Disclosure
Affiliate Disclosure Statement
Hey! Thank you for checking out this page and taking the time to read its contents. I believe in operating with integrity, and I’m glad you want to know more about what makes this website tick.
I want to run a site that’s useful to you, and that means that in addition to my thoughts, my opinions, and any products of my own creation, I also write about — and link to — various helpful products, programs, and services that are meant to serve you or make your life easier in some way. Some of these links may be affiliate in nature, and that means I may earn money when you purchase the product, program, or service in question through my link.
At no point will such links translate into:
- a dishonest recommendation for a product, program, or service that I haven’t tested or don’t trust — meaning I’m not out here trolling for offers that I can fling at you left and right;
- a sleazy spam campaign that keeps upselling and downselling and sideselling you — meaning I will always try to recommend products that don’t have gotchas to spring on you;
- an offer bombardment — meaning I don’t spend my time spamming, but instead try to always bring something useful to the mix;
- a monetary compensation that is incommensurate with the price you pay — meaning I’m not out here earning a compensation for stuff I didn’t link you to, nor am I getting an 80% commission off my links;
- any kind of a price increase — meaning you should see no difference in the price you pay if you choose to purchase or sign up for something that I link to and recommend.
I do not and will not ever run ads on this website, so these offers are the only direct revenue this site makes. Any money I make through these affilliate offers is a way for me to earn a little bit of extra income that I can invest back into this site, allowing me to try and keep being useful to you for as long as I can. If you decide to support me by clicking one of my affiliate links, allow me to thank you!
And if you want more in-depth knowledge about this affiliate stuff, read on.
Affiliate links and the blogger (that’s me!)
If it needs a disclaimer, it must be bad, right? Like “results may vary” disclaimers in expensive diet programs, or Photoshop disclaimers in print advertising and magazines, or lobbying influence disclaimers in upper-level decisionmaking and politics.
…Oh, wait. Maybe just two out of three, then. But that’s still bad, right?
Yeah, I’ll admit I used to think that, as well. Except, it turns out, not so much.
Yes, affiliate programs are an incentives system.
Yes, they do mean that bloggers (and other site owners) are given financial motivation to share links, and thus implicitly promote products, and it does likewise mean that they receive some monetary compensation each time a sale they linked to or promoted goes through.
And yes, that does mean you, the reader, need to keep a weather eye out for BS schemes and spammy sites that don’t somehow scream “scam” from a mile off. (Not that I’m shaming anyone. People hustle in whatever way they feel that they need to; the internet is what it is.)
But here is what affiliate links don’t do.
They don’t turn bloggers into preachy little greed monsters who’ll link to anything that looks like it might make them a quick buck.
They don’t turn readers into suckers who suddenly believe anything they’re told and buy anything they’re shown just because it was put in front of them on the internet.
They don’t change the price you pay for the end product, based on the browser you use or the look on your face. (You know, like Uber with your battery level? Or like those sellers at some market stalls or garage sales, who so very obviously size you up before they tell you how much a given something is? I love seeing that split second in action — but it isn’t something affiliate links do.)
Now, the good news is, I believe in you and your ability to be cynical in the face of the more dishonest stuff. You know that you already know their sort. Word salad posts that either take three paragraphs to tell you three words’ worth of information, or that repeat the same message in robotic circles that serve rigid keywords instead of serving you. Posts that show you fifty ads per square inch, and product recommendations that have about as much to do with what you’re looking for as engine oil does with feeling pretty in pink.
I repeat, I believe in you, and here is why.
Affiliate links and the reader (that’s you!)
You know, I remember, growing up, the first road trip I took with my folks after we got our new GPS. (This was indeed back in the day; please don’t make me think about how time passes.)
I already liked and relished my “role” as co-pilot by then, though I hadn’t held it long. (All right, yes, and I would have relished almost anything at that point in time, since sitting shotgun was kind of a Big Deal, but still. Front seat and feeling useful? Good stuff.) Anyway, before the GPS, we used to have the maps on hand, and as per road trip tradition “double-checked” the road signs and everything to confirm that we were going the right way. As you do.
Well, didn’t that all go out the window with the GPS. What an adventure driving became those first few trips.
It was as if that stupid piece of plastic and navigational computer had magically conjured up blinders and stuck them to the sides of our heads with superglue. We knew nothing outside of the turns it instructed us to take. Our destination could have been written extra-large on the asphalt itself, if the GPS said something different than what the road signs indicated, or if it didn’t say anything at all despite the fact that an action obviously needed to be taken, it was like we suddenly didn’t know what to do.
Complete blinders. Many a turns were missed, or only very very narrowly taken, because of that whole thing.
Well, let me set your mind at ease.
One, obviously we got better. And two, that isn’t you.
You won’t be turned into automated, spellbound little drivers, and affiliate links aren’t my parents’ old GPS.
You are absolutely, positively, 100% in full control of what you do and decide to do when you click on a link. (And, you know, online in general.) You may just happen to be faced with that decision when you read blogs. My blog. Most blogs. Most things on the internet, and most things about anywhere, if it comes to that.
(Remember, depending on your definition of selling, all of us are always selling, because most of what we do involves getting people to buy into our decisions, our moods, or our point of view.)
Again, here’s what affiliate links are not.
They’re not a tiny, text-sized ATM. They don’t open up a pipeline from the blogger straight to your bank account. They don’t follow you around on the internet, still pushing that product down your throat after you’ve read one measly little post. They won’t haunt you across devices even when you’ve changed browsers a half dozen times.
(Not the links themselves. If you happen to be haunted by adverts, however, you really just have the Big Four to thank for it, and that’s way outside the hands of any little blogger or website.)
You’ve got the wheel, here.
You decide what happens when you click a link, if you even click a link. And I, like all bloggers who respect their readers, do so solemnly swear not to spam, not to share crap, and not to recommend products that I don’t endorse, wouldn’t or haven’t tried, and wouldn’t or don’t already use.
Specific partner program disclosures
This site is a participant in the in the Apple iTunes Affiliate Program, enabling me to use the links to the apps I recommend as a means to earn fees by linking to Apple and iTunes affiliated sites.
