What does it mean to be non-commercial but have paid content?

GovTrack is a nonpartisan, noncommercial, independent website run by an everyday citizen in his spare time. (You can read more about the site here.) Since the site is labeled noncommercial, you may be wondering about the advertising on the site. I think the right way to look at it is this: I have no intention to ever manage the site with the goal of turning a profit, but if I can bring in some money all the same, without conflicting with the fundamental purpose of the site, then I should take advantage of that.

Currently the advertising on the site brings in more than the fixed costs of running the site, but it is certainly nothing to live off of. While for tax purposes it is personal income, I don't think of it that way. In my mind, it's earmarked for future expenses for this site, travel expenses for the government transparency conferences I attend, and other public service projects I may start in the future.

What paid content is on GovTrack?

The paid content consists of two parts:

Banner ads at the top: At the top of each page there is a banner of two text ads. These ads are through Google's AdSense advertising program. Google chooses the advertisers to place on this site by an automated process. GovTrack has no particular control over who is advertising in those slots.

'VA Mortgage' link on the front page of the site: On the front page of the site, at the bottom left, there is a link to a company called the VA Mortgage Center. The link has a dual purpose: On the one hand, it may attract GovTrack visitors to their site. On the other hand, it is to get traffic from search engines. Associations with "high quality" sites like GovTrak can help websites get more search engine traffic.

GovTrack has no other source of external funding and of course neither of these sources of revenue have any impact on any other portion of the site except the placement of the advertisements themselves.