We’re going to be straightforward about how this site operates financially because transparency matters, and also because we’re too old to bother with being cagey about it.

Balding Gamer is run by four guys with day jobs. Samuel’s an accountant, John manages IT, Joe teaches history, Timothy works construction. None of us are getting rich from this site. We do this because we’re into retro gaming and wanted a place to write about it, but keeping a website running costs money — hosting fees, domain registration, the occasional equipment purchase when something breaks.

To help cover those costs without putting up a paywall or plastering the site with obnoxious ads, we use affiliate links. Here’s how that works:

If you click a link on our site and buy something, we might earn a small commission. That commission doesn’t cost you anything extra — you pay the same price you’d pay anyway — but it gives us a few dollars that help keep the lights on. We’re talking small amounts here. Nobody’s quitting their day job over affiliate earnings from a retro gaming site.

We’re currently working with or may occasionally use these affiliate programs:

• Affiliate Window (Awin)
• FlexOffers
• Commission Junction (CJ)
• ShareASale
• Webgains

We also use Google AdSense for some ads on the site. If you’re running an ad blocker, we won’t judge you — we all use them too in certain situations.

Here’s what’s important: we only link to products and games that we actually know about, have experience with, or genuinely think are worth considering. We don’t write articles because of affiliate opportunities. We’re not getting paid to shill products. We’re not accepting money for positive reviews or coverage.

If we link to something, there’s a reason. Maybe Samuel bought it for his collection and it turned out to be worth the money. Maybe John uses it for his Amiga setup and it actually works well. Maybe Joe recommends it because it solved a problem he had with his Sega hardware. Maybe Timothy tried it while building his retro collection and found it useful. The point is there’s actual experience behind any recommendation.

Our basic rule: if it doesn’t align with what we’d actually tell a friend who asked for advice, it doesn’t go on the site. We’re not trying to maximize affiliate revenue by promoting whatever pays the highest commission. We’re trying to share useful information about retro gaming, and sometimes that includes pointing people toward specific products or retailers that we’ve actually used.

We’re definitely not a sales platform disguised as content. The goal here is to write about retro games and systems we know about, share our experiences and perspectives, document gaming history from people who lived through it. If that occasionally involves affiliate links to help cover costs, that seems reasonable.

If you’d rather not use our affiliate links, that’s completely fine. You can search for products directly on whatever site you prefer. We’re not going to guilt trip you about it. We just appreciate that you’re here reading about retro gaming from a bunch of middle-aged guys who never quite grew out of it.

You’re also welcome to ask questions about specific links or products. If we’ve linked to something and you want to know more about our experience with it, or whether we make anything from it, or what alternatives might work better, just reach out. We’re happy to explain our reasoning.

The reality is running a website costs money, retro gaming collecting costs money, and we’re balancing both with regular jobs and families. Affiliate links help make it sustainable without compromising what we’re actually trying to do here, which is share genuine knowledge and experience about classic games and systems.

Bottom line: we use affiliate marketing to cover costs. We only link to things we actually know about or believe are worth considering. We’re not here to sell you stuff you don’t need or convince you to buy overpriced retro games just because we get a commission. And if you use our links to buy something, we appreciate it — those small earnings add up and help us keep writing about why the SNES sound chip was superior to the Genesis or whatever other arguments we’re having this week.