The editorial is separate from the money.

Brands cannot pay for a positive review, a higher ranking, or even inclusion in the directory. Period. The editorial verdict is written before any commercial link gets attached, and the verdict doesn’t change because of one.

Negative reviews ship even when the brand has an affiliate program. Positive reviews ship even when the brand doesn’t. The editorial path runs separately from the revenue path.

• // Affiliate links

  When you click through to a retailer from a product review and buy something, Loopwheel may earn a small percentage of the sale. The retailer choice is editorial — we link to where we’d send a friend, regardless of whether that retailer has an affiliate program. No link is added because of money; the affiliate wrapper goes on top of an editorial decision that was made first.

• // Newsletter sponsorships

  The Tuesday Weekly may include a clearly-labeled sponsor block — “Sponsored by [brand]” or similar, formatted differently from the editorial body. Sponsors don’t see the surrounding editorial before it ships and have no influence on which products are reviewed in that week’s issue. Sponsors are limited (one per issue, max). Sponsorships are separate from product coverage decisions.

• // Premium subscriptions (eventually)

  A future premium tier will gate the deeper data layer (price-history charts, cross-brand comparators, Sale Calendar, Member Letters). The editorial coverage stays free; premium pays for the quantitative depth. Subscribers don’t get early access to reviews or any influence on what gets covered.

• // Paid reviews

  No brand has paid for a review and no brand will. If a piece reads like an ad, that’s a writing failure, not a payment.

• // Paid placements

  No “featured brand” modules that turn out to be a paying customer. No sponsored ranking on the directory or the Atlas. No pay-to-rush in the queue.

• // Paid-to-try

  Brands can’t pay for inclusion. If a brand sends product, it’s reviewed if it’s interesting and skipped if it isn’t — and the reviewer’s honest take ships either way. PR sample status is disclosed inline when relevant.

• // Editorial veto

  Brands don’t see reviews before they ship. We’ll fix factual errors after publication, but we won’t show drafts for “input” or soften a verdict on request.

A clarifying walk-through, since “affiliate link” is a phrase that hides a lot of variation:

1. 01Editorial decides which products to review, what the verdict is, and which retailers to recommend.
2. 02After the editorial is locked, an affiliate wrapper is added to retailer links where one exists. The link text and destination don’t change — only the tracking parameter on the URL.
3. 03When a reader clicks through and buys, Loopwheel earns a percentage of the sale. The reader pays the same price they would have paid going direct.
4. 04The percentage doesn’t affect future coverage of the retailer or the brand. A higher commission rate doesn’t bump anyone’s ranking. A retailer with no affiliate program still gets linked when it’s the right answer.

This includes resale links. When a review points you to the secondhand market — eBay, where we show what a piece is fetching used — that link is affiliate-tracked exactly the same way: the verdict and the resale numbers are settled before any link is attached, and a higher commission never changes them.

If the editor or any contributor has a personal stake in a brand (employment history, shared ownership, family involvement), the affected reviews say so inline. We’d rather skip a review than hide a connection.

Email hello@loopwheel.co with the source. Corrections are made promptly and logged — every review carries a small "corrected on" note when relevant.