How We Make Money

Last updated April 2026 · By Nick Hall, USA Gun Shop founder

USA Gun Shop is a free editorial site that earns revenue primarily through affiliate partnerships with firearms retailers. This page documents how the revenue model actually works, who pays us, what they pay us for, and how the financial relationships affect (and don’t affect) our editorial decisions. We disclose this in detail because YMYL editorial deserves transparency about the financial pressures the publication operates under.

Where Our Revenue Comes From

USA Gun Shop’s revenue comes from four primary streams, in approximate order of contribution to the total:

• Affiliate commission on retail sales (~70-80% of revenue). When a reader clicks an affiliate link on USA Gun Shop and completes a purchase at a partner retailer, we earn a commission. The commission is paid by the retailer, not by the buyer; the price the buyer pays is the same as if they had visited the retailer directly. Major partner networks include AvantLink (Brownells, Optics Planet, Cabela’s, Bass Pro, Mossy Oak, Cheaper Than Dirt, etc.) and ShareASale (specialty optics retailers like EuroOptic).
• Display advertising (~10-15% of revenue). Site-wide display ads served by Google AdSense and Mediavine. We control which categories of advertisers can show ads on our site (we exclude political ads, payday loan ads, and certain other categories) but do not control which specific advertisers appear in any given session.
• Sponsored content (~5% of revenue, occasional). Occasionally we publish sponsored content from a manufacturer or retailer. Sponsored content is clearly marked with a “Sponsored” label at the top of the article, includes the sponsor’s name in the byline, and is editorially separated from our regular reviews and guides. We don’t accept sponsorship from political organizations.
• Product reviews on retainer (~5%, rare). A small number of manufacturers retain us for ongoing product testing and review. The retainer covers the testing time and range costs, not editorial conclusions. The retained-review relationship is disclosed on every applicable article.

The Affiliate Model in Detail

Affiliate partnerships are how most independent firearms-content sites are funded. Here’s how ours works:

1. You read an article on USA Gun Shop. The article includes affiliate links to retailers carrying products mentioned in the article (a gun review links to retailers selling the gun, an ammo guide links to retailers selling the ammunition, etc.).
2. You click an affiliate link. Your click is tracked through the affiliate network (AvantLink, ShareASale, etc.) which sets a cookie on your browser identifying USA Gun Shop as the referring publisher.
3. You complete a purchase. If you purchase the product (or any product, depending on the network rules) within the cookie window (typically 30-60 days), the affiliate network credits USA Gun Shop with the referral.
4. The retailer pays the affiliate network. The retailer pays a commission percentage (typically 3-10% depending on the product category and retailer) to the affiliate network.
5. The affiliate network pays us. After the network’s cut and any chargebacks/returns, we receive the residual commission, typically 30-60 days after the transaction.

You pay the same price whether you click our affiliate link or visit the retailer directly. The commission comes out of the retailer’s margin, not the buyer’s pocket. If you don’t want to support USA Gun Shop through an affiliate purchase, you can visit the retailer directly without using our links and the retailer’s pricing will be identical.

Editorial Independence from the Affiliate Stream

The affiliate model creates an obvious potential conflict: we earn more money when we recommend products that pay higher commissions or that more readers actually buy. We’ve built editorial firewalls to keep this pressure from corrupting the editorial product:

• Reviews are written before commission rates are factored in. Our gun reviews and ammo guides are written based on the testing protocol documented in How We Test and Review Gear. Affiliate-link insertion happens after the editorial work is complete; commission rates do not influence the score.
• Negative findings are published. When testing reveals reliability issues, accuracy problems, or value gaps, we publish those findings even when the product would otherwise generate strong affiliate revenue. Our archive includes plenty of “skip this” recommendations.
• State-law guides have no affiliate-revenue dependency. Our 50-state gun-law index, federal-law explainers, and reference content carry minimal affiliate links because the topical context doesn’t support them. We publish this content because it’s the foundation of the site’s value, not because it generates revenue.
• We decline affiliate partnerships when they conflict with editorial values. We don’t link to retailers that have demonstrated bad-faith customer behavior. We don’t partner with manufacturers whose specs we can’t verify or whose products fail our testing.
• The fact-check process is funded as overhead, not affiliate-conditional. Our fact-checking and corrections processes operate regardless of which articles generate revenue. A correction to a low-revenue state-law guide gets the same priority as a correction to a high-revenue product comparison.

Specific Affiliate Networks We Work With

We work with a small number of established affiliate networks and direct programs. Our primary partners:

• AvantLink. The dominant firearms-industry affiliate network. Most of our retailer links route through AvantLink. Partners include Brownells, Optics Planet, Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, Mossy Oak, Cheaper Than Dirt, and many specialty firearms retailers.
• ShareASale. Used for select specialty retailers, including EuroOptic for high-end optics.
• Direct partner programs. A handful of manufacturers and retailers run direct affiliate programs (rather than going through a network). These are disclosed individually when applicable.

All affiliate links on USA Gun Shop are properly tagged with rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" and target="_blank" per current FTC Disclosure Guidelines (16 CFR Part 255) and Google Webmaster guidelines. The nofollow attribute signals to search engines that the link is commercial in nature, which keeps our editorial PageRank cleanly separated from our affiliate-revenue activity.

What We Don’t Take Money For

To preserve editorial independence, we decline several common revenue opportunities:

• Paid review-score modification. No manufacturer, no retailer, and no advertiser can pay us to raise (or lower) a review score. This is a hard line.
• Predetermined-conclusion sponsored content. We don’t accept sponsorship for editorial that requires a specific conclusion. If a manufacturer wants to sponsor our coverage of their product, they accept that we’ll publish whatever the testing supports.
• “Native advertising” disguised as editorial. Sponsored content is always clearly labeled. We don’t blur the editorial/advertising line.
• Political advertising or political affiliate revenue. We don’t accept political ads, don’t link to political-fundraising affiliate programs, and don’t cover political campaigns directly. Our coverage of legislation focuses on what the law actually says and does, not on partisan advocacy.
• Pay-to-include directory listings. Our store-by-state directory and FFL guides include retailers based on editorial criteria (operational status, customer reviews, product breadth). Retailers cannot pay to be listed or to be ranked higher.
• Reader data sales. We don’t sell or share reader email addresses, browsing history, or any other reader data with third parties beyond the standard analytics and affiliate-tracking documented in our Privacy Policy.

Operating Costs

The revenue funds the actual costs of running USA Gun Shop. Major cost categories:

• Editorial salaries. The largest cost. Nick Hall and the contributor team are compensated for their writing, testing, and editorial work.
• Range time and ammunition. Hands-on gun reviews and ammunition guides require live-fire testing. Range fees and ammunition costs are real and substantial.
• Test firearms. Most firearms we review are retail-purchased. Some are short-term loans from manufacturers; loans are disclosed in the review byline.
• Hosting and technology. Web hosting (Rocket.net), CDN (Cloudflare via Rocket.net), email service, monitoring, and similar infrastructure.
• Legal and editorial review. External legal review of YMYL content where appropriate. Insurance.
• Software tools and subscriptions. Editorial workflow tools, fact-check databases, hosting plugins, security scanning.

Reach Us

Affiliate or sponsorship inquiries: Contact USA Gun Shop. Editorial questions, including any concern about the editorial-affiliate relationship, are also welcome at the same email and treated as priority. For our broader transparency framework, see Why Trust USA Gun Shop, Editorial Policy, and Affiliate Disclosure.