OUR AFFILIATE POLICY
Brostrick and its editors love to let y’all know all about the latest and great products out there – and we’ll even sneak in some pretty amazing sales, deals, and brand perks too. Everything we editorially create, we all do it by hand (no robots are creating content) and we stand by every item we choose.
We currently do not have any advertisements on our website at all because, let’s be honest, ads are annoying. However, we do need to make some money in order to pay the bills. So, in honor of full and total transparency, when you click on the link of a product that we recommend, we may earn a commission from third-parties like Amazon.com and through our partnership with Skimlinks. The good news is that you pay nothing and this doesn’t impact your price at all.
HOW AFFILIATE LINKS WORK
If you’re a bit confused about what “affiliate links” actually means, let’s get into it. In basic terms, when you’re on Brostrick.com and see a product recommendation, whether it’s a cologne from our cologne guide, a pair of sunglasses we’re recommending from our style guides, a sale from our grooming guide – or anywhere really – that link that you click on to go to the actual retailer’s website has a tracking code on it. That gets passed to the retailer (i.e., Amazon). If you make a purchase from the retailers website, Brostrick may earn a small commission from your purchase that the retailer pays us as a referral fee. None of your information is being passed to the retailer. Just that “someone” clicked through from Brostrick and made a purchase.
DO WE ONLY CHOOSE PRODUCTS/LINKS WHERE WE MAKE MONEY?
Quick answer: NO! The editors at Brostrick are choosing products that they actually love, have researched and, in some cases, even tested out themselves – regardless if the retailer pays us an affiliate commission.
In fact, our editors aren’t really paying attention to who pays and who doesn’t. We ensure this by partnering with Amazon and Skimlinks (more on this below) which, for us, make up over 2,000 retailers. Our editors don’t really have the time to check in with 2,000 retailers, so they just focus on the products they love and want to recommend.
As best we can we try to provide our readers with multiple options of where they can purchase each product we’re recommending. This way, you can choose which retailer makes the most sense for you, based on your on your preference of where to shop and, of course, based on the best price we could find at the time.
OUR CURRENT AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIPS
So why do we recommend so many products via Amazon, you ask? Great question. The simple answer is that we honestly love shopping on Amazon, especially because we usually can get either free 2-day shipping (with Amazon Prime, of course) and in some cases same day shipping depending on where in the United States you live. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t shop on Amazon?! It just seems easier this way.
However, we also work with and link to hundreds of other retailers as well – especially if we think they have a better price, a super unique product, or we just feel like it. Our partnership with Skimlinks is great because they manage all those retailer relationships for us (which is awesome, because we don’t have the time), and then we can spend our time doing things. For example, we really love like finding a secret sale or deal happening with one of our favorite retailers.
So does this mean we’ll only choose to link where we can make money? Nope. Take a tour around and you’ll see we’ve linked all over the place, including places that actually don’t pay. Basically, we’re not going to just link to Amazon because of their affiliate commission policy. I mean, Amazon does rule though amiright?!
Once we make some money from the affiliate commissions we do things like keep the lights on around here, pay some bills (hello server costs!), deal with taxes (what an absolute bummer) and maybe buy some beers and the like. Oh, and of course we invest in making Brostrick better, its content better, and even hiring more editors when it makes sense. It always changes.
PRIVACY MATTERS: WE DON'T SELL DATA
In the same way we’re not a huge fan of ads on a website, we do not believe in collecting or selling data from our readers. So, we do not sell data ever! The details of our privacy policy can be found right here.
HOW WE CHOOSE PRODUCTS + OUR PROCESS
All the content that’s on Brostrick is editorially created by humans (yes, really) and has been since we first launched in June of 2014. Nothing is created by systems, robots, or controlled by advertisements at all. All of this basically means that an editor is writing about their favorite products, creating gift guides based on what they love, what’s popular, and what we’ve learned our readers have been obsessing over since 2014.
When it comes to how we actually choose which products appear on Brostrick, it’s pretty simple. We typically love it. We typically use it. And if we haven’t used it ourselves, we read endless third party reviews on each product, know someone who swears by it, see what’s trending on popular platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and at times even Facebook.
If there is an individual item we’re reviewing, especially in the beauty and skincare space our editors have used it or at least tested it out at home for anywhere from 7 – 30 days, depending. But look, at times we get it wrong. What we loved a few years ago we may have totally stopped using for a variety of reasons over the years. These items are usually removed, but we’re human…so sometimes a product or two may slip through the cracks.
