Adding advertising to your website

Since late 2014, we've allowed the sale of advertising and sponsor content on chapter websites.

Because PBJ is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and because schools do not pay any fees to us, we have a unique set of legal restrictions. We are also interested in maintaining design cleanliness and clarity across all our chapter websites. As such, we've worked to put together an advertising policy that is fair and reasonable.

Don't feel obligated to run advertisements-- PBJ is free to you, and less than 10% of our schools choose to run advertisements. While ads can be done artfully, they also often create distractions and clutter as well-- balance your needs accordingly.

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You must be approved by our Chapter Relations team prior to running any advertisements.

Our approval process is quick and easy, and meant to ensure you understand the legal and content limitations we place on advertising. We'll also verify your eligibility and go over how advertising works on our platform.

You can be approved during your initial onboarding process-- just let us know you wish to run advertising.

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We don't take a cut of your advertising revenue.

Schools manage their own advertising payments and can currently keep 100% of advertising revenue. We do not have plans to change this policy.

What do I need to furnish to PBJ to be approved for advertising?

Verification of school or journalism program's non-profit status

You must be a non-profit organization (as classified by the IRS) to run advertisements. Sometimes non-profits are created specifically for journalism programs, although a general certificate of tax exemption for the school is generally acceptable.

You'll need to send us this documentation prior to running your first advertisement, along with a signed affidavit. Due to legal restrictions we do not offer exceptions to this rule. The signed affidavit confirms that PBJ does not have anything to do with the profit and serves as a service provider in this capacity only.

Infrequent and informal status reports

We're interested in how schools choose to run advertising, how much money they earn, and how students or faculty sell sponsorships. As such, schools running advertising may be asked to provide occasional (less often than once every two months) and informal status reports.

When can I run advertising?

After you are approved for advertising, you can run advertisements whenever you want. You can switch advertisements at your own pace and, in Fall 2016, we'll offer a module that will automatically rotate advertisements for you.

Where can I run advertising?

We only allow advertising in the formats and locations listed below. All other types of advertising are forbidden, since they either jeopardize PBJ's nonprofit status, or unnecessarily hurt the readability and quality of our chapter websites. Failure to follow these guidelines could result in your chapter's expulsion from our network.

Specifically prohibited forms include, but are not limited to:

• Advertising in the background image of your website
• Advertising in an article by means of photo or graphic
• Advertising in the B1 homepage block (although note social media links are permitted here)
• Advertising on any page that is not labelled as "Classified"
• Advertising anywhere without labeling the ad as "Advertisement"
• Advertising anything about PBJ without our approval or permission

The formats and locations are listed below:

B3 block on the homepage

The B3 block (near the bottom of the page; second row, third column) can be converted to an advertising location through PBJ Options. (It is normally a category block).

In this block, images cannot exceed 188 pixels in width-- graphics will be automatically resized down, so resize images larger than this width. You can mix headings, text, and graphics as you please.

Remember to label this advertisement with "Advertisement" or "Sponsor" as appropriate. Only one link per advertiser is allowed.

A4 block on the homepage (coming soon)

As of Fall 2016 we also offer the ability to run advertising, just as you would in the B3 block (see above), in the A4 block (near the bottom of the page; first row, fourth column).

Sponsored articles

You can post sponsored articles to the website provided that you include a (legally required) disclaimer that the content is sponsored. Additionally, only one link to the advertiser’s or sponsor’s website is allowed.

We also strongly recommend, but do not require, that--

• Your sponsored article be written without bias.
• Your sponsorship be used to financial enable, but not affect or influence, content. For example, a dentist sponsoring an article on good brushing habits is preferable to an article recommending that specific dentist.

Creating a "Classifieds" page

You can create a page, or group of pages, on your website which provides information about local businesses and organizations. You can sell or give away these slots. No links are permitted on Classifieds pages at this time.

We also strongly recommend, but do not require, that--

• You only provide slots for businesses that your students personally know.
• You consolidate Classifieds on one page rather than multiple pages, and use headings to indicate types of classified content.