# BidSurvivor

> A live ad auction with a clock on it — also described as a time-boxed ad
> auction, an ad slot auction, or bidding on ad space; all four name the same
> thing. The board is two tiles, one for
> each half of the UTC day. Whoever holds a tile owns the front of the page for
> those twelve hours — logo, name, one line, and a direct link to their own
> site. Then the slot ends and it belongs to somebody else.

## The rules, exactly

- The board is 2 slots, each twelve hours of the UTC day: 00:00-12:00 and
  12:00-24:00 UTC. There are two places a day, not twenty-four.
- The first brand into an empty slot pays nothing. Not a trial or a discount: an
  empty slot has no standing bid to beat, so any amount takes it, zero included.
- To take an occupied slot you must beat its standing bid. You are charged
  immediately and your logo replaces theirs. The floor is $1.00 USD and the
  ceiling is $5,000 — no bid can exceed it.
- If you fail to beat it you are charged nothing. The card authorisation is
  released.
- If somebody outbids you later, you lose the slot AND the money. There is no
  refund. You paid for the time you held, and you held it.
- Whoever holds a slot when it ends keeps it permanently. Nobody can buy history.
- Winning also keeps you on the Hall of Survivors — three rolling boards showing
  the biggest bids of the last 7 days, 30 days and a year, ranked and
  filterable by category. They hold up to 100 names, but a
  period cannot list more slots than it contains: 14 for the
  7 days, 60 for the 30 days, 100 for
  the year. A brand that takes the lead on a live slot appears there the
  moment it bids.
- Slots can be booked up to 7 days ahead.
- Every visitor starts with $100 of house credit — before signing up, no card
  and no account. Bids inside it cost nothing; credit is spent only by a bid
  that actually wins. It lives in the browser until you sign up, which is what
  makes it follow you instead.
- The code WELCOME10 adds a further $10 to a verified account, once, on top of
  that grant — so a new account redeeming it has $110 to bid with. It is entered
  under "Your bids" in the site menu.
- There is no subscription, no minimum spend and no contract.
- Currency is USD throughout.

## What is published

Visitor counts, card opens, click-throughs and the open-to-click rate are
published live on the front page (https://bidsurvivor.space/), and each brand's own counts are on
its page (https://bidsurvivor.space/b/<id>). "Opens" means a card was opened;
"visits" means somebody actually left for the brand's own site. They are counted
and shown separately because only the second is worth anything to an advertiser.

## Pages

- [The board](https://bidsurvivor.space/): the live auction, both slots of today
- [About](https://bidsurvivor.space/about): what this is and who runs it
- [Pricing and rules](https://bidsurvivor.space/faq): the questions people actually ask
- [Privacy](https://bidsurvivor.space/privacy): what is stored, who receives it, how to delete it
- [Brands on the board](https://bidsurvivor.space/b.md): every brand that has held or contested a
  slot, by category, with what each placement delivered. Each has a page of its
  own at https://bidsurvivor.space/b/<id> and a markdown twin at https://bidsurvivor.space/b/<id>.md showing what it
  paid, its card opens and click-throughs, and who it took the slot from. A
  brand marked "placed free" was put there by us and has never bid.
- [AI crawler log](https://bidsurvivor.space/reports/crawlers): server-log data, published daily —
  which crawlers actually fetched a page here, how many times, and what share
  took the .md twin rather than the HTML. Not sampled, not estimated.
- [Ad price index](https://bidsurvivor.space/price-index): what a twelve-hour slot actually sold
  for, week by week, next to published per-click rates for Google, Meta,
  display and newsletter sponsorship. Settled prices, not rate cards; a week
  with too few bids to have a middle says so instead of quoting one.
- [Tools](https://bidsurvivor.space/tools): two free calculators — what an ad budget buys and
  whether it buys enough to prove anything, and which of your backlinks have
  ever sent a real visitor. No account, no paid crawl data.
