Affiliate disclosure

Some links on Benchdict are affiliate links. If you click one and buy, the company may pay us a commission. It costs you nothing extra. We don’t know the commission rate on a product while we write the verdict, and we don’t change a verdict because of one.

Articles that contain affiliate links say so at the top, and hands-on articles repeat it in the Bench Log. This page explains how we run that in practice.

• Affiliate links point to a /go/ address on benchdict.com, for example /go/cursor, which then redirects to the company’s site. That lets us fix a broken link in one place and count clicks.
• Links are marked rel="sponsored nofollow" so search engines know they are paid.
• The “Affiliate links” field in each article’s Bench Log is set from the links actually on the page. Nobody types it in, so it can’t be forgotten.
• Affiliate links never appear inside a Bench Log. They show up in comparison tables and next to the Verdict, where you are choosing.

“Commission-blind” means the person writing the verdict doesn’t know what any product in the article pays. We keep that true with a fixed order of work:

1. Decide first. The analysis, the verdict, the one-line verdict and the “who should skip this” note are written and saved before any affiliate link is attached.
2. Attach links second. Links are added afterwards, as a separate step. Programme terms and commission rates are kept out of our notes and drafts, so they aren’t in front of us when we write.
3. Don’t rule on payout. We cover tools that have no affiliate programme too, and we say so when a tool we recommend earns us nothing.
4. Change verdicts only for evidence. A ruling changes when the product or its price changes, and the article’s changelog records why. A higher commission is never a reason.

We do look at overall click and revenue numbers to decide which benches deserve more of our time. We don’t use them to change what an existing article says.

We haven’t joined any affiliate programme yet, so today a /go/ link is a plain link to the company’s official site and earns us nothing. We plan to apply to programmes for the tools and gear we cover, including Amazon Associates for Gear & Setup articles.

Once we join a programme, we will add the notice it requires, on the pages it applies to, before any commission-earning link goes live. If we receive a free or loaned product, that is disclosed in the Bench Log and under the Verdict, separately from affiliate links.

We plan to show display ads served by Google AdSense. Ads are separate from affiliate links: an ad is paid for by an advertiser we don’t choose per article, and we don’t endorse what an ad promotes. Ads never appear inside a Bench Log or The Verdict. See our privacy policy for what advertising partners may collect.

If a link looks unlabelled or a verdict seems shaped by a payout, tell us at openai@invaiz.com. For the full testing rules, read How we test.