A large ad network can survive a bad advertiser. A small one cannot. When the audience is a few thousand indie builders and the publishers are people you know by name, every questionable ad costs more than the impression is worth.

This is not a moral lecture. It is an operating constraint. Here are the rules we apply, and why.

No fake urgency

Countdown timers that reset, “only 3 spots left” on a product with unlimited seats, prices that are always about to increase. These work in the short term and rot the audience in the long term.

If there is a real deadline, say what it is and why it exists. If there is not, do not invent one.

Disclose sponsored placement

Readers deserve to know when they are looking at an ad. That does not make the ad less effective; it makes the publisher trustworthy.

For newsletter and native placements, the label should be visible without hovering, and it should say “sponsored” or “ad” — not a vague icon that requires interpretation.

Respect the publisher’s audience

A publisher decides what appears next to their work. That means:

  • No ads that break the page layout.
  • No auto-playing sound or video.
  • No pop-ups that hijack navigation.
  • No categories the publisher has explicitly excluded.

Good networks make this easy to enforce. Bad ones make publishers choose between revenue and their own site.

Be honest about the product

Ads that promise outcomes the product cannot deliver create refunds, churn and angry threads. At small scale, those threads are your reputation.

We reject campaigns that:

  • Claim guaranteed results.
  • Use fake testimonials or invented logos.
  • Hide the price until a sales call.
  • Pretend to be editorial content.

The bar is not “legally defensible”. It is “would we be comfortable if the reader was a friend”.

Take privacy seriously

Indie audiences are unusually aware of tracking. Respect that:

  • Collect the minimum data needed to report on a campaign.
  • Do not sell or share personal data.
  • Explain what is collected in a plain-language privacy policy.
  • Make it easy to ask for deletion.

Our privacy policy is written to be read, not skimmed by a lawyer. If something in it is unclear, that is a bug.

Reject the categories that erode trust

Some ad categories reliably damage the surrounding content: get-rich-quick schemes, crypto pumps, fake software cracks, predatory loans. The short-term revenue is not worth the long-term audience.

Publishers should be able to exclude categories, and advertisers should know the rules before they submit. Our advertising guidelines list what we accept and what we do not.

What this means for advertisers

Fewer places to cut corners, but a better environment for honest products. When the audience trusts the placement, a relevant ad performs better than a trick ever could.

What this means for publishers

You should never have to audit every ad manually. A network that enforces its own rules is worth more than one that pays slightly more per impression.

If that sounds like the kind of network you want to be part of, apply as a publisher or join the advertiser waitlist.