Affiliate Disclosure: How eTarget Makes Money and Chooses Tools
eTarget is free to read. To keep it that way, we earn money in two ways: display advertising (such as Google AdSense) and affiliate links. This page explains both in plain English, as required by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Endorsement Guides and in the spirit of similar rules elsewhere.
What is an affiliate link?
An affiliate link is a special tracking link to a product or service. If you click it and then buy or sign up, the company may pay us a commission. You don’t pay more because you used our link. In some cases a partner offers our readers a discount or trial, and we’ll say so when that’s true.
Where you’ll see them
- Mainly in our Tools section, comparison pages, and “best for” lists.
- Occasionally inside tutorials, when we mention a tool we use in that workflow.
Pages containing affiliate links display a disclosure near the top. Individual affiliate links may also be marked.
Our rules for recommendations
Monetization does not decide what we recommend. Here’s what we commit to:
- Helpful first. We recommend tools because they’re useful for a specific job. If a free tool or a free tier does the job, we say so, even when there’s no commission.
- No pay-for-placement rankings. Companies cannot buy a higher position in our lists. If we ever publish sponsored content, it will be clearly labeled “Sponsored.”
- Verified facts only. We don’t make up features or prices. Prices and plans change often, so we link to the official pricing page and note the date we last checked. Where we haven’t verified something, we say so.
- Disclosed experience. We tell you whether we’ve used a tool ourselves or are summarizing its public documentation.
- Negatives included. Every recommendation includes who the tool is not for and its limitations.
- Updates. When a tool changes significantly or stops being a good choice, we update or remove it, even if it was earning commissions.
Sponsored content and free access
We don’t currently publish sponsored posts. If that changes, sponsored content will be labeled “Sponsored” at the top of the page and will never be presented as an independent review. If a company gives us free access, a trial extension, or a review copy, we’ll disclose that on the page where we discuss the product. Free access doesn’t buy a positive review: we describe the tool as we found it, including its weaknesses.
Our testing notes
Where we’ve used a tool ourselves, we say what we used it for and roughly how long. Where we rely on official documentation instead, we say that and link to it. We prefer to show screenshots from our own accounts so you can see the real interface, not marketing images.
Advertising
We use (or plan to use) Google AdSense, which displays ads chosen by Google. We don’t select individual ads and don’t endorse advertised products. Ads are visually separated from our content. See our Privacy Policy for how advertising cookies work and how to opt out of personalized ads.
Affiliate programs
[TODO owner: list the affiliate programs you join, e.g. “We participate in the [Program] affiliate program.” If you join the Amazon Associates program, you must include: “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.”]
Relationships with AI companies
eTarget is independent. Unless a page says otherwise, we are not owned by, sponsored by, or officially affiliated with xAI, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, or any other AI company mentioned on the Site. Product names and trademarks belong to their owners. [TODO owner: if you have any relationship with a company you write about, for example an employer, client, investor, free access, or a gifted subscription, disclose it here and on the relevant pages.]
How to spot an affiliate link
Hovering over a link on desktop shows its destination. Affiliate links often include a tracking code or route through a partner domain. If you prefer not to use our link, search for the product directly; our recommendation stands either way, and the price you pay is the same.
Do affiliate commissions affect rankings?
No. Our lists are ordered by how well a tool fits the stated use case. Tools with no affiliate program appear in our lists when they’re the best fit, and we will recommend free options over paid ones when they do the job. If a page has no suitable affiliate partner, it simply has no affiliate links.
Example
On a page like Best AI tools for marketing, each recommendation lists what the tool is best for, who it’s not for, a link to the official pricing page with the date we checked it, and, only if a program exists, a disclosed affiliate link.
Questions
If you think a recommendation looks biased or out of date, please tell us through the contact page. We read every message.