Did You Ever Wonder How Websites Pay For Themselves?

Websites cost money to build and money to keep on-line. Sites that sell products or services directly to the public are called "merchant sites" and pay their way through sales. Sites like this one are called "content sites" and pay for themselves by selling ads and what's called "affiliate marketing." Think of us like a magazine, we try to give you information you can trust, while at the same time, we do try to steer you toward reputable merchants who pay our expenses. Like a magazine, we will not deal with unscrupulous merchants.

Ads

At present, ProvocativeClothing.com doesn't display banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders or other such things because as consumers ourselves, we find them annoying. But they're not as annoying as going out of business, so someday in the future we might have banner ads like other websites.

Affiliate marketing

We do participate in affiliate marketing programs. Basically, we provide links to merchant sites that we think you'd be interested in. It's less obvious, but we get paid if you follow the link and you buy something (goods) or sign up for something (services.) As with ads, we have no control over the merchant, but at least we did think enough of them to set up an affiliation.

Those Funny-looking links

Many people are suspicious of affiliate marketing links. There's always that nagging doubt that somehow you're being played for a chump if you follow that funny-looking link. This is my affiliate marketing link to Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=provocativecl-20&path=subst/home/home.html

If I ran an article about, say, fashion photographer Helmut Newton and I thought there was a good book on the topic that you'd be interested in, I'd mention the book The Best of Helmut Newton and then make it link to the listing for that book on Amazon. Or I might link to a search that would get all the books Amazon carries on Helmut Newton. If you followed that link and bought a book, I'd get a commission. You wouldn't pay any more for the book just 'cause you followed my link, it's just that Amazon gives me a reward for bringing them to your attention as a source.

Things To Keep In Mind:

There are different kinds of affiliate links. Some affiliates let us link directly to an item we believe you'd be interested in. In that case, we'd probably provide a "text link" that goes from a word, say "bikini," to the specific item we're talking about. Other affiliates only let us put a graphic or a button that points you to their home page. We'll place those on pages where we believe it's appropriate.

I provide links to things I truly think you'd be interested in.  If it's a commodity item and you think you can track down a better deal somewhere else, you're welcome to do that. The links just make it easy for you and help keep me in business. Merchants make their living selling stuff. I make my living by earning your trust.

If you ever have a problem with one of our vendors, I want to know about it. Send an e-mail to Publisher@ProvocativeClothing.com. If I start getting a lot of complaints about a particular vendor I will re-evaluate our relationship with them. Again, their product is stuff, my product is trust.

If you're worried that I'm secretly getting rich... I've read stories on the internet of people making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on affiliate marketing. I don't. After a lot of study, I'm reasonably sure that's exceedingly rare. If I start getting rich, I'll let you know and become one of the dozens of people selling e-books to tell you how to get rich off the internet. In the mean time, I'm hoping to cover my costs and maybe build up to the point where I make a living.

Enjoy the site. Follow the links. Buy stuff. Thanks.