How to Add Affiliate Links to Substack Newsletters (Without Losing Commissions)

To add affiliate links to Substack, generate your affiliate link from your program dashboard, wrap it in a smart link to avoid email stripping and capture international clicks, paste it as a hyperlink in your Substack editor, and add an FTC disclosure before the first link. Substack allows affiliate links, but Amazon affiliate links are automatically stripped from email versions of your posts — and since most readers open the email, not the web version, you lose the majority of potential commissions unless you use a redirect-based workaround.

TL;DR: Substack allows affiliate links, but Amazon links get stripped from email and international readers clicking US-only links do not convert. The fix is wrapping your affiliate links in a smart link before adding them to Substack. Smart links survive the email filter, geo-route international readers to their local storefront, and give you click analytics that Substack’s dashboard does not provide.

If you write a Substack newsletter and recommend products, you are leaving money on the table unless you understand two problems that most newsletter creators never address: Amazon’s email restriction and international audience leakage. This post walks through exactly how to add affiliate links to Substack the right way — step by step, with workarounds for the biggest pitfalls and ready-to-use FTC disclosure templates.

Does Substack Allow Affiliate Links?

Yes, Substack allows affiliate links. The official policy has one hard rule: your publication cannot exist solely for the purpose of promoting affiliate products. If your newsletter delivers genuine content and you include affiliate links alongside that content, you are compliant.

There is, however, one major technical exception that catches almost every new Substack affiliate marketer off guard: Amazon affiliate links are automatically stripped from the email version of every post.

This matters because Substack sends your posts as emails, and most readers never visit the web version. According to Substack’s own data, the majority of engagement happens in the inbox. If your Amazon affiliate link only survives on the web version, you are reaching a fraction of your audience with it.

Every other affiliate program — impact.com, ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, direct brand programs, SaaS referral programs — works normally in Substack emails. The stripping only applies to Amazon.

The Amazon Problem — Why Your Affiliate Links Disappear in Email

Amazon’s Associates Program Operating Agreement explicitly bans the distribution of affiliate links via email. Substack complies with this by scanning every post before it hits inboxes and removing any URL that matches Amazon’s affiliate link patterns. The link stays on the web version of your post, but it vanishes from the email.

This is not a Substack decision — it is an Amazon requirement. Substack is following Amazon’s rules to avoid having their entire platform flagged by Amazon’s affiliate compliance team.

The practical impact is brutal. If 80% of your readers consume your newsletter in email and you are recommending a product on Amazon, 80% of your potential affiliate clicks never happen.

The Workaround: Use a Smart Link Instead

The fix is straightforward: wrap your Amazon affiliate link in a smart redirect URL before pasting it into Substack.

When you create a smart link through Youfiliate, a smart links platform that turns affiliate links into geo-targeted, branded short URLs with built-in click analytics, your Amazon affiliate URL becomes a short link on a different domain (e.g., youfil.to/your-link). When Substack scans your post for Amazon affiliate URLs, it sees a youfil.to link — not an Amazon URL. The link passes through the email filter intact.

When a reader clicks that link, they are redirected to Amazon with your affiliate tag applied. Amazon sees a normal inbound click with your Associates tag. The reader sees the product page they expected. Your commission is preserved.

This is a legitimate, policy-compliant approach. You are not hiding the fact that the link goes to Amazon — you are using a redirect, which is standard practice across affiliate marketing.

The International Reader Problem (And Why It Costs You More Than You Think)

Even after solving the Amazon email-stripping issue, there is a second revenue leak most Substack writers never notice: international readers clicking US-only affiliate links.

Substack newsletters tend to have significant international readership. If you are a US-based writer, 20-40% of your subscribers live outside the United States. When a reader in the UK clicks your amazon.com affiliate link, one of two things happens: they land on the US store and leave without buying (because shipping costs and delivery times make it impractical), or Amazon redirects them to their local store — but your US affiliate tag does not transfer, so you earn nothing.

This is a separate problem from email stripping, and it compounds it. On the web version of your post where the Amazon link survives the filter, international readers still hit the wrong storefront. You are losing commissions from two directions simultaneously.

