A transparent look at the affiliate economy: who pays whom, how the math works, and why commissions never influence our rankings.
BabaCodes editorial
May 11, 2026 · 9 min read · Updated August 1, 2026
If you read blogs, watch YouTube videos, or use coupon websites, you have definitely seen this sentence before: "We may earn a commission if you click our links."
This is called an affiliate disclosure, and it is a legal requirement. But what exactly does it mean? How does a website make money just because you clicked a link? And does clicking that link make your purchase more expensive?
At CouponHub, we believe in total transparency. We do not want to hide how our business operates behind confusing legal jargon. In this article, we are going to explain exactly how affiliate links work, how they fund the internet, and why we are proud to disclose every dollar we earn.
An affiliate link is simply a regular internet link with a special tracking code attached to the end of it.
Imagine you run a website about running shoes, and you write a review of the new Nike Air Max. You put a link in your article that goes to Nike.com. If you use a normal link, Nike gets a customer, but you get nothing.
If you use an affiliate link, the link tells Nike: "Hey, this customer was sent here by the Running Shoe Blog." If that customer buys the shoes within a certain timeframe (usually 30 days), Nike will pay the blog a small "thank you" fee, called a commission. This commission is usually between 2% and 10% of the sale price.
This is the most common misconception on the internet. No, clicking an affiliate link never makes your purchase more expensive.
The commission is paid entirely out of the store's marketing budget. Whether you type "Nike.com" directly into your browser or click an affiliate link from our website, the price of the shoes is exactly the same to you.
In fact, when you use a coupon website like CouponHub, clicking the affiliate link actually saves you money, because the link usually applies a promo code or activates a cash back offer at the same time.
Think about all the free content you consume every day. Recipe blogs, tech reviews, travel guides, and coupon databases cost money to build and maintain. The creators have to pay for server hosting, writing, research, and software.
There are only three ways a website can pay for these costs:
Charge you a subscription fee (like Netflix or The New York Times).
Cover the site in annoying display ads (which ruin your reading experience).
Use affiliate links.
Affiliate marketing is often the best model for consumers. It allows websites to remain completely free to use, without plastering their pages with intrusive banner ads.
If affiliate links are so great, why do people distrust them? The problem arises when creators prioritize their commissions over your trust.
Some shady tech blogs will write a glowing, 5-star review for a terrible laptop simply because that laptop company pays a 20% affiliate commission. They lie to you so they can make money. This destroys the integrity of the review.
This is the biggest problem in our industry. As we have discussed in other articles, many coupon sites will post fake or expired codes. They know the code will not work, but they need you to click the "Reveal Code" button. Once you click it, their affiliate tracking cookie is planted in your browser. Even though they did not save you a single penny, they still get a commission when you buy the item full price. It is deceptive and unfair.
At CouponHub, we built our platform because we were sick of the deceptive practices in the coupon industry. We believe that we should only earn a commission if we actually provide value to you.
Here is our promise regarding affiliate links:
We aggressively delete dead codes: We will never trick you into clicking an affiliate link by hiding an expired code. If a code is on our site, it has passed our 3-Layer Verification system.
We tell you exactly how much we make: If we earn a 5% commission from a store, and we offer you 3% cash back, we keep the 2% difference to run our servers. We are not hiding the math.
We do not let stores buy good ratings: If a store has a terrible return policy or a history of fake sales, we will not hide that information, no matter how high their affiliate commission is.
Affiliate links are the engine that keeps the internet free. When used ethically, they are a win-win-win. The store gets a sale, the website gets a small fee to keep the lights on, and you get free content and working discounts.
So the next time you see our disclosure, you know exactly what it means. We are earning our keep by doing the hard work of verifying codes, and we appreciate your support every time you click!
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