Advertising and paid content
The Prop Standard accepts a limited amount of paid content. This page sets out exactly how it is handled, because a reader judging our analysis of a named company is entitled to know what money can and cannot buy here.
What is never for sale
- Investigations. No company can commission one, appear in one by paying, alter a finding, or be left out of one.
- The quarterly State of Prop Trading report. Every figure in it is computed from the dataset, and no placement changes a number, adds a firm, or removes one.
- A conclusion. We do not sell a favourable verdict, a rating, or a position in a comparison.
- A followed link. Every link to a paying company carries rel="sponsored nofollow", without exception and regardless of what is offered for it.
- Silence. Coverage of a firm is not withdrawn, delayed or softened because that firm buys a placement elsewhere on the site.
How a paid placement is handled
Every paid piece is labelled above the headline
The label is the first thing on the page, before the title — not a line at the foot of the article. It names what was sold: paid content, produced with a partner, or an affiliate review.
The sponsor is named, and so is who controlled the copy
The disclosure beneath the headline names the company that paid and states whether they had approval over the final text. That is the honest difference between an advertisement and a piece of journalism, and a reader is entitled to it.
Sponsor links are never followed
Links to a paying company are marked rel="sponsored nofollow" so they pass no ranking signal. This is not negotiable and is applied automatically rather than left to an editor to remember.
Paid pieces stay out of the newsletter and the feeds
A paid placement does not appear in the RSS or Atom feeds, or in the "related" and "recommended" rails under an article. Those are places a reader arrives expecting our editorial judgement rather than someone else’s purchase.
Paid pieces remain indexed and in the sitemap
They are visible to search engines exactly as they are to readers. Hiding disclosed commercial content from search while showing it to people would be cloaking; the disclosure is the answer, not concealment.
We turn work down
We decline placements that cannot be made truthful, that require an unmarked link, or that would ask a reader to treat an advertisement as reporting.
Prices
We do not publish a rate card, and nothing on this site quotes a price for a placement. What a piece costs depends on its format and the work involved, so write to contact@thepropstandard.com and ask. Enquiries about corrections or editorial go to the same address and are handled separately from anything commercial.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy coverage in an investigation or the quarterly report?
No. Investigations and the State of Prop Trading report are never for sale — a company cannot pay to appear in one, to change a figure, or to be excluded. Paid placements are separate pieces, labelled as such above the headline.
What does a placement cost?
We do not publish a rate card. Pricing depends on the format and the work involved, so ask at contact@thepropstandard.com and you will get a straight answer.
Will a sponsor link help our SEO?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who says otherwise. Every link to a paying company carries rel="sponsored nofollow" so it passes no ranking signal. Buying followed links is against Google’s guidelines and puts the buyer at risk as much as the publisher.
Can we approve the copy?
On a paid placement, yes — and the page will say so, because the reader needs to know who controlled the text. On a piece produced with a partner, our editorial team keeps final say and the disclosure states that instead.
Do you take affiliate commission?
Some firms listed on Prop Firm Pal, our sister site, carry affiliate links, and that is how the network is funded. Where a review here carries such a link it is labelled as an affiliate review and the terms quoted come from the firm’s own documentation.
The standard the newsroom works to is in our editorial policy, ownership is set out on the about page, and mistakes are logged in corrections.