How We Make Money
The short answer: right now, we don't. This site has no affiliate links, no sponsors, no ads, and no paid placements. We think trust is the product — so this page exists to tell you, in plain language, exactly how that will change if it ever does.
The promise
- No paid placement disguised as ranking. Nobody can pay to appear in our guides.
- No selling your parent's (or your) information. We don't collect it, and we will never sell leads or phone numbers.
- "Buy nothing" is always a valid recommendation. Our What to Buy guides include it on every page.
- Recommendations are independent of any payment. If we ever earn from a link, the recommendation was written before and without regard to the payment.
If we add affiliate links
The category is full of products where "affiliate" sites rank whatever pays best. We will not be one of them. If we add affiliate links, every affected page will carry a disclosure near the links, in plain language like this:
"We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page. That does not change our rankings or what we recommend."
And in addition to that, per our editorial policy: every commercial recommendation will still answer who it's for, who should skip it, the evidence, the tradeoffs, and whether buying nothing is reasonable. A commission never changes those answers.
What we might do later — and the order
- Product affiliates (simple remotes, call blocking, night lights, and similar) — only after the guides above them are genuinely useful on their own.
- Service referrals (senior move managers, home-modification contractors, junk removal) — only after a trust foundation, with providers ranked independently and any payment marked.
- Newsletter sponsorship — only with a real audience, clearly labeled, and never dictating coverage.
- Membership — only after repeated use is demonstrated; we will not launch a subscription because it sounds attractive.
- Display ads — deferred until meaningful traffic, and never on tool pages or safety-critical flows.
We will not sell leads, broker your parent's information to multiple providers, or route any payment through a system you can't see. If a revenue path ever starts hurting readers' trust, we will kill it — that's in our operating rules, not just our marketing.
Why we built it this way
This category is full of predatory lead generation, and the strongest long-term asset a site like this can have is trust. We'd rather be the site families save, share, and come back to than the one that monetizes a panic moment. The tools stay free and private — that's not a promotion, it's the product.