Last updated: July 24, 2026.
Herbcare is a small editorial journal. To keep the writing quiet and the site free to read, we occasionally include affiliate links to books, teas, oils, tools, or other objects a writer here already owns and uses. This page explains, plainly, what that means.
What an affiliate link is
When we link to a product on a third-party retailer (for example, a book on Amazon, a tea on a specific tea merchant’s site, or a piece of kitchenware on an artisan shop) that link may include a small identifier that tells the retailer the visit came from Herbcare. If you go on to buy the product, the retailer may pay us a small commission on the sale. You pay exactly the same price you would have paid if you had reached the product any other way.
Which programs we participate in
We currently participate in a small number of affiliate programs. As of the last update to this page, that includes the following:
- Amazon Associates — links to books, teas, and household objects on regional Amazon storefronts (Amazon.in, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk primarily). Herbcare 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 and its regional storefronts.
- Independent affiliate arrangements — occasional direct affiliate arrangements with small tea merchants, oil producers, or artisan kitchenware makers whose products a writer here uses regularly. Where any such arrangement exists it is stated in the article itself.
If we add a new program we update this list.
Our editorial position on affiliate links
- We do not accept payment to feature a product. No brand pays us to include their book, their tea, or their tool in an article. If a product is mentioned it is because a writer already owns and uses it, or has independently reviewed it.
- We do not adjust our writing to increase the chance of a commission. We will not upgrade a lukewarm recommendation to a strong one because the affiliate program on the stronger product pays a higher rate. Where we prefer a version that pays us nothing, we say so and link to it anyway.
- An affiliate link never determines what we cover. We choose topics based on what is worth writing about, not on where the commission is.
- An article is not a sales page. If more than a small handful of links in a piece would be affiliate links, we generally cut most of them. We would rather have one useful link than five convenient ones.
How to spot an affiliate link on the site
Affiliate links follow one or more of the conventions below:
- Where a piece contains any affiliate link, a short note near the top or bottom of the article states it plainly.
- Outbound affiliate links carry a
rel="sponsored nofollow"attribute so that search engines and browsers can identify them as commercial links. - If an article is written specifically around one product we have been given for review, that is stated in the opening paragraph, not buried in the tags.
What we do not accept
- Sponsored posts written by a brand and published under our byline.
- Paid mentions inside articles.
- Guest posts with paid outbound links.
- Any arrangement that would ask us to say something we do not believe.
Offers of the above are politely declined, usually with a short note explaining why.
US disclosure notice (FTC)
For our United States readers, this page and the per-article notes together constitute our disclosure of material connections under the Federal Trade Commission’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (16 C.F.R. Part 255). We disclose the affiliate relationship near the top of any article that contains an affiliate link.
Questions
If any link in an article looks wrong, if a program disclosure appears to be missing, or if you would like to know more about how we handle affiliate arrangements, please write to [email protected]. We will look at it promptly and, where an oversight has occurred, we will correct it on the article itself.