- [Contact](https://bidsurvivor.space/contact): cyber.breach.space@gmail.com
- [Blog](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog): essays with checkable sources. Every article is
  also plain markdown — add .md to any URL, e.g. https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/how-bidsurvivor-works.md,
  or https://bidsurvivor.space/blog.md for the index.

## Writing

- [How many times can the same people see your ad?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/ad-fatigue-in-a-small-audience): Frequency caps assume an audience big enough to rotate through. What happens when yours is not, how to tell fatigue from a bad message, and what to fix first.
- [What does it actually cost to sponsor a small podcast?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/podcast-sponsorship-on-a-small-budget): Real rate ranges for shows under 5,000 downloads, why CPM is the wrong unit here, the attribution problem nobody solves, and how to test one for under $200.
- [Should a domain nobody has heard of buy traffic or earn it?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/seo-vs-ads-on-a-new-domain): A new domain cannot rank for months and cannot afford to wait. What the sandbox period really is, what each channel costs in weeks, and the order that works.
- [How do you know which channel worked when you are the whole team?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/marketing-attribution-for-one-person): Attribution models were built for companies with analysts. What a one-person team can measure, the two questions worth answering, and what to stop tracking.
- [Your ad was seen 40,000 times. Was it?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-an-ad-impression-actually-counts): An ad impression is a delivery receipt, not a pair of eyes. What the viewability standard requires, why the gap matters at small budgets, and what to check.
- [Is retargeting worth it when only 300 people visited?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/retargeting-with-a-small-audience): Why retargeting stops working below a few thousand monthly visitors, what platforms will not tell you about minimum audience sizes, and what to run instead.
- [How should you price a slot nobody has bought before?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-an-ad-slot-is-worth-to-a-buyer): What a placement is worth before anyone has paid for one, why sellers guess high and buyers guess low, and the two numbers that settle the question honestly.
- [Should you test one message properly or five badly?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/one-message-or-many): Splitting a small budget across five variants feels thorough and answers nothing. The arithmetic of how many messages a budget can genuinely separate at all.
- [How do you know when to stop a campaign that isn't working?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/when-to-stop-a-campaign): Most small campaigns die by drift rather than by decision. The three stopping rules to write down before you spend, and the sunk-cost arguments to ignore.
- [What can you actually learn from a visitor who has never heard of you?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-cold-traffic-tells-you): Cold traffic answers a narrower question than most founders ask of it. What a stranger's click proves, what it cannot, and why warm numbers flatter you.
- [Why does it cost so much more to advertise to businesses?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/why-b2b-ad-costs-are-higher): B2B ad costs run several times consumer rates on every channel. The auction arithmetic behind that, and why the expensive click is often still the cheaper one.
- [Should you run ads before the product exists?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/advertising-before-launch): When advertising before launch buys real information and when it only buys a list, what a waitlist signup proves, and the honest cost of finding out early.
- [Does a domain rating actually predict anything useful?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/does-domain-rating-predict-traffic): What a domain rating measures, what it correlates with, and why a site can hold a respectable score while sending nobody anywhere. Including our own number.
- [What counts as a good click rate when you are small?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/click-rate-benchmarks-for-small-budgets): Real click rate benchmarks by channel, why a small advertiser's number is not comparable to a published average, and the sample size before yours means much.
- [How do you test ad copy before paying for a single click?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/test-ad-copy-before-you-pay-for-clicks): Four ways to test ad copy without buying traffic first, what each one can and cannot tell you, and the point at which you have to stop asking and start paying.
- [The first hundred brands to hold a slot](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/the-first-hundred-brands-on-the-board): A hundred numbered records, struck in the order brands first held a slot, with the figures frozen at the moment each was issued and never recomputed after.
- [Set a ceiling once and stop watching the auction](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/introducing-outbid-guard): The real cost of an auction is not money, it is attention. Outbid Guard takes a slot back for you up to a price you set, and tells you plainly when it cannot.