Geo-Targeted Smart Links Fix Both Problems

A geo-targeted smart link detects each reader’s location and routes them to their local Amazon storefront automatically. A reader in the UK goes to amazon.co.uk. A reader in Canada goes to amazon.ca. A reader in Germany goes to amazon.de. Each storefront gets the correct local affiliate tag applied.

With Youfiliate, you set up geo-rules for each market when you create the smart link. The ASIN (Amazon’s product identifier) stays the same across storefronts, so the reader lands on the same product — just on their local store where they can actually buy it.

For a Substack writer with 10,000 subscribers and 30% international readership, that is 3,000 readers who are currently generating zero affiliate revenue. At even a 2% conversion rate with a $5 average commission, that is $300/month in lost commissions from international clicks alone.

How to Add Affiliate Links to Substack — Step by Step

Here is the process for adding affiliate tracking links to a Substack newsletter, start to finish:

Join an affiliate program. Amazon Associates is the most common starting point. For email-friendly alternatives, look at impact.com, ShareASale, or direct brand programs in your niche.
Generate your affiliate link. Log into your program dashboard, find the product you want to recommend, and copy the affiliate URL with your tracking tag embedded.
Wrap it in a smart link. Create a smart link through Youfiliate or a similar tool. If you are linking to Amazon, set up geo-rules for the markets where you have Associates accounts (US, UK, Canada, Germany, etc.). This step solves both the email-stripping problem and the international routing problem in one move.
Copy your short URL. You get a branded short link like youfil.to/your-link.
Paste it into your Substack post. Highlight the text you want to hyperlink, paste the short URL, and confirm. Substack’s editor handles this the same way as any other link.
Add your FTC disclosure before the first affiliate link. See the next section for exact copy you can use.

That is it. Six steps. The smart link does the heavy lifting — routing, tag application, and analytics — behind the scenes.

FTC Disclosure Requirements for Substack Affiliate Links

The Federal Trade Commission requires you to disclose any material connection between you and the products you recommend. This applies to newsletters exactly the same way it applies to blog posts, YouTube videos, and social media. Being on Substack does not exempt you.

The key rule: your disclosure must appear before the first affiliate link in your post, not buried in a footer that readers never reach. If a reader can click an affiliate link before seeing your disclosure, you are not compliant.

What a Compliant Disclosure Looks Like

Here are two ready-to-use templates:

Inline disclosure (place near the top of any post containing affiliate links):

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Recurring footer (for newsletters where every issue contains affiliate links):

Affiliate disclosure: Some links in this newsletter are affiliate links. I only recommend products I use or genuinely believe in.

The inline version is safer because it appears before the links. If you use a footer, make sure it is visible above the fold or immediately after the intro — not at the very bottom of a 2,000-word post.

The FTC’s Endorsement Guides are the authoritative source here. When in doubt, disclose earlier and more clearly.

Not all affiliate programs work equally well in newsletters. Given the Amazon email restriction, Amazon should be treated as a secondary affiliate program for Substack — useful for web-version readers but unreliable for email without a smart link workaround. Lead with programs that work cleanly in email:

SaaS and software tools. Programs like ConvertKit, Notion, Beehiiv, and most B2B software offer affiliate programs with no email restrictions and often pay recurring commissions. If you recommend a tool and someone subscribes for a year, you earn for 12 months.
impact.com and ShareASale. These affiliate networks give you access to thousands of brands across every niche — home goods, fitness, fashion, finance, education. Commission links from these programs pass through Substack’s email filter without issues.
Direct brand affiliate programs. Many DTC brands run their own programs with higher commission rates (10-30%) and no platform restrictions. Check the footer of any brand’s website for an “Affiliates” or “Partners” link.
Amazon Associates (with smart links). Still worth using — Amazon converts well because readers trust it and many already have Prime. Wrap every Amazon link in a smart link before adding it to Substack to bypass the email filter and capture international clicks.

