Affiliate Disclosure: Our Commitment to Transparency and Trust

Last Updated: September 30, 2025

Why This Page Matters (And Why We’re Glad You’re Reading It)

Let’s be honest most people skip right past affiliate disclosures. They’re often buried in fine print, written in confusing legal language, and feel like they’re there just to check a regulatory box. But if you’ve found your way here, it means you care about transparency, and so do we.

At Mediterranean Diet Choice, we believe that trust is the foundation of everything we do. You come to us for honest, research-backed guidance on living a healthier life through the Mediterranean diet. That relationship—the one between you and us—is sacred. We’re not willing to compromise it for a quick commission or a flashy partnership that doesn’t serve your best interests.

This affiliate disclosure isn’t just a legal requirement (though yes, the Federal Trade Commission does require it). It’s our way of pulling back the curtain and showing you exactly how Mediterranean Diet Choice operates, how we sustain this platform, and why we recommend the products and resources we do.

So grab a cup of herbal tea (or perhaps a glass of red wine—it’s Mediterranean-approved, after all), and let’s talk honestly about affiliate marketing, transparency, and what it means for you.

What Is Affiliate Marketing, Anyway?

Before we dive into the specifics of how Mediterranean Diet Choice handles affiliate relationships, let’s clarify what affiliate marketing actually means. If you’re already familiar with the concept, feel free to skip ahead—but if you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, this section is for you.

The Basics of Affiliate Relationships

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing arrangement where a website (that’s us) earns a commission by promoting products or services offered by other companies. Here’s how it typically works:

We recommend a product—let’s say a high-quality olive oil from a trusted brand that aligns with Mediterranean diet principles. When you click on our affiliate link and make a purchase, the company pays us a small commission. This commission comes from the company’s marketing budget, not from your pocket. You pay the exact same price whether you use our link or go directly to the company’s website.

Think of it like this: imagine you told your friend about an amazing restaurant, and the restaurant gave you a gift card as a thank-you for spreading the word. That’s essentially what affiliate marketing is—a referral program for the digital age.

Why Affiliate Marketing Exists

Companies use affiliate marketing because it’s more efficient than traditional advertising. Instead of spending millions on TV commercials or billboard ads that might reach people who aren’t interested, they partner with content creators like us who have already built trust with specific audiences.

For us, it’s a way to keep Mediterranean Diet Choice running. Creating high-quality content, developing calculators and tools, conducting research, testing recipes, and maintaining a website takes significant time and resources. Affiliate commissions help us cover those costs so we can keep providing free, valuable content to our community.

According to research from the Performance Marketing Association, affiliate marketing has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry precisely because it creates a win-win-win situation: companies get targeted exposure, content creators can sustain their work, and consumers discover products that genuinely serve their needs.

Our Affiliate Relationships: Complete Transparency

Now that you understand what affiliate marketing is, let’s talk specifically about how Mediterranean Diet Choice approaches these relationships.

Where Our Affiliate Links Appear

You’ll find affiliate links throughout our website in various places:

Within Blog Articles and Guides: When we write about Mediterranean diet essentials, cooking techniques, or healthy lifestyle practices, we sometimes recommend specific products that we believe will help you succeed. For instance, when discussing the importance of extra-virgin olive oil in our Mediterranean pantry guide, we might link to brands we trust and have personally vetted.

Recipe Posts: Some recipes include recommendations for specialty ingredients or kitchen tools that make preparation easier. If we mention a particular Greek yogurt brand or recommend a food processor that makes hummus preparation effortless, those might be affiliate links.

Resource Pages and Shopping Lists: We occasionally create curated lists of Mediterranean diet essentials—from pantry staples to kitchen equipment to helpful books. Many items on these lists include affiliate links.

Meal Plan Downloads: Our detailed meal plans sometimes include shopping lists with specific product recommendations, some of which may be affiliate links.

Product Reviews and Comparisons: When we review Mediterranean diet-friendly products, cookbooks, or kitchen tools, we aim to provide honest, thorough assessments. If we recommend purchasing these items, we typically use affiliate links.

Programs We Participate In

Mediterranean Diet Choice participates in several affiliate programs. These partnerships allow us to recommend products and resources that align with Mediterranean lifestyle principles. Our current affiliate relationships include (but aren’t limited to):

Amazon Associates Program: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. When you click on Amazon links from our website and make a purchase, we receive a small commission. This is one of our primary affiliate relationships because Amazon offers a wide range of Mediterranean diet-friendly products, from olive oils to kitchen equipment to cookbooks.

