This page offers a due explanation of how to add your website to the “Useful links” page, guest posts, as well as how to place your advert in the “Gremlin partners” section, that’s in the right sidebar of each page.
Table Of Contents (T.O.C.):
- Introduction
- “Useful links” page
2.1. How to add your site to the “Useful links” page?
2.2. Which criteria is used to decide whether a site gets added?
2.3. What if a link offer is declined? - Advertising – I/O Gremlin partners
3.1. How to place your advert on bikegremlin.com?
3.2. Criteria for advertisement acceptance - Guest posts
- Product reviews and presentations
- Sponsored articles and videos
6.1. Custom articles or videos - Contact form
1. Introduction
The Gremlin website was started and is driven by pure enthusiasm. The idea is to provide, on the Internet, in one place, a source of good and reliable information. This goes for all the website contents, including shared links in the “Useful links” page, as well as the adverts. Exceptions are:
- Google ads, placed in the right corner of pages, below the site navigation links – noted as “Google ad“. This way Google ads don’t interfere with site navigation (no ads in the middle of a post or blocking site navigation menus, loading between page loads etc.), but still help for paying domain, hosting and other costs possible, so this site can remain independent, secure and live.
- “Google chosen content” at the bottom of each page, where, apart from ads, selected pages from this site are shown, according to each individual user previous searches and interests. I believe this helps finding relevant content on the site.
2. “Useful links” page
“Useful links” page contains a list of websites that bikegremlin.com author considers very good and useful.
2.1. How to add your site to the “Useful links” page?
If your website offers relevant IT-related information, fill in the contact form in the bottom of this page, adding a link to your site in the “Message” field and an e-mail address of your website’s administrator. The website will be looked over and, if its content makes it a good source of information, the site’s link will be added to the “Useful links” page.
2.2. Which criteria is used to decide whether a site gets added?
- The website must contain information (or be about) IT-related subjects.
- Content must be unique and of good quality – there are many good sites, but only the best can be listed. For all the rest, there is Google.com.
- The website must not have any viruses.
I will review all the submitted sites and, as objectively as possible, decide whether they deserve a place in the “Useful links” page.
2.3. What if a link offer is declined?
Since this is not a search engine, most sites will not be added to the list. The main point of the links page is to get the most relevant from an ocean of information that Internet is. This doesn’t mean your site is not good, or even top quality, it just means that this site’s author thinks there are better sources for that kind of content. Please understand that having too many links in the section will make it practically useless, beating the whole point of it. Many great sites aren’t listed – only the ones that bikegremlin.com’s author considers the best, or unique enough.
When deciding I try to be as objective as possible, but I can’t promise to explain my decisions for every submitted site.
- You can and may add a link to io.bikegremlin.com on your website. However, this does not affect whether the site gets listed here – only your site’s quality and content matters.
- Do not offer money. Since useful links section is not an advert section and placing paid adverts would beat its purpose, I must respectfully decline such offers.
- If you change/improve your site’s content, please wait at least 6 months before reapplying. Re-application in a shorter time period will be automatically declined – unlike me, my computer is smart.
3. Advertising – I/O Gremlin partners
I/O Gremlin website offers the following ad placement spots:
Website has two separate versions:
- English – the one you are looking at now
- and Serbocroatian
Advert prices per month are:
- Top Banner – $1,200
- Square – $400
- Vertical – $500
- Google matched content (bottom) – $400
I accept wire transfers and Payoneer.
3.1. How to place your advert on bikegremlin.com?
If you have an IT related company, or product, you can arrange advertising by filling in the contact form at the bottom of this page.
- In the respective fields, enter the name and e-mail of the person with whom advertising is to be negotiated.
- In the “Message” field enter the company name, basic company info, and the company website if there is one.
3.2. Criteria for advertisement acceptance
This website supports IT and information security, and these are the conditions required for the advert of your company, or product to be placed here:
- Product/company must be related to IT.
- It must be something that I’d heartily recommend. That is products that I have used and been happy with, or companies that I’ve got good experience with, or are highly reputable.
I reserve the right to decide what content and adverts are placed on this site. If an advertising offer is respectfully declined, it is because I find the product/company not relevant enough to be advertised here. This does not have to mean that the product/company is bad, just that a site this specific won’t offer things that are not related to the content of the site. Offering more money won’t change that.
In case of a change/improvement of the product/company, it is worth trying again, but please don’t make same/similar offers every month.
4. Guest posts
Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions regarding guest posts:
- Can I send a guest post? Yes.
- Do you publish guest posts? Yes, gladly.
- How much does it cost to publish an article on I/O Gremlin? It’s free of charge.
