Affiliate Disclosure

Effective: 1 March 2026 Last updated: 1 March 2026

Scale Your Earn is reader-supported and partially funded by affiliate relationships. This page explains exactly what that means, how we mark sponsored content, and the editorial rules we follow to keep the journal honest.

01The short version

Some of the links on Scale Your Earn — specifically, the ones in clearly marked "Sponsored" or "Partner" sections — are affiliate links. If you click one of those links and sign up for the program, we may receive a referral fee from the partner at no additional cost to you.

We use these relationships to fund the journal. We do not use them to decide what we cover editorially, and we do not accept payment to change the substance of our reporting.

02How the journal is funded

Scale Your Earn has four revenue sources, in rough order of size:

  • Affiliate referrals from clearly marked partner offers in designated sponsored sections of the site.
  • Direct sponsorships of specific reports or issues, always disclosed at the top of the affected content.
  • Reader contributions through voluntary newsletter sponsorship tiers.
  • Licensing of our data and reports to third parties on a case-by-case basis.

We do not accept payment for positive editorial coverage, do not sell reader data, and do not run programmatic display advertising on the main journal pages.

03What we mark as sponsored

We mark content as sponsored in every place we are required to, and in several places we are not strictly required to but choose to for transparency:

  • Partner offer blocks inside a sponsored section of an article are marked with a clearly visible "Sponsored" tag at the top of the block.
  • Articles containing any sponsored section carry a "Contains partner offer" badge near the headline.
  • Sponsored issues or reports funded by a single sponsor carry a disclosure at the top of the piece naming the sponsor.
  • Affiliate links themselves use HTML attributes (rel="sponsored nofollow") consistent with search engine guidance on disclosed commercial links.

Where no such markings appear — for example, in our data reports and analysis essays — the content is non-commercial editorial work, even if it mentions specific products or platforms.

04The editorial wall

We maintain a separation between editorial decisions and commercial relationships. In practice, this means:

  • Editorial coverage is written without input from commercial partners. Partners do not see articles before publication, cannot request changes, and have no veto over editorial content.
  • A partner's willingness or unwillingness to pay referral fees has no bearing on whether we cover a category, or what we say about it.
  • If our analysis of a category concludes that most offerings in it are weak or misleading, we say so — whether or not we have a partner in the category.
  • When we do select a partner, it is because the program passes our internal vetting criteria, not because the partner offers the highest referral fee.

05How we select partners

Before accepting a partner relationship, we review the program against a set of internal criteria. A program typically needs to meet all of the following:

  • Operational track record: the program has been running for a reasonable period with a stable payout history.
  • Transparent terms: payout thresholds, withdrawal methods, and qualification requirements are visible to readers before they commit.
  • Legitimate business model: the program has a real source of funds (sponsors, brand partners, research clients) that we can understand and verify.
  • Reasonable fraud policy: fraud protections are disclosed in advance rather than applied arbitrarily after the fact.
  • Reader-friendly design: the program is structured so that readers who engage in good faith can actually reach payout within a reasonable time.

We review active partners periodically and drop relationships that no longer meet our criteria.

06What we decline

We regularly turn down affiliate offers, typically for one of these reasons:

  • The program has opaque payout terms or a history of cancelling payouts on vague grounds.
  • The business model relies on misleading readers about what they will actually earn.
  • The payout threshold is set deliberately above realistic user earnings to minimise payouts.
  • The category as a whole fails our basic ethical screen (for example, high-risk leveraged trading products aimed at inexperienced consumers).
  • The commercial terms would require us to write coverage that doesn't reflect our honest view.

07What it costs you

Clicking an affiliate link on Scale Your Earn does not change what you pay if you decide to sign up for the partner program. The referral fee is paid by the partner out of their own customer acquisition budget — the same budget they would otherwise spend on direct advertising. No additional fee is passed to you as a reader.

If a partner program has costs or fees associated with signing up, those costs are the same whether you arrive via our link or directly through the partner's own site.

08Legal basis for this disclosure

This disclosure is provided in accordance with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's guidance on endorsements and testimonials (16 CFR Part 255), which requires clear disclosure of material connections between an endorser and a marketer. It also aligns with similar disclosure requirements under the UK Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, and related regulations in other jurisdictions.

Beyond the legal minimum, we disclose because we think readers deserve to know how we pay our bills. A reader who understands our commercial model can judge our editorial work more accurately than one who doesn't.

09Questions about a specific placement

If you want to know more about a specific partner relationship mentioned on the site — the terms of the arrangement, how we vetted the partner, or why we chose to cover them — please write to editors@scaleyourearn.com. We answer these questions on the record and are happy to do so.