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DISCLOSURES

At Our Best Bites, we believe that making awesome food for your family doesn’t really have to be a big deal. It can be enjoyable. It can be funny. It can be real. That’s what we have been, and always will be, all about. After keeping at this blogging gig for a few years, we started to realize that we had opportunities to earn an income while doing it. Suddenly, we were able to provide some extra financial support to our families! It was amazing! It led to cookbooks, then oils, then fun kitchen items, balsamic vinegars and more. It’s been a whirlwind, and an incredible one at that. We feel lucky to have built a successful business while doing something we truly enjoy.

But when our little blog turned into a full-blown business, it came with some big bills, so we had to change things up a little. The most important thing to us has always been empowering our readers to love the kitchen and not be afraid of it. Like many other bloggers, we began to utilize sponsored posts and affiliate marketing as extra sources of income. To be completely honest, these two things probably don’t affect you all that much, but just in case, here are some more details as to what they really are:

What is a sponsored post?

A sponsored post is when a company reaches out to us (or, we reach out to them!) to showcase one of their products in a post on our site, and then provides us money in exchange. You can see some examples of previous sponsored posts we’ve done here and here. We are picky about who we decide to sponsor us – we make sure they are good companies that make your life easier or more fun, but also deliver up great quality. There have been many times when companies have approached Our Best Bites to do a sponsored post, but we have turned them down because we didn’t like what they had to offer, or we didn’t think they provided any value to our readers. So if you’re wondering why we are doing a sponsored post, know that it’s because we a) are looking for income to help cover the costs of running a website, but more importantly, b) totally believe in the product, and want to share it with you. What does that mean in the end for you? More delicious recipes to share with your family!

Most importantly, we would never recommend something on our blog that we didn’t actually love. Even though we are paid to do these posts, all thoughts, ideas, and opinions are our own.

What are affiliate links?

Affiliate links are special, coded links that contain tracking information. Sounds scary, I know, but they aren’t – and they are ALL over the internet! Chances are, you have clicked on MANY affiliate links during your lifetime, and didn’t even know! So here’s what happens: websites can sign up to be affiliates with companies. Amazon is a popular one with bloggers like us, as well as Target and Wal-Mart. Once the website is approved as an affiliate partner, the website can then login to a special portal of the company’s website, and grab special links to their favorite products. These special links contain tracking information and cookies that the website can then insert right into their posts. (That is, if you allow cookies on your computer!)

Okay, okay…but what does this all mean for you? Well, when you click on an affiliate link, and then decide to purchase a product from that company, the website that “referred” you to that product (or company) gets a small commission. So say, for example, we linked up to our favorite kitchen tool on Amazon with an affiliate link. You think a microplane sounds great, so you decide to buy it. Our Best Bites would then get a little kick-back commission on your purchase…at no cost difference to you! We also would get not only a commission on your microplane, but commission on whatever else you decided to buy at that time (maybe some of our other kitchen items, like this fat seperator or our favorite slow cooker…and yes, those links are affiliate links!). Our Best Bites would get commission on all of those purchases. You can imagine that blogs like ours do well with income from affiliate links around the holiday seasons – so keep that in mind the next time you are shopping online! It’s a great, easy way to support your favorite blog or website, at NO cost difference to you! If you have any further questions on affiliate links, how they work, or our favorite affiliate programs we are partners with, please feel free to contact our Marketing Director at [email protected].

As per Amazon’s Associate Requirements, here is our Amazon Affiliate Disclosure (AKA: More legal-speak).
“Our Best Bites” are 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.

TERMS OF USE
Below is some more formal legal-speak that is important to how we work as a business and blog:

The following terms and conditions govern all use of the www.OurBestBites.com website and all content, services and products available at or through the website (taken together, the Website). The Website is owned and operated by Our Best Bites, LLC (“Our Best Bites”). The Website is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, Our Best Bites’ Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time on this Website by Our Best Bites (collectively, the “Agreement”).
Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Website. By accessing or using any part of the Website, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the Website or use any services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by Our Best Bites, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old, and Our Best Bites are committed to complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).

