The purpose of this disclosure is transparency. We want to make sure our readers understand how we fund the website. The mission of D2C Fan is to help customers make informed decisions when considering direct-to-consumer products. When you purchase a product based on our recommendations we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps fund the site and support our efforts.
How do we earn money?
Some of the links on our website include unique IDs that help the vendor track sales. When you make a purchase we receive a commission. This doesn’t happen for every vendor on our site and you will never be charged extra. Actually in many cases you will save money since a number of D2C brands give our users a discount on their goods and services. We also anticipate the opportunity to negotiate better deals for our readers as our audience grows.
How do we deal with bias when writing about D2C brands?
It’s fair to ask how we refrain from recommending the brands that offer the best affiliate payouts. I ask the same question all the time when reading articles and reviews from around the web. We are very much a family business and are transparent in listing the background and contact info for the author of each post. Our reputation is far more important than any short term profit. Our goal is to build a brand that users grow to trust over the long term. In doing so you will notice that we will criticize partners at times and compliment companies that we have no relationship.
Why do you accept affiliate partnerships?
Before launching D2C Fan we had to consider the ways in which we could fund the website. Like most sites we could choose between asking readers to pay for membership or offer content for free. A paid service was never considered as we want to share our content with as many readers as possible. That left a few other options. We could seek outside funding, accept paid advertising, or sponsorship. None of these were appealing options as we want to have full control over the site. That left the options of partnering with companies through affiliate relationships. While most D2C companies lack partnership programs, we believe that enough opportunities exist to fund the project.
Amazon affiliate disclosure
D2C Fan 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. Since many of the D2C brands we cover offer their products through Amazon we will often link both directly to their site and to their product listings on Amazon. This gives you the option to purchase from either site and will sometimes save you money.
What if I don’t want to participate?
We fully respect your decision if you don’t wish to support our site through the affiliate links. You can still use our resources free of charge. Simply visit the D2C brand listed on our site directly rather than clicking the URLs linked from our site. You can also use a privacy tool like Ghostery. By doing so we will not receive credit for the sale and therefore not earn a commission. There are actually a number of other ways you can help if you’d like. We value feedback more than anything so please let us know how we can improve the site by leaving a comment on our contact page.
There are a lot of costs that go into running the site and we would not be able to do so without your support. Thank you!