Commercial relationships
Affiliate disclosure
This page explains how UBWHY may be paid, what gets disclosed, and why a commercial relationship never decides a verdict. It matters because the same publication that analyses a product may earn money when a reader buys it. Expect the policy in full, including what disclosure does not prove.
- Last reviewed
What an affiliate relationship is
Some UBWHY pages and videos may contain affiliate links. An affiliate link is a link that identifies UBWHY as the referrer, so that if a reader signs up or buys through it, UBWHY may receive compensation from the company.
Where a link is an affiliate link, it is clearly identified as one.
What this costs the reader
Where a link is identified as an affiliate link, UBWHY may receive compensation at no additional cost to the user.
That statement covers price only. It does not mean the product is cheap, good value, or right for you — those are questions for the analysis, not for this page.
Where disclosure appears
Disclosure appears on the analysis it relates to, close to the relevant recommendation or link, not buried at the end of the page and not left to this policy page alone. Each analysis carries its own disclosure describing the relationships that apply to that product.
Affiliate status
Every analysis records one of four states, and shows it:
- None
- No affiliate relationship exists for this product.
- Pending
- A relationship is under consideration. No affiliate link is published, and the verdict is written before any link is approved.
- Approved
- A relationship exists and has passed editorial approval. It is disclosed on the analysis.
- Rejected
- A relationship was considered and turned down. No affiliate link is published.
A link is only approved after the analysis is complete: the costs and risks stated, the suitable and unsuitable reader defined, alternatives acknowledged, and the recommendation still defensible without the commission. If any of those fails, no link is added.
Affiliate status does not determine the analysis or the verdict. Products may be assessed positively, conditionally, negatively, or with no affiliate link at all, and some analyses will never carry one.
Other relationships and interests
Where relevant, UBWHY also discloses, on the analysis concerned:
- personal use of the product;
- complimentary access, upgraded status, gifts or discounts;
- referral benefits and ambassador or similar arrangements;
- personal holdings or positions connected to the product;
- whether the company reviewed the page for factual accuracy.
A declared interest is always accompanied by an explanation of what it is. A flag with no explanation is not a disclosure.
Sponsorship
Sponsored content, if it appears, is labelled and visibly separated from independent analysis. A sponsor cannot approve a verdict in advance, cannot prohibit material criticism, and cannot have a sponsorship presented as though it were an independent recommendation.
Archived analyses
When an analysis is archived, its active recommendations and affiliate links are removed. An archived page cannot keep an approved affiliate state, and the publishing system rejects one that tries to.
What disclosure does not prove
Disclosure is not a guarantee of independence. Saying that a relationship exists does not neutralise it, and no publication can claim to be beyond influence because it published a notice.
What disclosure does is tell you what to weigh when you read the verdict. The protections that actually matter are structural: the analysis is completed before the commercial decision, the conclusion must hold without the commission, and negative verdicts are published.
Current status
No affiliate link exists anywhere on this site at present. No product has completed the approval process, and no referral link or code is published.
This policy is the working version and will be reviewed, and supplemented with product-specific disclosures, before any affiliate link is published.