Commissions and Payments

• 15% commission paid on all sales
• 180 day cookie
• Fast and accurate payments via PayPal
• Commission Payment Threshold is $50

Affiliate commissions are paid on the 20th of each month for all transactions occurring during the previous month

Use of Trademarks

We do not allow the use of our trademarks, URLs, misspellings, extensions or any variation within the goal of optimizing for them.  Below are guidelines to follow.

• PPC and Media Buys – Affiliates may not bid or use any Merchant trademarks, names, extensions or variations as keywords for any PPC network, content network or media buy.  Affiliates should also add lowcarbusa and lowcarbusa.org to their negative keywords list.  lowcarbusa.org reserves the right to see screenshots ensuring compliant promotion. If an affiliate fails to provide this within five business days, they will be subject to program removal.
• Social Media – Affiliates may not use the name lowcarbusa or any variation as hashtags, pretend to be lowcarbusa.org, represent lowcarbusa.org or be endorsed or sponsored by lowcarbusa.org.  Affiliates may not create an account using our name or post any messages, include our materials or links to any lowcarbusa.org account or profile.  You also agree to not tag, call out or link to our social profiles.
• SEO – Affiliates may not build pages, websites, blogs or domains that optimize for lowcarbusa.org including modifiers and extensions.  This includes terms like reviews, coupons, discounts, download, app, etc…  If Affiliates build a URL like URL.com/ lowcarbusa-coupons.html, we request Affiliates to include a no index tag and block access to the page via the site’s robots.txt so that the specific page cannot be indexed in the search engines.  If this cannot be done, we will ask for the page to be taken down immediately or Affiliates will be subject to program removal.  Exceptions may be considered on a case-by-case basis. All approval must be provided in writing by lowcarbusa.org.

Advertising Disclosures

Advertising disclosures must always be present.  Disclosures must appear before any affiliate links are visible, and cannot be in popup windows, drop-down menus, footers, the bottom of blog posts or anywhere else that would appear after an affiliate link or where they are not easily visible.  Advertising disclosures must also always be used when promoting an affiliate link on any social media site, email campaign or other marketing pieces.  Failure to use a proper advertising disclosure will result in an immediate removal from the Merchant.com program. Affiliates also agree to take any and all financial and legal liabilities that occur to lowcarbusa.org or their affiliate management for a lack of disclosures.

Coupon & Loyalty Sites

The following guidelines are essential in the proper promotion of lowcarbusa.org. Any violations may result in the reversal of all commissions and removal from the lowcarbusa.org Affiliate Program. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis but must be provided in writing by lowcarbusa.org

We do not allow the following:

• Hidden codes – Affiliates cannot hide, have click to reveal or block users from accessing a deal, coupon or discount code.
• Expired codes – Affiliates cannot post any deal or discount code that is expired and all codes on Affiliate sites must be current, active and approved.
• Non affiliate codes – Affiliates cannot use any code, discount or deal that is not provided inside the affiliate network.
• Nonexistent codes or deals – Affiliates cannot post that there is a deal or discount available if we are not offering one through our partner program.
• Pages to rank for URL + modifiers – Affiliates cannot create indexable pages that are built to rank for our URL + coupons, deals, discounts, savings, etc…
• Posting codes to properties you do not own – Affiliates cannot post codes, coupons or deals to websites and web properties you do not own.  You can, however, post to your own social media accounts, as long as you follow our trademark, social media, disclosure and branding guidelines.

Toolbars, Downloadable Software and Adware

Merchant does not allow adware of any kind in the program.  Merchant considers adware to be any technology that can interrupt the shopping process, traffic, disrupt the end user experience or be used to display an ad.  This includes but is not limited to PPV, couponware, reminderware, loyaltyware, contextual ads, interruptive ads, shopping windows, browser helper objects, CPV advertising.

Link Cloaking

All links have to be clearly visible and not cloaked.  We need to see the referring URL from the exact page the last click came from.  Affiliates cannot cloak links, use redirects or show us one page but end users the other.

No Auto-monetization Tools or Scripts

• We treat this the same as adware.  Anything that interrupts the current shopping process will not be allowed for any reason, including turning direct links into affiliate links with javascripts, toolbars, contextual software, etc…
• The one exception is for new traffic and new content that is created directly from the efforts of the tool or script providers.  This content will have to be approved as commissionable by the E-Commerce department head in writing.

Right to Reverse Commissions and Acceptance Into the Merchant Program

Merchant reserves the right to reverse, cancel or modify affiliate commissions at any time for any reason. Merchant further reserves the right to remove or add affiliate partners at its sole discretion. A written explanation does not need to be provided.

Terms Of Use Changes

It is your responsibility to check the Merchant affiliate program Terms of Use as we will update them on occasion and may not provide the dates when they will change or the details about the changes.

Email Guidelines

Email marketing campaigns are permitted. All affiliates must be Can-SPAM compliant.