Earnings Disclaimer Generator

The online education industry is worth over $300 billion. A good chunk of that market is courses and coaching programs that teach people how to make money: dropshipping, affiliate marketing, real estate wholesaling, day trading, freelancing, you name it. The FTC has watched this space closely for years, because where there are income claims, there are sometimes misleading income claims. And the FTC's job is to protect consumers from those.

FTC Act Section 5 and What It Actually Covers

Section 5 of the FTC Act prohibits "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce." That's deliberately broad. An income claim is deceptive if it creates a false impression about what consumers can expect to earn. Even a technically true claim can be deceptive if it omits material context. Showing a testimonial from someone who made $50,000 in three months is technically true. But if most students make $500 over the same period, showing only the $50,000 result creates a false impression. That's a deceptive practice under Section 5.

What counts as a "material claim" about earnings? Any representation that is likely to affect a consumer's decision to buy. If you say "students have made up to $100,000 using this system," that claim is material. If you show someone's PayPal dashboard with $5,000 in it, that's a material claim. If your sales page headline says "Quit your job in 90 days," that is definitely a material claim. The FTC applies a "reasonable consumer" standard: would a normal person read this and think they're likely to earn that kind of money?

"Results Not Typical" Is Not Enough Anymore

For a long time, adding "results not typical" to a testimonial or income claim was treated as a get-out-of-jail-free card. It isn't anymore. The FTC updated its guidance on endorsements and testimonials in 2023, making clear that this phrase alone does not cure a misleading income claim. What you actually need is substantiation. That means you need data about what typical results look like, and you need to present that data clearly alongside the exceptional results.

The FTC wants the typical results disclosed as prominently as the exceptional ones. If your best student made $250,000, and your typical student made $2,000, both numbers need to be part of the story. The FTC's position is that if you can't honestly show what typical results look like, you probably shouldn't be showing exceptional results at all. That's a high bar, and it's why a proper earnings disclaimer is just the start. You also need to actually know your student results and be honest about them.

The Substantiation Requirement

Before you make any income claim, you need substantiation. That means you need evidence to back it up before you publish it, not after the FTC calls. For earnings claims, substantiation typically means data from your students showing what results they actually achieved, under what conditions, and over what time period. If you're a new course creator with no student data yet, the honest and compliant approach is to not make specific income claims until you have data to support them.

For affiliate marketing programs specifically, the FTC has paid close attention to what they call "business opportunity" disclosures. If your course teaches people how to build an affiliate marketing business and you show income screenshots as proof of what's possible, you're in business opportunity territory. This triggers additional scrutiny and a higher standard for what your typical results disclosure needs to say.

The Difference Between Income Claims and Educational Content

Here's where it gets nuanced. A course that teaches skills (coding, copywriting, graphic design, public speaking) is educational content. A course that teaches skills explicitly in the context of "here's how much money you can make doing this" crosses into income claim territory. The difference matters because the compliance requirements are different. Teaching someone how to write better is fine. Teaching someone how to write copy and showing income screenshots of how much you make is different and needs proper disclaimers and substantiation.

The safe approach is to treat any content on your site that might create an expectation of income as income claim content. If someone could read your sales page and come away thinking "I could make $X if I buy this," you have an income claim on your hands. A proper earnings disclaimer makes clear that your income and your students' results depend on many individual factors, that nothing is guaranteed, and that past results do not predict future outcomes.