Advertising Disclosure
How Nations Atlas makes money, what the different revenue streams look like, and how our editorial team is protected from advertiser influence.
Why this page exists
Reference sites cost money to run. Nations Atlas is funded by a mix of display advertising, travel affiliate partnerships, newsletter sponsorships, occasional sponsored content, and info product sales. Being explicit about how the site pays for itself is part of earning your trust. This page describes every revenue stream, what it looks like on the page, and how it is separated from editorial decisions.
Our revenue streams
Here is the complete list. If you see anything else on the site that looks commercial, we have overlooked it — please tell us.
- Display advertising through an ad network.
- Affiliate links to travel services (booking sites, activity providers, eSIM providers, money-transfer services, travel insurance, and travel gear).
- Newsletter sponsorships in our weekly newsletter.
- Occasional sponsored editorial content, clearly labelled.
- Info products (ebooks and cultural guides) sold through Amazon KDP and directly through our own storefront.
Display ads
You will see display ads on most pages. In our first months, ads are served by Ezoic. Once the site meets Mediavine's traffic threshold, we switch to Mediavine. Both are ad networks that show contextual and, where you consent, personalised advertising.
What this means for you as a reader:
- Ads are labelled as advertising and are visually distinct from editorial content.
- We do not know in advance which specific ads you will see — the ad network selects them based on context and, where consented, your interests.
- Advertisers do not review, approve, or influence the editorial content on the page next to their ad.
- An advertiser cannot buy their way out of unfavourable coverage of their category or country.
You can opt out of personalised advertising through our cookie banner or the Cookie preferences link in the footer. See the cookie policy and privacy policy for details.
Affiliate links
Some links on the site — particularly on our travel prep pages and comparison pages — are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. These help fund the site.
Our current affiliate partners include:
- Hotel bookings: Booking.com, Hotels.com, and equivalents.
- Activities and tours: GetYourGuide, Viator.
- eSIM and connectivity: Airalo, Holafly, Nomad.
- Money transfer and multi-currency accounts: Wise, Revolut.
- Travel insurance: SafetyWing, World Nomads, and equivalents.
- Travel gear: Amazon Associates programme.
Where a link is an affiliate link, we treat it as such:
- Pages that contain affiliate links carry a short disclosure near the top.
- Affiliate links go to services we would recommend without a commission. If we would not recommend a service editorially, we do not affiliate with it.
- Editorial rankings and recommendations are not adjusted for commission rates.
Newsletter sponsorships
Our free weekly newsletter — Country of the Week — may include one sponsored placement per issue, marked clearly as such. Sponsors do not choose the country of the week and do not review the editorial content of the newsletter. Sponsored placements are always visually distinct and labelled.
Sponsored content
From time to time, we accept sponsored content — for example, a tourism board sponsoring an in-depth cultural guide to a specific region, or a language-learning app sponsoring a language series. When we do, we follow strict rules:
- Sponsored content is clearly labelled at the top of the page as Sponsored by [sponsor name].
- Sponsors are named in the URL slug where practical — for example
/sponsored/[sponsor]/…. - Sponsored content follows the same editorial standards as unsponsored content — including the editorial policy and the cultural sensitivity policy. Sponsors cannot suppress accurate coverage of downsides, safety concerns, or human rights issues.
- Sponsors do not appear next to editorial coverage of their competitors.
- Sponsored content is disclosed to search engines using the standard
rel="sponsored"attribute on links to sponsor properties.
We do not accept undisclosed sponsored content, paid guest posts, or paid link insertions. If you see something on the site that looks sponsored but is not clearly labelled as such, please tell us — it is either an error or something we have not identified as sponsored.
Info products
We sell info products — ebooks and downloadable cultural guides — through Amazon KDP and directly through our own storefront. Info products are our own editorial work, priced fairly, and refundable within Amazon and storefront terms. Revenue from info products is direct and does not shape which countries we cover or how.
How editorial independence is protected
Editorial independence is protected by structural separation between the editorial team and the business team:
- Editors do not know which specific companies are on our sponsor pipeline at any given time.
- Sponsors and advertisers do not see or approve editorial content before it is published, except for sponsored content that they have specifically commissioned.
- Sponsors cannot request removal or amendment of unsponsored content.
- Editorial rankings and recommendations are made based on our own research and our cultural reviewers' feedback, not on commission rates or sponsorship status.
- Where a sponsor is unhappy with unsponsored coverage of their country, category, or product, we refer them to this policy.
No pay-for-inclusion
We do not accept payment for editorial inclusion. A country cannot pay to be reviewed, a tourism board cannot pay for a favourable ranking, and a service cannot pay to appear in a best-for list. Editorial inclusion is decided editorially.
Your choices
You can control what commercial elements you see:
- Opt out of personalised advertising through our cookie banner or the Cookie preferences link in the footer.
- Use a browser ad blocker if you prefer.
- Unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time using the link in every issue.
Ads help keep our country pages free to read for everyone. If you would rather not see them, the options above are all fine with us.
Contact us about advertising
For any question about our advertising or affiliate practices — or to explore a sponsorship, partnership, or affiliate relationship:
- Email ads@nationsatlas.com for advertising or sponsorship.
- Email hello@nationsatlas.com for partnership inquiries.
- Or write to us at the mailing address on our contact page.
The wider reference
Sister sites worth bookmarking
Questions about this page
Common questions readers ask about this policy.
Through display advertising (initially Ezoic, later Mediavine), travel affiliate links (Booking, GetYourGuide, Airalo, Wise, SafetyWing, Amazon and others), newsletter sponsorships, occasional clearly labelled sponsored content, and info products such as cultural guide ebooks. All are disclosed on this page.
Affiliate links are links where we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. Pages that contain affiliate links carry a short disclosure near the top. We only affiliate with services we would recommend without a commission, and our editorial rankings are not adjusted for commission rates.
No. We do not accept payment for editorial inclusion. A country cannot pay to be reviewed, a tourism board cannot pay for a favourable ranking, and a service cannot pay to appear in a best-for list. Editorial inclusion is decided editorially based on research and cultural reviewer feedback.
Sponsored content is clearly labelled at the top of the page as 'Sponsored by [sponsor name]'. Sponsors are named in the URL slug where practical, and outbound links to sponsor properties carry the standard rel='sponsored' attribute. Sponsored content still follows our editorial and cultural sensitivity policies — sponsors cannot suppress accurate coverage of downsides or human rights issues.
Yes. You can opt out of personalised advertising through our cookie banner and the Cookie preferences link in the footer, or use a browser ad blocker. Ads help keep our country pages free to read for everyone, but if you would rather not see them, the options above are fine with us.