Short version: ads, the newsletter, the merch shop, and occasional affiliate links. The longer version, with all the words the FTC wants in here, follows.
Some links on Wattalife — usually to books, products, services, or tools we mention in a story — are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, Wattalife may receive a small commission from the seller. You do not pay more because of this. The commission comes from the seller's marketing budget, not from your wallet.
We only link to things we'd recommend even if no one paid us a commission. We do not change what we publish based on whether a product has an affiliate program. We are willing to write critically about brands we have affiliate relationships with. If that ever changes, this disclosure will too.
An affiliate link is a hyperlink that contains a tracking code identifying Wattalife as the referrer. When you click the link and then make a purchase from the destination site, the seller pays Wattalife Media Co. a small percentage of the sale price as a commission. The price you pay is identical to the price you would pay without the affiliate link.
Wattalife may participate in affiliate programs including, but not limited to:
This list is not exhaustive and may change over time as we add or remove partnerships.
In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR Part 255 ("Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising") and the FTC's Endorsement Guides, Wattalife Media Co. is required to disclose any material connection between us and the makers or sellers of products and services we link to or write about.
As such, you should assume that any link on Wattalife to a third-party product, service, book, course, app, or tool may be an affiliate link. If a particular link is not an affiliate link, we don't make a special note of it; the default assumption should be that it might be.
Wattalife Media Co. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
They don't. Or rather: they don't determine what we cover or how we cover it.
The thing we sell is reader trust. If we recommend something because we get a commission and not because we actually think it's worth your time, we lose the trust, and the publication loses everything. We are aware of this. We try to act accordingly.
Concretely:
From time to time, we may publish sponsored content — content for which we have been paid by an advertiser or partner. When we do this, the sponsored content is clearly labeled as "Sponsored," "Paid Partnership," or "In Partnership With [Brand]." Sponsored content is a separate category from our regular editorial; it is disclosed prominently at the top of the piece and again wherever necessary throughout.
Our newsletter may from time to time include sponsored placements — short, clearly labeled segments paid for by a sponsor. Sponsored placements in the newsletter are visually distinct from editorial content and are labeled as "Sponsored" or "Today's sponsor:" so there's no confusion about what's been paid for.
The Site displays graphical advertisements served by Google AdSense and potentially other ad networks. We do not control the specific ads served; selection is handled by automated systems based on user behavior, advertiser targeting, and Google's algorithms. The presence of a particular ad on the Site does not constitute an endorsement by Wattalife. For more information about how Google AdSense works, see our Privacy Policy.
Where an individual article contains a significant number of affiliate links, or focuses primarily on a product or service we have an affiliate relationship with, that article will carry its own clear disclosure at the top, in addition to this site-wide page. The site-wide disclosure (this page) covers the rest.
If you'd like to know whether a specific link on the Site is an affiliate link, whether we have a paid relationship with a specific company we've written about, or how a particular partnership works — write to us at wattalifemedia@gmail.com with the subject line "AFFILIATE." We'll tell you.
We update this disclosure when our affiliate relationships materially change. The "Effective" date at the top of the page reflects the most recent update.