However, it is important to note the following:
This site’s mission is not to sell stuff, promote companies, or “SEO“. You can read BikeGremlin project page to get an idea of my philosophy and the purpose of making this website.
For example, a post about “10 best hosting providers” is nice as a click bait, and for product promotion, but it doesn’t take too much effort, nor expertise to create. Internet is full of such articles.
If you read some of the articles on this website, then you could probably see that most of them are comprehensive and detailed. So, if you are an expert in a field, or have a really interesting (IT related) story to tell, I’ll be happy to publish your article.
In other words: I publish only good quality articles. Even more simply put: I don’t publish low quality “link building” posts for money. So, if you are (hiring) a “content writer” (i.e. a person who has to Google the topic they are supposed to write about) – don’t bother.
So far, on some articles, I have collaborated with experts from various fields, while some articles were completely written by other authors. In order to make a good quality article that is useful and helpful to novices, enthusiasts, or experts, I’m happy to help and cooperate – free of charge.
In order to avoid any misunderstanding, note this:
- The final decision whether an article you send will be published, or not, is up to me.
- I keep the right to edit an article – with consulting with the author, so in case the author doesn’t approve the edits, the article won’t be published (i.e. I won’t publish anything without a permission).
- Once an article is agreed upon to be published, it is in the ownership of I/O Gremlin (I don’t want to delete good quality articles if anyone changes their mind in a year, or two).
- Author can be credited however they choose: either anonymously, or by their name, or their company’s name.
- I can add a link to the author’s (chosen) website – provided it is of good quality and free of viruses etc. For managing the link, I follow Google’s rules and guidelines – briefly put:
links to your website will be marked as “sponsored,” but they will be do-follow links. - I will not add any author’s affiliate links.
- I intend to publish articles on many IT related topics. If your article isn’t published, it doesn’t mean I won’t publish one myself, in a month, or a year, on the same/similar topic. I don’t copy other people’s material, nor even article structure, but in case of any similarity/resemblance, it is accidental.
- In case I choose to not publish a guest post, I don’t oblige myself to explaining the reasons why. In my experience, such correspondences usually result in explaining to the author the topic they are writing about, or the techniques of good (enough) writing – for free. I don’t mind this, but I don’t have the time – really.
5. Product reviews and presentations
I’m happy to do reviews, or presentations of products, like tools, bicycles etc on my cycling-related website. On this IT-related website, I also write about web hosting and other IT-related products and services. 🙂
My conditions are the following:
- I will say (write) only what I really mean. I.e. I won’t say what I don’t mean.
Plainly: I won’t praise bad products, nor criticize good products. - I’ll make sure to note the important downsides that I notice.
Nothing is perfect, and I won’t pretend that it is.
A concession I’m willing to make is to not publish anything, if you aren’t happy with what I have to say. I’d still charge for the time and effort needed to test the product, but I just won’t be publishing an article or making any YouTube videos about my findings, if the company paying for the review decides that publishing such a review won’t be in their best interest.
Plainly put: the final decision on what I write, or show and say in a YouTube video is mine. But you can choose not to have it published if you aren’t happy with it.
I think this is fair. Why?
- My articles and videos will remain a reliable source of information for me (as a reminder), and anyone reading/watching them.
- Your interests are protected – you get the final word on whether my review of your product gets published, or not.
Video explaining BikeGremlin websites, YouTube channel, and advertising policy:
6. Sponsored articles and videos
If you wish, you could sponsor one, or several published articles. That means your company logo and a sponsored outbound link to your company’s website are placed near the start of the article and at the end – stating that the article is sponsored by your company (“brought to you by…” or similarly, as agreed).
Links to your website will be marked as “sponsored,” but they won’t be “no-follow” links (“SEO folks” always ask about these details).
The price is a one-time $ 2,000 fee, or $ 100 per month – per article.
BikeGremlin reserves the right to decline a sponsorship offer (I aim to keep a good quality of sites and companies I link to).
I accept bank wire transfers, and company payments to Payoneer (or direct Payoneer fund transfers if you use a personal Payoneer account).
6.1. Custom articles or videos
If you want me to write and publish a sponsored article, or make a sponsored YouTube video on a given topic, the price is $ 1,500 one-time fee. If you wish both an article and a video, the price is $ 2,500 one-time fee.
For deadlines shorter than 4 months, the price can be increased by up to $ 1,000, depending on the topic and the deadline. A high-quality article can easily take 80 work-hours in research and writing, and a one week deadline (for example) could mean I have to drop everything else to work on the content for you.
I accept wire transfers and Payoneer.
7. Contact form
To get in touch, simply write to this email:
my name (relja) @ this domain (bikegremlin.com)
– the address is given “strangely” like this, in order to reduce spam