Disclosure and Privacy Policy

This disclosure/privacy policy stuff is really not very exciting, but it’s required by law.  And I believe in transparency and authenticity, so I would want you to have this information, anyway.  (I just probably wouldn’t have written it in such a boring format if it weren’t required!)  So here’s the “small print”:

Titus 2 Homemaker is a personal blog written and edited by me, Rachel Ramey.  I write here at Titus 2 Homemaker because I love it – and I love you, my readers!   It would be fabulous if I were rich, and could afford to cover all the costs involved without a thought, as well as purchasing any and every item I want to be able to review for you.  The majority of my posts are content that I write for no material compensation.  However, I am not rich; I am a stay-at-home wife and mama with a tight budget.  😉  There are costs involved with blogging.  There are lots of things I’d love to check out for you that I just simply cannot afford to buy all on my own.  And I enjoy the opportunity to make a few extra dollars here and there. As a result, I do accept review items and various forms of advertising/ sponsorship.

I’m not perfect, and I do on occasion succumb to the temptation to publish a paid guest post that’s not as relevant as everything
else here (‘though never anything I think y’all would consider offensive).  But generally speaking, I try to pre-select products, services, and companies based on what I believe will be useful – for my family and for yours (while recognizing that if I haven’t tried a product yet, I can only make my best guess).

I always tell you the truth about what I thought of a product or service.  If it isn’t a good fit for me, I say so.  (I try to give you the details, though, so you know why it wasn’t a good fit.  It might still be perfect for you!)

All advertising and sponsorships are made pretty obvious in their individual posts, with the exception of affiliate links.  I am not trying to be sneaky about affiliate links – just to avoid making posts messy and hard to read with lots of little individual “this is an affiliate link” comments.  How does an affiliate link work?  If you buy through my link (which you are absolutely not obligated to do!), I earn a small commission, but it doesn’t affect your bottom line at all.  So it’s a win-win.  If I’m going to be linking to something anyway, I figure I might as well use an affiliate link (when that’s an available option) to help cover the costs of the site (and hopefully someday, to help cover the rising costs of food and clothing in this household!)

So…even though I may occasionally receive compensation for my posts or advertisements, I always give my honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own (and occasionally those of my family members). Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

I absolutely believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity, and seek to always be authentic with you.  One way I maintain this integrity is by choosing carefully which opportunities I accept and which products I will review.  Another is by writing very specific reviews, detailing exactly what I liked or disliked about a book or product; it should generally be pretty clear that I’m not being “bought off.” 🙂  I will never give a less-than-honest review of a product or service, for any amount or type of compensation. If I rave about a product (which does sometimes happen!), I really did love the product!  Most sponsored posts will be clearly identified as sponsored or compensated content.  (Exceptions will be noted farther down this page.)  All advertisements will be obvious as such. (For a lengthier discussion of this, please see this post.)

Exception #1: (Past) paid blog posts.  I used to do paid blog posts through a particular company.  These posts were not paid content, but, rather, paid insertions of certain keyword phrases with accompanying links.  I could write about anything I wanted, so long as I used that phrase somewhere and linked it as directed.  The content was still my own; the contextual links should not necessarily be considered endorsements by me of the products, services, or ideas at the linked sites. Odd wording here or there, or unusual post topics may have been prompted by particular contextual link assignments, but the ideas contained in them were my own, and I enjoyed the challenge to my creativity (which generally needs challenging).  I stopped doing these posts when the links started getting pretty “spammy,” in my opinion; however, these older posts are still up, in accordance with the agreement I made with the company at that time.  These are not noted as sponsored posts, also in accordance with the agreement I made at that time.

I do sometimes take this type of post now, on a case-by-case, post-by-post basis, but do not accept this type of post if I cannot let you know within the post that it is compensated.  (In some cases, due to the sponsor’s requirements, this may be in the form of an image linking to this page, rather than a text disclaimer.)

Potential exception #2: As noted above, some links in my posts may be affiliate links.  If you aren’t familiar with affiliate programs, this simply means that the linked-to site makes note of the fact that you came from Titus 2 Homemaker, and I will make a small percentage if you choose to make a purchase through them.  These links will not necessarily be noted as such, but they will always be sites I would have linked to anyway.  I do not ever want you, my reader, to feel compelled to make a purchase!  Links are provided so you can see what I’m talking about, get a closer look at a product, etc.  If you choose to purchase, I benefit from it in a small way, but if you don’t, that’s totally fine, too. 🙂

Privacy

DO be aware (for privacy purposes) that most of these companies track your clicks from my site by placing a small “cookie” on your computer.  (These “cookies” are a common internet practice, frequently used for things like remembering your usernames and passwords at various sites so you don’t have to continually re-enter them.)  I may use advertising service vendors to help present advertisements on the website, including Gourmet Ads.  I do not have control over cookies placed by advertisers, who may use cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies to serve you advertisements tailored to interests you have shown by browsing on this and other sites you have visited, to determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement before and to avoid sending you duplicate advertisements. In the process, these vendors may collect non-personal data such as your browser type, your operating system, Web pages visited, time of visits, content viewed, ads viewed, and other clickstream data. The use of cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies by these advertising service vendors is subject to their own privacy policies, not mine, and Service Provider disclaims all liability in connection therewith.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer.

I personally do not ever collect any information from you that it is not obvious to you is being collected.  (For instance, if you submit your email address to me through a form, I obviously have your email address; if you place an order through my shop, I collect whatever order information you give me; and so forth.  But I’m not gathering any “hidden” information.)  If you provide such information, I may use it to improve my products and services and to periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other informationI think you may find interesting, and for any obvious purpose for which you submitted it (such as sending you a product you ordered).  I do not share your information with third parties, and reasonable precautions are taken to keep your information secure.

Disclosure of Material Connection

Finally, you might want to be aware that I have connections to ParentalRights.org, in that my husband is their Director of Communications and Research.  (He works for them because we fully believe in the necessity of passing the Amendment, at which point, he will have worked himself out of a job!)

Naturally, Holistically Healthy is also my website.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me personally.

This policy is valid from 12 March 2019.

Copyright Notice
All content on this site is protected, from the moment of publishing, under U.S. Copyright law. I am a reasonable person and will usually be glad to give reprint permission for legitimate uses, if you ask me, but using them without my permission is theft; it is immoral and illegal. Just don’t do it. 🙂

However, do feel free to use a single image from a post to link back to the post itself – just be sure to give me credit and please don’t copy the post (or recipe) in its entirety.  (That keeps people from having to come visit me, and I “lose” traffic.)  And Pin my content freely to Pinterest – again, as long as you’re linking back to me and not copying entire recipes.  (I would also ask that you not Pin a photo of one of my children from a post that has other Pinnable options.  I’m not a total stickler, but it helps minimize pictures of my little ones floating all over the ‘net.)