We think it’s important to be transparent with our audience, especially when it comes to how we generate revenue from this website.
As with any website, we have several significant expenses. For us they include:
- Web hosting
- Staff costs (writer fees, admin costs)
- Acquiring products to review
- Graphic designers
- Marketing
In order to keep the roof over our heads, we have to generate revenue from the website.
Here are some of the methods we use to do so:
Affiliate Sponsorship
We are fortunate that many of the products we write about are produced (or sold) by companies who have affiliate partnerships. This means that by linking to their respective websites, we receive a percentage commission of each sale if our readers decide to purchase the item.
The most prominent partnership that you will see on this site is with Amazon. We are a member of their Associates Program which provides a commission based payout (usually between 1-3%) if you go on to purchase items on their site.
It’s important we make clear that this does not affect the price you pay.
It simply means Amazon sends us a small cut of their listing fee for whatever you purchased.
This relationship keeps many small businesses (like ours) alive. Although it is obviously nowhere near as lucrative for us as it is for Amazon!
(That’s another story altogether!)
We have similar affiliate relationships with several other brands that are featured on the site.
For the brands that don’t have affiliate programs, or aren’t selling on Amazon… we’re out of luck. We don’t make any money from featuring them. But we still include these products and feature them regularly because our primary goal is to provide the best possible advice to our readers.
Ad Banner Revenue
We also generate income from the various advertising banners that you see splashed around the site.
These are a part of the Google AdSense advertising platform.
We understand that many of our readers hate to see banners, especially when they’re in the middle of an article, but unfortunately this is a necessary evil for us to keep the site running.
We Do Not Accept ‘Paid Placements’
Please note that this site does not accept paid placements, otherwise known as sponsored posts.
We are regularly contacted by companies offering a fixed payment to write about Product X, or a fixed payment to include a link to Product Y in one of our guides.
These offers are always rejected.
In some instances we are sent products to review, however these are nearly always returned once our review is complete unless it is impractical to do so.
Whilst we hope that you understand it is necessary for us to find ways to generate revenue from the site, our primary goal is to serve the reader.
Thanks for supporting the site! 🙂