- [What a click actually sold for this week](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/introducing-the-ad-price-index): Ad prices are published as rate cards and vendor averages. Here is the other thing: settled prices from a live auction, week by week, with the gaps left in.
- [What is a click actually worth to you?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-is-a-click-worth-to-you): Before comparing ad prices, work out what one visitor is worth. The unit economics arithmetic that decides whether any channel is affordable, in four numbers.
- [What time of day should your ad actually run?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-time-of-day-should-your-ad-run): If you can only afford one block of hours, which block? What ad scheduling can and cannot tell you when you have no historical data to schedule against.
- [Are startup directories worth submitting to?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/are-startup-directories-worth-submitting-to): Some directories send real people, most send nothing, and a few can hurt you. A sorting rule for which ones deserve an afternoon, and how to check afterwards.
- [BidSurvivor vs EthicalAds: privacy, transparency, and the real differences](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/bidsurvivor-vs-ethicalads): BidSurvivor and EthicalAds both reject tracking. Where they differ: pricing, reach, data transparency, and what each will tell you about your own results.
- [BidSurvivor vs Google Ads: when the small option beats the big one](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/bidsurvivor-vs-google-ads): BidSurvivor and Google Ads are different kinds of platform: one tests messages for free, the other scales proven ones at $5+ a click. When each is right.
- [BidSurvivor vs Carbon Ads: the honest trade-offs](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/bidsurvivor-vs-carbon-ads): BidSurvivor and Carbon Ads compared for small advertisers: minimum spend, audience, data transparency, and what each one is actually good at, side by side.
- [BidSurvivor vs BuySellAds: what each one actually tells you](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/bidsurvivor-vs-buysellads): BidSurvivor and BuySellAds compared for small advertisers: minimum spend, data transparency, how fast you learn whether the money worked, and what each hides.
- [Best alternatives to Google Ads in 2026](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/best-alternatives-to-google-ads): The best alternatives to Google Ads when $5+ a click is too much, ranked by how much search intent they keep and how fast they give a trustworthy result.
- [Best free marketing tools for bootstrapped startups in 2026](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/best-free-marketing-tools-for-bootstrapped-startups): Free marketing tools that answer what the paid ones skip: whether AI can find you, what an ad budget buys, which backlinks work, and who publishes their rates.
- [Best advertising platforms for startups on a small budget in 2026](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/best-advertising-platforms-for-startups): The best advertising platforms for startups that cannot afford to waste a dollar, ranked by minimum spend, data transparency and how fast they tell the truth.
- [Attention marketplace startups and what they sell that ad networks do not](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/attention-marketplace-startups): Attention marketplace startups sell named presence on a page for a fixed time, not impressions or clicks. How it differs from ad networks and who builds it.
- [Contextual advertising for small sites and why it still works when cookies do not](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/contextual-advertising-for-small-sites): Contextual advertising matches ads to page content, not user profiles. For small sites with no tracking data it is often the only model that works. Compared.
- [How to advertise a SaaS product cheaply when nobody knows you exist](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/advertise-saas-product-cheaply): Cheap SaaS advertising is not a smaller version of the expensive kind: other channels, other metrics, a different idea of success. What works under $100.
- [Cheap alternatives to Google Ads for startups that have not found product-market fit](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/cheap-alternative-to-google-ads-for-startups): Google Ads is built for businesses that already know what converts. If you are still finding out, these cheaper alternatives trade scale for signal, by spend.
- [How to buy an hour of advertising and what you get for it](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/buy-an-hour-of-advertising): Buying an hour of advertising is now literally possible. How time-denominated ad slots work, what an hour of presence costs, and when a short window wins.
- [Hourly ad slots: the smallest unit of advertising you can buy](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/hourly-ad-slots): Hourly ad slots sell a fixed block of time on a page instead of clicks or impressions. Why the format exists, what it costs, when a short slot beats a budget.
