How the Almanac is funded
The Home Almanac is free and never sells data, because it never has any. It runs no ads today. When enough people use it, it will carry tasteful ones, set after the answer, and you will be able to switch them off for a couple of dollars. It still costs something to run, so here is exactly where the money comes from, and the rules it lives under.
Where the money comes from
Gear links. Some pages end with a short list of tools the season calls for: a torque wrench on the tire page, a frost cloth on the planting page. If you buy through one of those links, the retailer pays the Almanac a small commission. The price you pay does not change. As an Amazon Associate, The Home Almanac earns from qualifying purchases.
Quote forms. Where a page offers to connect you with movers or insurers, the companies pay for the introduction. We say so beside the form, and we tell you who will contact you before you submit anything.
Seasonal sponsors. A season of the Almanac can carry a single named sponsor, the way the old almanacs did: one line of credit, one sponsor, the only name on the season. The credit sits on the season's pages, never on the data, the dates, or the calendar, and it buys no say over any of them. A company that wants to back a season can write to contact@homealmanac.ca.
Display, once a page earns it. When a page draws enough readers to be worth it, it may carry a tasteful display ad through a quality ad manager, not a junk banner exchange. It sits after the answer, never on the dates, the data, or the calendar, and the intrusive formats stay banned, listed in the rules below.
An ad-free option. For a couple of dollars a month, or about twenty dollars a year, a reader can switch the ads off entirely. The Almanac stays free either way. Paying removes the ads, nothing more, for the people who would rather pay than see them. This goes live when the ads do.
The rules
- The dates and the advice are never for sale. No payment changes a date, a law summary, or a recommendation.
- Picks are editorial. We choose the gear first and look for a link second, never the reverse.
- Ads and sponsors sit after the answer, never in front of it, and never on the dates, the data, or the calendar.
- No pop-ups, no interstitials, no countdown timers, no auto-playing sound or video, ever. The ads can be switched off for a couple of dollars.
- Your calendar is sacred. The subscribed calendar feed will never carry a sponsor, a link, or a promotion of any kind.
- Every commercial link is disclosed where it appears, in plain language.
- We count clicks on outbound links anonymously, to learn which pages help. No cookies, no profiles, no identity, ever.
- If a partner ever asks us to bend these rules, we lose the partner, not the rules.
What it pays for
Hosting, the data pipelines that re-verify sources and refresh Environment and Climate Change Canada normals, and the time it takes to keep a reference honest. Anything beyond that funds more tools, more stations, and more of the year covered.
Questions about any of this reach a person at contact@homealmanac.ca. The methods behind the dates live on the methodology page.