Disclosures: How I make money on this blog

Publisher Pam here. This page explains how I make money on my blog. There actually are FTC guidelines for bloggers, and you can bet I aim to meet — even exceed — those guidelines.

Following is an explanation of income to the blog and how I deal with various issues:

• Google Ads: The largest share of income for the blog comes from the Google ads featured on each post and page, and on the Forum. Google allows up to three ad units per page. The way I understand it, every visitor to the blog may be getting different ads, depending on your interests and web-browsing history. I have little control over these ads, although I have “opted out” of anything that seems inappropriate for my G- or occasionally PG-rated blog. Contact me if you get anything served up that you consider offensive, and I will see if I can block it. You can read more about how Google and its other third party ad networks uses cookies and similar technologies to serve up ads to you in my Privacy Policy.
• Midcentury Marketplace Ads: The second way I make money is with what I call the “Midcentury Marketplace” advertisements — the smaller ads in two sizes in the far right-hand column of the blog and the larger “sticky” ad at the bottom of the same sidebar. I also have started adding one such ad at the bottom of our Sunday newsletter. I sell these ads directly to advertisers. In general, I accept ads only for products and services that are relevant to homeowners remodeling or decorating their midcentury homes — I want these ads to be a “win win win” — a win for readers who are looking for relevant products, a win for advertisers with relevant products to sell, and a win for me so that I can make a living and continue to blog. I do not promise editorial coverage to these advertisers. And, please do not consider these ads a personal endorsement; I may or may not have personal experience with a given advertiser; do your own additional homework if you are considering making a purchase. When and if I do write something about their products while they are an active advertiser, I may note a Disclosure: in the story so that it is clear that the story was not a quid pro quo.
• Ebay Links and Ads — I am a member of the Ebay Affiliate Network. When you click on a product in one of my ebay carousels, or on other links to ebay posted in various spots on my blog, ebay follows you with a “cookie” and if you end up buying something, I receive a commission. I always try to remember to put a parenthetical “(*affiliate link) note adjacent to such links.
• Amazon Links, Ads and A-Store — Similar to the Ebay situation described above, I am a member of the Amazon Associate Network and receive a commission if you buy anything from Amazon via a link on my blog. I always try to remember to put a parenthetical “(*affiliate link) note adjacent to such links.
• Other Ads and/or Affiliate Programs — If it looks like an ad, all design-y like, I’m likely an affiliate and earn a spiff, or earn money directly for the placement. If I am an affiliate and mention the company or one of its products in a story with a live link, I always try to remember to put a parenthetical “(*affiliate link)” next to such hotlinks or otherwise note it conspicuously at the top of the story.
• NO Text links: I do not sell text links. Kissing cousins: I do not take guest posts from writers who are being paid by commercial interests to get their links online in a sneaky way. That is:  Shame on all the so-called “writers” who are proposing a guest post without your being 100% upfront about who you are working for.
• Sponsored posts RARELY: I am open to the idea of “sponsored posts” — that is, companies pay me to publish a story about them — and I have done a handful so far. (I have turned down or ignored many other such requests.) When I run a sponsored post, I seek to make it conspicuously clear that these are sponsored, that is: paid for. As per Google’s rules, all outbound links are no-follows. (FYI: Google considers such outbound links in sponsored [paid-for] posts to be equivalent to paid text links. They do not want websites to to “sell PageRank.”)
• Giveaways: I don’t typically charge money for retailers to provide items for giveaways. I do these as a surprise and delight to readers — and to grow my newsletter list.
• Consulting — In addition to being a blogger writing about vintage laminates and laminates available today for midcentury style kitchens and bathrooms, I have worked with Wilsonart to launch a capsule collection of 7 new colorways for their boomerang laminates. They promote these laminates on the blog with an ad. I disclose our involvement when we write about this collection. If I write about any other such projects I’ve been involved in, I will disclose that. 
• In general: I don’t want my editorial coverage to be affected by advertising or other revenue sources to the blog…
• …and I believe in, and strive for, transparency when it comes to calling out financial relationships where they may occur.