Affiliate Disclosure

What Are Affiliate Links?

An affiliate link is a tracked URL that records whether a visitor came from PrettyPicked. When you click a product link on this site and then buy something on Etsy, the Rakuten Advertising LinkSynergy network records the referral against our Merchant ID (54027) and Etsy pays PrettyPicked a small commission.

You pay exactly the same price as you would without our link. The commission comes from Etsy and from the seller's margin, never from the reader.

Affiliate Programs We Use

We currently participate in:

• Etsy Affiliate Program, operated for Etsy Inc. by Rakuten Advertising (LinkSynergy network, Merchant ID 54027). Every PrettyPicked affiliate link routes through click.linksynergy.com and carries a u1={article-slug} parameter so we can tie commissions back to the specific article that earned them.

If we add or change affiliate programs (Awin, Skimlinks, direct shop partnerships, etc.) this page will be updated within seven days and previously published articles will be re-stamped.

Gifted Products and Sponsored Posts

Free samples and paid sponsorships are separate from affiliate links and are disclosed separately on the article that contains them:

• Gifted: If a shop sent us a product free of charge for editorial review, the article carries a gifted disclosure before the first affiliate link. Free samples never guarantee a positive review.
• Sponsored: If a shop, seller, or platform paid PrettyPicked to write or place an article, the article carries a sponsored disclosure naming the sponsor before the first affiliate link.
• Personal relationships: If the author or PrettyPicked has an ownership, employment, or familial relationship with a featured shop, the article carries a relationship disclosure naming the shop.

These disclosures are mandated by 16 CFR §255.5 (FTC Endorsement Guides, Material Connections) and apply regardless of whether the article also earns affiliate commission.

Editorial Independence

How we keep affiliate revenue out of editorial decisions:

• We select products based on quality, reviews, shop reliability, and how well they answer the article's reader question.
• We only attach affiliate links after the selection is finalized.
• Products without an affiliate link still get included when they earn the slot on editorial grounds.
• We never accept payment from sellers in exchange for a positive review or for a placement above another product.

How to Identify Affiliate Links on PrettyPicked

On this site, affiliate links appear as:

• Product cardswith a “See on Etsy” button.
• Inline text links to Etsy product or shop pages.
• QuickPicks tables with direct links to products.

Every such link carries rel="noopener sponsored nofollow" and routes through Rakuten Advertising LinkSynergy. Once you leave PrettyPicked, Etsy's own terms and privacy policy apply.

Substantiation of Claims

Objective claims on PrettyPicked — review counts, star ratings, “best-selling”, “trending”, “only N left”, “X% off”, viral signals — are backed by a substantiation ledger held alongside the article. We retrieve, archive, and revalidate these claims; perishable claims carry an archive.org snapshot URL so the underlying source is provable even after it rotates.

Legal Basis

• United States — 16 CFR Part 255 (Federal Trade Commission Endorsement Guides, July 2023 final rule); FTC “.com Disclosures” guidance; FTC Act §5 (deceptive acts and practices).
• European Union — UCPD (Directive 2005/29/EC) Annex I items #5, #7, #11, #22; Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) Article 26 (advertising transparency).
• Germany — UWG §5a Abs. 4 (Act Against Unfair Competition, commercial-communication labeling); §6 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 DDG (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz).
• United Kingdom — CAP Code §3 (substantiation) and §3.4 (identifying marketing communications).

Questions?

If you have questions about our affiliate relationships, our substantiation ledger, or a specific claim on a specific article, email contact@prettypicked.com.