The articles you see on this site are free to readers and subscribers (except for my premium downloads obviously), representing a monumental amount of long hours of time and research for me to compile. As a consequence, I feel that compensation is appropriate and necessary for continuity and sustainability. For these reasons I have relationships with some companies who pay me for these referrals. I have striven to make this fact very unobtrusive to my visitors as you use this site, while including a small reminder of this at the preamble of each published post.
Sometimes, I accept advertising, but most often I participate in affiliate programs/networks. Each provide some revenue to allow me to devote time and energy to the growth and upkeep of this site, and it’s premium offerings.
My promise to you, my loyal readers, is that I will only promote products I personally use or can recommend without hesitation based on my firsthand knowledge, experience, and/or expertise.
Honesty is extremely important to me, so gaining and retaining the trust of my audience is my top and utmost concern.
What I promote and do not promote.
I do my best to look at potential products or services I deem worthy for promotion through the eyes of a customer. I ask myself if I would use it or pay for it. If I don’t think it’s worth paying for or using myself, I’d better have a really good reason to convince you to buy it or else it is not worth mentioning.
- The majority of the products or services I promote I have paid for personally or have extensive experience with. There are too many examples to list here.
- Sometimes I promote products I have used personally without paying for, but still feel comfortable recommending via an affiliate link. Movies are a good example. I often link to movies on Amazon (mainly to read the reviews).
- Sometimes I will promote a product I am not currently a paying customer for, but have been a paying customer in the past. As an example, Hulu is a service I used and paid for a period of time. I am no longer using it, not because it’s a poor product but simply because my needs have changed over time.
- On rare occasions I will promote a product I have not paid for or used, but that comes highly recommended by people or other sources that I trust. I cannot, offhand, think of an example as it happens so few and far between.
What is an affiliate link or a referral link?
Throughout this site you will see my usage of affiliate links and/or referral links. These references are called disclosures and are a requirement as put forth by the FTC here in the U.S. I put small reminders of this full disclosure at the opening section of each post.
They are there to inform you I have a relationship with a particular product or service and if you choose to purchase that product or service via my affiliate link, I will get a small commission. Of course, this is at no extra cost to you, but it does help keep my lights on so that I can keep bringing you meaningful and valuable content. I truly appreciate your support in this way as it helps support this blog. Thank you very much in advance for your understanding and assistance.
My premium products…
Apart from my affiliation relationships, I do sell several premium downloads…These digital products are created by me and their profit flows to me direct as well.
Additional Legal Disclaimer:
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog may accept forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.
The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.
The owner of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, I always give my honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.
Thanks you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Josh Budge, ColdBoot|io Founder