They make money from (in no particular order; no idea what their revenue split is)
1. Referral links to retailers such as Amazon
2. Direct subscription payments via NYT (Wirecutter is now like an add-on to your NYT subscription)
This is of course, not perfect. They are incentivized to try and get you to buy something and, ideally, more expensive things because that would result in higher referral commissions. But this is orders of magnitude less sinister than being "paid advertising" and having a financial incentive to get you to choose one brand over another.
I think they are generally pretty responsible about not trying to upsell you to more expensive products. When they do a roundup, they generally compare products within a given price range (e.g., "speakers less than $500") and because the products are similarly priced, there's no incentive to simply steer you towards the pricier one.
There are some times that I find their reviews ridiculous. I wanted recommendations for bedsheets the other day and they all seemed to be like... > $200? lol, no thanks
If you read their review on USB microphones (the one that Yeti wins), they link to audio recordings of all the microphones so you can judge for yourself. I have no comment on whether they are considered "paid advertising", but I agree with the OP - their audio-based reviews are thorough and come across as unbiased.
JohnBooty|3 years ago
They make money from (in no particular order; no idea what their revenue split is)
1. Referral links to retailers such as Amazon
2. Direct subscription payments via NYT (Wirecutter is now like an add-on to your NYT subscription)
This is of course, not perfect. They are incentivized to try and get you to buy something and, ideally, more expensive things because that would result in higher referral commissions. But this is orders of magnitude less sinister than being "paid advertising" and having a financial incentive to get you to choose one brand over another.
I think they are generally pretty responsible about not trying to upsell you to more expensive products. When they do a roundup, they generally compare products within a given price range (e.g., "speakers less than $500") and because the products are similarly priced, there's no incentive to simply steer you towards the pricier one.
There are some times that I find their reviews ridiculous. I wanted recommendations for bedsheets the other day and they all seemed to be like... > $200? lol, no thanks
But generally I find them excellent.
amanzi|3 years ago