Hi aron82e,
[quote]I did not want to ask this question on the forum as I really appreciate the work you do and the information provided. I would like to ask if the companies you suggest on the forum do they give referral fee’s to you for business coming from the forum.
My intention is not to question motives but rather to understand if the companies recommended are done so solely on research or whether its a mixture of research and business arrangement.
Again the forum and the work you do is amazing I just know with the amount of time you spend working on the forum there HAS to be a monetary upside… and since there are no advertisements on the site it has to be some arrangement with the companies promoted.[/quote]
Your questions have been asked on many occasions … and so they should be from time to time 
The short version of the reply is in post #2 here. A longer version is in post #64 here and in post #37 here.
In addition to the first article on the front page of the site … you can read a little more about why I started the site in post #404 here and some of the history that led to it in post #4 here.
The site itself has always been transparent about the source of it’s income and it’s listed in the services link in the top menu (the one that says "how we survive)
There is also a “somewhat hidden” donation link and my comments about donations in the submenu link that I added because of many requests (see post #7 here)
There are currently 21 manufacturing or retail members of the site (and more on the way as soon as I finish some projects that I’ve been working on for a few months and need to be completed before I open up the site once again to new members). This is a very small percentage of the hundreds of manufacturers and retailers that are mentioned throughout the forum in various lists around the country but these members are the sole source of income for the site. I would guess that they represent about 10% or so of the mattresses that are purchased as a result of the information in the forum and on the site. in other words I point to value or even “possibilities” wherever I find it regardless of membership here.
One of the most important goals of the site has always been to be fact based and to promote full disclosure so that anyone can validate the information for themselves and not have to “just believe” anyone (including me).
Any project which has been a 12 - 16 hour a day project for over 2 years without a day off yet of course needs an income to survive and I’m grateful that the income is now at the point where basic survival is no longer an issue … even though it took some time (over 2 years) and the emotional and financial support of family members to get there.
So it was time once again for someone to ask the question and hopefully it’s been answered for you and others who may be curious. It’s nice to see that this time it was asked in a spirit of curiosity and a tone of respect instead of being part of a personal attack which has been the motive behind it on several previous occasions.
Phoenix