How this thing is made.

The Naked Norm is a small, independent publication. Here's what that means in practice — how the site works today, what we will and won't do, and the monetisation plans we may pursue once the audience is meaningful.

Today: not yet monetised

At the time of writing, this site does not earn revenue. We are not currently in any affiliate programs, do not run display advertising, and do not accept sponsored content. Outbound links to resorts, products, books, and other resources point directly to the relevant venue or vendor, with no tracking or referral tag attached. They're there because they're useful to you, not because they earn us money.

What we may do in future

As the audience grows, we may layer in two — and only two — kinds of monetisation:

• Affiliate programs for the products and venues we recommend (Booking.com Partners for resorts, Amazon Associates for books and gear, direct partnerships where appropriate). When we do, every affiliate link will be clearly marked with rel="sponsored" in the HTML and visually disclosed on the page that contains it. We will update this page accordingly.
• Newsletter sponsorships — a single sponsor slot per issue of The Naked Norm Letter, clearly labelled as "Today's sponsor." Sponsors will not influence the editorial content of the email or the rest of the site.

We do not plan to ever introduce display advertising on the site. No banners, no programmatic ads, no popups other than a one-time newsletter invitation.

Editorial independence

Even before any revenue exists, the editorial principles are the same:

• We never accept payment in exchange for a positive review, a directory listing, or a podcast mention.
• If a brand sends us a free product, we disclose it on the review.
• Our ratings are our own and would stay the same regardless of any commercial relationship.
• We will not run an affiliate program if we find it has predatory or misleading practices, even if it would cost us revenue to refuse.
• If we ever publish content paid for by a brand, the piece will be labelled "Sponsored" or "In partnership with [brand]" prominently at the top — never buried in the footer.

About the writing

We're transparent about how the site is produced: the podcast is co-hosted by AI personas (Naked Norm and Sun-kissed Sophie), articles and reviews are written under the Naked Norm editorial pen-name, and the broader research and editorial direction is the work of the publisher behind that pen-name. See About for more on why.

Where we cite scientific research, we name the authors and the year so you can follow up. Where we summarise a venue we haven't personally visited, we say so. Where we recommend a product, we describe what we know about it and what we don't.

Your data

• We don't run third-party advertising trackers.
• We don't sell your email or any other personal information.
• We use privacy-respecting analytics with no cookies and no IP storage.
• For full details, see our Privacy Policy.

Questions or corrections?

We aim to be the most transparent publication in this space. If anything on the site looks misleading, factually wrong, or out of date, please tell us and we'll fix it.

Last updated: April 2026.