How we make money

Sponsored placement

A vendor can pay for a placement module. It appears above the organic table on chosen compound pages and on the vendor's own profile.

Every placement requires a signed written contract. No placement appears without one. The site's owner accepts or declines each contract. Ticking sponsorship interest on an application starts a contract discussion. It is never approved automatically.

Each placement carries this label every time it appears: "Sponsored · Paid placement · does not affect ranking or scores." The label is part of the module. A sponsored placement cannot be shown without it.

Sponsorship pays for a place in that module and nothing else. The organic table below it is ranked the same way whether a vendor sponsors or not.

Affiliate links

Some vendors offer an affiliate link or code. If a listed vendor does, the outbound button to that vendor may carry it. The disclosure sits next to the button, not only on this page: "Affiliate link. Commission does not affect ranking or scores."

Commission has zero weight. The sort reads the price a buyer pays, including any discount code we hold; the code is named only when you click out. It is not permitted to read commission rate or sponsor status.

Nothing else

Listing is free. There is no charge to apply, to claim a profile or to file a correction. There is no paid tier that changes a vendor's organic rank, scores, status or evidence badges. No other revenue line is permitted until this page lists it.

What payment does not change

Decisions on ranking, scores, status and corrections are reserved to the site's owner. Any evidence badge will be earned from documents. Sponsors and affiliates may not make these decisions. No vendor sees another vendor's data before it is published. Vendors will be able to respond to their record and dispute it, and corrections will leave an audit trail.

No payment, sponsorship or affiliate relationship changes any of these:

• Organic ranking
• Scores
• Vendor status
• Evidence badges
• The outcome of a correction
• Removal or editing of a record, or of another party's observation
• A view of other vendors' data before it is published

What each contract records

Every sponsorship contract must record these fields:

• The vendor
• The placements: named compound pages, or all
• Start date
• End date
• The disclosure text, fixed as the label above
• A reference to the signed agreement

Every sponsor on the same terms

These terms apply to every sponsor alike, including a vendor connected to this site's builder: the same feed requirements, freshness rules, corrections process and label.