FTC Affiliate & Advertising Disclosure

In accordance with the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines (16 CFR Part 255), Main Street Stack is committed to full transparency regarding how our publication is funded and how we interact with the software companies we review.

1. How Affiliate Links Work on Main Street Stack

Some of the articles on this website contain affiliate referral links to B2B software platforms (such as QuickBooks Online, Zapier, Make, Housecall Pro, Jobber, Gusto, or Shopify apps). If you click one of those links and subsequently purchase a subscription, Main Street Stack may earn a referral commission from the vendor.

• Zero Extra Cost to You: Clicking an affiliate link never increases the subscription price you pay. In some cases, our partner links provide an extended trial period or an initial monthly discount.
• Clear Inline Disclosure at the Top of Posts: Every article that includes affiliate links displays a prominent disclosure notice at the top of the page before the main article body begins, so you never have to guess or scroll to the footer to see how a post is monetized.
• Technical HTML Compliance (rel="sponsored"): Every affiliate or partner link in our HTML carries the rel="sponsored noopener noreferrer" attribute in strict compliance with Google Search Essentials guidelines.

2. Why Affiliate Commissions Never Dictate Our Recommendations

Many of the tools we recommend most highly—such as native Google Business Profile features, built-in iOS/Android dictation, open-source utilities, or standard spreadsheet formulas—pay zero affiliate commissions at all. Conversely, some of the highest-paying affiliate programs in the software industry belong to tools we actively warn small businesses against using due to hidden overage fees or aggressive annual contract lock-ins.

Our writers and reviewers are evaluated on the accuracy of their cost math and the practical usefulness of their shop-floor workflows, never on affiliate conversion rates. You can read more about our review process firewall in our Editorial Policy and About page.

3. Display Advertising & Sponsored Content Policy

In addition to referral links, Main Street Stack reserves dedicated display advertising slots for programmatic advertising (such as Google AdSense, once enabled). Display advertisements are visually separated from our editorial prose and are served automatically. We do not publish undisclosed paid guest posts, "pay-to-play" vendor reviews, or unmarked advertorials.

If you have any questions about a link or partnership on this site, please contact us anytime via our Contact page.