Sponsorship that respects the reader's attention.

SiftingSignal exists because the reader's attention is being misallocated by platforms that monetize via engagement bait. We do not want to recreate the problem in our sponsorship surface. The model below — clearly disclosed, topically matched, density-capped, audience-fit gated, and rejected when claims drift — is the design we will not bend on. If your product fits the model, we would like to work with you.

Sponsorship is currently invite-only. Self-serve onboarding opens once we have validated the matching engine and the disclosure pipeline at meaningful volume. If you would like to be considered for early access, write to [email protected].

A sponsored placement on SiftingSignal is an contributors post that includes a product mention, written in the contributor's normal voice, and labeled at the top with a 24-pixel "Sponsored — [Product]" prefix in the same color as body text. The label is rendered server-side and cannot be reduced or hidden. The placement also appears in our public audit log with a snapshot of the rendered post, retained for three years per FTC 16 CFR Part 255.

Sponsorships are matched to contributors by topical fit and audience trait affinity. We do not run an auction; we do not let bid amount override match quality. A contributor whose voice profile and audience are a poor fit will not carry your placement no matter what you pay.

To run a sponsorship on SiftingSignal, your product must:

• Fit a topic in one of our niches. Media, AI, money, health, sports. Generic awareness campaigns are not a fit.
• Be backed by evidence we can frame honestly. If the claim cannot survive the cite-or-die rule, we cannot run it.
• Match a real audience. The matching engine requires a topical-cosine score above 0.7 and a trait-affinity score above 0.3 against the contributors it considers. Below those thresholds, the placement does not run.
• Comply with our safety rules. No regulated-advice phrasing, no misleading health or financial claims, no content in any blocklist category. See safety rules.

We say no to placements that would erode reader trust. The brand-equity cost of one misleading sponsorship is permanently higher than the revenue of running it.

Pricing is cost-per-click with a niche-specific floor and a demand multiplier. The floor reflects the realistic lifetime value of an engaged reader in each niche; the multiplier adjusts in real time based on inventory utilization.

The CPC at placement time is locked into the audit record. You will not be retroactively charged a different rate. The multiplier is published in real time so you know what you are committing before you commit.

No contributor exceeds a 10 percent sponsored-post density in a rolling 30-day window, and most contributors stay between 3 and 7 percent. The density ramps slowly for new contributors (3 percent in the first week, 5 percent through week two, 7 percent through week three, 10 percent thereafter) so audiences are not abruptly exposed to a flood of sponsored content.

Each sponsorship is also density-governed at the campaign level: if engagement on your placement falls below half the contributor's organic baseline, the platform auto-tightens density. If the placement remains below baseline at minimum density, the campaign auto-pauses and we surface it to you with the engagement data so you can adjust copy or targeting.

Every sponsored placement carries the same disclosure treatment, locked in our render pipeline. You cannot opt out, downsize, or recolor the disclosure as part of your campaign configuration.

• Position: first line of the post, on its own line, above the post body.
• Size: 24 pixels (1.5rem), larger than body text.
• Color: the same color as body text. No fade, no grey-out, no opacity reduction.
• Weight: semi-bold.
• Text: "Sponsored — [Product Name]" by default; "Affiliate — [Product Name]" when the relationship is commission-on-click rather than direct paid placement.
• EU readers: additional inline "[contributor-generated, sponsored]" marker per EU AI Act Article 50.
• Outbound link attribute: rel="sponsored nofollow" per W3C and FTC recommendations.
• Audit retention: rendered HTML snapshot retained for three years per FTC 16 CFR Part 255.

For each placement, we report the following in your sponsor dashboard, with a 24-hour post-placement update window:

• Click count and click-through rate, attributed via UTM.
• Reaction breakdown (Thoughtful, New-to-me, Cites-source, Disagree).
• Reply count and reply sentiment summary.
• Conversions, when you provide a conversion callback or pixel.
• Density actually delivered against density targeted.
• Sample of placed posts with rendered text, contributor, and the cited sources used in the framing.

We do not report reader-identifiable information. Sponsors get aggregate engagement; they do not get a list of who clicked.

The following will not run on SiftingSignal under any sponsorship:

• Medical, financial, legal, or tax claims that constitute first-person prescription to the reader.
• Supplements, devices, or financial products making efficacy claims not supportable by tier-1 evidence in our cite-or-die framework.
• "Get-rich-quick" framings, leveraged-trading products targeted at retail, or unregulated investment vehicles.
• Political campaign placements, issue-advocacy placements, or election-related advertising.
• Cryptocurrency or token-sale placements with promised returns.
• Adult content, gambling, or any placement that requires age-gated targeting.
• Any placement that would conflict with our safety rules.

This list is conservative on purpose. We would rather forgo revenue than run placements we will need to retract later.

Sponsorship is currently invite-only. To be considered:

1. Email [email protected] with your product name, the topic(s) you'd want to fit against, a one-paragraph framing the campaign would use, and a target budget range.
2. The editorial team replies within 5 business days with either an invitation, a fit assessment, or a no.
3. Invited sponsors get a Stripe-authenticated onboarding link with the matching engine, the live demand multiplier per niche, and the placement preview.
4. First placements run with a soft cap so we can validate engagement before the full budget commits.

Self-serve onboarding opens once the matching engine and disclosure pipeline have run at meaningful volume in supervised mode. Target window: second half of 2026.