Automate Your Affiliate Disclosures With ShortsFire

Why Affiliate Disclosures Matter For Short-Form Creators

If you earn money from links, promo codes, or brand deals, you’re doing affiliate marketing. That means you’re expected to tell viewers about it clearly and consistently.

For short-form creators, this gets tricky:

You post a lot of clips.
You schedule content across multiple platforms.
Every platform has different norms and disclosure spots.
It’s easy to forget the legal stuff when you’re focused on hooks, cuts, and retention.

Affiliate disclosures are not just a nice-to-have:

Many countries require them by law or regulation.
Platforms can remove or restrict your content if you hide sponsorships.
Viewers lose trust if they feel tricked by hidden promos.

The good news is you don’t need to write a unique disclosure from scratch for every single Short, Reel, or TikTok. You can automate most of it using a repeatable system inside ShortsFire.

This guide walks through what your disclosures should say and how to set them up once so they appear automatically with every piece of content that needs them.

What A “Good Enough” Affiliate Disclosure Looks Like

You don’t need legal-speak. In fact, regulators usually prefer clear, everyday language.

You want to answer three simple questions for viewers:

Are you getting paid or earning a commission?
Is the link or code related to that commission?
Can they understand that without clicking “more” or reading fine print?

Here are some solid, short examples:

“Some of the links here are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you buy.”
“I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases through these links.”
“This video contains affiliate links. Using them helps support the channel.”
“Paid partnership: I may earn a commission when you use my link or code.”

Key points:

Put disclosures in clear language.
Don’t hide them behind vague phrases like “supported by partners.”
Make sure they’re visible quickly, not buried in a long description paragraph.

You can adjust phrasing to sound like you, but keep those elements in place.

Where Disclosures Should Appear On Each Platform

Before you automate anything in ShortsFire, you need a simple, repeatable pattern for each platform you publish to.

Here’s a straightforward baseline you can use.

YouTube Shorts

Use both of these:

Text in the first 2 lines of your description
Example:
This video contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
Visual or spoken disclosure if the whole Short is promotional
- Say it briefly: “This video includes affiliate links in the description.”
- Or add clear text on screen for at least a couple of seconds.

TikTok

Short, clear, and near the top:

First line of your video description
Example:
Affiliate links included. I may earn a commission if you buy.
Optional text overlay in the first scene
Something like “Affiliate links in bio” or “Affiliate links in description.”

Instagram Reels

Remember people often watch Reels without expanding the caption.

Use:

First line of the caption
Example:
Contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission from purchases.
Optional on-screen text
Especially if you’re directly talking about a product.

Once you pick your phrases, you can wire them directly into ShortsFire so you don’t have to type them again.

Step 1: Create Your Reusable Disclosure Snippets

Treat your disclosures like templates, not one-off lines.

Inside ShortsFire, you can create saved text blocks and default description presets. The exact names might change slightly as the platform updates, but the workflow stays similar.

Here’s how to structure them.

Make 2 Core Templates

Create two main templates you can reuse everywhere:

General affiliate template
For videos where you occasionally mention products or include links.

Example template:

This video may contain affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Heavy promo template
For videos that are mostly product-focused, reviews, or “top 5” style lists.

Example template:

This video is part of my affiliate marketing. I may earn commissions from links and codes mentioned here. I only share products I actually recommend.

Store both as reusable blocks in ShortsFire so you can drop them into any description with a click.

Localize If Needed

If your audience is mostly in a specific region, you might:

Create an English version.
Create a localized version in another language.
Add platform-specific phrasing if a regulator in your country suggests certain wording.

ShortsFire’s templates make it easy to maintain multiple versions. Give each template a clear name like:

Affiliates - Short
Affiliates - Long / Promo Heavy
Affiliates - ES (for Spanish), etc.

Step 2: Build Default Descriptions Inside ShortsFire

Now that you have your text snippets, tie them into how you actually publish content.

You don’t want to think about disclosures every time you export or schedule.

Set Channel or Profile Defaults

For each connected account inside ShortsFire:

Open that channel or profile’s settings.
Look for default description or default caption settings.
Insert your general affiliate template in a consistent place.

