The methodology
About Pressmark
Pressmark is a transparent directory of websites that accept sponsored articles and paid placements. It exists so that buyers can find opportunities directly, with real indicative pricing and honest freshness dates, and so that publishers can be found without giving a large cut to a marketplace.
What the register covers
Pressmark records placements of sponsored content, in five formats: sponsored articles (a paid piece written for or by the brand), product reviews (paid or prototype review placements, disclosed as such), link inserts (paid placement in existing content), newsletter placements (a paid slot or dedicated send to the publisher's list), and press releases (a supplied release published for a fee). Every price on the register is a per-placement rate for one of those formats.
Out of scope, deliberately: banner and display inventory, CPM or per-click campaigns, and print advertising. They are priced by impressions, not by the piece, and they run through ad networks and internal programmes whose rates are too variable and too opaque to be worth tracking. Aggregating those isn't our job. Sites that only sell those aren't listed, and a display rate is never shown as a placement price. Where a publisher hasn't published a sponsored-content rate, the entry says "Price not published" rather than borrowing a number from a different product.
How sites get listed
Listings are compiled from publicly available information and from publishers who list their own sites. Publishers can claim their listing free of charge, prove domain ownership, and keep their profile current. Every entry carries exactly one data-state label: Last checked (auto-compiled, with the date), Claimed (ownership confirmed), or Publisher-confirmed (the publisher has saved their own details, with the date). Featured marks paid promotion and is always disclosed. Inclusion is not an endorsement of any site.
What's free and what will be paid
Browsing, posting briefs and receiving offers are free, and we never take a cut of a placement. Claiming a listing is free.
Dealing with a publisher directly is free too, and we don't stand in the way of it: every entry links to the publisher's own website, and to their advertising page where we have found one, in the sources on that entry. You can always approach a publisher yourself without us, at no cost, whatever their listing costs them.
What a paid listing adds for a publisher is an enquiry route hosted here, so buyers can reach them through Pressmark rather than hunting for a contact form. That is a convenience we charge the publisher for, not a gate on the publisher's own details. The publisher options are described on the plans page; nothing is charged for today.
Link policy
Every outbound link on pressmark.org carries rel="nofollow", with no
exceptions and no paid path to a followed link. Links included or enhanced as part of paid
promotion are additionally marked rel="sponsored", because those are
compensated; links from free listings are not, because they aren't. We do not sell link
equity, and no link on Pressmark is sold as carrying ranking value: publishers pay for
visibility and contactability, and buyers get transparency.
Why that is good for publishers: a directory that sold followed links would be a link scheme, and being listed on one is a risk to your own rankings. Because nothing here passes ranking value, an entry on Pressmark can only ever help you: it puts your rates, guidelines and contact route in front of buyers who are looking, and that is the whole point. The placements you sell on your own site are yours to mark however you choose; our policy covers our links, not yours.
Linking the other way is welcome. Your Pressmark entry carries your rates, guidelines and a way to reach you, on a page that is checked and dated, so a link to it from your own advertising page, with whatever anchor text you choose, gives buyers a second place to find the same facts. Claimed publishers get a ready-made link and an optional badge under "Link to your entry" on their dashboard.
Removal
If you own a site listed here and want it removed, use the removal form. Verified requests are processed within 48 hours.