Makers are right to be suspicious of launch platforms. If you don't know how a platform makes money, you can't tell what's an honest ranking and what's a paid one. So here's how Hauntboard pays its bills, and the things you can't buy here at any price.
Free Launches Pay With a Badge
Launching is free. A free launch gets the same human review, the same week on the board, the same permanent page and the same public visit counts as any other. It goes into the next open week, with 20 free slots each week, and shows a small Hauntboard badge on the maker's homepage.
The badge links back to the board, which brings in the readers who send visits to every launch. That's how free launches pay their way. Our post on why free launches show a badge covers the details.
Paid Launches Buy Time and Place
There are two paid launches, both one-time payments with no subscription:
| Tier | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Launch Now | $19 | Pick your week (this week or one of the next four), review within 24 hours, no badge needed |
| Spotlight | $49 | Everything in Launch Now, pinned in the top row all week, clearly labelled Spotlight, a mention in the weekly X thread. Four per week. |
Both buy timing and placement. That's all they buy. A Spotlight launch sits in its own clearly labelled row, so readers always know which launches paid to be there.
Sponsors Buy a Labelled Card
Companies that want to reach makers can book a sponsor card in the homepage sidebar: one week ($49), two weeks ($89) or a month ($149). There are only three at a time, every card is reviewed by a person before it goes live, and a sponsor that isn't approved is refunded in full.
Sponsor cards are always labelled "Sponsored", and their links are marked as sponsored links, as search engines require for anything paid. They never appear in the launch list, and sponsors don't get a say in anything else on the board.
What Money Can't Buy
This is the part that matters most. On every tier, and for every sponsor:
- The link. Every approved launch gets the same dofollow link, free or paid. We never sell links, and paid launches don't get a better one.
- Approval. Paid launches are reviewed sooner, but against exactly the same checks, and they're refunded if they're turned down. Read how we review every launch.
- Votes or rank. Rank comes from votes, with ties going to the launch that sent more visits. Payment doesn't add votes or move anyone up the leaderboard. Spotlight changes where a launch is shown, not how it's ranked: Spotlight launches are ranked by votes like everyone else.
- Visits. Every visit we count is a real click to the maker's site, counted the same way for everyone. Nobody can pay to have a number changed. Here's exactly how we count.
- A maker story. Each week, the top three launches and one editor's pick are invited to tell their story. Stories are never sold, on any tier, and Spotlight launches are skipped when the top three are invited, so money can't buy one even indirectly.
Why These Lines
A launch board is only useful while readers trust it. The moment rankings, links or stories can be bought, readers stop trusting the board, they stop coming, and every launch on it, paid or free, gets fewer visits. Selling those things would be selling the very thing that makes a launch here worth anything.
So we keep the paid things narrow and visible: when you launch, which row you sit in, and a clearly labelled sponsor card. Everything that tells readers what's good, the ranking, the stories, the visit counts, stays out of reach of money.
Where Things Stand
Hauntboard is new, and it's run by one person. Today, most launches are free, and that's fine; the free tier is the heart of the board, not a funnel. Paid launches and sponsors exist so the board can keep running, keep reviewing every launch by hand and keep every number public.
If anything here changes, we'll say so in public, on this blog and on the pricing page. And if you ever see something on Hauntboard that looks like it was bought when it shouldn't have been, tell us. That's a bug, and we'll treat it like one.
See the plans on the pricing page, or just launch for free.