A simple structure works well:

[Hook line that teases the Short]

[Main caption or context for the clip]

This video may contain affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Links & resources:
[Your link]

Why this works:

The hook stays at the top.
The disclosure appears early and clearly.
Links sit underneath so viewers connect them to the disclosure.

Do this per platform. You might tweak the length for TikTok or Instagram where space feels tighter.

Step 3: Use Presets For Different Content Types

Not every Short or Reel will be monetized the same way. Some might push a specific offer heavily, others might just have a passive link in the description.

ShortsFire lets you create multiple templates or presets for different content types.

Here’s a simple system:

Preset A: “Light Affiliate”

Use this for content where:

You mention a tool or product in passing.
You have one or two links in the description.
The main focus of the video is education or entertainment, not selling.

Template structure:

[Hook / main caption]

This video may contain affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

More info:
[Links]

Preset B: “Heavy Promo / Sponsored Feel”

Use this for:

Product reviews or “top 10” lists
Dedicated promo codes
Anything that feels like an ad, even if the brand didn’t pay you upfront

Template structure:

[Hook / main caption focused on the product]

This video is part of my [affiliate marketing](/blog/affiliate-marketing-with-faceless-shorts-on-autopilot). I may earn commissions from links and codes mentioned here. I only share products I actually recommend.

Shop the products:
[Links]

Preset C: “No Affiliate”

Some content may be purely organic, with no links at all. Use a clean preset with no disclosure for those.

This makes it easy to stay honest without cluttering captions when there’s genuinely nothing to disclose.

In ShortsFire, label these presets clearly, for example:

Default - Light Affiliate
Promo - Heavy Affiliate
Clean - No Links

When you batch-schedule, choose the right preset for each batch of content instead of editing each caption by hand.

Step 4: Make Disclosures Visible In The Video Too

Captions are helpful, but they’re not enough on their own if:

Someone watches your Short on a screen where captions are hidden.
Your content looks exactly like an ad.

ShortsFire helps you generate and edit short-form content quickly, so build disclosure into your visual style:

Simple On-Screen Text Ideas

Use one of these in the first few seconds when appropriate:

“Affiliate links in description”
“Contains affiliate links”
“Paid partnership / affiliate”

Keep it:

High contrast
Large enough to read
On screen for at least 1 to 2 seconds

If you’re speaking directly about the product, a quick spoken line helps too:

“Links are in the description and some are affiliate links.”
“If you use my code, I earn a small commission.”

You don’t need to overdo it, just be transparent.

Step 5: Build A Quick Pre-Publish Checklist

Automation works best when it’s paired with one simple manual check.

Before you hit publish or schedule inside ShortsFire, run through a tiny checklist:

Does this Short include any affiliate link or code?
- Yes: pick “Light” or “Heavy” affiliate preset.
- No: pick “No Affiliate” preset.
Is the disclosure in the first 2 to 3 lines of the caption?
- If not, move it up.
Is the whole Short about a product?
- If yes, consider adding on-screen text or a spoken line.
Did you copy-paste from another project?
- Make sure the disclosure didn’t get cut or buried.

This takes under a minute and keeps you from relying 100% on memory.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

Even experienced creators slip on these points:

Burying disclosures under a wall of hashtags
Keep disclosures above or separate from your tags.
Using vague language only
“Thanks to my partners” isn’t clear enough. Mention affiliate links or commissions directly.
Only disclosing on YouTube
If you’re cross-posting with ShortsFire to TikTok and Instagram, each platform needs its own clear disclosure.
Forgetting when you reuse a clip months later
If the affiliate deal is gone, remove the link or update the disclosure.

Automation reduces these errors a lot, as long as your templates are set up thoughtfully.

Final Thoughts

Legal and platform rules around disclosures can change, and they differ by country. The goal here is not to replace legal advice, but to give you a practical system:

Write one or two clear disclosure templates.
Save them as reusable presets in ShortsFire.
Set defaults per channel so every new Short starts from a compliant caption.
Add quick on-screen text for product-heavy content.
Run a short checklist before you schedule.

Do that, and disclosures become a background process instead of a creative headache. You stay on the right side of the rules, and your audience knows they can trust how you recommend products.