I've Become An Affiliate For A Journal I Freakin' Love
And I have a promise to make about responsible affiliate marketing.
**This installment contains affiliate links.**
I have some awesome news! I’ve become an affiliate for Baron Fig, my favorite journal-maker in the world. Still a bit giddy about it.
Now, I haven’t told y’all this yet, but I want to let you in on my writing process:
Every piece on here was handwritten in a journal before I put it into my computer. I write them all in a quiet room, with a journal open in front of me, my phone and computer banished to the kitchen. Is it the most efficient? No! Am I an efficient person? Also no! Do I think this produces the most authentic writing? Absolutely.
I’m picky as hell about journals. Baron Fig Makes my favorite (I wrote this post in one). Before I rant about how awesome they are, I have a promise to make you:
I will never recommend a product that I have not personally tested. I’ll never recommend a brand whose business practices make me uneasy. I’ll never sneak in affiliate links without letting you know first, and I will never ever recommend something that I don’t think can improve your life in the same way it’s improved mine.
Now let me tell you about something awesome.
My relationship with Baron Fig started in late 2019. I was asking around for gear donations before I shipped out for Peace Corps Nepal, and I needed a durable journal that would be able to withstand two years in a developing country. Researching what journal to take with me landed me on Baron Fig’s Kickstarter page from 2017.
In that campaign, they’d asked the world for $15,000. They ended up being funded for more than $160,000. That’s how fed up the world was with sub-par journals.
I reached out and told them my situation, and they were ecstatic. They donated more than $100 worth of their products to make sure I was covered.
They specifically gave me:
1) Two Confidant notebooks
2) A Squire Pen
From the get-go, I couldn’t believe how well-made the journals were. They give you the feeling that you’re holding something quality, made with intention in an era when things are made to break. The Confidant has a canvas-encased hardcover, a woven bookmark, twelve perforated tearaway pages at the end, and acid-free paper that’s thick enough to take fountain pen ink without bleeding through. If you’re looking for a journal, this is the best one I’ve found (and I’ve owned dozens in my life).
Baron Fig also plants a tree for every Confidant sold, and they don’t sell on Amazon. I feel good about supporting them, and their website is my favorite retail website in the world. It’s calming. It doesn’t put you in a frantic headspace by demanding that you buy everything RIGHT NOW.
The Squire pen is fantastic as well, but it’s definitely more of an indulgence. If you’re looking to spoil yourself and you’re sick of cheap plastic pens, you should absolutely pull the trigger on the Squire. I love mine. I take it camping and use it for all my writing when I’m traveling. It glides across the page like it’s weightless.
The only cons that the journal and pen have are these:
The journal doesn’t have a clasp or elastic strap to keep it closed, and the pen doesn’t have a hook or a clip to attach it to anything. They’re fantastic on the desktop, but not as awesome on the road unless you have something to keep them in. Their starter kit (one journal, one pen, one folio) fixes all this by giving you a perfectly sized zip folio to keep them both in:
This is my first-ever affiliate brand, and I want y’all to know that I reached out to them, not vice-versa. I sent them a thank you note for donating my Peace Corps supplies and asked if I could tell the world about how awesome they are. They invited me to join their affiliate program. I’m making a very small commission. I’m not going to get rich recommending their journals. I just want to share something that’s brought me joy and peace of mind!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed what you read and you know a fellow journal-nerd, please pass this along!
I hope you have an excellent rest of your week, and I’ll see you on Friday for the Friday Fun Flier!
Your skillful recommendation of this product is admirable and genuinely interesting to read. If only all affiliate recommendations were this considerately written! I’m glad this landed in my email inbox.