Nine partners. One standard.
Glow earns affiliate commission across nine independent retail partners. We diversify on principle: when a single retailer represents too much of a publication's revenue, the publication eventually starts ranking for the retailer's interests, not the reader's. Here is the full network, what each partner contributes, and the rules every one of them agreed to.
Maximum share. Per partner.
No single retailer is permitted to exceed 35% of Glow's affiliate revenue. The day one of them comes close, we open a new partner relationship in the same category to bring it back down.
Negotiable rankings. Ever.
Partners do not see scores before publication. They cannot pay for placement. They cannot pay for higher commission rates tied to coverage volume. The editorial wall is operationally enforced.
Independent partners. Audited annually.
Across major retailers, prestige beauty, and direct-to-brand programs. No partner has veto power over editorial. No partner sees the calendar. No partner gets advance copy.
The current partner network.
April 2026 mix. Updated quarterly. Share percentages are approximations of trailing-90-day commission revenue.
What every partner signed.
Before any retailer is added to the Glow affiliate network, they sign a one-page partnership commitment that codifies the rules. The commitment is consistent across all nine partners — no exceptions, no preferential terms, no backchannels. The clauses below are abbreviated.
- Partner agrees that commission rate cannot be tied to coverage volume, ranking position, or sentiment of editorial coverage.
- Partner waives any right to advance review of editorial copy, including ranking results, scoring, comparison commentary, or product critique.
- Partner accepts that products may receive negative reviews, low scores, or be excluded from rankings entirely without recourse to commercial penalty.
- Partner agrees that Glow may publish criticism of partner-direct policies (returns, customer service, pricing) where editorially warranted.
- Partner accepts that Glow may add competing retailers to the network at any time, including direct competitors in the same category.
- Partner agrees to participate in Glow's annual third-party editorial audit.
The commitment is not negotiable. Partners who decline these terms are not added. Partners who breach them are removed.
Why publish this. Most affiliate publications do not disclose their partner mix because the concentration is embarrassing. Some are 90% one retailer. We publish ours because the diversification is the strongest signal of editorial independence we can give a reader. If a single retailer ever exceeded 35% of our revenue, we would tell you about it. Right now, the largest is 32% and trending down.