Direct Brand Partnerships: We partner directly with select companies that produce high-quality Mediterranean diet products—olive oil producers, spice companies, cookware brands, and specialty food importers. These partnerships are carefully chosen based on product quality, company ethics, and alignment with Mediterranean diet principles.

Health and Wellness Affiliate Networks: We participate in networks that connect us with reputable health food brands, supplement companies (though we’re selective about supplements), and wellness product manufacturers.

Digital Product Affiliates: We occasionally recommend digital resources like online courses, e-books, meal planning apps, or nutrition tracking tools that support Mediterranean lifestyle adoption.

Advertising Networks: Beyond individual affiliate links, we use advertising networks like Google AdSense to display relevant advertisements on our website. We earn revenue when you view or click on these ads.

What We Promote (And What We Don’t)

Here’s where our values really come into play. Just because a company offers an affiliate program doesn’t mean we’ll promote their products. We’re selective-actually, we’re downright picky about what we recommend.

We ONLY promote products that:

✅ Align with authentic Mediterranean diet principles
✅ Meet high quality and safety standards
✅ We genuinely believe will benefit our readers
✅ We’ve personally used, researched, or thoroughly vetted
✅ Come from companies with ethical practices
✅ Represent good value for the money

We will NEVER promote:

❌ Products we haven’t vetted or researched
❌ Sketchy supplements with unsubstantiated claims
❌ Restrictive diet programs that contradict Mediterranean principles
❌ Products from companies with poor ethical records
❌ Anything that could harm your health
❌ Items solely because they offer high commissions

The Federal Trade Commission has clear guidelines about affiliate disclosure, and we take these seriously. According to FTC guidelines on endorsements and testimonials, we must clearly disclose any material connection between us and the companies whose products we recommend.

But beyond legal compliance, transparency is simply the right thing to do. You deserve to know when we might benefit financially from your purchase decisions.

How Affiliate Commissions Work

Let’s talk numbers and mechanics, because understanding how we earn keeps everything above board.

Commission Structures

Different affiliate programs have different commission structures:

Percentage-Based Commissions: Most programs pay a percentage of your purchase price. For example, Amazon Associates typically pays 1-10% depending on the product category. If you buy a $30 cookbook through our link, we might earn $1.20 to $3.00.

Flat-Rate Commissions: Some programs pay a fixed amount per sale regardless of purchase price. A meal planning app might pay us $10 for every new subscriber who signs up through our link.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC): Certain advertising arrangements pay us small amounts when you simply click on a link, whether you buy anything or not.

Recurring Commissions: For subscription-based services, we might earn a small commission each month that you remain subscribed.

The Reality of Affiliate Income

Here’s something most affiliate disclosure pages don’t tell you: affiliate marketing isn’t the get-rich-quick scheme some people think it is. The reality is more modest.

For a website like Mediterranean Diet Choice, affiliate commissions might help cover:

Website hosting and security costs
Domain registration and technical infrastructure
Content creation tools and software subscriptions
Research materials and recipe testing ingredients
Photography equipment for recipe images
Time invested in creating free resources

We’re transparent about this because we want you to understand that affiliate marketing allows us to keep producing quality content without putting everything behind a paywall. It’s a sustainable model that keeps our content free and accessible while supporting our work.

This is crucial: using our affiliate links doesn’t cost you anything extra. The price you pay is identical whether you use our link or navigate to the company’s website independently. The commission comes from the company’s marketing budget, not your wallet.

In fact, sometimes we can negotiate special discounts for our community, which means using our affiliate links might actually save you money. When we have exclusive discount codes or special offers, we’ll always share them prominently.

Our Editorial Independence: Where We Draw the Line

This is probably the most important section of this entire disclosure, so pay attention.

Our Content Comes First

Affiliate relationships do NOT dictate our content. Let us say that louder for the people in the back: We do not create content around affiliate opportunities. We create content around your needs, then occasionally include relevant product recommendations.

Here’s what this means in practice:

Editorial Decisions: What we write about is determined by what’s most helpful for people adopting the Mediterranean lifestyle—not by which products offer the highest commissions. If we’re writing about the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids in Mediterranean fish, we’re doing so because it’s important nutritional information, not because we have fish oil supplements to promote.

Honest Reviews: When we review products, we share genuine opinions i.e. positive and negative. If an affiliate product falls short, we’ll say so, even if it costs us commission opportunities. For instance, when we tested various olive oil brands, we ranked them based on quality, taste, and authenticity, not commission rates.

