A Brief Note on Ads, Affiliates, Sponsorships, and More

ome of you may wonder how this site is monetized. Obviously, we have ads running on the site. We also have “affiliate relationships” with different companies, which is something a lot of blogs do — it means we get a small commission (generally 2-15%) if you buy something we’ve recommended, or from a store we’ve recommended. We don’t always use affiliate links — blog entries are written by us, then revenue-generating links are inserted after the editorial is final, if they exist. In the spirit of full disclosure, though, we’re going to start disclosing in every post how many affiliate links are contained within that post with a brief notation: “L-3″ if there are three such links, “L-0″ if there are none. Usually it will be extremely obvious because there may only be a few links within a post (for example, a TPS report), but if it’s more complicated (such as in a “Hunt” feature or a sale round-up) then we’ll disclose, on this page, what is and isn’t an affiliate relationship.  For a mostly complete list of affiliate relationships, please check out The Corporette Mall — if you want to help support the blog, please consider buying through those links.

Note that as of late 2010, I’ve started using Skimlinks, a software that converts any non-affiliate links to affiliate links, where available — I have no way of knowing which links will be converted into affiliate links, and in fact they may change from time to time depending on Skimlinks’ relationship with different advertisers.  I do get commissions, but I don’t get a specific report of which links are being clicked by readers.  Note that the software affects the entire blog, so a commenter-posted link may be converted to an affiliate link which will result in commission to Corporette.  Any (L-_) numbers do NOT include Skimlinks.  You may notice that Skimlinks links take a bit longer to load, and the address bar will briefly say something like “http://go2.redirectingat.com/?id=3505X645619&xcust=12782&xs=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neimanmarcus.com%2F&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fcorporette.com%2F” at the top before it goes to site.

If there are any other sort of sponsorship relationships — such as a sponsor-written post or tweet or whatnot — those will be clearly marked as such. Similarly, if we have received any review copies or press samples, we will disclose those as well.

More specific disclosures

Pages
- Almost all links on our “Shopping” pages include affiliate links.

2012

- 2/9 post on magazines: All Amazon links are affiliate links.

- 1/5 post on day planners: I have two affiliate links in there (to Vistaprint and Snapfish), but all products that I mention were purchased by me without any encouragement from the company.  Tiny Prints is an occasional advertiser, but again I’m mentioning the product without any encouragement from the company. Oh: And there’s an Amazon affiliate link to GTD.

2011

- 8/3 notebook post: All links to Amazon are affiliate links.

- 7/13 Pen post: All links are affiliate but the ones to Plasticka.

- 7/1 Weekend Update thread:  All links but the following are affiliate links: Kate Spade, Talbots…

- 3/14 post on sheath dresses: All links but a few are monetized, including the links to Pendleton, the AK Anne Klein dress at Macy’s, and the Brooks Brothers linen dress.

- 3/6 post on plus-sized workwear: All links but Macy’s, Talbots, Land’s End, and Travel Smith are affiliate links. (They may turn into affiliate links through the Skimlinks software.)

2010
- 10/12 post on office decor — Most links, strictly speaking, aren’t affiliate links except for the Amazon ones near the top — but I do get some compensation for any ShopStyle link (I think they pay based on clicks), as well as the same referral credit everyone gets through One King’s Lane if you purchase after being invited by me.

- 8/18 netbook post — While I do have an affiliate relationship with BestBuy and was able to throw those links in, I purchased the computer with my own money, and was not influenced by anyone in that choice aside from those factors described in my review.

- 7/22 vegan shoe post — All links to Endless and Zappos are affiliate links; all other links are not.

- 6/28 watch post — All links to the following retailers are affiliate links: Amazon, eBay, Zappos

- 6/21/2010 cardigan post — All links to the following retailers are affiliate links: Nordstrom, Saks, Bloomingdale’s, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Anne Klein, ShopBop, Brooks Brothers, and Smart Bargains.

-5/5/10 AK Anne Klein post — it was a sponsored post, paid for as part of a package deal, but there are no affiliate links contained in the post itself.

- 1/7/10 shoe post – Everything except:  Tsubo site link, and links for Manolo, Sacco, Aerosoles, Rockport

2009

- 12/17/09 Deal Alert: Not an affiliate link: the Barney’s link.
- 12/16/09 Suits: Not affiliate links: the Piazza Sempione suit.
- 12/15/09 reader mail: All links but J.Crew, Chelsea Premium
- 12/8/09 TPS: Affiliate links: Nordstrom, Zappos.  Non-affiliate: Tiffany’s.