Sponsored pages

      
Occasionally you can find what are dubbed "sponsored pages" on this website. What's that? Well, a sponsored page is a kind of advertisement-cum-partnership. Basically I picked a handful of service providers/tour operators that I have personally used and had good experiences with and advertise them specially. That is: I write the endorsement text myself – though obviously in consultation with the company/agency in question. But it's ultimately my text. That's the crucial difference to regular adverts. 

 
Only some select few cases do get a sponsored page on this site, so that's already a recommendation in itself. Why "sponsored" then? Well, if you do use the direct link provided and book something with the company/agent in question, they sponsor me in return. That's similar to what any travel agent who isn't at the same time the operator itself also does. For the customer/client it makes no difference, i.e. you don't pay more for it. Whatever companies pay in sponsorship or commissions normally comes out of that company's advertising budget and is not slapped on top of what clients pay.

 
In fact, you may actually benefit. That's answering the question: "what's in it for me?" I encourage the companies/agents that I have a sponsored page partnership with to offer clients who come to them via my website some kind of extra incentive, e.g. a free airport transfer or some other kind of freebie. What they offer, if anything, is their choice. I can't dictate that, obviously. But they may well be prepared to offer something. That's also one reason why I ask you to mention that you've found them through dark-tourism.com.

 
There's only a select few sponsored pages but even though they're few in number and I may have had positive experiences with those companies it does not guarantee that everybody else will always have only impeccable services from them. If something turns out to your dissatisfaction you can contact me and I can try and mediate. And should a company fail to continue to provide the level of service that I experienced from them and expected them to keep up, I always have the last-resort option of taking their sponsored page off my site. That's the kind of clout I have in it. And that's another reason why you should mention that you found them through this site. I trust it will be beneficial to all sides involved. And if you use this sponsored-pages scheme as a client, you provide some indirect sponsorship to this website yourself (which is needed - see also sponsors and partners wanted).

 
This whole idea of sponsored pages is obviously not new, nor my own idea. It's used by other web-based players as well. In fact I hit upon the idea on another travel website, namely turkeytravelplanner.com by Tom Brosnahan. He explains the whole thing very lucidly on his own site – click here to view it (external link).