Research-Based Recommendations: Our guidance is rooted in nutritional science and Mediterranean diet research, as documented by institutions like the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and peer-reviewed studies in journals like the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Affiliate relationships don’t change the science.

Alternative Options: We regularly mention non-affiliate alternatives alongside affiliate products. If there’s a better option that doesn’t earn us a commission, we’ll recommend it anyway. Our loyalty is to you, not to commission checks.

When Affiliate Status Might Influence Content

We believe in radical transparency, which means acknowledging gray areas. There are subtle ways affiliate relationships might influence our content, and you deserve to know about them:

Product Selection: If we’re creating a roundup of the best Mediterranean cookbooks, we might give slight priority to books available through our affiliate programs—but only if they genuinely deserve to be on the list. We won’t exclude superior non-affiliate options just to include inferior affiliate ones.

Link Placement: When we have the choice between linking to an affiliate product or a similar non-affiliate product of equal quality, we’ll choose the affiliate link. This seems fair since the content creation is funded partially through these relationships.

Testing Priorities: When companies send us products to review, we might test those before purchasing non-affiliate products out of pocket. However, receiving a free product doesn’t guarantee a positive review. We’ve written critical reviews of products gifted to us when they didn’t meet our standards.

What About Sponsored Content?

Sponsored content (also called paid partnerships or native advertising) is different from affiliate marketing. In sponsored content, a company pays us directly to create content about their product or service.

Our Policy: If we ever publish sponsored content, we’ll disclose it clearly and prominently at the beginning of the post. Sponsored posts will be labeled as “Sponsored,” “Paid Partnership,” or “Advertisement.” Currently, Mediterranean Diet Choice focuses primarily on affiliate relationships rather than sponsored content, but this may evolve as the platform grows.

Our Standards: Any sponsored content will meet the same quality standards as our regular content and must align with Mediterranean diet principles. We won’t accept sponsorships from companies whose products or values conflict with our mission.

Your Privacy and Affiliate Links

Let’s address some technical aspects of how affiliate links work and what it means for your privacy.

Cookies and Tracking

When you click on an affiliate link, the company typically places a cookie on your browser. This cookie tracks your browsing and purchasing activity to ensure we receive credit if you make a purchase.

Cookie Duration: Different programs have different cookie durations. Amazon’s cookie lasts 24 hours, meaning if you click our link today but purchase tomorrow, we only earn a commission if you buy within 24 hours. Other programs have longer cookie durations—30, 60, or even 90 days.

What’s Tracked: Affiliate cookies typically track what you purchase and when, but they don’t collect sensitive personal information like your name, address, or payment details. That information stays between you and the retailer.

Your Control: You can delete cookies from your browser at any time, use incognito/private browsing modes, or use browser extensions that block tracking. These actions may prevent us from earning commissions, but we respect your right to control your digital privacy.

More details about data collection and cookies are available in our Privacy Policy, which works hand-in-hand with this affiliate disclosure.

Data Protection

We take data protection seriously. When you interact with affiliate links on our website:

We don’t sell your browsing data to third parties
We don’t share your personal information with affiliate partners beyond what’s automatically collected through their tracking systems
We comply with privacy regulations like GDPR (for European visitors) and CCPA (for California residents)
We use secure connections (HTTPS) to protect your information in transit

How to Identify Affiliate Links on Our Website

We believe you should always know when you’re clicking on an affiliate link. Here’s how we mark them:

Disclosure Statements

You’ll typically see clear disclosure language near affiliate links, such as:

“As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.”
“This post contains affiliate links.”
“We may earn a commission if you purchase through this link.”
“Affiliate link” or “Paid link” notation

These disclosures appear:

At the beginning of articles containing affiliate links
Within the content near relevant product recommendations
In prominent positions where you can’t miss them

Visual Indicators

Depending on our website design, affiliate links might be visually distinguished through:

Different colors or styling
Small icons or symbols (like an asterisk *)
Hover-over tooltips that say “Affiliate Link”

We’re constantly working to make affiliate links more obvious and transparent.

When in Doubt, Assume It’s an Affiliate Link

Our general rule: if we’re linking to a product you can purchase (especially on Amazon or from brand websites), assume it’s likely an affiliate link. We’d rather over-disclose than under-disclose.

Your Rights and Our Responsibilities

Understanding affiliate marketing is a two-way street. You have rights as a consumer, and we have responsibilities as content creators.