The most important rule: recommend products that are genuinely relevant to your newsletter’s niche and your audience’s needs. Chasing high commission rates on irrelevant products erodes the trust that makes your newsletter valuable in the first place.

Tracking Your Affiliate Link Performance on Substack

Substack’s built-in analytics show you how many subscribers opened your email and what percentage clicked on any link. That is useful at a surface level, but it does not tell you anything about your affiliate performance specifically.

What Substack does not show you:

Which countries your affiliate clicks come from
What devices readers are using when they click
Whether a specific link in a specific issue drove more clicks than another
Time-of-day click patterns

Smart link analytics fill this gap. When you use Youfiliate, every click through your smart link is tracked with country, device, and referrer data. You can see that your Tuesday issue drove 3x more affiliate clicks than your Thursday issue. You can see that 25% of your affiliate clicks come from the UK — which tells you exactly how much revenue you lose without geo-routing.

This data is actionable. It tells you which products resonate with your audience, which newsletter formats drive the most clicks, and whether your international readership justifies signing up for affiliate programs in additional markets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Substack strip all affiliate links or just Amazon?

Substack only strips Amazon affiliate links from email. Amazon’s Associates Program Operating Agreement bans email distribution of affiliate links, and Substack enforces this automatically. Non-Amazon affiliate links from programs on impact.com, ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, and direct brand programs are not stripped. If your non-Amazon affiliate links are disappearing, the issue is a different email filter or a formatting problem — not Substack’s affiliate policy.

Can I use affiliate links in both free and paid Substack posts?

Yes, you can use affiliate links in both free and paid Substack posts. Substack’s affiliate link policy applies equally to both tiers. There is no restriction on which type of content can contain affiliate links. Paid subscribers are not exempt from FTC disclosure requirements either — you still need to disclose the material connection regardless of whether the post is behind a paywall.

Will using affiliate links hurt my Substack deliverability?

Standard affiliate links from reputable programs do not affect your email deliverability on their own. However, raw affiliate URLs containing long tracking strings and unfamiliar domains can trigger spam filters. Using a branded short link from a clean domain (like youfil.to) reduces this risk because the URL is short, recognizable, and hosted on a domain with a healthy sending reputation. Keep affiliate links to one or two well-placed links per issue for the best deliverability.

What is the difference between a smart link and a regular affiliate link?

A regular affiliate link points directly to a product page on one storefront in one country. A smart link is a redirect URL that detects the reader’s location and device, routes them to the correct local storefront, and applies the appropriate affiliate tag for that market — all before they land on the merchant’s site. Smart links also provide click analytics (country, device, referrer) that regular affiliate links do not offer.

How much does Geniuslink cost compared to Youfiliate?

Geniuslink, a per-click smart link service popular with Amazon affiliates, charges $6/month for up to 2,000 clicks, then $2.50 per additional 1,000 clicks. For a Substack writer sending 2 issues per week to 5,000 subscribers with a 5% click-through rate on affiliate links, that is roughly 2,000+ clicks per month — already at the limit of Geniuslink’s base tier. Scale to 10,000 subscribers and you are paying overages every month. Youfiliate offers flat-rate plans starting at $9/month for 50 smart links with no per-click charges, so your costs stay predictable regardless of how fast your newsletter grows.

How do I track affiliate link clicks in Substack?

Substack’s native analytics show aggregate open rates and total click counts per post, but they do not break down clicks by individual link, country, or device. To get detailed affiliate click data, wrap your links in a smart link service like Youfiliate that provides its own analytics dashboard. This gives you per-link click counts, geographic breakdowns, device splits, and referrer data — all of which help you determine which products to feature and where to place links in your posts.

Start Earning From Every Reader

The two biggest revenue leaks for Substack affiliate marketers — Amazon’s email-stripping policy and international audience loss — are both solved by the same tool: a geo-targeted smart link. Wrap your affiliate links before pasting them into Substack, add a clear FTC disclosure, and choose programs that match your audience’s interests. That is the entire playbook.

Start free with 10 smart links at Youfiliate.com — set up your first geo-targeted smart link in about 2 minutes and stop losing commissions from international and email readers today.