How we make money — in plain English

What that means for you

Dovetail & Dust is free to read, and it stays that way because a portion of our recommendations are affiliate links. When you click one and go on to buy, the retailer pays us a small commission. You pay exactly the same price you would have paid otherwise; the commission comes out of the retailer's margin, never your pocket.

The Amazon Associates Program

Dovetail & Dust 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. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. We may also participate in other retailers' affiliate programs from time to time, and the same principles below apply to all of them.

Cloaked links and the /go redirect

Many of our outbound affiliate links are cloaked — they pass through our own /goredirect before sending you on to the retailer. This keeps our links tidy and maintainable and lets us fix a broken or discontinued link in one place. The redirect simply forwards you to the retailer's product page; it does not change the price you pay or add anything to your cart.

Buyer-first, always

This is the promise that matters most: our commission never changes a recommendation. Rankings are decided by the rubric in our methodology, not by what pays us best. When the cheaper tool is the better buy, we say so plainly — even when it earns us less, and even when it earns us nothing at all. If we ever recommended a worse tool because it paid more, the whole site would be worthless, and we know it.

How prices are shown

Prices on Dovetail & Dust are pulled live from Amazon and shown with an "as of" date stamp so you can see how fresh the figure is. Prices change constantly, so if a current price is not available we show no price at all rather than an old one — a stale number vanishes instead of misleading you. Always confirm the final price on the retailer's own page before you buy.

We are not the seller

Dovetail & Dust is a publisher, not a store. We do not sell, ship, or handle returns for any product. When you click through and buy, your purchase is a transaction between you and the retailer — Amazon's (or the relevant retailer's) pricing, availability, terms, and policies at checkout are what govern the sale. Any questions about an order, a return, or a warranty go to the retailer, not to us.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, or you want to know whether a specific link is an affiliate link, just ask us through the contact page or at info@dovetailanddust.com. For how our picks are actually chosen, read the methodology; for our accuracy and correction commitments, see the editorial policy.