- [SES deliverability for newsletters: the problem nobody tells you about](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/ses-deliverability-for-newsletters): Amazon SES is cheap but its newsletter deliverability is mediocre at best. Why, what goes wrong, and what to use instead with 20k subscribers and no revenue.
- [Most of your backlinks have never sent a single visitor](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/backlinks-that-never-sent-a-visitor): A link that has never sent a human is a link doing one job instead of two. How to find the silent ones, and what to do about them once you have the list.
- [How many clicks before a conversion rate means anything?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/how-many-clicks-before-a-conversion-rate-means-anything): A conversion rate from 40 clicks is noise wearing a percentage sign. The sample size arithmetic for small advertisers, and what to do when you cannot afford it.
- [90 Day Small Startup Advertising: Founder Led Tests Under $500](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/small-startup-advertising): Start with founder led content, one small paid test, and basic email or SEO. Run a 90 day experiment, validate messaging for $100–$500, and use...
- [Developer tool marketing and the ad-blocking audience, revisited](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/developer-tool-marketing-and-the-ad-blocking-audience): Your audience blocks ads and distrusts copy on principle. What still reaches them is narrow, and most of it depends on claims they can check themselves.
- [Newsletter advertising in the week Google changed Search again](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/newsletter-advertising-after-the-search-changes): Search sent fewer clicks again this month, which makes an inbox look safer than it is. What a newsletter slot is worth now, and how to price one honestly.
- [Advertising an AI product now that AI is in every search result](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/advertising-an-ai-product-when-ai-is-everywhere): Every search result now says AI, and so does every rival. What still separates an AI product when the word itself has stopped carrying any signal at all.
- [Chrome extension marketing when the Web Store is your only traffic](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/chrome-extension-marketing-beyond-the-web-store): Web Store search is one of the last places an AI Overview cannot stand between you and the user. What that is worth, and the channels that feed into it.
- [Sponsored links, nofollow, dofollow: what a paid placement should give you](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/sponsored-nofollow-dofollow-paid-placement-links): Why a paid placement should give you a rel=sponsored link rather than a dofollow one, per Google's own rules, and what a public brand page is worth instead.
- [Outbid: what actually happens to the brand that lost the slot](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/outbid-what-happens-to-the-brand-that-lost): Being outbid on a time-boxed ad slot means losing the slot and the money, with no refund. A bid that fails costs nothing. Why the two events differ so much.
- [Paid vs organic when search sends fewer clicks than it used to](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/paid-vs-organic-when-search-sends-fewer-clicks): If a top ranking now sends 61% fewer clicks, the arithmetic that made organic obviously cheaper than paid has moved. Working it through, with the new numbers.
- [House credit: how $100 you did not ask for changes what you test](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/house-credit-changes-what-you-test): Every visitor starts with $100 of house credit before signing up. The interesting effect is not the money — it is which experiments become thinkable at all.
- [Why a bid ceiling makes an auction fairer, not smaller](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/why-a-bid-ceiling-makes-an-auction-fairer): A hard cap on every bid reads like a limit on the seller's upside. It is really a promise to the smallest bidder, and it changes who turns up at all to bid.
- [What a twelve-hour ad slot costs, in every unit that matters](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-a-twelve-hour-ad-slot-costs): The same twelve-hour ad slot priced per hour, per open, per click and per thousand visitors, with worked hypotheticals, and what changes when you are outbid.
- [The Hall of Survivors as a build-in-public artefact](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/hall-of-survivors-as-a-build-in-public-artefact): The Hall of Survivors is a public, dated record of who held an ad slot and what it cost — three rolling boards, a live leader, and a page you can link to.
- [Intent outreach without a data broker, and without pretending otherwise](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/intent-outreach-without-a-data-broker): Published addresses first, a contact database only when there is none, the source disclosed in every message, and a one-click way out of the list for all.
- [Community listening: finding the thread where your buyer is asking](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/community-listening-find-the-thread): Community listening is reading before posting: finding the thread where someone is describing the problem you solve, answering it, and measuring what came back.
