How OnTheList.Live works for screen owners

OnTheList.Live is self-serve advertising software. You open a board: a public page at an address like onthelist.live/your-board where local businesses pay to be listed. Every paid listing on a board is an ad, and the board says so at the top of the page: "Sponsored Board — paid ads. Unpaid entries are labeled."

If you have a screen in your venue, the board also has a screen view: a full-screen page you open in the screen's web browser, showing your top five spots. Businesses see their spot on your screen, and the people in your venue see the businesses that paid for one.

In our legal texts you are the host and the businesses are sponsors. On these pages we say screen owner and advertiser, but they mean the same people.

• You pay $49.99 once for host access. It is not a subscription and nothing is charged monthly.
• An advertiser pays the price of their spot, which is their bid, plus a service fee they see before they pay. Advertisers pay the service fee on top of the spot’s price.

The bid is yours. You keep every dollar a business pays for its spot. Card processing is added to what the business pays, at the standard US card rate.

OnTheList.Live earns the one-time setup and its own fee, which is part of the service fee advertisers see before they pay; the rest of the service fee pays Stripe for the card processing. The details are in Getting paid and in the Host Terms.

A spot is one business's listing on your board: its name, its message and a link to its website. A spot lasts for the rest of the current cycle. You choose the cycle when you create the board: a day, a week, a month, or a board that never starts over, where a spot lasts as long as its total keeps its place.

In words: a business pays the spot's price plus the service fee. On a board without approval its spot shows right away; with approval on, its card is held until you decide, charged only if you approve, and nothing is charged if you do not. On the board, spots are ranked by the total paid. A business that is passed moves down and can pay more to move back up. When the cycle ends, nothing renews.

There is no fixed number of spots. Every business that pays at least your starting price is listed (once you approve it, if approval is on), in order of what it has paid. When a cycle ends the board starts again from zero, and spots do not renew on their own. More in Prices and cycles.

By the total each business has paid in the current cycle, highest first, and by nothing else. A business that wants a higher place pays more, and what it adds goes on top of what it already paid. If two businesses have paid the same total, the one that reached it first stays ahead.

You cannot move a listing up or down, and neither can we. That is what makes the board honest to the people reading it: position is bought, and the page says so. The advertisers' side of this is in Ranking and outbids.

The screen view shows your top five paid spots as tiles, the first one largest. The first spot carries a QR code that opens the business's website; spots two to five show their website's address. Every tile shows the business's message, or the description from its website. Across the top: the board's name, a line saying these are paid ads, and, while the board takes bids, a QR code inviting any business watching to buy a spot of its own.

It updates by itself as businesses pay. Everything about setting it up is in The screen.

Yes. A new board starts with approval on: when a business buys a spot, its card is held, not charged, until you approve it. If you reject it, or never get to it, nothing is charged. You can also block whole websites from your board before anyone pays, and our own rules on what may be advertised apply to every board. See Approving advertisers.

No. The board's own page works without one: you can share its link and its share card wherever your customers or followers already are, and businesses buy spots from that page. The screen view is there for venues that have a screen people look at.

1. An email address and a card to pay the $49.99 host access fee.
2. To be 18 or older, and to accept the Host Terms.
3. A Stripe account for your payments. You set it up on Stripe's own pages during setup; Stripe asks for your business details, a tax ID and the bank account your money goes to.
4. If you want the screen view, a screen with a web browser.

The steps, in order, are in Setting up your screen.

No. Every payment for a spot is made on your own Stripe account, with you as the seller. The bid goes from the advertiser's card to your Stripe balance, and Stripe pays it out to your bank on its schedule. We cannot pause your payouts or move your money anywhere. With your authority under the Host Terms, we create each checkout on your account, capture or release a card hold, submit dispute evidence, and make the refunds the Refund Policy sets out, which Stripe pays from your balance. See Getting paid.

We do not promise traffic, advertisers or revenue; the Host Terms say so plainly. What the product gives you is the ways in: the QR code at the top of your screen that takes a business straight to buying a spot, your board's link and share card, and the public list of boards at /discover.

Yes. You can stop taking new bids on a board whenever you like. Its page stays up, the spots already paid for keep showing until the cycle ends, and nothing is refunded because you stopped. You can start taking bids again later. Closing your host account altogether is done by writing to us; the Host Terms explain how.