Most advertorials are published on the wrong sites: chosen by the authority figure, by price, or by whatever someone proposed. The result is a good article nobody from the right audience reads. This guide gives five criteria, in the order they matter, and explains what the catalogue figures mean, so you choose in five minutes rather than five emails.
1. The reader: who reads it, not how many
The first question is who needs to read the article for it to bring you anything. A patient in Timișoara, a purchasing director, a mother choosing a kindergarten, a tourist planning a holiday. The publication is chosen by that reader, not by traffic: 2,000 right readers a month beat 200,000 wrong ones. Every other criterion comes after.
2. The niche: the publication that reader actually reads
The catalogue is split into seventeen niches, and that is your first filter. The rule: the niche of the problem, not the niche of the company. A software company selling to clinics publishes on health, not technology; a window manufacturer publishes on home and construction, not business. News sites are the useful exception: they accept almost any subject, provided there is news in it, and are best for announcements, not explanations. Each niche page says what works there; see the niches and publications.
3. Domain authority: what it means and when to ignore it
Domain authority (DA) is an estimate, made by third-party tools on a scale of 0 to 100, of how likely a site's pages are to rank in search, calculated from the links it receives. In the catalogue it is written next to each publication. What it says: an article on a DA 40 site starts higher in search than one on a DA 10 site, for the same question. What it does not say: how many people read the site, whether they are your readers, whether the publication is serious. A site built for links can have DA 35 and zero readers.
How to use it: after choosing the niche, between two publications with comparable readers, pick the one with the higher DA. Do not use it as the first criterion. In our network DA runs from 10 to around 43, with most publications between 20 and 40; the figures by niche are in what an advertorial costs.
4. Label and verification: what you get after publication
A serious publication labels paid material (Romanian Law 363/2007 requires it) and gives you the article's address after publication. If someone offers "dofollow, unmarked links" at a low price, that is not an advantage: it is a risk for your site and a sign the publication has no readers to lose. In the catalogue the form of the label is declared by each publication, and the address is verified automatically after publication, as a logged-out visitor. Why it matters, in how to label an advertorial.
5. Price and turnaround: last, not first
Only at the end do you compare price, between the publications that passed the first four filters. In our network they all cost the same, 45 lei excluding VAT (roughly €10), whatever the DA, so price decides nothing between them; other owners' publications carry their own price, written alongside. The turnaround is written too: usually one to three working days, immediately where publishing is automatic. A high price for the same publication is an intermediary's margin, not quality; a 10-lei price is usually a site without readers.
How many publications to choose
For a local service: two or three, the local press plus one niche publication. For a national launch: five to ten, mostly from the product's niche, two or three news sites. For an article that has to rank in search: a single one, the best in the niche, with a text written for that question, instead of the same text on ten sites cancelling each other out. The general rule: fewer publications, well chosen, with adapted texts, beat many publications with the same text.
The mistakes that keep repeating
- Sorting the catalogue by DA and picking the top five. The top five are usually news sites; if you sell windows, your readers are not there.
- The same text on all of them. Identical pages compete with each other in search and the engine keeps a single one.
- Choosing what the seller proposes. Agencies propose the publications they have a margin on. The catalogue is neutral: all our publications cost the same.
- Ignoring the local press. For any service with a physical address, the town's publication beats the national site with twice the DA.
The checklist, in order
- Who needs to read the article?
- Which niche does that person read? Filter the catalogue.
- Among the remaining publications, which has the higher DA for comparable readers?
- Is the material labelled and do you get the verified address? In the catalogue, yes, always.
- Are price and turnaround written? Choose and submit.
What happens after you have chosen, step by step, is on advertorial publishing.
Frequently asked questions
What DA is "good" for an advertorial?
There is no threshold. Within the same niche and with comparable readers, higher is better; across niches the comparison is meaningless. A local site with DA 20 is the best choice for a restaurant in that town.
Is the publication's traffic written in the catalogue?
No, because no third-party traffic figure is reliable for small Romanian sites. We list DA, niche, turnaround and price, which are verifiable. For publications connected to Search Console you see, after publication, your article's impressions and clicks.
Can I see the full list of publications before paying?
Yes, inside the platform, after creating an account, no card needed. The public niche pages show the five most authoritative publications in each.
Do I choose different sites for a press release than for an advertorial?
The release goes on news and local press, where timing matters; the advertorial on the niche, where context matters. The criteria above are the same for both.