How we work

Who is accountable#

CourseKiln is written and edited by the CourseKiln Editorial team at Kiln Guides, under a named editor. The editor and the standards we hold are set out on this page, not behind a logo. We will not ask you to verify the person behind a sales claim while keeping the people behind our own pages anonymous.

One disclosure, repeated here because this is the page that makes the accountability claim: Kiln Guides is being incorporated as a limited company and the registration is currently with Companies House. The registered name and number will be added to the site the day it completes, and the change will be logged on the corrections page. We teach that a missing company record is a question to ask rather than a verdict, and the same standard applies to us.

How we source#

Three kinds of evidence sit behind the pages, and we keep them separate and visible.

• Regulators and courts. Every statute, in-force date, penalty and enforcement case is traced to the primary source, named rather than paraphrased, and dated. Laws change, so each fact carries the date we checked it.
• Academic research. Where we explain why a tactic works, we cite the actual study, by name and year, not a vague gesture at "psychology."
• Established journalism. Where a court or a major news organisation has reported a specific case, we point to their finding and link to it. We do not restate their reporting as our own accusation.

We keep a public sourcing log and a public corrections record, and from launch we preserve our pages in the Internet Archive, so the record of what we said, and when, is fixed and checkable.

Why we name no one#

We describe patterns, never individual sellers. This is deliberate, and it does two things at once. It keeps the guidance useful, because learning to read any seller in a category beats a list of names that is out of date the day it is published. And it keeps the work accurate and fair, because a method that teaches you to check cannot be turned into a fight about one person. Where a regulator or a reputable outlet has already named a case, we link you to their finding so you can read it at the source. We do not put a name in our own words.

Every check comes with its limit#

A check taught without its limit is just a smarter way to mislead, and we refuse to become that. A missing company record is a question to ask, not proof of a fraud, because sole traders leave no record anywhere. A clean record is not a character reference. We say so, every time, on every check. The honest reading of the evidence is the only reading worth publishing.

How we are funded#

No affiliate links, ever. We do not take a commission on anything you buy, and we do not run sponsored verdicts. The reason is simple and load-bearing: the moment a guide earns from your decision, it stops working for you and starts working for whoever pays it. Most advice aimed at the people these products target is paid for by the people the advice is about. Ours is not, and that single fact is what makes it worth reading.

A guide whose whole job is to help you tell a real expert from a paid one cannot be paid by the people it asks you to scrutinise, or it quietly becomes the thing it warns you about. So this one takes no sponsor and no advertiser, by its nature and not as a favour. We would rather be the guide you can check than the guide that gets paid.

When we are wrong#

We keep a public corrections page. When a figure, a date or a claim turns out to be wrong, we fix it in the open, date the change, and note what it affected. Getting it right matters more than looking right, because the day this site stops being accurate is the day it stops being worth citing.

If a seller wants to respond#

We deal in documented fact and described conduct, not in character. A seller who believes a pattern we describe does not fit them is welcome to show the evidence, and accurate evidence changes the page. We will not, though, remove an accurate, sourced description because someone would prefer it gone. An attempt to suppress true information is itself a matter of public record.

How to check us#

Run our own method on us. Look for who is accountable. Check our sources at the link. See whether we correct in the open. Confirm we sell you nothing and take no cut. We built the checks so that an honest operator passes them with room to spare, and we hold ourselves to the same bar.