Summary
Naked Compound is paid for by three things: Amazon Associates affiliate commissions, category-level brand sponsorships, and fees from brands that use our Brand Review Program. We plan to add display ads through Google AdSense. None of them can buy a score, a ranking, a place in a guide, or the removal of a negative finding. Every sponsorship and program review is labelled on the page it affects and listed in the disclosures below. We don't accept free samples, and the newsletter carries no sponsors or paid placements.
How we're paid
- Amazon Associates. Some product links are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through one, we earn a small commission at no cost to you. Affiliate links are marked, and scores are set before links are added.
- Display ads (Google AdSense), planned. We plan to show ads served by Google. When they go live, Google will choose which ads appear; we won't sell ad space directly, and advertisers will have no contact with anyone who writes or scores reviews. We'll update this policy when ads start.
- Category sponsorships (since May 2026). Brands can sponsor a content category under the terms below.
- Brand Review Program fees (since September 2026). Brands can pay a fixed fee to have a product tested and reviewed, under the rules below.
We don't sell memberships and don't receive grants.
Sponsorships: how they work
A brand can pay to be associated with a content category, such as an ingredient guide section or a protocol page. It can't influence, see in advance, or veto anything we publish.
What a sponsorship buys, and what it doesn't.
It buys a clearly labelled "Sponsored by [Brand]" line at the top of the category's pages. It doesn't buy a score, a ranking position, a review, a place in a guide, or silence about problems with the sponsor's products.
Sponsorship terms: non-negotiable
- Disclosed where you'll see it. "Sponsored by [Brand]" appears near the top of every associated page, without scrolling.
- No editorial access. Sponsors don't see content before publication, can't request changes and have no veto, including over negative findings about their own products.
- No exemption from review. A sponsor's products are scored on the same rubric as everyone else's.
- No score or ranking benefit. A sponsorship never changes a score, a ranking or a verdict.
- Categories only. A brand can sponsor, say, the omega-3 category. It can't sponsor a specific review, ranking or recommendation.
- 30-day gap. A brand can't start sponsoring a category within 30 days of us publishing a review of its product.
- No sponsors with open label-honesty flags in our database.
- The newsletter is never sponsored.
If a sponsor uses the relationship to pressure us editorially, the sponsorship ends immediately and the attempt is disclosed in the database changelog.
Brand Review Program
Since September 2026, brands can pay to have a product reviewed through our Brand Review Program. It's separate from sponsorships and has its own rules, set out in full in the Brand Program Terms:
- The fee pays for testing, not a result. It's quoted before any work starts, is the same whatever the product scores, and is paid before we buy the product.
- Once paid, the review is published. A brand can cancel for free before paying. After that, it can't withdraw, delay or edit the review, including a fail.
- Program products are bought at retail, anonymously. We never test samples a brand sends us.
- Same rubric. Program products are scored on the same scoring rubric as products nobody paid us to review, and the fee can't buy a place in any ranking or best-of list.
- Seven-day notice, for facts only. A program brand sees the findings and lab report seven days before publication, so it can point out factual errors and send one written response of up to 500 words, which we publish next to the review. Disagreeing with the score isn't a factual error, and we don't delay publication over it.
- Every program review is labelled at the top: that it came through the program, which tier, and that the fee didn't affect the score.
- The Verified badge can be lost. It's a one-year licence for products that pass lab testing, includes a retest of a new retail batch, and is suspended or revoked publicly, with the date and reason, on Verified Brands if a retest fails.
What we don't accept
- Content-level sponsorships. Nobody can sponsor a specific review, "best of" ranking or recommendation. (A Brand Review Program fee isn't a sponsorship: it pays for testing a product, never for what the review says.)
- Payment tied to an outcome. Anything linking money to a score, ranking position or conclusion, openly or implicitly.
- Paid placements in reviews, guides or rankings, and "promoted review" formats.
- Brand-run affiliate deals. We don't take per-sale commissions from brand websites or brand-operated affiliate programmes. Amazon Associates is the only affiliate programme we use.
- Free products. No samples, complimentary units or discount codes in connection with a review.
- Undisclosed ties. Anyone who writes or reviews for us may not hold equity in, advise or consult for a supplement brand, retailer or manufacturer active in India without filing a disclosure, which is listed below.
- Press access tied to coverage, such as embargoes conditional on a favourable review.
The editorial firewall
A brand's commercial status is not an input to scoring. Scores are recorded before any affiliate link, sponsorship label or program disclosure is added to a page, and they're never adjusted afterwards for commercial reasons. Conversations with sponsors and advertisers never cover review content, scores or publication timing. The only exception is the Brand Review Program's seven-day notice, which is limited to factual errors and described above.
Any attempt to get around this, by a brand or by anyone working with us, ends the commercial relationship and is disclosed publicly.
Active disclosures
Every outside relationship held by Naked Compound and the people who write or review for it, as of the version date above.
| Who | Relationship | Details | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naked Compound | Amazon Associates affiliate | Commission on qualifying purchases through marked links. Doesn't affect scores or recommendations. | Apr 2026 |
| Naked Compound | Google AdSense display ads | Planned, not yet live. Google will select the ads; no direct relationship with advertisers. | Planned |
| Naked Compound | Category sponsorship programme | Open to brands under the terms above. No active sponsors yet; each one will be listed here by name, category and dates. | May 2026 |
| Naked Compound | Brand Review Program | Fixed, result-independent fee for testing and reviewing a product. Every program review is labelled. None published yet. | Sep 2026 |
| Writers and reviewers | Personal disclosures | None filed. Nobody who writes or reviews for us has a disclosed tie to a supplement brand, retailer or manufacturer. | — |
Reporting a breach
New disclosures must be filed within 14 days of a relationship starting and appear in the table above. This policy is reviewed every six months, and every material change is recorded in the version history below.
If you think we've fallen short of this policy, tell us through our contact form (reason: "Conflicts policy report"). Every report is read, and confirmed breaches are disclosed publicly in the database changelog.
Version history
- v6.0, Sep 2026. Corrected the policy. Removed disclosure entries, a grant, and a membership revenue line that didn't reflect real relationships. Disclosed planned Google AdSense display ads. Took the newsletter out of what can be sponsored. Rewrote the editorial firewall to describe how it actually works, and added an at-a-glance summary.
- v5.1, Sep 2026. Added the Brand Review Program section and its disclosure row, and noted that a program fee isn't a content-level sponsorship.
- v5.0, May 2026. Introduced category-level brand sponsorships with editorial firewall terms.
- v4.3, Apr 2026. Added Amazon Associates to permitted income; removed the blanket affiliate prohibition.
- Earlier versions are archived in our database changelog.