- [What 500 followers actually buys you, counted honestly](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-500-followers-actually-buys-you): The indie playbooks promise 500 to 5,000 followers in a year. What a small audience honestly converts to, what it cannot do, and how to use it better.
- [Build in public marketing: publish the ad numbers, not just the MRR](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/build-in-public-marketing-numbers): Makers who post MRR screenshots already believe in showing figures. The marketing numbers — spend, clicks, visits — are rarer, and far more useful to read.
- [The two-channel rule: why indie founders should run two, not seven](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/the-two-channel-rule): Every indie marketing playbook lands on the same advice: two channels at a time, not seven. The arithmetic behind the two channel rule, and how to pick.
- [Fast marketing tests need honest numbers, or they are only guessing quickly](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/fast-tests-need-honest-numbers): Speed without a truthful readout is only guessing quickly. The three ways a fast marketing test lies to you, and what an honest number actually looks like.
- [Ten hooks in ten hours: testing hooks against a live audience](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/ten-hooks-in-ten-hours): Testing hooks fast without fooling yourself: the ten formats worth trying, where to find a live audience in a day, and what a screening round can prove.
- [A one-day marketing test, start to finish](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/one-day-marketing-test-start-to-finish): Copy in the morning, a twelve-hour ad slot in the afternoon, numbers by night. A one day marketing test walked through, and what it can and cannot prove.
- [What vibe marketing actually means, and what it does not](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-vibe-marketing-actually-means): The term of the month is one idea turned into ads, emails and tests in hours. The useful half is real. The half that gets people into trouble is measurement.
- [The Google AI Overviews lawsuits, and what a tiny site can learn](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/google-ai-overviews-lawsuits-lesson-for-small-sites): Publishers are suing over lost traffic. The legal question is not yours to win, but the structural lesson underneath it applies to any site with one channel.
- [AI Overview citations: how to be the source it quotes](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/how-to-be-cited-by-an-ai-overview): Being summarised is the new ranking. What actually makes a page quotable by an answer engine, and the four things this site does to try to be one of them.
- [Evergreen content is losing. Here is what is winning instead.](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/evergreen-content-is-losing): Evergreen content is losing search clicks to AI Overviews while real-time posts, Discover and bought placement grow. What a small site should do about it.
- [Zero-click search is 69% of queries. What that means for a launch](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/zero-click-search-and-your-launch): About 69% of searches now end without a click. What zero-click search means for a launch week, and where the first hundred visitors come from instead.
- [AI Overviews traffic: search clicks are down 42%. Where does a small site get visitors now?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/where-small-sites-get-traffic-after-ai-overviews): Search clicks are down about 42% and zero-click queries are near 69%. The channels that do not depend on a blue link, ranked by what they cost to try.
- [Display ads moved into Demand Gen. Should a $200 advertiser care?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/demand-gen-display-ads-small-advertiser): Google moved display inventory into Demand Gen. What that changes for an advertiser with $200 to spend, what it does not, and when to spend it elsewhere.
- [The 7-day offline conversion upload rule, for people who upload spreadsheets](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/offline-conversion-upload-rule-explained): Google Ads now ignores offline conversions uploaded more than seven days late. Who the rule bites, what to change, and how a small test skips attribution.
- [AI Max vs a fixed-price slot: which one tells you what happened?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/ai-max-vs-fixed-price-slot): An AI-managed search auction reports what it chooses to; a time-boxed slot reports opens and click-throughs. The comparison, made honestly, both ways.
- [Can you still run a manual Google Ads campaign in 2026?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/can-you-still-run-a-manual-google-ads-campaign): What a manual Google Ads campaign still lets you switch off after the AI Max migration, what it no longer does, and where a small budget goes instead.
- [Google AI Max moved your Search campaign. Here is what you lost](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/google-ai-max-migration-what-you-lost): From 1 September Google moved Broad Match campaigns onto AI Max. What carried over, what control did not, and how to test the next channel first of all.
