content policy

This policy forms part of the terms of participating in the YAUPICKS affiliate program. It applies to every format: blog posts, review and comparison pages, YouTube videos, short form video, podcasts, newsletters, social posts, forum posts and direct messages.

It exists for two reasons. The first is legal: under the Australian Consumer Law both the person publishing and the business that recruited them can be liable for misleading claims. The second is commercial: this category is full of overclaiming and the audience has learned to discount it. Accurate content outperforms hyped content here.

1. Disclose the commercial relationship, every time

If you earn commission from a link, you must disclose it. This is a legal requirement in Australia, not a courtesy.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission requires influencers and businesses to clearly disclose commercial relationships and incentives when promoting products or services, and that specifically includes affiliate marketing. The ACCC's 2023 sweep of influencer content found that 81% of the influencers reviewed were making posts that raised concerns under the Australian Consumer Law, and the most common problem was failure to disclose a brand relationship.

What the ACCC has said counts as adequate disclosure:

  • A clear label such as #ad, #sponsored or #paidpartnership, or a spoken statement of the commercial nature of the content at the beginning of a video.
  • The label must be easy to read. Do not use a font that is too small or a colour that blends into the background.
  • The disclosure must be prominent. Burying it at the end of a long caption, or inside a block of other hashtags, does not meet the standard.
  • Vague abbreviations are not enough. The ACCC named "sp", "spon", "sponcon", "collab", "creativepartner" and "ambassador" as terms that are confusing to consumers.

For written content, put a plain sentence above the first affiliate link, not in the footer. For example: "This page contains affiliate links. If you join YAUPICKS through them I earn a recurring commission at no extra cost to you."

Sources: ACCC, Social media promotions, ACCC, Social media influencer testimonials and endorsements (December 2023), ACCC media release, scrutiny of influencers and businesses continues.

2. What you may say

  • Your own experience, honestly described. What you did, what happened, what you found hard, what you would tell someone starting out. If you made money, you can say what you made, as long as it is true, it is yours, and you say clearly that it is one person's result and not a typical or promised one.
  • The real price. Quote the current subscription price exactly as it is shown at checkout. If a promotion or a different plan applies, quote it accurately and remove it from your content when it ends.
  • The real trial terms. There is a 7 day free trial. Say that it converts to a paid membership at the end of the 7 days unless it is cancelled. Do not describe it in any way that implies it is longer, cheaper or harder to cancel than it is.
  • The real commission structure, if you choose to mention it: 40% of every payment, recurring for as long as the referred member stays subscribed.
  • Criticism. You may publish what you think the product does badly. A balanced review is more useful to your audience and more durable in search. You do not need our approval to be critical and you will never be dropped for it.
  • What matched betting actually is: a method of using bookmaker promotions by covering a back bet with a lay bet, which reduces variance but does not eliminate risk, requires capital to run, and results in bookmaker account restrictions over time. Saying so builds more trust than hiding it.

3. What you may not say

  • No guaranteed profits. Never state or imply that anyone will make money, will make a specific amount, or cannot lose. No "guaranteed", no "you will make", no "profit every month".
  • No "risk free". Do not describe matched betting, YAUPICKS or any strategy taught here as risk free, no risk or zero risk, however the sentence is constructed. This includes phrasings like "win, lose or draw you make money". Real money is placed with real bookmakers and mistakes cost money.
  • No income guarantees attached to a price. Never tie an expected return to the cost of the membership, in either direction. Do not write anything of the shape "X dollars a week to make Y dollars a week".
  • No earnings promises about the affiliate program either. You may state the 40% recurring rate, because it is a fact. You may not tell your audience what they will earn as an affiliate, or present affiliate income as a guaranteed or typical outcome.
  • No fake scarcity or fake deadlines. No countdown timers on offers that do not expire, no "only X spots left" unless a real cap exists and you have confirmed the number with us, no "price rises tonight" unless it does.
  • No financial or health advice framing. Do not present this as investment advice, wealth management, a substitute for income, or a solution to debt or financial hardship. Do not target people in financial distress.
  • No misrepresenting the trial. Do not call it free with no strings, do not omit that it converts to a paid membership, do not overstate its length.
  • Never describe YAUPICKS as a bookmaker or a tipster. It is neither. It does not accept bets, hold funds or take a position against anybody, and it does not sell picks, tips, selections or predictions. It is an education service that teaches a method. Getting this wrong is the specific error that has already caused YAUPICKS to be miscategorised by third party sites, and correcting it is part of why this program exists.
  • No fabricated results. Do not publish screenshots, betting slips, profit figures or testimonials that are not genuinely yours or not genuinely from the person named. Do not reuse someone else's screenshot as your own.
  • No content aimed at minors. Betting is 18+. Do not publish on platforms, in formats or with creative that is directed at or likely to appeal to people under 18.
  • No unauthorised paid search on our brand. Do not bid on "YAUPICKS" or close variants in Google Ads or any paid search platform, and do not use the brand name in a display URL. You are competing with us for traffic we already have.
  • No self referral. Do not use your own link to buy your own membership, and do not arrange for a household member to do so on your behalf. Because commission is recurring, a self referral is a permanent discount rather than a one off one, and it ends the partnership immediately.
  • No coupon, cashback or deal aggregator placements, and no unsolicited direct messages, cold email, or spam of any kind.
  • No use of the YAUPICKS name in a way that implies you are us. Do not register domains, social handles or channel names containing the brand, and do not present yourself as an official or authorised representative.

4. Claims we will support

If you want to publish a figure about YAUPICKS (member numbers, results, ratings, anything) ask us first and we will either give you the real number or tell you we cannot substantiate it. Under the Australian Consumer Law a business can be required to back up the claims made about it. We would rather hand you a number we can defend than have you use one you found on a scraper site.

5. Enforcement

Most breaches are careless and we will ask you to correct them first, with a reasonable window to do it. Repeated failure to correct, and any instance of self referral, brand bidding, fabricated results or guaranteed profit claims, ends the partnership and forfeits unpaid commission, including the recurring commission on members previously referred.

We may ask you to remove or amend content that misrepresents the product even where it is not listed above, because the list is not exhaustive and the obligation under the Australian Consumer Law is not to mislead, not merely to avoid a specific banned phrase.

Questions: support@yaupicks.com

Back to the affiliate program page. YAUPICKS PTY LTD (ABN 40 673 940 228). Matched betting involves gambling, which carries risk. Never bet money you cannot afford to lose. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au. See our responsible gambling page.