Sponsored Content Terms

1. Parties and scope. These Terms govern every sponsored article, newsletter placement or other paid content ("Placement") that Pondero (Jonathan and Heidi Hildebrandt, "we") publishes for a sponsor ("you") under an Insertion Order ("IO"). The IO states price, dates, links and add-ons; these Terms state everything else.
2. Editorial control. We write or edit every Placement in our house style and run it through our editorial, style and factual-claims checks. We may edit for accuracy, clarity, length and compliance. You get one round of factual corrections before publication. We do not publish content we consider misleading, off-topic for our readers, or in a prohibited category (gambling, adult, crypto tokens, consumer lending, unverifiable health or regulated claims, political content).
3. Labeling and links. Every Placement is labeled "Sponsored" and names you. Every external link in a Placement carries rel="sponsored nofollow noopener". We do not sell unlabeled content, link insertions into existing articles, or changes to reviews, ratings or recommendations. These points are not negotiable and an IO cannot override them.
4. No performance guarantees. We do not guarantee search-engine indexing, ranking, traffic, clicks, leads or sales. Reporting at day 30 is informational.
5. Live period. A Placement stays live for 12 months from publication. After that, you may renew for the fee on the rate card; otherwise we may remove sponsor links and may keep the article as an archive page without them.
6. Payment. New sponsors pay 100% on signature; nothing is scheduled until payment clears. Repeat sponsors may be offered net-15 by agreement. Prices exclude any taxes you are required to pay. Late payment on net terms accrues 1.5% per month.
7. Refunds and make-goods. If we decline your content before publication, we refund in full. After publication there are no refunds. If a Placement is unavailable through our fault for more than 72 consecutive hours during the live period, we extend the live period by the outage or provide an equivalent placement; that is the sole remedy.
8. Withdrawal. We may unpublish or edit a Placement at any time if it becomes inaccurate or misleading, if you become involved in conduct that would embarrass our readers, or if the Placement draws a search-engine or platform action against pondero.ai. Within the first 90 days after publication we refund pro rata for the unused live period; after that, no refund.
9. Your warranties. You own or are licensed to use all material you supply; your claims are truthful and substantiated; your product and site comply with applicable law; nothing you supply infringes third-party rights. You indemnify us against claims arising from material or claims you supplied.
10. Rights. We own the article we write. You receive a non-exclusive license to share the live URL and to quote up to 150 words with attribution. Material you supply remains yours, licensed to us for the Placement and our archive.
11. Disclosure law. Placements are disclosed in accordance with FTC guidance and equivalent rules. You will not ask us to remove or weaken a disclosure.
12. Exclusivity. Only if purchased on the IO, and only for the category and period stated.
13. Cancellation. You may cancel in writing before we start work for a full refund, or before publication for a refund less $100 editing fee if we have already edited or written. We may cancel at any time before publication with a full refund.
14. Liability. Our total liability under an IO is the amount you paid for it. Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss.
15. General. These Terms and the IO are the whole agreement. We may update these Terms for future IOs by posting a new version; the version dated at your signature governs your IO. Governing law and venue: the state and county of our principal place of business in the United States. Contact: [email protected].

Questions: [email protected]. Rates and what is included are on the Advertise page.