Your Rights

Right to Know: You have the right to understand when content creators might benefit financially from your purchases. That’s literally what this entire page is about.

Right to Choose: You’re never obligated to use our affiliate links. If you prefer to search for products independently, we completely understand and support that decision.

Right to Honest Information: You deserve truthful, accurate product information regardless of affiliate relationships. If we make misleading claims to earn commissions, you have the right to call us out.

Right to Privacy: You have the right to understand how your data is collected and used. Check our Privacy Policy for comprehensive information.

Right to Complain: If you believe we’ve mishandled affiliate disclosures or made dishonest recommendations, you can report us to the Federal Trade Commission or contact us directly.

Our Responsibilities

Honest Disclosure: We must clearly and conspicuously disclose affiliate relationships. This isn’t optional—it’s a legal and ethical requirement.

Truthful Claims: We must only make claims about products that we can substantiate with evidence. We can’t exaggerate benefits or omit important drawbacks just to earn commissions.

Expertise and Testing: We should only recommend products we’ve personally used, researched, or thoroughly vetted. Recommending products blindly for commissions violates trust and FTC guidelines.

Ongoing Compliance: We must stay current with FTC guidelines and adjust our disclosure practices as regulations evolve.

Responsive to Concerns: If you question our practices or recommendations, we should respond respectfully and make corrections when necessary.

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Affiliate Relationships

Let’s address some common questions you might have:

Q: Do affiliate relationships make your recommendations less trustworthy?

A: Not if handled correctly. The key is transparency and prioritizing your needs over commissions. We’re committed to recommending quality products regardless of affiliate status. Many trusted publications—from major newspapers to respected health websites—use affiliate links while maintaining editorial integrity.

Q: Why should I use your affiliate links if the price is the same either way?

A: You’re not obligated to, but using our affiliate links is a way to support the free content we create without spending any extra money. Think of it as leaving a tip for helpful service. That said, we never want you to feel pressured—your trust matters more than any commission.

Q: Do you get free products from companies?

A: Occasionally, yes. Companies sometimes send us products for review. When this happens, we disclose it clearly in our reviews. Receiving a free product doesn’t guarantee a positive review—we evaluate everything honestly based on quality and value.

Q: What if I find a better price somewhere else?

A: Absolutely buy from wherever offers the best deal! We want you to get the best value, even if it means not using our affiliate links. We might even point you to better prices when we find them.

Q: Do you recommend products you haven’t personally tried?

A: Rarely, and when we do, we’re explicit about it. Sometimes we recommend highly-rated products based on extensive research rather than personal testing, particularly for specialty items or products we can’t afford to purchase ourselves. We always clarify when our recommendation is research-based rather than experience-based.

Q: Can I ask you about specific products before I buy?

A: Absolutely! We’re here to help. Reach out through our contact page with questions about any products we recommend. We’re happy to provide additional context, alternatives, or guidance.

How We Choose What to Recommend

Since product recommendations are central to affiliate marketing, let’s break down our decision-making process.

Our Vetting Criteria

Before we recommend any product with an affiliate link, we evaluate it against strict criteria:

1. Mediterranean Diet Alignment: Does this product support authentic Mediterranean eating patterns? We won’t promote products that contradict Mediterranean principles, no matter how high the commission.

2. Quality and Safety: Is this product safe, well-made, and reliable? We check for quality certifications, read user reviews, research company reputations, and when possible, test products ourselves.

3. Value for Money: Does this product offer good value relative to its price? We won’t recommend overpriced items just because they pay higher commissions.

4. Nutritional Integrity: For food products, we examine ingredients, nutritional profiles, and production methods. We favor minimally processed, authentic ingredients over heavily processed alternatives.

5. Sustainability and Ethics: We prefer companies with ethical labor practices, sustainable sourcing, and environmental consciousness. While we can’t verify every aspect of every company’s operations, we do our due diligence.

6. Real-World Usefulness: Will this product genuinely make it easier for you to adopt or maintain Mediterranean lifestyle habits? If it’s a gimmick or unnecessary gadget, we won’t recommend it.

When We Change Our Minds

Sometimes we recommend a product, then later discover issues that change our assessment. Maybe quality declined, the company changed ownership, or we found a better alternative. When this happens, we:

Update the content to reflect our changed opinion
Replace the affiliate link with a better recommendation
Sometimes remove the recommendation entirely

This is another way we prioritize your trust over short-term commissions.

