Affiliate Roundup: Luxury Affiliate Grows, X Revamps Rewards, AI Bots Face New Rules, & More

This week in FMTC’s Affiliate Roundup: Luxury brands are increasingly using affiliate marketing as a full-funnel channel. X is shifting creator payouts toward original content with its new rewards program. A bipartisan bill would require AI bots to identify themselves when scraping websites.

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• Luxury brands are increasingly using affiliate marketing as a full-funnel channel, combining brand-building partnerships with measurable performance and long-term customer value. 

• AI-driven search is giving affiliate marketers an opportunity to move beyond last-click attribution by emphasizing influence, community, and incrementality.

• X is replacing its Revenue Sharing program with Original Content Rewards, shifting creator payouts toward original reporting, analysis, videos, and other original content.

• AI is breaking publishing into smaller, reusable units of content, creating new opportunities for publishers to distribute, monetize, and measure their work beyond traditional webpages. 

• Cleverbridge launched a new influencer marketing offering powered by Later, bringing creator partnerships alongside its existing affiliate and digital commerce programs. 

• A new bipartisan bill would require AI bots to identify themselves when scraping websites, with fines of up to $53,000 for undisclosed crawlers.

• SlotCatalog has launched a live bidding marketplace that lets operators compete for premium affiliate positions in real time.