How we make money

Every dollar we make is walled off from two things: where a vendor lands in the directory, and what a review says. You cannot pay to rank higher in search results, to land on a bid list, or to change a rating. Paid placement is always a separately labeled slot. Editorial rank is always on merit. The RFP hub and the reviews system are not for sale at any price. In an industry this small, the day that stops being true is the day the platform stops being worth using.

Here is the honest list. It will grow and change as the platform grows. The rule above will not.

• Data and API access. We have spent years building the most complete public-record map of community associations in the country. Businesses that want that data pay for it, through a developer API sold in usage tiers and through bulk data licensing for commercial use. This is the public record and our own directory data, sold to companies. It is walled off from what any board, manager, or vendor sees on the platform, and it never touches directory rank, bid lists, or reviews.
• Sponsored directory listings. A vendor can pay for a labeled, featured spot in the directory. It is marked as sponsored, on the same screen, every time. It does not move them up the organic results, and it does not put them on anyone’s bid list.
• Affiliate links. Some of our buyer guides link to products at retailers like Amazon or B&H. If you buy through one, we may earn a small commission. It never changes the price you pay or which product we recommend, and every page that has them says so at the top.
• Referrals and lead-gen. On some pages we help you find an insurance agency, a lender, or a management company, and we may be paid a referral or lead fee for the introduction. Those surfaces are labeled, and they sit apart from the neutral directory and the RFP hub.

• Where a vendor ranks in the organic directory results.
• A spot on an RFP bid list, or the order proposals show up in.
• The outcome or the score of a review.
• Which vendor or product we recommend in a guide.

An affiliate link is a normal link with a tag on it that tells the retailer we sent you. If you buy, they pay us a small cut of their margin. You pay the same price either way. We only point to gear we would tell a board to buy, and we say what to skip. If a product is on the list, it earned the spot, not the commission.

Our software reviews are independent. No vendor pays us to be reviewed, and no vendor sees or approves a review before it runs. We review the tools boards and managers actually use because a good buyer’s guide helps you no matter what you end up choosing. Common Elements is not one of these tools and is not a replacement for them. We stick to facts you can verify, we date them, and we tell you to confirm current pricing and features with the vendor before you sign anything.

Our about page makes a promise: if we ever start selling rankings, we change that page first. Same promise here. This is the current, honest description of how we earn. When it changes, it changes on this page before it changes anywhere else. Questions go to hello@commonelements.com.