Chris and Sara here. From the beginning we’ve always wanted to build trust with our audience. Authenticity and honesty are not only the core of our business standards, but also who we are as people. Because we value honesty and complete transparency, we want to always be sure that you are aware of the affiliate links to products and services that are present on our website.
If you’re not familiar with affiliate links, essentially they’re a way for businesses (like us) to partner with brands and make a small commission when someone uses our custom links to purchase a product. Affiliate links present no additional fee for the shopper, the commission comes out of the retailer’s pocket.
For example: say we have a link to our favorite hammock listed on our website from REI. If you go and purchase that hammock on REI’s website by clicking the link on our website, we will receive a very small commission from that purchase at no additional cost to you. Essentially the commission we receive is a small “thank you” from REI for directing business their way.
While not every link to products and services on our website is an affiliate link, for the sake of trust, please assume it is. That being said, we never include links to anything that we 1) haven’t tried ourselves or 2) wouldn’t pay to try if given the opportunity. From travel suggestions to gear suggestions, everything we list on our website is something we have purchased/tried or would like to purchase/try in the near future.
In the rare instances we recommend products or services that we haven’t tried personally, we can guarantee we’ve done lots of research on said product and have carefully decided on that specific choice. The only reason there are some products/services on our site that we haven’t tried personally is because time and money are typically what limit us from buying and trying everything on our wishlist. That being said, we don’t want to limit showing you potential options that may best fit your needs because our exact needs and budgets differ.
We also want to state the obvious here and say that while we do enjoy giving away lots of free content in the form of vlogs and blogs, we are technically a for-profit business meaning that no matter big or small, the amount of money through our Let’s Be Us page is for-profit unless otherwise stated.It should also be noted that (unless otherwise stated) we have not been paid to mention any of the products or services on our website. In the instances we are paid, we will make it clearly known when we mention a service or product we’re being paid to mention.
Affiliate links are a way that we as bloggers/vloggers can help you (our audience) find quality products. At the same time, you are able to support our channel when you use our affiliate links. We ask that you please never purchase anything you do not want or need for the sake of supporting us (Let’s Be Us). Please never feel like you should or have to purchase anything using our links either. While these suggested products and services have worked well for us, they may not work for you so please shop accordingly to fit your own specific needs.
If you have any questions regarding affiliate links and how they work, please feel free to reach out over on our contact page.
Thanks for your support!
Chris and Sara