What You Bought This Year

Plus some notes on being an affiliate link girlie now.

Ever since I turned on paid subscriptions for Burnt Toast, I’ve been clear about one thing: This is an ad- and sponsor-free space. After years of running headlong into advertiser conflicts when trying to write about diet culture for mainstream media outlets, I know that the reader-supported model is key to doing this work.

But this year…I did start using affiliate links.

For folks who don’t speak Internet commerce: Affiliate links are embedded with a special code. Whenever someone purchases something via a link here on Burnt Toast, I earn a small percentage of the sale. (Anywhere from 3 to 12 percent, depending on the brand and the item.) For more on how affiliates work, I really like this overview by Gabrielle Blair.

Affiliate links don’t cost consumers anything extra; my percentage comes out of the normal cost of the item. But since I’m paid by the brand, affiliate links are a form of advertising. What I quickly learned when I began using affiliate links is that there is a lot of pressure to push products solely because they perform well as affiliate links. I’ve been asked by brands I’ve never heard of, to run affiliate links for products I’ve never used. There are many influencers making huge money on affiliate links, because they know how frequently to post them, which stores offer the best commission rates, and which products sell best this way. They might negotiate directly with brands about how often they’ll post a link and on which platform. Brands often pitch influencers directly to join their affiliate programs, but there are also big affiliate networks who negotiate commission rates with tons of different brands. (Burnt Toast works with two: LTK and ShopMy.)

As I say every month on my Outfit Report posts: I decided to use affiliate links because whenever I post an outfit or talk about a Butter on the podcast, I know we’ll be asked for a source. Finding and adding all of those links to captions and podcast transcripts is labor—so using links that also earn Burnt Toast a small commission feels like a fair trade. It’s also an easy way for listeners and readers to support this work instead of, or in addition to, a paid subscription. As the newsletter business continues to evolve, our conversion rate (meaning how many of you decide to pay for the newsletter every month) has dropped. Experimenting with affiliate links this year has opened up another revenue stream (that is, at least, still grounded in reader support!), which might become more important in the future.

That said, affiliate link income is currently a very small percentage of Burnt Toast’s overall revenue—this year, about 1.5 percent. I’ll donate significantly more to NAAFA at the end of the month than I made linking to clothes and household items. (Help us fund fat!)

And, I’ve drawn some bright lines around how I’m willing to use affiliate links here, in order to preserve the ethos of our no advertising policy:

1. I don’t accept free merchandise from brands. You’ll only ever see affiliate links to items I’ve purchased (or sweaters I stole from my mom). This piece by Dacy Gillespie gets more into the complexities of accepting free merch.

2. If a Butter or an outfit component doesn’t have an affiliate link option, I’ll always still link it. ShopMy lets us add links regardless of whether they pay commission, so you’ll often find those links aggregated there.

3. I don’t do sponsored content. You’ll never hear ads on the podcast or read them in the newsletter. I don’t think it’s automatically unethical to work with sponsors and advertisers. But I do think it’s impossible to do the work I want to do here with advertiser priorities in the mix.

4. You will never see a product linked that doesn’t align with our community values. (And if you do, I know you’ll hold me accountable!)

TL/DR: Affiliate links are complicated, but useful and I think we’re figuring out how to use them in a way that aligns with Burnt Toast values. If you were going to buy a blender from Target anyway, you’re hopefully just as happy to buy one that happens to support body liberation journalism at no extra cost to you.

I’d love your thoughts on all of this! Are you pro or con affiliate links? Do you have any questions about how they work, or how Burnt Toast is using them? Fire away!

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But Now the Fun Part: What You Bought

Moral quandaries aside, it is DOWNRIGHT FASCINATING to see what y’all click on and buy throughout the year. Here are your 10 most purchased items for 2024 (listed from least-most to most-most!). And yes…three of them are jeans. We are who we are!

(I did eliminate from consideration items that have since sold out, so these are all active links as of this writing—which seems useful for any holiday shopping you still need to do!)

10. Gap High Rise Vintage Slim Jeans

These are such good jeans and it’s never not enraging that they are only available up to a jeans 35 (I wear both the 34 and 35 depending on the day/fit I want).

9. Universal Standard ComfortDenim Don’t Call Them Jeggings

Look, we are a lot of Millennials here, and if we still need an Emotional Support Skinny Jean, at least this one has a comfy elastic waistband.

8. The best brownies, period

I will be taking no questions.

7. Universal Standard Etta Jeans

Corinne and I both love these, so I’m not remotely surprised you all did too.

6. Charlotte Stone Conway Sneakers

I wore these out to lunch on Saturday and have maybe never bonded so fast with a waitress? They are adorable and available up to size 15.

5. Lands End Kids Snow Pants

These come in straight, slim and plus sizes up to a kids’ 20, making them one of the more size inclusive options we’ve found. They are also unbelievably sturdy and have several points of adjustability (straps, waistband, leg length) so I’m planning to get at least three winters out of them per kid.

4. Ninja Blast Portable Blender

Part of my Single Mom Survival Kit because it’s so dang useful when we travel and for making me-sized smoothies when the kids are at their dad’s. Also salad dressings! And chopping!

3. Nordic Ware Quarter Sheet Pan

A Burnt Toastie told us all in the comments awhile back to switch to quarter sheet pans because they fit in the dishwasher and they were right, this was life-changing.

2. Target Oversized Long Sleeved Button-Down

Pleased this one is still in stock because button-downs are one of those rare “wear any time of year” items. And I like the cut of this one just as much as, and maybe more than, a much pricier Anthropologie shirt.

1. Target Square Neck Cropped Tank Top

And….your most-purchased item of the year was my Midlife Crisis Crop Top. Long may she reign!

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A Few Other Good Things

Here are the most shopped links from Big Undies.

Plus Corinne solves tights.

If I can get it together, I’ll be making this for Christmas breakfast.

For your last-minute shopping needs: Cranky Feminist Gift Guide.

How to make December feel better.

Why you can love your body but still hate mirrors and photos.