Stinking great wads of cash

That’s exactly what Guitarless does not make.

The FTC recently ruled that bloggers must disclose any freebies or payments, particularly where they have been paid to write a ‘review’.

Now, Guitarless is not a US-based blog and this ruling does not apply to us. A substantial number of our readers are American but this is immaterial. What is material is this:

Guitarless has never been paid to write a review for any product.  We don’t intend to ever take a payment to write a review.  In the – extremely – unlikely event that this stance ever changes, we will state the fact in no uncertain terms.

And freebies?

From time to time, Guitarless is offered products for review.  In most cases, after review, the products are returned to the manufacturer (or the manufacturer’s agents).  In some cases, the manufacturer doesn’t collect and return items.   In these cases, the reviewer can usually keep the item in question (although sometimes they’ll be offered as competition prizes).  These are generally smaller, cheaper items where incurring additional shipping costs for its return makes it more cost-effective just to leave it with the reviewer (we’d be pretty surprised if a Custom Shop Gibson were not collected).

This practice is the same throughout the media.  Magazines, newspapers, radio, television, etc. – essentially anyone that reviews products – will sometimes get to keep the product they’re reviewing.  We think it incredibly unlikely that this fact influences the reviews these products receive in any medium (especially when you consider that, often, you don’t know if the product is a keeper until you ask for directions to return it).

Any reviews of any products here on Guitarless will be performed scrupulously and without bias.  If we love something, we’ll tell you.  If something stinks, we’ll tell you.  Most importantly, if something stinks, we won’t tell you we love it.  Trust me, if something stinks, the fact that we get to keep it isn’t really an incentive.

What about the ads?

There are some ads on our pages.  These are sourced through Google Adsense which does magick things to make ads appear that are related, in some way, to the content on that particular page.  We have very little influence over what ads ultimately appear on our pages.

If there is an overlap between ads and content, it is only because Google have performed their searchy witchcraft and picked an appropriate ad.  We are, in no way, affiliated with any of the products or companies that appear in the ads on our site.

What about the Amazon stuff?

Guitarless is an Amazon affiliate.  This means that we occassionally display links to products on Amazon.  If you click the link and ultimately buy the product, we receive a small percentage of the cost.  It doesn’t cost you any more so you’re happy, we’re happy and we’re pretty sure Amazon is happy.

Back to the wads of cash

Absolute full disclosure: Guitarless displays ads and Amazon links in the hope of earning giant, ass-loads of cash.

This is pretty unlikely, however, and the best we can realistically expect is a few bucks here and there to help pay for the upkeep of this site.

Should this ever change and make me an internet billionaire, it won’t be an issue because the site will fall to ruin as I retire to the South Seas on my yacht.