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Advertising and sponsors policy

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We’ve created this document to best outline the policies we enforce for Ads control and sponsored post based article, from the effective date mentioned below. This document will be updated regularly in line with the changing trends in the advertising on the web.

Effective date: Jan 4th 2023

What is a Display banner advertisement?
A Banner advertising consists of an image (dynamic / static in nature), text, html5 embed, flash or audio file created to promote a service or a product by an advertiser. It occupies a prominent placement on the website, so that it attracts visitors directly. Advertisements are paid for by the advertisers, mainly consisting of people / companies to promote their product.

What is an Advertorial / Sponsored post?
Advertorial is an elaborate original piece of content (a post) written specifically to promote a product / service. Informing readers about the product highlighting the possible use cases and features of the product / service. Sponsored posts are paid for as well.

What is a Guest Post?
Guest columns / guest posts are a great way for experts to share their ideas, views and expertise with our audience. An outside perspective can definitely help our audience with valuable insights that the guest posters offer. We do not take any or pay for any guest posts. You can read about it here: http://startupdope.com/guest-posts-guidelines/

What are Press Releases?
Press Releases are articles or news stories published on behalf of a company, to announce a new product or some important news like acquisitions, mergers and other important announcements. press releases are written by Public Relation officials or Spokesperson of a company and are then sent to Startup Dope. Startup Dope also displays press releases from distribution services like BusinessWire and PRNEWSWIRE. In house Press Releases are mostly not charged.

Why do we employ advertising / sponsored posts?
Revenue is a part of any business, a lack of which would hamper the growth of it. We are an independent media company that does it’s best to cover Startups, cutting-edge technology news through different mediums. We constantly try to experiment and innovate ways to reach our audience and offer insights / stories that would trigger a positive change or make you re-think your growth and expansion strategy.

In a sentence, Advertising and sponsored posts revenue keeps the site running. But having said that, we do our best to keep your experience seamless and less intrusive. You, the reader, our sole reason we exist in the first place. We respect that and we accept advertising that benefit you.

How do we handle advertising on Startup Dope and it’s subsidiaries?
We’ve always believed that our readers should be clearly informed about the sponsored posts. So far, we’ve had a separate category called “Press Releases”, where all the advertorial was clubbed together and published. That category will remain the same for Press Releases alone. Additionally, we’ll add a separate category or label in the post that it was a sponsored post. As always, we’ve left the best judgement to our readers to make informed decision before buying any product that is published in the Press release section or Sponsored post category of the site.

Here are a few amendments we’ve made by the new policy.

  1. Confirming to the American Federal Trade Commission’s Sponsored Content guidelines (Read about it here) , we’ve always made sure we placed the Sponsored posts and advertorial were published under the Press Release category. Going forward, Sponsored content / advertorial will be published under Sponsored Post / Sponsored category. In addition to that, we will append a machine readable sentence “This is a sponsored post by %company name%” originally published on Startup Dope.
  2. Advertisements Banners, link ad units etc will be clearly mentioned as advertisements.
  3. We do not accept posts that are SEO optimized for improving traffic to the destination sites.
  4. We accept original posts that are informative written from a perspective that it benefits our readers.
  5. The Content shouldn’t be published anywhere, not even on your own blog.
  6. We accept sponsored posts that are inline with what Startup Dope covers, primarily Startups, technology, growth hacking, etc.
  7. Each post will be thoroughly reviewed by our Advertising & Editorial staff for any discrepancies before approving your advertisement / sponsored posts.
  8. Any new service we introduce under Startup Dope or its subsidiaries, these guidelines stand good.
  9. Please make sure that your content doesn’t violate our Ad and Sponsored posts guidelines.

Few things to remember:

  1. Advertisers are required to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. Failure to comply may result in a variety of consequences, including the cancellation of ads you have placed and termination of your account.
  2. We do not collect or use sensitive personal data for ad targeting. The General niche of the blog is business / technology and our ads reflect that. When people find the ad useful, they would be interested in buying the product.
  3. Advertisers who are managing accounts for their clients, should clearly mention that they are doing so. You are responsible for ensuring that each advertiser / client complies with our Advertising Policies.
  4. We reserve the right to reject, approve or remove any ad for any reason, in our sole discretion, including ads that negatively affect our relationship with our users or that promote content, services, or activities, contrary to our competitive position, interests, or advertising and sponsorship philosophy.
  5. Categories such as I made money online schemes, Multi-Level-Marketing, tobacco, alcohol, adult content, gambling, supplements etc are not allowed. If you have a category that may be viewed as controversial, please get in touch with sales@startupdope.com to discuss about it with our advertorial team. They will be able to help you.
  6. These policies are subject to change at any time without notice.

For any other query, please get in touch with the advertorial department: sales@startupdope.com