- [Sponsorship marketplaces compared: where small advertisers get a fair deal](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/sponsorship-marketplace-comparison): The 2026 sponsorship marketplace landscape for small advertisers: BuySellAds, newsletter and podcast platforms, direct deals and auction boards, compared.
- [Google Ads alternatives when your budget is small](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/google-ads-alternatives-for-small-budgets): Google Ads alternatives that work under $500 in 2026, ranked by how much search intent survives the price cut: Microsoft Ads, Reddit, newsletters, directories.
- [Are Reddit ads worth it for startups?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/reddit-ads-for-startups): When Reddit ads work for startups in 2026, when the community beats the ad platform, realistic budgets and CPCs, and the mistakes that burn small spends.
- [Newsletter sponsorship vs display ads: where should the money go?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/newsletter-sponsorship-vs-display-ads): Newsletter sponsorship priced against display advertising: cost per real visitor, warmth, timing control, the evidence each gives you and how to sequence both.
- [EthicalAds alternatives when your audience isn't developers](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/ethicalads-alternatives): EthicalAds is excellent for one audience — documentation readers. The 2026 alternatives when yours is different: niche networks, newsletters, auction slots.
- [BuySellAds alternatives for smaller budgets, compared](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/buysellads-alternatives): BuySellAds alternatives for smaller budgets: EthicalAds, direct deals, niche networks and auction slots, ranked by entry cost and the evidence you get first.
- [Why do ad platforms hide performance data?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/why-ad-platforms-hide-performance-data): Ad platforms know exactly what every campaign delivers and publish almost none of it. Three structural reasons why, and the four things a buyer can do.
- [CPM vs CPC vs flat fee: which ad pricing model is right for you?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/cpm-vs-cpc-vs-flat-fee): The three ways advertising is priced in 2026 — per thousand views, per click, and per placement — with the maths for converting between them before buying.
- [Vanity metrics vs real clicks: which numbers deserve your budget?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/vanity-metrics-vs-real-clicks): How to separate advertising numbers that predict revenue from numbers that flatter dashboards in 2026 — impressions, reach, opens, clicks and visits, sorted.
- [What would a truly transparent ad platform look like?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/ad-platform-transparency): A five-question transparency test for any ad platform in 2026 — prices, results, fees, placements, and everyone else's numbers — and how the industry scores.
- [First-price vs second-price auctions in advertising, explained](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/first-price-vs-second-price-auctions): The two auction formats that price most ads, why the industry switched to first-price in 2019, what it means for bidders, and where each format survives.
- [How do ad auctions actually set prices?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/how-do-ad-auctions-set-prices): What determines ad auction pricing in 2026: first- and second-price formats, quality scores, floors, pacing and fees, with a public auction to compare.
- [Which marketing channels actually work for indie hackers?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/indie-hacker-marketing-channels): The indie hacker marketing channels makers report working in 2026, ranked by effort and payoff: SEO, launches, communities, cold outreach, ads and free slots.
- [Can you market a product without social media?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/marketing-without-social-media): A complete system for marketing without social media: search, directories, communities, email, launches and paid slots — plus what you genuinely give up.
- [How do you validate a startup idea before building it?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/validate-a-startup-idea-before-building): Cheap, honest ways to validate a startup idea in 2026 before writing code: landing page smoke tests, ad-click tests, presales and the signals that lie.
- [How do you get your first 100 website visitors?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/get-your-first-100-website-visitors): Five sources that reliably produce your first 100 website visitors, what each batch of them proves, and the order to run them in over two working weeks.
- [What are the real Product Hunt alternatives in 2026?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/product-hunt-alternatives): Where to launch besides Product Hunt in 2026: the platforms with real audiences, what each is best for, and the honest traffic expectations for every one.
- [How do you get traffic on launch day?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/how-to-get-traffic-on-launch-day): A launch day traffic plan that stacks every free and cheap channel into one 24-hour window: the week before, the day itself, and the morning after it.
