Honestly, we’d rather just tell you this straight than bury it somewhere in a footer where nobody looks. TrendsInReview makes money — at least partly — through affiliate partnerships. This page explains what that means, how it works, and why it doesn’t change what we actually write.
The Short Version
Some links on TrendsInReview are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, we might earn a small commission. It costs you nothing extra. The price you pay is exactly the same whether you came through our link or typed the URL yourself.
That’s really the whole thing. But since we like being thorough, here’s the longer version.
What Is an Affiliate Link?
When we review a product and link to where you can buy it, that link sometimes has a tracking code attached to it. That code tells the retailer or brand that you came from TrendsInReview. If you end up making a purchase, we get a small percentage of the sale as a commission.
This is called affiliate marketing and it’s one of the most common ways independent review sites like ours keep the lights on without charging readers or hiding content behind a paywall.
You’ll find affiliate links throughout our reviews, buying guides, roundups, and comparison pieces. We try to link to the most relevant and reliable place to buy each product — usually the brand’s own website or a major retailer — and sometimes those links are affiliate links, sometimes they’re not.
Who We Work With
We’re active on several affiliate platforms and work with brands across all the categories we cover. Our main affiliate network is Impact, if you’ve clicked a product link on TrendsInReview and ended up on a brand’s site, there’s a good chance that click went through Impact’s tracking system.
Beyond Impact, we may also work directly with individual brands on affiliate arrangements outside of a network. The disclosure applies the same way regardless of which platform or program is involved.
Does This Affect What We Write?
No. And we mean that genuinely, not just as something we’re required to say.
Here’s the reality — if we only recommended products because they paid us a commission, our readers would figure that out pretty quickly and stop trusting us. And once that trust is gone, the whole thing falls apart. So it’s actually in our own interest to be honest, even when honesty means saying something negative about a product that has a perfectly good affiliate program attached to it.
We’ve written critical reviews of products we could have earned decent commissions on. We’ve recommended products that don’t have affiliate programs at all — just because they were genuinely the best option for our readers. That’s how we approach this.
The commission never influences the verdict. The product does.
What About Sponsored Content?
Affiliate links and sponsored content are two different things and we treat them separately.
Sponsored content is when a brand pays us directly to write about their product — a flat fee rather than a commission. When that happens, the post is always clearly labeled as sponsored at the top of the page. You’ll never have to guess or look for it.
Affiliate links don’t necessarily mean a post is sponsored. A review can be completely unsponsored — meaning no brand paid us to write it — and still contain affiliate links to where you can buy the product. In those cases, we discovered and reviewed the product on our own, and we only added the affiliate link afterward as a way to earn something if our recommendation leads to a sale.
Both situations are disclosed. Always.
FTC Compliance
We follow the guidelines set out by the Federal Trade Commission when it comes to disclosing material connections between us and the brands or products we write about. That means anytime there’s a financial relationship — whether it’s an affiliate commission, a gifted product, a sponsored post, or anything else — we say so clearly.
This isn’t just us being legally cautious. We actually think you deserve to know this stuff. Knowing that a commission might be involved doesn’t mean you should trust the review less — but you should have that information so you can factor it in however you want to.
Products We’ve Received for Free
Sometimes brands send us products at no charge so we can review them. When that happens we disclose it on the relevant post. Receiving a product for free doesn’t guarantee it a positive review — if anything, we tend to look a little closer when something comes our way as a gift, because we know our readers are counting on us not to go soft just because we didn’t pay for it.
If a product wasn’t worth recommending, it doesn’t get recommended. Doesn’t matter how it arrived on our doorstep.
Your Trust Is the Whole Point
We started TrendsInReview because we wanted a place where people could get honest opinions before spending their money. Everything we do — including being this transparent about how we make money — comes back to that.
Affiliate commissions help us keep publishing. But they never get to decide what we say. That part stays with us.
If you ever have a question about a specific post — whether it’s sponsored, whether a link is an affiliate link, whether we received the product for free — just ask. We’ll tell you straight.
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