Where this site stands today
As this page is written, Atlas Rug Guide carries no affiliate links, no sponsored content, and no advertising. Nothing here earns a commission. No seller, dealer, or marketplace is paying for anything on this site.
That is simply the state of things, said plainly. This page will be updated when it changes — rather than left standing as a vague disclaimer that implies a relationship the site does not have, or hides one it later does.
If and when that changes
This site publishes buying guides, and buying guides commonly carry affiliate links: links that pay the site a small commission if a reader buys through them, at no extra cost to the reader. If Atlas Rug Guide takes that route, these rules apply from the very first link:
- The disclosure comes first. Any guide containing affiliate links says so clearly at the top, above the recommendations — not in small print at the foot of the page, and not only here on this page.
- The commission does not pick the winner. A rug or a seller is never recommended because it pays more, and never left out because it pays nothing. Where the right answer for a reader is a source that pays this site nothing — a local dealer, a weaving co-operative, a shop in Morocco, a private sale, or buying nothing at all — that is the answer the guide gives.
- The price is the same for you. An affiliate commission is paid by the seller out of their own margin. Readers pay exactly what they would have paid otherwise.
- Sponsorship is a different thing, and it gets labelled. If any content is ever paid for by a seller, it is marked as sponsored, on the content itself, in words a reader cannot miss. It is not dressed up as an independent guide.
- Nothing is retrofitted quietly. Affiliate links are not slipped into existing guides without the disclosure being added at the same time.
- Reviews stay reviewable. An affiliate relationship never buys removal of criticism, and it never buys a rating.
Why say this now, with nothing to disclose
Because a disclosure written before there is money on the table is worth more than one written after it. These are the terms this site intends to be held to, and the Editorial Policy sets out the independence rules that sit behind them.
If you ever see something on this site that looks like a paid placement without a label, please report it through the Contact page.