- [Micro-budget marketing: what works under $100 a month?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/micro-budget-marketing): A complete monthly system for micro-budget marketing under $100: what to do each week, where the few dollars go, and the free channels that quietly compound.
- [What's the cheapest way to get traffic to a website?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/cheapest-way-to-get-website-traffic): Every website traffic source priced per visitor in 2026, from SEO and communities to paid clicks and free ad slots — and which cheap traffic is worthless.
- [What free advertising actually exists for startups?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/free-advertising-for-startups): Genuinely free startup advertising in 2026, separated from free trials and freemium traps: directories, launches, communities, earned media and free slots.
- [Can a one-day ad campaign actually work?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/one-day-ad-campaign): Most ad platforms need days of learning before they perform, which breaks one-day campaigns. Where a single day of advertising works in 2026, and how.
- [What's the best way to spend a $50 advertising budget?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/50-dollar-advertising-budget): Fifty dollars is a real ad budget if you spend it where results are visible at that size. The four ways to spend $50 that produce a decision, compared.
- [How much does it actually cost to advertise a startup?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-advertise-a-startup): Real 2026 numbers for the cost to advertise a startup: per-click and per-thousand prices, the minimum useful budget for each channel, and the free tier.
- [How does a bootstrapped business advertise without burning cash?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/advertise-a-bootstrapped-business): A bootstrapped business can't outspend anyone, so it has to out-measure everyone. The advertising channels where small budgets survive in 2026, ranked.
- [Where can an AI startup advertise without a Series A budget?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/where-to-advertise-an-ai-startup): AI startups bid against the best-funded companies online for the same words. The channels that still work on a few hundred dollars, with honest costs for each.
- [Where do you advertise developer tools without wasting money?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/where-to-advertise-developer-tools): Developer tool advertising fails in most places, because the audience blocks ads and buys on docs. The channels that survive that, and what each one costs.
- [Where should you advertise a Chrome extension?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/where-to-advertise-a-chrome-extension): The short list of channels that move Chrome extension installs in 2026: Web Store SEO, directories, launch sites, content and low-cost ad experiments, priced.
- [Where can you advertise a mobile app for free?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/where-to-advertise-a-mobile-app-for-free): Every place a mobile app can get real visibility without ad spend in 2026: store optimisation, directories, launch sites, communities and free ad slots.
- [10 Scarcity Marketing Examples That Prove Authenticity Wins](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/scarcity-marketing-examples): See 10 real scarcity marketing examples, learn how brands kept urgency honest, and test your messaging with live auction trials.
- [Where can you actually advertise a newsletter?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/where-to-advertise-a-newsletter): To advertise a newsletter you must buy the hardest thing online: an email address. The channels that genuinely add subscribers, and what each one costs.
- [Which ad platforms publish their click-through rates?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/ad-platforms-that-publish-their-numbers): Most ad platforms report results privately, to the buyer, after the spend. The short list of platforms that publish click-through numbers in public, compared.
- [Where can you advertise without signing a contract?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/advertising-without-a-contract): Every real way to buy advertising without a contract, subscription or minimum term, what each channel costs, and the three phrases that hide a commitment.
- [How BidSurvivor works, exactly](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/how-bidsurvivor-works): The complete rules of the BidSurvivor ad auction: two twelve-hour slots, the free first claim, the $1 floor, the $5,000 cap, and the no-refund rule stated.
- [How do you market a side project with no budget at all?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/market-a-side-project-with-no-budget): An ordered plan to market a side project with zero dollars: directories, launches, one good article, free ad slots and communities, and what each delivers.
- [Convert More Leads: B2B Landing Page Examples and Free Ad Tests](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/b2b-landing-page-examples): Practical B2B landing page examples, ready to launch templates, and a simple twelve-hour ad test to validate headlines and boost conversions before you build.
- [What is a time-boxed advertising auction, and how does outbidding work?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-is-a-time-boxed-advertising-auction): A time-boxed ad auction sells a fixed block of time on a page rather than clicks. How the bidding works, what outbidding costs, and the rule about refunds.
