FTC Disclosure
A few years back the FTC decided that online publishers need to disclose any hidden interests or unspoken biases to their readers when they publish product reviews and/or recommendations. As always, we want to be transparent and straightforward with you, so below is our Product Review Policy and FTC Disclosure. We’ll provide a link to this disclosure in every future written product review, and also provide a link in the video description of future YouTube video reviews for your reading pleasure.
Product Review Policy and FTC Disclosure
- In general, we only write positive things about products we actually like.
- Yes, most of our reviews are mostly positive. That’s because if we don’t like a product much, we simply don’t review it. We think that there are enough great survival and outdoor products out there, that there’s no need to waste our time or the time of our readers or viewers on crappy products that we don’t like. We'll let others slash and bash products. There are plenty willing to take up this charge.
- We do buy some of our own products for review, however this can become fairly costly. So we do accept product samples from manufacturers, representatives and dealers, and we most often keep sample gear whether we review the product that is sent or not. Whether we review a product that is submitted to us, our not, is at our sole discretion.
- We make NO promises to manufacturers, representatives and dealers to review their products or to review them favorably.
- We try very hard to be fair and consistent in our reviews and ratings.
- From time to time we may allow companies to sponsor reviews, survival tips and series episodes, but never the direct manufacturer or designer of the product being reviewed or featured. That would be cheesy and just dumb. So, for instance, if we review a Gerber knife, we would not allow Gerber to sponsor the review. However, we may allow a retail distributor, outdoor TV show or other interested party to sponsor the review. If a review is sponsored, will normally acknowledge the sponsor in some way within the context of the review or at the least in the video description on YouTube.
- From time to time we may allow companies the opportunity to sponsor gear giveaways and contests. Generally, we only give away gear that we like, however, our contests do not constitute our endorsement of the product/s being given away.
- We may from time to time allow gear manufacturers to pay us a few bucks to review their product in a more timely fashion, opposed to entering our regular production schedule at the bottom of the list (our production schedule is usually set and booked pretty full 6 months in advance). We think of this option like when you have to pay a premium for FedEx or UPS to deliver a package the next day. They are not changing the contents of the package, just delivering it quicker. Since messing with our schedule puts us all in a bit of pain and causes extra work... especially for David, we’ve decided to charge for this and will likely only allow this option on a very limited basis. This however does not change our review methodology, approach or core values of providing fair and unbiased reviews. We will notify any company that desires to use this option, in writing, that their payment is only for us to expedite and / or reserve a slot in our busy schedule to review their product and that any compensation will in no way bias our review of their gear one way or the other. Whether the product is great, good or garbage… our review will reflect our honest appraisal. Who we allow to exercise this option is at the sole discretion of the management of Ultimate Survival Tips LLC.
- Ultimate Survival Tips LLC may, from time to time, contract with a company to provide product photography, product overview videos or any other creative, business or training services at our sole discretion. We may do this regardless of whether we have, in the past, or intend to review their gear in the future. No matter what professional services we may extend to any company, the staff and management of Ultimate Survival Tips LLC is committed (above all) to our core values of providing fair and unbiased reviews. We will notify any company we contract with that regardless of any professional services we perform for them, that they will receive no bias or favoritism in our product reviews. As David often tells manufacturers, "Good gear... good review! Make good stuff, and you get good reviews!"
- For the convenience of our readers and viewers we often provide online retailer, website and social media links pertaining to the stuff we review, use and/ or talk about in our articles, videos and on social media. When you click on links to various merchants that we provide and make a purchase, this can result in Ultimate Survival Tips LLC. earning a commission (which does not effect the price you pay for products). Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, Amazon and the eBay Partner Network. We make every attempt to find the best prices for products that we link to, however it is impossible to guarantee this. David personally uses Amazon for most of his hard-good purchases because of the low prices, credit card security, fast and often free shipping, and Amazon's great return policy. So he is excited to help others save as he does. When you choose to purchase ANYTHING through our links, we are greatly honored as you help us keep the lights on and encourage us to keep providing premium quality content on our website, YouTube and other social media outlets. We see it as a win, win for everyone. We hope you do to...