Affiliate Disclosure
Required by the FTC. Required by Amazon. And honestly, you deserve to know.
The TL;DR
Lifetime Picks 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.
When you click a “Buy on Amazon” link on this site and make a purchase within 24 hours, Amazon pays us a small commission (usually 1-4% of your purchase price). It costs you exactly $0 extra. Same Amazon, same price, same checkout. We just get a referral fee from Amazon's advertising budget.
Why this matters
The affiliate model funds the site. Without it:
- We'd need to charge a subscription
- Or run intrusive ad networks (we don't)
- Or accept paid product placements (we don't)
- Or sell your data (we don't)
Affiliate revenue is the cleanest model for a content site that recommends physical products.
Our promise: rankings are not for sale
Our affiliate relationship does not influence which products we recommend or how we rank them. Product rankings are derived from:
- Sentiment analysis of r/BuyItForLife mentions (real users, not sponsored)
- Amazon ratings and review counts
- “Best of” awards from publications like Wirecutter, America's Test Kitchen, Consumer Reports, CNET, Wired, PCMag, Outdoor Gear Lab, RTings
- Heritage brand reputation (companies with 50+ year histories)
All Amazon products carry the same affiliate commission rate. We have no incentive to recommend one over another based on payout. We recommend based on what would last the longest for you.
What we don't do
- No sponsored posts. Brands can't pay us to add their product or move it up the rankings.
- No paid reviews. We don't accept free product samples in exchange for coverage.
- No display ads. The site is free of Google Ads, banner ads, or popup overlays.
- No data brokering. Your behavior on the site doesn't get sold to anyone.
When commissions could be wrong
Sometimes we recommend a product that Amazon doesn't carry (e.g., Saddleback Leather sells primarily through their own site). In those cases, we link to the brand's direct site and we earn nothing from your purchase. That's fine. The recommendation is what matters.
Tracking ID
Our Amazon Associates tracking ID is lifetimepicks-20. You'll see it appended to outgoing Amazon URLs as ?tag=lifetimepicks-20. This is the standard Amazon affiliate parameter — totally normal and required by Amazon's program.
Questions
Email hello@lifetimepicks.com