What an affiliate link is
An affiliate link is a URL that contains a tracking code. When a reader clicks the link and later makes a qualifying purchase from the merchant, IST World may receive a small commission at no additional cost to the reader.
Editorial process comes first
Affiliate links are added only after an editor has independently recommended a product or service on its own merits. Editors do not see, and are not told, which products carry an affiliate arrangement while writing or editing.
What we recommend
We recommend products and services we have used, tested against alternatives, or that come from providers whose standards we have vetted. Where we cannot test something ourselves, we rely on named contributing editors who have.
What we will not do
We do not accept payment for coverage. We do not recommend products we have not evaluated. We do not modify existing editorial to insert affiliate links to products that do not meet our standards. We do not remove critical coverage of a brand because we hold an affiliate arrangement with it.
Categories with affiliate links
Typical categories include travel insurance, luggage, guidebooks, eSIM providers, and travel-focused financial products. Airline and hotel bookings are intentionally excluded: we do not want commission incentives shaping destination coverage.
Disclosure practice
Individual articles that contain affiliate links carry a plainly worded disclosure near the top. Newsletter mentions and social posts are labelled similarly. This site-wide statement supplements, but does not replace, inline disclosures.
FTC and equivalent guidance
We follow the US Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides and the equivalent guidance issued by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, the EU Directive on unfair commercial practices, and Australia's ACCC. Disclosures are placed where a reasonable reader will see them before deciding to click.
Reader trust
Affiliate revenue helps fund the reporting we do. If a recommendation would be different without the affiliate arrangement, we treat that as a failure of our editorial process and welcome reader feedback that flags it. Write to editorial@ist-world.com.