I imagine they only review places that will give them affiliate points. I was curious if they tested the mattic in the robot vacuums category and they didn’t.

▲ PyWoody 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

From their About[0] page:

  No Ads, No Freebies, No Promotion
  We refuse to accept any manufacturer's free evaluation units, and we do not accept any paid endorsements. Our focus is strictly on creating content for the benefit of our readers, and we align our business model to focus on our reader's interests.

Again, not affiliated; just a satisfied user.

[0] https://www.techgearlab.com/about

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fourside 10 hours ago | parent [-]

At the top of the home page:

> When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which helps support our testing.

That’s what the parent comment was referring to

	▲	HaloZero 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, I assume when they choose "who to test" affiliate commission is factored in.

▲ rafram 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

These days there are central clearing-houses for affiliate links that support basically every store, for the rare case where a product isn't available on Amazon/Best Buy/etc. Matic seems to use something called Impact.com. I don't see why that would be a concern.

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HaloZero 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Are you suggesting that all retailers even boutique/smaller ones use affiliate codes regularly?

That's an interesting development. I was under the impression that outside of larger retailers, affiliate codes weren't as common.

I'm curious then why did techgearlab not choose to review the matic which is certainly a new interesting player in the robot vaccuum game. I'll have to reach out!

	▲	rafram 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Most items are available from retailers like Amazon or Best Buy that have affiliate programs that work on all items. (They may not have the very best price, but that at least gives the review site something to link to, and more price-conscious people will shop around.) Other retailers participate in clearing-house programs like Impact, and others with charming names like Skimlink, Geni.us, etc. For the minority of products that are only sold directly by the manufacturer (which includes Matic), yes, I think it would be very unusual not to have an affiliate program. Matic even has a crappy one for consumers. For one thing, YouTubers, who keep absolutely no distance between business and editorial, aren’t gonna talk about your product unless they can put an affiliate link in the description. Sometimes manufacturers will use something like Impact, other times a publisher will need to reach out directly.