Affiliate Links Explained: How Coupon and Review Sites Make Money (Including This One)
If a site shows you a code and sends you to a store, there is usually a commission involved. Here is exactly how it works and how we keep it from bending our judgement.
Most coupon, comparison and review sites – including BrandVault – earn money through affiliate links. When you click a link to a retailer and buy something, the retailer pays the site a small commission. It is one of the oldest business models on the web, it is legal, and when it is disclosed properly it is fair to everyone. It also creates obvious incentives that readers should understand.
The mechanics
- A site joins a retailer’s affiliate programme, usually through a network that handles tracking and payments.
- Links on the site carry a tracking parameter identifying the site.
- When you click, a cookie records the referral for a period (24 hours to 30 days, depending on the retailer).
- If you buy within that period, the retailer attributes the sale and pays a commission – typically 1-10% of the order, or a fixed fee for sign-ups.
- Commissions are confirmed after the return window closes.
The price you pay is the same whether or not you click an affiliate link. The commission comes from the retailer’s marketing budget.
Where the incentive problem lives
- Ranking. A site could rank the brands that pay the most commission highest.
- Coverage. A site could ignore good brands that have no affiliate programme.
- Verdicts. A review could be softened for a lucrative partner.
- Codes. A site could show a weaker affiliate-tracked code over a stronger public one.
How we handle it
Our editorial policy sets the rules in detail. In short: editors do not know commission rates when they write; brand pages are ordered alphabetically or by reader clicks, never by payout; we cover brands with no affiliate programme when readers ask about them; and when a public code beats an affiliate-tracked one, we list the public one. We also mark affiliate links with rel="sponsored" so search engines treat them accordingly.
What you can do
- Read the disclosure. Every reputable site has one; ours is in the footer of every page and on the affiliate disclosure page.
- Cross-check a verdict with one or two other sources before a large purchase.
- If you prefer not to use affiliate links, type the retailer’s address directly – the codes still work.
- Tell us when something looks biased. Reader reports are how we catch our own mistakes.