Affiliate disclosure & how we make money

The short version

Some outbound shopping links on this site are affiliate links. If you buy through them, the retailer pays The Cast Index a commission — at no extra cost to you. Every affiliate link is labelled before or alongside the link, and carries rel="sponsored" so search engines can identify it as paid. Commissions never decide what we review, how we score it, or where anything ranks.

Every way we earn money

• Affiliate commissions. When you click a labelled affiliate link and make a qualifying purchase, the retailer or network pays us a percentage. The price you pay is the same.
• Cast Index Pro subscriptions. £49/seat/month for industry data tools.
• Paid directory listings. £19/year for a profile listing in the directory.
• Event listings. £29 for a listing in the events directory.
• People’s Choice nominations. £5 to nominate in the public vote.

The firewall: no payment, commission, listing, submission, donation or vote buys, influences or guarantees any editorial ranking, review, score, evidence or coverage. Affiliate content follows the same evidence standards as the rest of the index: real products, named sources, and summaries in our own words. People’s Choice is a separate public popularity vote and does not affect the editorial Index. Paid listings are labelled as paid services and are kept separate from the editorial index.

United States — FTC disclosure

Under the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255), an affiliate commission is a “material connection” between us and the retailer, and it must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. Here is how we comply:

• A plain-English disclosure appears before or directly above any block of affiliate links — not buried in a footer or a distant page.
• Affiliate links are labelled in the surrounding text and marked in code with rel="sponsored".
• This page is linked from the site footer and from every disclosure box.

Amazon Associates

The Cast Index participates (or intends to participate) in the Amazon Associates Programs for Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. The Operating Agreement requires us to say, verbatim:

As an Amazon Associate, The Cast Index earns from qualifying purchases.

That line applies to both our Amazon.com and our Amazon.co.uk links.

Prices and availability shown or referenced on this site are not guaranteed — they change on Amazon’s side, and Amazon’s own terms and prices at checkout govern any purchase. We use only Amazon-generated links or our own tagged Associates links; we never cloak or disguise them.

United Kingdom — ASA / CAP Code

Under the UK CAP Code, affiliate marketing is advertising, and The Cast Index is the “marketer” for CAP purposes on pages carrying affiliate links. We comply by making affiliate content obviously identifiable: a disclosure statement appears before the links, and links are labelled. Editorial rankings and reviews remain independent; where a piece of content contains affiliate links, that content is identified as such. If you believe any content on this site breaches the CAP Code, you can complain to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) — and please tell us first so we can put it right.

For how we handle your data when you click outbound links, see our Privacy Policy and Cookies & storage notice.

Affiliate programs we work with

No affiliate programs are active yet — this list updates itself automatically the moment a program goes live. Until then, shopping links on this site go directly to official brand and retailer pages, untracked.

Programs may be added or removed over time; any active program is listed above and covered by the disclosures on this page.

Questions

Anything unclear about how a link makes us money? Ask the desk: desk@thecastindex.com.