Over the past few months, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has clarified its rules such that bloggers and other web authors must clearly disclose "their connection, if any, with the advertisers; and also reveal the receipt of free products and or payments from the advertisers".
As such:
Advertising On This Site:
We receive the bulk of our income from advertising on this site, and at any point in time advertising on this site may take any the following forms:
- Paid Banner Advertising: we receive a fee in exchange for displaying banner advertisements.
- Affiliate Links to companies such as B&H and Amazon: We receive a very small percentage of any sales generated at these sites after our readers have clicked on these links.
- Donations From Our Readers: Voluntary donations from our readers are always welcome to help offset hosting costs and to allow us to continue to grow our site.
- Click-through Services Like Google Adwords and PriceGrabber: We receive a very small payment every time someone clicks on these links.
By using a combination of the above methods, we can keep our content up-to date and free to our readers, while also expanding the site.
Products Reviewed:
Reviews on this site consist of two types:
- Short Term Reviews: Typically these products are on loan from a manufacturer and are returned after the review is complete. Occasionally manufacturers don't want lower-value items back, in which case we usually add them to our kit.
- Long Term Reviews: A number of reviews on this website are what we classify as "Long Term Reviews" - after a piece of equipment gets its initial review, it goes in our kit bag, and we update the review months or years later to show how it item holds up under long term, and often heavy usage, sometimes under more extreme conditions. Any problems or defects that are found are documented, as is the response from the manufacturer if the item is defective and/or repaired. Most of our long term review items were purchased new from retail outlets, or used from retail outlets or private individuals. However some items were purchased at a discount from the manufacturer, and in some instances manufacturers supply us with gear specifically for long-term testing. When this happens, we clearly state in the introduction section of the review that this is the case.
Paid Reviews:
We do not accept payment to write reviews or articles for this site, and on the rare occasion when we have been asked, we have declined.
Summary:
This site is expensive and time consuming to maintain, and we rely primarily on our readers clicking our links when making their own purchases or researching products. When we receive a discounted or free item from a manufacturer, this is clearly stated in the review itself, and this helps us cover a much wider range of products than we would otherwise be able to.
If you find this site helpful, please help support it. Next time you make a purchase, please start your online shopping by clicking one of our links:
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