Gear Review Policy & Disclosures
Wild Snow gear review policy
For the most part, Wildsnow.com only reviews gear which our reviewers use and like. We are an independent journalistic operation and the only business association we have with any publications or equipment companies is when they advertise with us. We do not trade advertising for gear. All our advertising is paid for with cash and we make every effort to separate our advertising sales operation from our editorial operation.
We also publish informational articles as well as articles known as “FAQs” (Frequently Asked Questions). While our articles and FAQs may include recommendations, they are not gear reviews and are not intended as a blanket endorsement for or recommendation against a given product. You can trust our gear reviews since unless stated otherwise we simply review products we use and recommend.
Compliance with FTC 16 CFR Part 255
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed guidelines for endorsements and recommendations on the web. (The European Union has issued similar rules.) This statement is in compliance with the proposed rule FTC 16 CFR Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
As stated in our page footers, We include “affiliate sales” links with most of our blog posts. This means we receive a percentage of a sale if you click over from our site (at no cost to You). None of our affiliate commission links are direct relationships with specific gear companies or shopping carts, instead we remain removed by using a third party who manages all our affiliate sales and relationships. We also sell display “banner” advertising, in this case our relationships are closer to the companies who advertise, but our display advertising income is carefully separated financially and editorially from our blog content, over which we always maintain 100% editorial control — we make this clear during every advertising deal we work out. See our full disclosures here.
We also do the occasional “sponsored” post, these are under similar financial arrangements as our banner advertising, only the banner or other type of reference to a supporting company are included in the blog post, simply to show they provided financial support to WildSnow.com and of course provide the company with advertising. Unlike most other “sponsored content” you find on the internet, our sponsored posts are entirely under our editorial control and created by WildSnow specific writers.
No author on this website is payed by a gear company for their writing (some of our authors are sponsored by gear companies, but not specifically for writing, and we make such relationships clear in their author bios). None of the products that authors on this website have written about, reviewed or endorsed were paid endorsements. Some products we review have been purchased at retail, some at a reduced price, some are on short or long-term loan, and some were received for free.
