Skip to content

Affiliate Disclosure

Last updated: August 24, 2026

Short version: When you buy gear through our links, we may earn a commission. This never affects what we recommend or what we teach. Every course is free.

How it works

MainStreetStart is a free site. Every course, every guide, every worksheet — free, forever. We don't charge for access, we don't have a premium tier, and we don't sell your data.

Some links on this site are affiliate links. When you click one and make a purchase, the retailer pays us a small commission. It costs you nothing extra — the price is the same whether you use our link or go directly.

Amazon Associates

MainStreetStart is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

When you see a product link on our gear pages or in a course's equipment lesson, it's typically an Amazon affiliate link. Prices are pulled from Amazon's API and updated daily.

Our promise

  1. Recommendations come from the courses, not from commissions. Our gear picks are based on what our course authors and operator sources actually recommend — the same consensus that drives every lesson. We don't add products because they pay well, and we don't remove products because they pay poorly.
  2. Commission rates are never a factor. We link to the best-reviewed, correctly-priced item in the course's stated price band. If two products are equally good, we pick the cheaper one.
  3. We tell you when a link is affiliate. Every product page shows "We may earn a commission at no cost to you." Gear sections in courses link to our product pages, which carry the disclosure.
  4. Prices come from Amazon, not from us. We don't set prices, and we show you Amazon's live price with the date it was last checked.

Software and service partners

Beyond Amazon, we maintain selective software partnerships, always tied to a tool a course actually teaches:

  • Phone.com (via CJ Affiliate) — business phone numbers with texting, referenced in our cost-floor overhead math. If you subscribe through our link we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

The same promise applies as with gear: the recommendation exists because the course teaches the need, not because a program pays. Any future partnerships (business formation, website builders, payments, insurance) will be added here before their first link goes live.

Questions

Something unclear? Use the contact form — it lands directly in our inbox.