Buying a spot

Three things: the address of your business's website, an email address that receives mail, and a card. You must be 18 or older and buying for yourself or for a business you represent. Nothing to install and no account to create first.

The quickest way is the screen itself: its header shows a code that says "Scan to put your business here", and scanning it opens the board's buying page. You can also open a board's link that its owner shared, or browse the board directory. On a board's page, an empty place among the top five says "Put your business here", and every ranked spot has a button to take its place.

The buying page shows four numbered steps, then sends you to Stripe to pay:

1. Destination: the website your spot links to.
2. Amount: what you pay for the spot, with the service fee and the total shown beside it.
3. Your listing: optional words for your spot: a business name, a sentence about your business and up to two tags.
4. Confirm: your email address, two statements you tick, and an optional box for outbid emails.

Then Stripe's checkout page takes your card. You see the full total on our page before you leave it, and again on Stripe's page before you pay.

A website you own or are allowed to advertise. The address you type is tidied up so that http:// and https://, a leading www. and a trailing slash all count as the same website. You can type it with or without https://.

One website is one spot per cycle on a board. If the website already has a spot there, the page says so, and if the spot is yours it lets you ask for a new link to manage it: type the email address that holds the spot, and a link is mailed only if it matches. Some websites are refused before you pay: a website containing a term on our prohibited list, and a website the board's owner has blocked on their board. A refusal from a board's block list says only that the owner does not accept ads from that website.

The amount step starts at the board's minimum and moves in whole dollars. Some boards use a bigger step, such as $5, and then every total must be a multiple of it. A button prices the amount that would take the #1 place right now. The page also shows the place your amount would buy at this moment, marked as able to change, because other businesses can pay while you are paying.

Below the amount you see the service fee and the total. On a board where the owner approves each new website first, the total is labelled "Held on your card" instead of "Total today", because your card is only held until the owner approves. See prices and fees for advertisers and approval and card holds.

The "Your listing" step is optional. You can give:

• A business name, up to 60 characters. Your spot shows it instead of your website's own title. Leave it empty to use your website's title, or its address when we have not read one.
• Your logo, a PNG, JPEG or WebP at least 80 pixels on each side, up to 5 MB and 1280 × 1280 pixels: a larger file is fitted to size in your browser before it is sent. A phone's photo is usually larger than 1280 pixels, so export your logo at that size or smaller first. Its see-through edges are trimmed and it is shown in a circle, so leave room at its corners in its own background colour; a logo whose background stays see-through is then shown on a white or near-black plate, whichever it reads best on, in both the light and dark looks. The preview shows it as the board will. It travels with your checkout and is held, unchecked and shown to no one, until your payment completes; it is then checked, and if it passes it appears on your spot, usually within moments. If it does not pass, your spot shows your website's own image, or a placeholder, until you upload another from your sponsor account. If we cannot keep your logo at that moment, or cannot check it within a day, it is not used and your payment is unaffected: add it from your sponsor account.
• A sentence about your business, up to 100 characters. Prices and percentages are fine; put an offer's conditions first.
• Two tags, one of each kind: an offer tag such as "Offers a discount", "Special offer", "Bundle available" or "New customer offer", and an action tag such as "Book", "Order", "Shop" or "Get a quote". Picking an offer tag asks you to confirm the offer is available now on your website, with its conditions stated there. A board with no end date offers action tags only.

If the spot is already yours, a new payment keeps the name, sentence, tags and logo it shows; change them from your sponsor account.

None of the words may contain a web or email address, a phone number, wording about the fee, the language of contests or chance, or a claim of stars, scores or being top-rated. On a wider screen (640 pixels and up) the step shows a preview of your spot: your own logo, drawn from the file on your device, and your own words; until you add your own, your website's title, description and icon (or its social image), each image checked by our image scan first; and your spot's QR code, which in the preview opens the board. Once your own logo passes its check and you have written a sentence, your spot shows no title, description or image from your website (this preview still reads them when you open this step); our check of your website still reads its title and description for words our rules prohibit, and keeps none of their text. A phone held upright shows no preview and reads nothing from your website. We keep nothing from that preview. You can change all of it later. See managing your spot and rules for ads.

Before you can pay, you tick two boxes on our page. Neither is ticked for you:

• "I understand bids are final and my rank can change as others bid"
• "I am 18 or older and bidding on my own behalf or for a business I represent"

The page names the Terms of Service, the bid rules and the refund policy, with their versions, and links to each. A third box, for outbid emails, is optional.

You leave our page for Stripe's hosted checkout, in the screen owner's name: the screen owner is the seller, and their Stripe business name appears on the page and on your card statement. You enter your card there. We never see or store your card number. On a board whose owner collects sales tax, Stripe asks for your billing address and adds the tax before you confirm.

A checkout stays open for 30 minutes by default. Starting it does not reserve a place: places can change until your payment completes, and when it completes you get the place your total buys at that moment. The amount you are charged is fixed when you start: the amount you asked for plus the service fee shown beside it, and any sales tax Stripe adds from your address.

For about a minute after you start paying for a website that has no spot yet, a second checkout for the same website on that board is refused, so two people do not pay for one new spot by accident.

Then they hold that spot, and your payment is refunded automatically, everything except the card processing, with an email saying so. The same happens if your payment completes after the cycle has ended. See refunds for advertisers.

You get an email receipt with a link to your spot's own page. On a board without approval your spot shows on the board as soon as the payment completes. On a board with approval on, your card is held, and you get an email saying so, with a link to cancel; your spot shows once the owner approves.

Shortly after your first payment, we read your website's title, description and image to dress your spot, unless we read them in the day before or your spot already shows your own logo, passed by our check, and your own sentence. We also check your website then, and at least once a day while your spot is live: where it leads, and its title and description for words our rules prohibit. That check shows nothing on your spot and keeps none of your page's text: only when it ran and what it found (a word our rules prohibit, or the domain your website now leads to), for our team to review. Until then, a spot with no business name shows its website's address, and a placeholder stands in for an image that is missing or did not pass our image check.

Yes. Each board is separate: you buy, rank and manage a spot on each one on its own. A sponsor account, created with your first payment, lets you see all your spots in one list once you claim it.

Yes, if you are allowed to act for that business: the second statement you tick says you are buying on your own behalf or for a business you represent. The email address you pay with owns the spot, and only that address can raise it later, so use one you will keep reading.