UPDATE: Today we announced a partnership with the advice service JustAnswer and, as you’ll see below, immediately got lots of push back from loyal readers. We hear you, and your cautions are taken to heart.

Here’s the story on the business deal. JustAnswer, as you’ll see if you click their widget visible on our Company pages, makes money by connecting people with questions to various types of experts, including lawyers, who hopefully can provide answers. We get a portion of the fee that questioners pay when they accept an expert’s answer. That’s the extent of the relationship. We probably should have said that we are *otherwise* unaffiliated with JustAnswer — a partnership, as many have pointed out, is a kind of affiliation. (The FAQs will be revised accordingly.)

For those of you who questioned why the post was unsigned, we use the consumerist.com byline for posts about organizational changes, PSAs, etc., like this.

Anyway, just wanted to say that we appreciate your feedback. We will continue to monitor your comments and emails during this beta period and your feedback will inform decisions about how The Consumerist handles this program and others. Hope that helps and please keep the comments coming! We are listening.

ORIGINAL POST:

Not sure what that odd clause in your new lease really means? Stumped by an employment law question? Tired of seeing sentences that end with question marks? We are too, so we’ve partnered with JustAnswer, a company that, for a fee, connects people with verified experts–lawyers, doctors, mechanics, and so on–for one-on-one answers.

For this beta period, you’ll find the JustAnswer widget in select locations on our site, including pages in our Company Directory. If you use the JustAnswer widget to ask a question, are happy with the expert answer you receive, and choose to pay for the service, then The Consumerist will get a portion of the revenue generated to help support our mission. We’re not affiliated with JustAnswer. We like what they do, and hope you do too.

If you’re not satisfied with your answer, then you don’t have to pay for it. As always, The Consumerist does not sell advertising–not to JustAnswer, not to anyone. We do not get ad impression money or click-through revenue for placing JustAnswer on our site. Again, if you choose to use, approve, and pay for their service, you’ll get access to the advice provided by their vetted experts and we’ll get a share of the revenue. It’s as simple as that.

To ask a question on JustAnswer, enter your question in the JustAnswer form and hit Submit.

Get all the answers about JustAnswer here.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.