LLMReviews itself as No. 1 · Research magazine ranking its own founder's products
Trellner Research and the eleven vendor sites it ranks first
The outfit that published the 215,128-page exposé of Gitnux and Worldmetrics turns out to share one server with eleven product sites that its own "surveys" rate highest.
- Confidence
- High
- First seen
- Sep 2026
- Updated
- 7 Nov 2026
- Operator
- Trellner Research (no legal entity or address). Products ranked first belong to Jakob Greenfeld, founder of Salience Strategy and Sales.co.
Follow the benefit
Who benefits from these pages?
- Salience Strategy / Sales.co No. 1First in Trellner’s “Best GEO Agencies 2026”. The page admits that Salience Strategy and Sales.co share a founder.Evidence in the record →
- CrossMention Rated highestRated highest in a Trellner “survey” of backlink exchange platforms. Trellner shares a server with CrossMention and the piece discloses no link between them.Evidence in the record →
Named because the pages promote or rank them. A benefit does not by itself establish payment or ownership. External website links are nofollow.
This is the date recorded in our research, not a verified launch date. A dated publication-pattern and product-claim audit has not yet been added to this record.
Supply evidence or challenge this record ↗Our assessment
A research magazine with a masthead of three names and no legal entity, whose reports keep finding that the founder's own products are "Rated Highest". It published a good exposé of one network while running a smaller version of the same trick. The about page admits the commercial interest in one sentence and then claims there is "no rate card for inclusion", which is true in the way that matters least.
In their own words
Trellner Research has a commercial interest in several products and datasets that appear in the magazine.
Source: trellner.com/about/
Evidence
- trellner.com, crossmention.com, nichementions.com, podcastplacer.com, sponsorhawk.com, fundingwatcher.com, journalistlabs.com, professionlens.com, exhibitorlens.com, installmap.com, podcastquery.com and saliencestrategy.com all resolved to the same IP address (216.24.57.1) and the same Namecheap nameservers on 7 November 2026.
- At least 22 "Ranked First" or "Rated Highest" reports between 2 September and 27 October 2026 crown ProfessionLens, Sales.co, PodcastPlacer, CrossMention, NicheMentions, SponsorHawk, FundingWatcher, JournalistLabs, Installmap, ExhibitorLens and Salience Strategy.
- "Best Backlink Exchange Platforms 2026: A Survey of 204 SEO Leads, CrossMention Rated Highest" (24 September 2026) has no byline and no disclosure of any relationship with CrossMention.
- "Best GEO Agencies 2026" (6 October 2026) ranks Salience Strategy first and admits that "Sales.co and Salience Strategy have the same founder" and that the Sales.co figures "were supplied by Salience Strategy".
- Report TR-2026-009 (2 September 2026), the Gitnux and Worldmetrics exposé, was submitted to Hacker News by the user jakobgreenfeld. Commenters there called trellner.com a "Claude-generated mystery research group website".
- The about page says "No subject company funds, commissions, or previews the work, and there is no rate card for inclusion" and, in the same breath, declares a commercial interest in FundingWatcher, Installmap, JournalistLabs, Podcastquery and ProfessionLens.
- Unverified: the three masthead names have no web footprint outside trellner.com.
Sources and further reading
- news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536375
- explainx.ai/blog/ai-recommendation-sources-manufactured-geo-farms-t...
- gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20260903-perplexity-source-behind-ai/
- trellner.com/reports/
Who benefits
Businesses that appear first on, or are promoted by, these pages. Where the page itself says the list is commissioned or paid, we say so. Where it is our reading of the facts, we say that too. These names also appear on the name and shame list.
| Business | Where | Position | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salience Strategy / Sales.co saliencestrategy.com/ | trellner.com/reports/best-geo-agency-2026-saliencestrategy/ | No. 1 | Same founder, disclosed on the page |
| CrossMention crossmention.com/ | trellner.com/reports/best-backlink-exchange-platforms-2026-crossmen... | Rated highest | Same server; commercial interest declared on the about page |
Automatic check of these domains
The same checker anyone can run from the front page, run on each domain in this listing. Scores are out of 100.
| Domain | Score | Verdict | Marks found |
|---|---|---|---|
| crossmention.com | 14 | Possible | Links to a partner or get-listed page; No company name anywhere on the page |
| nichementions.com | 14 | Unlikely | Links to a partner or get-listed page; No company name anywhere on the page |
| podcastplacer.com | 14 | Unlikely | Links to a partner or get-listed page; No company name anywhere on the page |
| saliencestrategy.com | 14 | Unlikely | Links to a partner or get-listed page; No company name anywhere on the page |
| sponsorhawk.com | 14 | Unlikely | Links to a partner or get-listed page; No company name anywhere on the page |
| exhibitorlens.com | 8 | Unlikely | Links to a partner or get-listed page |
| installmap.com | 8 | Unlikely | Links to a partner or get-listed page |
| professionlens.com | 8 | Unlikely | Links to a partner or get-listed page |
| journalistlabs.com | 6 | Unlikely | No company name anywhere on the page |
| podcastquery.com | 6 | Unlikely | No company name anywhere on the page |
| trellner.com | 6 | Possible | No company name anywhere on the page |
| fundingwatcher.com | 0 | Unlikely |
Right of reply
No reply has been received from the operator yet. Trellner Research (no legal entity or address). Products ranked first belong to Jakob Greenfeld, founder of Salience Strategy and Sales.co. is welcome to use the form below. Replies are published in full and unedited. The rules.