The Bigger Picture: Content Funding Models

Let’s zoom out and look at why affiliate marketing matters in the broader context of online content.

How Free Content Gets Funded

High-quality content isn’t free to produce. Someone has to pay for:

Research time and expertise
Content creation and editing
Photography and graphics
Website hosting and maintenance
Tools and software
Testing recipes and products

There are generally four models for funding content:

1. Subscription/Paywall Model: Users pay directly for access. Think Netflix, newspapers behind paywalls, or premium recipe websites.

2. Advertising Model: Free content supported by display ads. The website earns money when you view or click on advertisements.

3. Affiliate Model: Free content supported by commissions when readers purchase recommended products.

4. Hybrid Model: Combination of multiple revenue streams—advertising, affiliates, subscriptions, and sponsorships.

Mediterranean Diet Choice primarily uses a hybrid model, relying on affiliate commissions and advertising while keeping content free and accessible. We believe this approach best serves our mission of making Mediterranean eating accessible to everyone.

Why We Chose This Model

We could have built Mediterranean Diet Choice as a subscription service—charging a monthly fee for access to meal plans, recipes, and tools. But that would create a barrier preventing many people from accessing information that could genuinely improve their health.

We could rely solely on display advertising, but that often means cluttered pages filled with irrelevant ads that detract from user experience.

The affiliate model, combined with selective advertising, allows us to:

Keep all content free and accessible
Maintain a clean, user-friendly website design
Earn income aligned with providing value (we only earn when we help you find products you want)
Preserve editorial independence

It’s not perfect, but we believe it’s the most balanced approach for a health education platform like ours.

Our Commitment Going Forward

As Mediterranean Diet Choice grows and evolves, our commitment to transparency remains constant.

What Won’t Change

No matter how big we get or how our affiliate relationships expand, these core principles are non-negotiable:

Transparency First: We’ll always disclose affiliate relationships clearly and prominently.

Your Interests Over Ours: When conflicts arise between earning commissions and serving your best interests, we’ll choose you every time.

Editorial Independence: Affiliate opportunities won’t dictate our content strategy or compromise our educational mission.

Quality Standards: We’ll never lower our product recommendation standards just to access more affiliate programs.

Honesty in Reviews: We’ll continue providing balanced, honest assessments even when they cost us commissions.

What Might Change

We’re committed to improvement, which means some things may evolve:

More Affiliate Partnerships: As we grow, we might partner with additional quality brands, expanding our affiliate relationships while maintaining our vetting standards.

Better Disclosure Methods: We’re always looking for clearer, more user-friendly ways to disclose affiliate relationships.

Enhanced Product Vetting: We might develop more rigorous testing protocols and partnerships with independent reviewers.

Community Input: We’d love to hear your thoughts on how we handle affiliate relationships. Your feedback shapes our policies.

Final Thoughts: Trust, Transparency, and the Mediterranean Way

Here’s the thing about the Mediterranean lifestyle—it’s not just about food. It’s about honesty, community, and sustainable practices. It’s about choosing quality over convenience, and authenticity over artifice.

Those same values guide how we approach affiliate marketing at Mediterranean Diet Choice.

We could hide our affiliate relationships in fine print. We could recommend products we haven’t vetted just for higher commissions. We could prioritize profits over your wellbeing. But that would betray everything the Mediterranean lifestyle represents.

Instead, we’re choosing transparency. We’re showing you exactly how this platform operates, how we earn income, and why we recommend what we do. We’re trusting that when you understand the full picture, you’ll appreciate that affiliate marketing done ethically and transparently—is simply a modern way of sustaining valuable free content.

Your trust is more valuable than any commission. Your health is more important than any partnership. Your satisfaction with our content matters more than short-term revenue.

So yes, we use affiliate links. Yes, we earn commissions when you purchase products we recommend. But we only recommend products we genuinely believe will help you embrace the Mediterranean lifestyle and improve your wellbeing.

That’s our commitment to you—today, tomorrow, and for as long as Mediterranean Diet Choice exists.

If you ever have questions, concerns, or feedback about our affiliate relationships, we’re listening. Reach out through our contact page. Challenge us. Hold us accountable. That’s what builds real community.

Thank you for taking the time to understand how Mediterranean Diet Choice operates. Thank you for your trust. And most importantly, thank you for being part of this community dedicated to healthier, more vibrant living.

Contact Us About Affiliate Relationships:
Email: contact@mdietchoice.com
Contact Page: Contact Here

Related Policies: