Sponsor Terms

These plain-English terms cover sponsorships sold by SetAside Signal. Please read them before you buy.

SetAside Signal ("we", "us") sells sponsor placements in our daily email digest and on setasidesignal.net. By buying a sponsorship you agree to these terms. Questions: [email protected].

1. Shared sponsor spots

We offer a limited number of sponsor spots, currently 75, shared across the Founder's Plan, Monthly Plan and One-Month Promotion. Each active sponsorship uses one spot. When all spots are taken, new sponsors can join one shared waitlist. When a spot opens, we offer it to the waitlist in order, at the price in effect then, and the first person to accept gets it. Spot counts on our site are real.

2. Prices and the price scale

Prices are based on our subscriber count and are shown on our sponsor page. The scale sets the price for new sign-ups and restarts. Prices don't change for an active sponsorship except as described below.

3. Founder's Plan

The Founder's Plan is a 12-month term. You can prepay the full 12 months in one payment, or pay monthly for a 12-month term. The first 25 Founder's Plans and the next 25 are offered at special prices. Those prices are available only once and don't come back if a sponsor leaves.

Renewal. Founder's Plans renew automatically for another 12-month term unless you cancel before the term ends. As long as your plan keeps auto-renewing, you keep your original Founder's price. Auto-renewal is the only way to keep it.

Cancellation and lapses. You can turn off renewal at any time, and your plan will end when the current term ends. If you pay monthly and cancel before the 12-month term ends, you lose your Founder's price. There's no penalty and nothing more is owed: your placements run through the end of the month you've paid for. If you prepaid and cancel mid-year, there's no refund, and your ads keep running through the end of the year you paid for. If your plan lapses for any reason, including a failed payment we can't collect, the Founder's price is gone, and if you come back you pay the current rate on the scale.

4. Monthly Plan

The Monthly Plan is billed monthly and has a 2-month minimum term. When you sign up, you commit to the first 2 monthly payments, and your placements run for the full 2 months. If you cancel during the first 2 months, the remaining payments in the minimum term are still charged, your placements keep running through month 2, and the plan then ends instead of renewing. Cancelling also ends your rate lock, so if you come back later you pay the current rate on the scale. After the first 2 months, the plan renews month to month until you cancel. You can cancel at any time after that, and your placements run through the end of the month you've paid for. Your rate stays the same as long as your plan keeps renewing without a break. If you cancel and later restart, you pay the current rate on the scale.

5. One-Month Promotion

A One-Month Promotion is a single payment for one month of sponsorship. It doesn't renew and has no rate lock. A later purchase is priced at the current rate.

6. What every plan includes

Each plan includes labeled "Sponsored" placements in our daily digest and on our site, plus a "Featured" card on our website listing pages while active. If a day's issue gets crowded, we rotate placements across issues so each email carries only a few ads. We don't promise a specific number of opens, clicks or results.

7. Ad content standards

You're responsible for your ad and the claims in it. Ads must be truthful, lawful and relevant to small businesses and federal contracting. We don't accept ads that are misleading, imply government endorsement, or promote anything illegal. We may edit ads for length and format, and we may refuse or remove any ad. If we refuse an ad, we'll work with you on a suitable replacement.

7a. Your creative

You send us your ad creative (headline, text, link, images or GIFs, and any optional video or audio link) by email to [email protected]. You confirm that you own your creative or have every right needed to use it, including any trademarks, images, music and people shown, and that it doesn't infringe anyone else's rights. You give SetAside Signal a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to copy, resize, format and display your creative in our emails, on our website and in our archives, for the length of your sponsorship and in past issues. We may refuse creative or ask for changes. If we don't receive usable creative at least 3 business days before your first run, we may write a simple text ad based on your website so your placement can still run.

8. All sales are final

All purchases are final. We don't offer refunds, returns or credits for any plan once it's purchased. This applies to the Founder's Plan, Monthly Plan and One-Month Promotion.

No guaranteed results. We make no guarantee of opens, clicks, traffic, leads or business results. Being unhappy with how an ad performs isn't grounds for a refund.

Founder's Plan. Prepaid terms aren't refunded, in whole or in part, if you cancel early; your ads keep running through the end of the paid year. On monthly billing, cancelling early ends future payments and forfeits your Founder's price; past payments aren't refunded.

If we miss a placement. If we fail to run a placement you've paid for, we'll run it free in a later issue (a make-good). We don't give cash refunds for missed placements.

9. Our independence

Sponsors never affect which contract opportunities we list. SetAside Signal is not affiliated with the U.S. Government, SAM.gov, GSA or SBA.

10. Changes and contact

We may update these terms for future purchases and will post changes on this page. Payments are processed by Stripe. Contact SetAside Signal at [email protected].