The short version: I take my personal endorsement seriously and do not endorse any product or service that I’m not willing to stand behind personally.
The longer version: In October of 2009, the Federal Trade Commission published an update to their guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials, broadly defined. The changes primarily effected “Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, [and] Celebrity Endorsements.” While I do blog, and the main Have Camera Will Travel and its sister sites (my sites), A Photography Guide to Washington DC and Tips & Tricks for the Traveling Photographer are hybrid blog sites, my primary source of related income comes from licensing images for publication, commissioned photo shoots, and selling photographic prints.
If you’re reading my sites, you should know the following:
My sites are written and edited solely by me. If, in the future, I decide to add guest posts written by others they will be clearly marked as such.
I am not compensated to provide my opinion on products, services, websites or other topics. The views and opinions expressed on my sites are purely my own. If anything here appears to endorse a particular product, that is only because I have personally used it, I believe in it or honestly like it and, based on my expertise, that it is worthy of such perceived endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.
This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest, unless otherwise clearly noted.
I occasionally receive samples and related products from a variety of sources, with no expectation of a positive review or indeed any review. In the vast majority of cases, I personally pay through standard retail sources for the equipment, software, or services reviewed.
I do not accept any form of paid advertising, sponsorship, or paid insertions. I write for my own purposes. However, I may be influenced in that writing by my background, occupation, experience, or similar factors.
Links to the following retailers and services, each of which I personally use and recommend, are affiliate links and do generate small commissions when you purchase through that link:
In each case, there is no added cost whatsoever for you. So if you plan to buy from these retailers or services, you can help keep my servers humming and new content flowing on the site by buying after clicking on the affiliate link.
You can see the retailers I support by looking at the ads section in my sidebar. They are companies that I personally use and recommend.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact me directly.
Last updated July 5, 2011
