Editorial Integrity
Our goal is to use our expertise, research, and real world experiences to provide practical resources and honest opinions about water sports, beach adventures, and responsible ocean use. In order to accomplish our mission, we frequently need to provide our readers with our perspective on the best products, travel activities, or environmentally friendly actions. In the interest of full transparency, we want to be upfront regarding our review and decision making process.
Contributors
Our writers and reviewers represent a diverse cross section of seasoned travelers, ocean sports enthusiasts, and conservation advocates. When working with contributors, we seek to engage subject matter experts who are able to apply their real world experience to the topic. When this is not possible, we require extensive research from proven resources to ensure factual accuracy. Additionally, all articles are reviewed by our editorial team to further validate the information before publication.
Best in Category Review Process
Our best in category review process begins with an examination of the available online information. While this does involve the material put out by the companies, we find that it's necessary to go beyond marketing materials to genuinely determine the best products in a market segment. Therefore, we systematically look to see what is being said about products in places such as trade publications, reputable forums, user impressions from verified purchasers, and consumer reviews of companies. In short, the reviewer seeks to gather as many facts as possible without having a physical review unit in hand. This process is repeated for each product we wish to consider for a particular "best in class" category. This data is then compared in a meta-analysis process until an accurate picture of the best products emerges. The writer will then present the gathered information for the top products into a consumer review for our readers.
The benefits of this type of consumer based analysis is that it allows us to approach each product comparison or review from a data based perspective. We feel this type of analysis is more accurate then the reviews which predominately center on a writer's opinion or which are sponsored by a manufacturer.
Products and Affiliate Commissions
We have not been given any free products or services by companies in exchange for mentioning them on this site. We want Seaside Planet to be a place you can trust and that means it's essential we aren't beholden by brand sponsorship. That way you can use our information to make the best decisions when it comes to purchasing a product or planning a vacation.
The only consideration we sometimes receive is in the form of an affiliate commissions. However, we will never promote any product that we don’t believe in regardless of any affiliate status. Additionally, we will never exclude a quality product due to a lack of an affiliate relationship. For more information on the use of affiliate links please visit our Affiliate Disclosure Page.
Errors
Despite our best efforts to ensure accuracy, we are human, and that means we sometimes make mistakes. If you've found an error on our site, please don't hesitate to contact us so that we can make the necessary corrections.
Editorial Team
You can learn more about the Seaside Planet Team and Contributors on our About Page.