As of the date at the top of this page, 0 of the 407 resources in the directory are affiliate links, and the site carries no display advertising. This count is generated from the directory data when the page is built, so it cannot drift away from what is actually on the site.
How this site is funded
Honestly: at the moment, it mostly is not. There are no ads, no sponsorships and no paid placements. The intention is to fund it through a combination of affiliate commissions on resources we would have recommended anyway, training, and possibly advertising later. If and when that changes, this page changes first.
What an affiliate link is
An affiliate link earns us a commission if you buy something after following it. The price you pay is the same either way — the commission comes out of the seller's margin, not your pocket, and you are never charged more for arriving through us.
How we label them
- On the page. A disclosure sits directly above the directory grid, on every category page, not buried in the footer. You see it in the same screen as the links it describes.
- In the markup. Affiliate links carry
rel="sponsored", which is the signal search engines ask for. It is wired to the same field that drives the visible label, so a link cannot be labelled one way for you and another way for Google. - On the link itself. Where a link is an affiliate link, its call to action says so rather than reading identically to an ordinary one.
What money does not buy
This is the part that matters, so it is specific:
- Not inclusion. Nobody has ever paid to be in the directory, and there is no rate card. Resources are added because they are worth your time.
- Not ordering. The directory sorts by editorial rules — Microsoft's own documentation first, then entries we have flagged as picks, then alphabetically. Commission rate is not an input, and there is no code path in which it could be.
- Not the write-up. Nobody reviews or approves what we say about their product before it goes up, and a critical note stays in whether or not there is a commission attached.
- Not removal. We do not take down an unflattering description in exchange for a partnership.
Where a resource is free — and most of the directory is — there is nothing to earn a commission on, which is a decent guarantee of why it is listed.
Advertising
There is no display advertising on this site today. If that changes, ad slots will be clearly distinguishable from content, and this page and the cookie policy will be updated before the first ad runs, not after — advertising networks generally set cookies, and that would make the current cookie policy untrue.
Sponsored content
We do not publish paid articles, paid reviews or "guest posts" with embedded links. If that ever changes, such a piece will be labelled at the top, in the same size type as the headline.
Questions
If you think a link is unlabelled, mislabelled, or that a write-up reads like it was bought, tell us and we will fix it or explain it: support@excelback.com. That is a genuine request — an unlabelled affiliate link is a bug.
Questions about this page, or anything else on this site: support@excelback.com. It is the only contact route the site has — there is no form here that submits to a server.
