What counts as sponsored
Any content published because someone paid or gave something of value for it: money, products, services or links in return. Sponsored articles and paid distribution are always sponsored. A guest article becomes sponsored if the publisher is paid to run it.
Labeling for readers
- Every sponsored placement carries a clear label such as "Sponsored", "Paid partnership" or the publisher's equivalent.
- The label is visible before or at the start of the content, not hidden at the end.
- Newsletter and social placements are labeled in the same way.
Qualifying paid links
Links in sponsored content are marked with rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow" where a publisher's system only supports that), as Google's guidance on qualifying outbound links asks. We check the live page before reporting a placement as delivered, and we ask publishers to correct missing labels or attributes.
We do not sell links intended to pass ranking signals, and we do not ask publishers to hide payments.
What we will not place
- Content that is false, misleading or makes claims the advertiser cannot support.
- Content promoting illegal products or services, or anything prohibited in the publisher's market.
- Fake reviews, testimonials or endorsements.
- Content on websites that exist mainly to sell placements.
- Content that the publisher's own guidelines do not allow.
Our own website
If our blog ever publishes sponsored content, the article will show a disclosure naming the sponsor at the top, and every external link in it will use rel="sponsored".
Reporting a problem
If you see a placement arranged through us that is not labeled correctly, tell us and we will fix it with the publisher.