Monetization Policy

Last updated: 2026-04-27

Current decision

Deferred

keepingupwith.ai is an automated AI-news digest. Monetization is deliberately deferred until the audience and quality bars below are met. Documenting the decision as a gate — rather than leaving it ambiguous — prevents ad-hoc revenue mechanisms from creeping in.

Note: No BI report is available yet, so current progress is shown as n/a for each mechanism. Once the source-attribution ETL ships, this page will surface live numbers.

Unlock thresholds

Each mechanism below has an explicit unlock threshold. When current BI data crosses a threshold, a monthly automated check opens a GitHub Issue — that issue is the gate. No code is activated automatically.

  1. Display ads

    Threshold
    10,000 monthly uniques
    Current progress
    n/a

    Display ads are unlocked once monthly uniques cross 10,000 AND Core Web Vitals stay ≥ 0.9 for 30 consecutive days. Ad networks below that audience size pay so little that the UX cost (layout shift, consent banner, slower TTI) outweighs the revenue. The CWV floor protects the reading experience even after unlock.

  2. Affiliate links

    Threshold
    100,000 monthly uniques
    Current progress
    n/a

    Affiliate-link revenue scales with click volume; below 100k monthly uniques the editorial cost of vetting affiliate offers (and the conflict-of-interest tax it puts on coverage) outweighs payout.

  3. Sponsor slots in the newsletter

    Threshold
    5,000 newsletter subscribers
    Current progress
    n/a

    A single newsletter sponsor slot at 5k subscribers clears enough to cover the newsletter tooling. Below that, sponsor acquisition cost exceeds revenue.

  4. Paid member tier

    Threshold
    300 qualified survey respondents
    Current progress
    n/a

    A paid member tier requires a survey-validated audience. The threshold is 300 readers who explicitly indicate willingness to pay; below that, retention math doesn't pencil out and the tier becomes a sunk-cost trap.

What we will never do

The following are explicit, one-way commitments. Removing any of them requires a documented spec change explaining why the prior commitment no longer holds.

  • Pop-up or modal advertising
  • Autoplay video ads (with or without sound)
  • Selling or sharing reader-level data with third parties
  • Cloaking content from AI bots in exchange for revenue
  • Background cryptocurrency mining
  • Tracking pixels for monetization attribution that aren't disclosed in the privacy policy

How this is enforced

  • CI gate: A blocklist scanner blocks PRs that add ad-network scripts or affiliate-link patterns unless the policy doc was modified in the same PR.
  • Runtime gate: Monetization code paths only execute when the MONETIZATION_ENABLED flag is set and this policy's status is approved.
  • Monthly threshold check: A scheduled GitHub Action opens an Issue (Monetization unlock triggered: …) the first time a mechanism's threshold is crossed by current BI data.