Affiliate disclosure

Marker & Method is funded by affiliate commissions. When you click a link to a course and buy, we may earn a commission from the seller at no extra cost to you. This page explains exactly how that works, because the whole point of a review desk is that you can trust it.

Who we link to

The courses we review are sold on third-party platforms, principally SitStayLearn, a multi-instructor marketplace of online dog-training courses. Our links to those courses carry a tracking code that tells the seller the visit came from us.

How the commission works

Attribution is cookie-based. When you click one of our links, a cookie records that you arrived through us, and if you buy within the cookie window, we are credited. In practice this means we can write a critical review, link to the platform so you can see the course for yourself, and still be funded if you end up buying something that suits you better. We never have to push a course we do not believe in to keep the lights on.

The rule that protects you

The rubric decides the verdict. The affiliate link follows the verdict. Never the reverse. We score every course on the same two-axis rubric before any commercial consideration enters, and the score is what sets the recommendation. Concretely, that means:

• A course we think is excellent gets a clear recommendation and a prominent link, because we genuinely believe in it.
• A course we think is weak gets a critical review and a soft, honest link, usually alongside the better-aligned alternative we would choose instead.
• When the best option for your situation is something we cannot earn from, we tell you anyway, including when the honest answer is "do not buy a course, see a professional."

What we will never do

• Bury a true negative to protect a commission.
• Invent testing or personal stories to sell a course.
• Use fear or guilt to push a purchase.
• Let a higher payout move a course up a ranking.

Marking of links

Affiliate links are marked where they appear, and they carry the appropriate technical attributes so they are transparent to you and to search engines. This disclosure is linked from every page that carries a commercial link, in keeping with the United States Federal Trade Commission's guidance on endorsements.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, or you think a verdict reads as if money shaded it, tell us at hello@markermethod.com. Holding us to this is the point.