How this site makes money

How an affiliate link works

Every buy link on this site goes to a page on this domain first — a path beginning /go/ — which immediately redirects you to the retailer with a tracking code attached. That code tells the retailer the visit came from here.

If you then buy something, the retailer pays us a percentage of the sale. The percentage varies by product category and is generally a few percent. You pay the retailer's normal price.

The redirect exists so that the destination for each product is one field in one file. If we later move a product to a different retailer, that is a data change and no page copy moves — which is a housekeeping benefit, not a way of hiding where a link goes. Every buy link carries rel="sponsored nofollow" and opens in a new tab, and hovering over one shows you a /go/ path rather than a retailer URL.

Where the disclosure appears

The FTC asks that a disclosure be clear, conspicuous and close to the recommendation rather than buried. So on this site:

• Every page carrying affiliate links has a disclosure paragraph above the first link, at the top of the page.
• Every buy button carries #ad and a link back to this page, directly underneath it.
• The footer carries the Amazon Associates statement on every page of the site.

Does commission decide what gets recommended?

No, and rather than simply asserting that, here are the structural facts that make it checkable:

• Every ranked page names something to skip. A roundup where every pick wins is an advertisement. Ours all carry at least one product we tell you not to buy, in that product's own entry.
• Some products here earn us nothing at all. The top pick on the floor mats page is a maker whose store we have no relationship with. It is ranked first because it is the only maker in that category publishing a material thickness and hardness. If commission drove the order, it would not be there.
• The ranking is arithmetic, not judgment. One rubric, in one file, reading published specifications, with the working printed on every product. It is set out here and you can re-derive any score.

What we do not take

• No sponsored placements. No brand has paid to appear here or to appear higher.
• No paid rankings. The order comes out of the rubric.
• No free products. There are none to take, because nothing has been sent to us — which is the same fact as “we have not tested anything”, stated from the other direction.
• No display advertising. No banner ads, no ad network, no tracking beyond standard site analytics.

About the prices you see

Prices on this site come from a daily automated refresh against the retailer's own data, and they carry the date they were last verified. If a price is more than 48 hours old it disappears and the button reads “Check price” instead.

As of this build, no live prices are available at all, so every button on the site reads “Check price on Amazon”. We would rather show you no number than a number we cannot stand behind, because a reader acts on a number. The reasoning is here.

Separately, some pages show a list price — what a manufacturer listed on a stated date, always shown with its source and that date. It is used to decide which products belong on a “under $100” page and it is never presented as what you will pay.

Amazon Associates statement

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Dash & Drive is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Questions

If anything above is unclear, or you think a link or a disclosure on this site is not doing its job properly, write to info@dashanddrive.com and it will be fixed. The contact page is here.