Your www.OurBestBites.com Account and Site:

If you create a blog/site on the Website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and blog, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the blog. You must not describe or assign keywords to your blog in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and Our Best Bites may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause Our Best Bites liability. You must immediately notify Our Best Bites of any unauthorized uses of your blog, your account or any other breaches of security. Our Best Bites will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.  As set forth below, you also agree to indemnify Our Best Bites for violating these terms.

Responsibility of Contributors:

If you operate a blog, comment on a blog, post material to the Website, post links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Website (any such material, “Content”), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, computer software, or any other medium. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:

  •  the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
  • if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
  • you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
  • the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
  • the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
  • the Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
  • your blog is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, other blogs and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;
  • your blog is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your blog’s URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own; and
  • you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by Our Best Bites or otherwise.

By submitting Content to Our Best Bites for inclusion on your Website, you grant Our Best Bites a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your blog. If you delete Content, Our Best Bites will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Website, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Our Best Bites has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Our Best Bites’ sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in Our Best Bites’ reasonable opinion, violates any Our Best Bites policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in Our Best Bites’ sole discretion. Our Best Bites will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

Payment and Renewal; General Terms:

By selecting a product or service, you agree to pay Our Best Bites the one-time and/or monthly or annual subscription fees indicated (additional payment terms may be included in other communications). Subscription payments will be charged on a pre-pay basis on the day you sign up for an upgrade and will cover the use of that service for a monthly or annual subscription period as indicated. A 48-hour grace period is allotted for the yearly meal plan subscription RENEWALS. (If you are charged for your yearly subscription renewal but would like to cancel, we will issue a refund if the request is made within 48 hours of the charge. This applies to yearly subscriptions only.) Due to the digital nature of our meal plan service, as well as how much valuable content is offered to the member immediately upon sign-up, this does not apply to new community members, only those whose subscriptions are being renewed. No refunds will be given for community members on our monthly subscription plan.

Automatic Renewal:

Unless you notify Our Best Bites before the end of the applicable subscription period that you want to cancel a subscription, your subscription will automatically renew and you authorize us to collect the then-applicable annual or monthly subscription fee for such subscription (as well as any taxes) using any credit card or other payment mechanism we have on record for you. The subscriber is responsible to remember his or her own renewal date, no reminders of upcoming charges from Our Best Bites will be provided. Subscriptions can be canceled at any time by submitting your request to Our Best Bites in writing to [email protected].

Services Fees; Payment:

By signing up for a services account you agree to pay Our Best Bites the applicable setup fees and recurring fees. Applicable fees will be invoiced starting from the day your services are established and in advance of using such services. Our Best Bites reserves the right to change the payment terms and fees upon thirty (30) days prior written notice to you. Services can be canceled by you at anytime on thirty (30) days written notice to Our Best Bites.

Support:

If your service includes access to priority email support, the following applies to you. “Email support” means the ability to make requests for technical support assistance by email at any time (with reasonable efforts by Our Best Bites to respond within one business day) concerning the use of the VIP Services. “Priority” means that support takes priority over support for users of the standard or free www.OurBestBites.com services. All support will be provided in accordance with Our Best Bites standard services practices, procedures and policies.

Responsibility of Website Visitors:

Our Best Bites has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Website, Our Best Bites does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Website may also contain material that, unknown to Our Best Bites, violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. Our Best Bites disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.

Content Posted on Other Websites:

We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which www.OurBestBites.com links, and that link to www.OurBestBites.com. Our Best Bites does not have any control over those non-Our Best Bites websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-Our Best Bites website or webpage, Our Best Bites does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Our Best Bites disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-Our Best Bites websites and webpages.

Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy:

As Our Best Bites asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. Our Best Bites may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe or are repeatedly charged with infringing the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of others.

