How this site makes money

America's Own Hands is run by one person, Dan King. It costs money to host and a great deal of time to research, and this page sets out the only ways it earns, so you can judge everything else on the site with that in view.

Affiliate links, and only where marked

Gift guides can carry affiliate links. If you buy through one, the shop pays this site a commission, and the price you pay is the same. The only programme so far is Amazon, where the site is an Amazon Associate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

An affiliate link only goes on the exact product the site has checked, never a lookalike or a different version of it. Every affiliate link is labelled as one beside the link, the guide says so at the top, and the note at the foot of every page says whether that page carries any. Most pages carry none.

The maker's own page is always linked first. Buying direct from the maker earns this site nothing, and that is still the link given most prominence.

What nobody can pay for

No manufacturer pays to be listed, and none can pay to be listed higher, described more kindly, or kept off a page. A commission never decides which products appear or what is said about where they are made. A product that turns out to be made abroad comes off a guide whether or not it has an affiliate link.

There is no advertising on the site, no sponsored posts, and no tracking by other companies.

How a product gets onto the site

A product is listed only when the maker's own website says, about that product, where it is made. The words are quoted on the page with a link to where they were read and the date they were read. If the maker qualifies the claim, for example with imported parts, the qualification is printed beside it. America's Own Hands does not certify origin; it reports what the maker says and shows you where they said it.

Prices are read from the maker's own site on the date shown, and they change.

The pages on who actually made it and the gift guides show the method applied, product by product.