So how do we bring all these elements together? What follows is a sample agreement that covers most of the agreement elements discussed in this chapter. The sample is an affiliate agreement for a company I owned called One Minute Shopper. Use this agreement ONLY as a guide. Keep in mind that the needs of your program agreement may be different, so make sure you contact legal counsel when writing your own program agreement.
What’s an Affiliate Information Page?
An affiliate information page is a page (or pages) on your Web site that explains clearly and concisely what your affiliate program is all about. |
90
One MinuteShopper.com Affiliate Agreement This Agreement contains the complete terms and conditions that apply to your participation in the One Minute Shopper.com Affiliate Partner Program (the "Program"). As used in this Agreement, "we," "our," and "us" refer to One Minute Shopper.com, Inc., and "you" and "your" refer to the applicant. "Site" means a World Wide Web site, and the "MinuteStore" refers to our E Commerce icon and transaction tool that is to be displayed on your site in accordance with this Agreement in order to afford visitors to your site the opportunity to purchase products offered by us and to join the "MinuteShoppers Club" described below. 1. Enrollment in the Program To begin the enrollment process, you will submit a complete Program application via our site. We will evaluate your application in good faith and will notify you of its acceptance or rejection. We may reject your application if we determine (in our sole discretion) that your site is unsuitable for the Program for any reason. Unsuitable sites include (but are not limited to) those that: Contain content that is unlawful, threatening, defamatory, obscene or otherwise objectionable; Promote sexually explicit materials; Promote violence; Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age; Promote illegal activities; Violate or infringe upon intellectual property rights. If we reject your application, you are welcome to reapply to the Program at any time. If we accept your application, we reserve the right to terminate this Agreement if we ever determine (in our sole discretion) that your site is unsuitable for the Program for any reason. 2. The MinuteStore Once we notify you that we have accepted your site into the Program, we will authorize you to copy the code for the MinuteStore from a password protected site (www.reporting.net) maintained for us by Be Free, Inc. ("Be Free") and display the MinuteStore on your site. We encourage you to place the MinuteStore, which you may use only on the terms and conditions of this Agreement, as prominently as possible on the most heavily trafficked pages of your site and to follow our instructions regarding the operation of the MinuteStore. From time to time, we will offer different products for sale through the MinuteStore and also may modify the logos and other information presented in, and the overall appearance of the MinuteStore. All such changes and modifications will occur automatically, without any prior notice to you. You will not be required to change any code, as we change our products automatically. 3. MinuteShoppers Club We will encourage customers who visit the MinuteStore on your site to join our MinuteShoppers Club and take advantage of product presales and other promotions that we intend to offer exclusively to MinuteShoppers Club members. Members who join the MinuteShoppers Club from the MinuteStore on your site may view the product offers that we will make available from time to time to MinuteShoppers Club members. The MinuteShoppers Club members will view co-branded pages that we will maintain on our site. As a condition to our obligations under this paragraph, however, we expect you to provide to us, or to allow us to download from your site, the trademarks and logos that we may need to co-brand the Web pages contemplated by this paragraph. By entering into this Agreement, you grant to us a nonexclusive license to use those trademarks and logos, and any accompanying graphic images and text, solely for purposes of creating and maintaining co-branded Web pages for the MinuteShoppers Club. 4. Order Processing We will process product orders placed by customers who purchase products or join the MinuteShoppers Club using the MinuteStore on your site. We reserve the right to reject orders that do not comply with any and all our requirements that we periodically may establish. We will be responsible for all aspects of order processing and fulfillment. Among other things, we will prepare order forms, process payments, cancellations, returns, and handle customer service. 5. Sales Tracking We will rely on Be Free Inc. (Be Free) to track sales made to customers who purchase products or join the MinuteShoppers Club using the MinuteStore on your site. Be Free will make available to you the sales activity, as well as reports regarding end-user impressions and click-throughs, at its www.reporting.net site. You and we each agree to rely on, and not to challenge or dispute, the sales tracking and other information that Be Free compiles in connection with the Program, which will bind both you and us for all purposes under this Agreement. 6. Payment You will earn a 10% commission on all products shipped to customers who purchase products from the MinuteStore on your site. You will also receive a 10% commission on purchases made by MinuteShopper Club Members who have joined the MinuteShopper Club through our MinuteStore on your site. If your sales exceed $3,500 for any month, you will receive 12% commissions on all products shipped for that month. If your sales exceed $7,000 for any month, you will receive 15% commissions on all products shipped for that month. All sales exclude any taxes or shipping costs that we may charge. We will pay all commissions that accrue on a monthly basis, within thirty days after each month end. If the commissions that accrue in any month total less than $10, we will hold the commissions and pay them to you thirty days after the end of the first month in which aggregate accrued but unpaid commissions total $10 or more. If a customer returns or receives a refund or credit for a product that generated a commission under this paragraph, we will deduct that commission from your next monthly payment or payments. If no further payments are due under this Agreement, we reserve the right to send you a bill for any commissions associated with returned products. As with sales tracking information, we have engaged Be Free to calculate the commissions that you will receive under the Program, and Be Free's commission calculations will bind both you and us for all purposes under this Agreement. 7. Policies and Pricing All customers who buy products through the Program or join the MinuteShoppers Club are customers of One Minute Shopper.com. Accordingly, all One Minute Shopper.com rules, policies, and operating procedures concerning customer orders, customer service, pricing and product sales will apply to those customers. We may change our policies and operating procedures at any time, in our sole discretion. Product prices and availability may vary from time to time. Because price changes may affect products that you already have listed on your site, you may not include price information in your product descriptions. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to present accurate information, but we cannot guarantee the availability or price of any particular product. 8. Limited License We grant you a nonexclusive, revocable right to use the MinuteStore and any other images and text that we may provide to you solely for the purpose of identifying your site as a Program participant and to assist in generating product sales through the Program. You may not modify the MinuteStore or any other graphic images or text that we may provide you in any way. We reserve all our rights in the MinuteStore, all such graphic images, text, our trade names and trademarks and all other intellectual property rights. You agree to follow our instructions respecting the use of your trademarks, and those instructions may change from time to time. We may revoke your license at any time by giving you written notice. 9. Responsibility for Your Site You will have sole responsibility for the development, operation and maintenance of your site and for all materials that appear on your site. For example, you will be solely responsible for: The technical operation of your site and all related equipment. The accuracy and appropriateness of materials posted on your site (including, among other things, all product-related materials). Ensuring that materials posted on your site do not violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party (including, for example, copyrights, trademarks, privacy or other personal or proprietary rights). Ensuring that materials posted on your site are not obscene, defamatory, libelous or otherwise illegal. We disclaim all liability for all matters relating to the development, operation, maintenance, and contents of your site. 10. Indemnification You will indemnify, defend and hold us harmless against any and all claims, lawsuits, damages, and expenses (including, without limitation, attorneys' fees) that we may or that anyone may assert as a result of (1) our use of any trademarks, logos, graphic images, text or other materials that you may provide to us or allow us to use under paragraph 3; or (2) anything occurring on your site or arising from the development, operation or maintenance of your site. 11. Term of the Agreement The term of this Agreement will begin upon our acceptance of your Program application and will end when terminated by either party. Either you or we may terminate this Agreement at any time and for any reason by giving the other party written notice of termination, which may be via email but must be responded to with a reply, stating receipt, within 48 hours. Upon the termination of this Agreement for any reason, you will immediately cease using, and remove from your site, all links to our commerce server, all One Minute Shopper.com trademarks, trade dress and logos and all other materials that we may have provided to you or allowed you to use in connection with the Program, and we will immediately cease using, and remove from our site, all trademarks, logos, graphic images, text or other materials that you may provide to us or allow us to use under paragraph 3. You are eligible to earn only those commissions that may accrue under paragraph 5 during the term of this agreement, and commissions earned through the date of termination will remain payable only if the customer does not cancel the order, return the products purchased or receive a refund or credit. We may withhold your final payment for a reasonable time to ensure payment of the correct commission amount. 12. Modification We may modify any of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement, at any time and at our sole discretion, by posting a change notice or a new agreement on our site. ALL SUCH MODIFICATIONS WILL TAKE EFFECT AT THE TIME WE SPECIFY OR, IF WE SPECIFY NO SUCH TIME, IMMEDIATELY UPON THEIR POSTING ON OUR SITE. IF ANY MODIFICATION IS UNACCEPTABLE TO YOU, YOUR ONLY RECOURSE IS TO TERMINATE THIS AGREEMENT. YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAM FOLLOWING OUR POSTING OF A CHANGE NOTICE OR NEW AGREEMENT ON OUR SITE WILL EVIDENCE YOUR BINDING ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHANGE. 13. Relationship of Parties You and we are independent contractors, and nothing in this Agreement will create any partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, sales representative, or employment relationship between the parties. You will have no authority to make or accept any offers or representations on our behalf. You will not make any statement, whether on your site or otherwise, that reasonably would contradict anything in this Section. 14. Disclaimers WE MAKE NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE PROGRAM OR ANY PRODUCTS SOLD THROUGH THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NO INFRINGEMENT, OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES ARISING FROM A COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, DEALING OR TRADE USAGE). IN ADDITION, WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATION THAT THE OPERATION OF OUR SITE OR OUR COMMERCE SERVER WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, AND WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE CONSEQUENCES OF ANY INTERRUPTIONS OR ERRORS. 15. Limitation of Liability WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (OR ANY LOSS OF REVENUE, PROFITS OR DATA) ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR THE PROGRAM, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. FURTHER, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING WITH RESPECT TO THIS AGREEMENT AND THE PROGRAM WILL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL REFERRAL FEES PAID OR PAYABLE TO YOU UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. 16. Independent Investigation YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WE MAY AT ANY TIME (DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY) SOLICIT CUSTOMER REFERRALS ON TERMS THAT MAY DIFFER FROM THOSE CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT OR OPERATE WEB SITES THAT ARE SIMILAR TO OR COMPETE WITH YOUR WEB SITE. YOU HAVE INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED THE DESIRABILITY OF PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAM AND ARE NOT RELYING ON ANY REPRESENTATION, GUARANTEE, OR STATEMENT NOT SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT. 17. Miscellaneous This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the United States and the state of Arizona, without reference to rules governing choice of laws. Any action relating to this Agreement must be brought in the federal or state courts located in Phoenix, Arizona, and you irrevocably consent to the jurisdiction of those courts and waive any claim that those courts constitute an inappropriate venue or inconvenient forum. You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Subject to that restriction, this Agreement will bind, insure to the benefit of and be enforceable against the parties and their respective successors and assigns. Our failure to enforce your strict performance of any provision of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of our right to subsequently enforce such provision or any other provision of this Agreement.
3.139.90.172