If you believe that material located on or linked to by www.OurBestBites.com violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Our Best Bites in accordance with Our Best Bites’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Policy set forth below.
If you are a copyright owner, or are authorized to act on behalf of one, or authorized to act under any exclusive right under copyright, please report alleged copyright infringements taking place on or through the Website by delivering notice to Our Best Bites.  When contacting Our Best Bites, provide the following information:
Identify the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed, or – if multiple copyrighted works are covered by this Notice – you may provide a representative list of the copyrighted works that you claim have been infringed.

Identify (i) the material that you claim is infringing (or to be the subject of infringing activity) and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material, including at a minimum, if applicable, the URL of the link shown on the Website where such material may be found, and (ii) the reference or link, to the material or activity that you claim to be infringing, that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate that reference or link, including at a minimum, if applicable, the URL of the link shown on the Website where such reference or link may be found.

Provide your mailing address, telephone number, and, if available, email address.

Include both of the following statements in the body of the Notice:

“I hereby state that I have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the copyrighted material or reference or link to such material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law (e.g., as a fair use).”
“I hereby state that the information in this Notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that I am the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of the copyright or of an exclusive right under the copyright that is allegedly infringed.”
Provide your full legal name and your electronic or physical signature.

You may contact Our Best Bites by sending an email to [email protected].

Our Best Bites will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. Our Best Bites will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the Website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Our Best Bites or others. In the case of such termination, Our Best Bites will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to Our Best Bites.

Intellectual Property:

This Agreement does not transfer from Our Best Bites to you any Our Best Bites or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Our Best Bites. Our Best Bites, www.OurBestBites.com, the www.OurBestBites.com logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with www.OurBestBites.com, or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks of Our Best Bites or Our Best Bites’ licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Website may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Website grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Our Best Bites or third-party trademarks.

Advertisements:

Our Best Bites reserves the right to display advertisements on your blog unless you have purchased an ad-free account.
Attribution. Our Best Bites reserves the right to display attribution links such as ‘Blog at www.OurBestBites.com,’ theme author, and font attribution in your blog footer or toolbar.
Partner Products. By activating a partner product (e.g. theme) from one of our partners, you agree to that partner’s terms of service. You can opt out of their terms of service at any time by de-activating the partner product.

Domain Names:

If you are registering a domain name, using or transferring a previously registered domain name, you acknowledge and agree that use of the domain name is also subject to the policies of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”), including theirRegistration Rights and Responsibilities.

Changes:

Our Best Bites reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the Website following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. Our Best Bites may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Website (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Termination:

Our Best Bites may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your www.OurBestBites.com account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using the Website. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if you have a paid services account, such account can only be terminated by Our Best Bites if you materially breach this Agreement and fail to cure such breach within thirty (30) days from Our Best Bites’ notice to you thereof; provided that, Our Best Bites can terminate the Website immediately as part of a general shut down of our service. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

Disclaimer of Warranties:

The Website is provided “as is”. Our Best Bites and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither Our Best Bites nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Website will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, the Website at your own discretion and risk.

Limitation of Liability:

In no event will Our Best Bites, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to Our Best Bites under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. Our Best Bites shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

General Representation and Warranty:

You represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Website will be in strict accordance with Our Best Bites’ Privacy Policy, with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Website will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Indemnification:

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Our Best Bites, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees and costs, arising out of your use of the Website, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.

Miscellaneous:

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Our Best Bites and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Our Best Bites, or by the posting by Our Best Bites of a revised version. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of the Website will be governed by the laws of the United States of America, excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in Nevada, United States. Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under this Agreement shall be finally settled in accordance with the Commercial Rules of the American Arbitration Associations (“AAA”) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such Rules. The arbitration shall take place in Idaho, United States, in the English language and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court. The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement shall be entitled to reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; Our Best Bites may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

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