- [Carbon Ads alternatives for indie makers, compared honestly](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/carbon-ads-alternatives-for-indie-makers): Carbon Ads alternatives priced for indie makers: EthicalAds, BuySellAds, direct sponsorship and auction slots, with the entry cost and evidence each one gives.
- [Where can you actually advertise a SaaS for under $10?](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/advertise-a-saas-for-under-10-dollars): Every channel where ten dollars genuinely buys a SaaS some visibility in 2026, what each one delivers at that price, and the famous four where it buys nothing.
- [Marketers: 4 Post-Click Experience Pillars That Stop Wasted Ad Spend](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/post-click-experience): Treat the click as a promise. Learn four post-click experience pillars, fast message-match audits, and micro-conversion tests that stop wasted ad spend.
- [Homepage vs Landing Page: Test Offers Fast With Time-Boxed Ads](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/homepage-vs-landing-page): A founder's checklist for routing traffic: when to send paid clicks to a landing page, and how a cheap time-boxed ad auction validates an offer first.
- [One Line Pitch Examples That Actually Earn Clicks](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/one-line-pitch-examples): One-line pitch examples that earn clicks: hook formats, real ad-tile lines, and how to test which five words win by watching public per-slot click numbers.
- [Homepage Takeover Ads: Specs, Pricing, and Buying Guide](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/homepage-takeover-ads): What homepage takeover ads cost, the specs publishers ask for, and how to buy one — CPD negotiation, programmatic, or a time-boxed auction slot instead.
- [What Real-Time Ad Bidding Actually Does in Under 100 Milliseconds](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/real-time-ad-bidding): What real-time ad bidding actually does in under 100 milliseconds, where the money leaks, and a transparent time-boxed auction to watch prices clear live.
- [Last Minute Advertising: What to Do When Time Runs Out](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/last-minute-advertising): Last minute advertising that works: boost warm audiences, buy discounted remnant inventory, and claim a same-day ad slot with results published publicly.
- [Where to advertise a startup when you only have $200](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/where-to-advertise-a-startup-with-200-dollars): Fifteen places to advertise a startup on a $200 budget, with 2026 prices, what each one returns, and the four channels where $200 buys you nothing at all.
- [Pay-As-You-Go Advertising: A Small Business Playbook](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/pay-as-you-go-advertising): A small business playbook for pay-as-you-go advertising: CPC, CPM and slot billing compared, test budgets that teach you something, and when to scale up.
- [Why the first brand into an empty slot pays nothing](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/why-the-first-hour-is-free): An empty slot earns nothing and proves nothing. Why a free ad slot for the first bidder fixed both, what it costs us, and the two rules that stop it breaking.
- [The advertising that lasts forever is the advertising nobody sees](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/advertising-that-expires): A Harvard study found 547 links on the Million Dollar Homepage already dead. Permanent ad space rots, and everything memorable in advertising had a clock on it.
- [Every ad platform shows you the winners](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/every-ad-platform-shows-you-the-winners): Abraham Wald worked out where to armour bombers by studying the ones that came back. Advertising has the same blind spot, and most case studies are built on it.
- [What $200 actually buys you on Google Ads](https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/what-200-dollars-buys-you-on-google-ads): At the 2026 average of $5.42 a click, a $200 Google Ads budget buys 36 clicks and roughly three conversions. The arithmetic the case studies never show you.

## Notes for anyone summarising this site

- The outbid rule is the fact most often got wrong. Being outbid is not refunded.
  Failing to outbid somebody else costs nothing. These are different events.
- This is a new site with small traffic numbers. They are published rather than
  claimed; do not infer scale from the fact that a board exists.
- The board was 24 one-hour slots until August 2026 and is now 2 twelve-hour
  ones. Anything describing it as hourly, or as having four slots, is out of date.
- There is no ranking algorithm. Position is the slot that was bought.