How We Fund WPMarmalade
Unlike many similar sites, at WPMarmalade we don’t accept any paid reviews, guest posts or ads. Everything you read on our site is from independent authors, paid only per word, for articles based entirely on their own experiences, research and analysis.
So, how DO we make money? After all, every site has to at least cover its costs if it’s to continue publishing.
The answer is by featuring referral/affiliate links on some of our posts.
What Are Referrals/Affiliates?
In a nutshell, they’re basically special URLs provided to us by our affiliates. If you buy a product or sign up for a service by clicking on one of these links, then we will likely receive a small commission. There is no inconvenience or any extra steps involved, and there is no extra cost to you, the reader. Our commission is paid by the seller of that product or service – you won’t have to pay an anything more at all.
These referrals are always for products/services the author of that post has independently mentioned.
Why Affiliate Links?
Using this model means we can choose what to recommend, and ensures our site stays free, independent and reflective of our experiences as users just like you. We believe this is a much better way to fund our site than through the other available means, which include paid reviews, paid placements, guest posts or traditional advertising, the reasons being the following:
Adverts can be noisy, distracting and annoying, and we want you to be able to focus on (and enjoy) the content you’ve come to WPMarmalade to read without popups and the like getting in the way.
Paid reviews/guest posts could hurt our independence, and potentially impact our integrity, by putting us in the position of having to satisfy a particular brand, service or company. This is not in line with our philosophy of independent recommendations.
Using a paywall would cut off our content to some readers, and we want everyone to be able to access our articles whenever they like, as easily as possible and for free.
- Adverts can be noisy, distracting and annoying, and we want you to be able to focus on (and enjoy) the content you’ve come to WPMarmalade to read without popups and the like getting in the way.
- Paid reviews/guest posts could hurt our independence, and potentially impact our integrity, by putting us in the position of having to satisfy a particular brand, service or company. This is not in line with our philosophy of independent recommendations.
- Using a paywall would cut off our content to some readers, and we want everyone to be able to access our articles whenever they like, as easily as possible and for free.
All of this is why we believe using referral links is best way to cover our costs while ensuring you, our readers, get the best experience and the strongest recommendations.
By adding these referral links to the products and services we are recommending anyway, we can fund our site in a way that is fair, balanced and in line with our experiences.
Do affiliate links influence what we recommend?
No. Not at all. Never.
Any recommendations we print are made by the writer, and are always based on extensive research, testing, analysis and experience. All of our writers are paid by the word and do not earn anything for recommending a particular product or service, ensuring there is no incentive for them to do so.
If anything, funding our site though affiliates is the best way to ensure we can operate free from bias, as we are not having to appease other brands or advertisers.
Our Rules
- We never recommend products or services we don’t believe will bring value to our readers.
- Our articles always reflect our/our writers’ experience as a user.
- All opinions are our own/our writers’, and we do not accept payments for positive reviews.
- We never, ever place affiliate links within our content purely for the purpose of making money.
In short, WPMarmalade only ever recommends products and services we’ve tried, thoroughly tested and/or use regularly and feel to be beneficial to our audience.
And finally…
Thank you for your support!