How We’re Funded

Every month, we invest dozens of unpaid hours into adding high quality content to Alt Advent Calendars. While we do it out of love and passion, the hosting company doesn't take these qualities as valid payment, and each month they insist we pay cool hard cash for disk space. We know - outrageous, right?

Alt Advent Calendars is free to use for Internet visitors, but it needs to somehow earn some money to help cover its bills and other expenses to help keep it viable. To avoid putting up a paywall, we've turned to other means of monetisation.

On Alt Advent Calendars, you might find the following:

  1. Affiliate links – These are links that normally lead through a tracking company to a retailer. When you click on such a link on Alt Advent Calendars (denoted by a ° symbol) and go on to make a purchase, we may receive a small commission. Emphasis on the words 'may' and 'small' as affiliate tracking systems aren't always reliable and the commission rates are often miniscule. Regardless, it costs you nothing extra to shop via Alt Advent Calendars and you're helping to sustain the website.
     
    Much like newspaper outlets, affiliate links are added after the editorial content is written, so as to avoid bias. Affiliate links are added automatically by a separate system to editorial content where they are available.
     
    Not every link on Alt Advent Calendars is an affiliate link. We identify such links by adding a ° symbol after the link. Should you choose to use an affiliate link to make a purchase, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Long live Alt Advent Calendars!
  2. Display Banners – These square or rectangle banner advertisements are typically tied to affiliate tracking links. These links normally lead through a tracking company and on to a retailer. When you click on such a banner on Alt Advent Calendars and go on to make a purchase, we may receive a small commission (see above). Such banners are normally supplied by retailers and Alt Advent Calendars decides which banners to display and where.
     
    Occasionally, brands pay Alt Advent Calendars a fee to have a display banner advertised on the Alt Advent Calendars website. Links from such adverts may or may not be affiliate tracking links.
     
    We also rely on Google AdSense to fill display advertising space. Google's advertising algorithm determines what adverts are shown and Alt Advent Calendars has no control over how these are chosen.
  3. Advertisement Posts – These are pieces of content that advertisers have supplied to Alt Advent Calendars to run on the website. Alt Advent Calendars normally receives a payment for such content as part of an agreement with the advertiser. Links denoted by a ° symbol within such are affiliate tracking links. Such pieces of content are clearly marked as an advertisement from the outset so you know what you are reading. Alt Advent Calendars has no editorial control over the content of such pieces.
  4. Sponsored Posts – These are pieces of content that advertisers have agreed with Alt Advent Calendars to run on the website. Alt Advent Calendars normally receives a payment for such content as part of an agreement with the advertiser. Links denoted by a ° symbol within such are affiliate tracking links. Such pieces of content are clearly marked as a sponsored post from the outset so you know what you are reading. Alt Advent Calendars has a degree of editorial control over the content of such pieces.
  5. Cash Donations – Some of our website visitors donate money to help cover some of the cost of running Alt Advent Calendars. This is entirely voluntary on the part of the donor and helps us to minimise the need for display advertising. Should you wish to donate money to help keep Alt Advent Calendars running, please contact us.

    6. In summary, Alt Advent Calendars may earn money from affiliate links and agreements with advertisers, but we'll always ensure we tell you whenever there's commercial interest in the content you are reading, so you can trust what you are reading.

    Should you have ideas on how we can better monetise Alt Advent Calendars, or you have questions over our monetisation policy, please get in touch.