Read the portfolio before you read the pitch
Every service in this market advertises sample placements. Those samples tell you more than the sales call, and reading them takes five minutes.
- Open five sample URLs. Not the logos, the actual articles.
- Look at the path in each URL. Segments like
/contributor-content/,/sites/,/partner/or/sponsored/tell you the article ran outside the newsroom. That is fine, and it should match how the service describes its work. - Look for a label above the headline. Sponsored, Partner Content, BrandVoice, Contributor Content.
- Check the outbound link. Right-click, Inspect, look for
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow". - Check the publication is real. Read three of its non-sponsored articles. Does a newsroom produce original reporting there, or does the site exist to sell placements?
You are not looking for an absence of labels. You are testing whether what you find matches what the service says it sells. A vendor whose entire portfolio sits in contributor sections while the pitch talks about "editorial coverage" has already answered the most important question. The full method is in editorial or sponsored.
The nine questions
Send them by email, so the answers exist in writing and can be attached to the order.
- Which exact title, named, and can you show me a live example in the same section it will run in?
- Editorial or labelled, and what exact wording will the reader see above the headline?
- Who writes it, in what language, and are they native to the outlet's market?
- When do I approve the text, and how many revision rounds are included?
- What link attribute will the published article carry, and will you send me the HTML afterwards?
- What is the deadline in writing, and what happens if it slips?
- What happens if the outlet declines? Alternative title, rewrite, or refund?
- What proof do I receive at delivery? Live URL, indexing check, link check?
- What can you not deliver? Ask for a title you suspect is unavailable and see what comes back.
Ask for a guaranteed placement in a title that runs no contributor or paid programme at all. An honest service tells you it is not available and explains why. A dishonest one quotes a price, and what arrives is something else. It costs one email. We use the same test in the TechCrunch guide.
Red flags, and what each one usually means
| What you hear | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| "Guaranteed dofollow from any outlet" | Either the outlet is not what you think, or the promise will not survive publication |
| "Forbes-level exposure" | Not Forbes. Ask for the title in writing before payment |
| "Featured in 300+ outlets" | Syndication. Ask which of the 300 have real editorial audiences |
| "We have direct relationships" | A non-answer. Ask for a live example in the exact section |
| "Guaranteed first page of Google" | Nobody can guarantee rankings. Treat everything else they said with the same weight |
| Price quoted before the title is named | You are buying a slot, not a placement |
| No approval round | You will see the article when the client does |
None of these is proof of bad faith on its own. All of them deserve one follow-up question, and the quality of the follow-up answer is the actual signal.
Retainer or per-placement
Before comparing vendors, be sure you are comparing the right kind. A retainer buys sustained effort, relationships and the possibility of coverage nobody can sell you, with no guarantee in any given month. A placement buys one named article on one date.
Choose by your constraint. If there is a date that cannot move, you need purchased placement. If you are building a category position over two years, you need the retainer, or an in-house hire. Most companies with a functioning communications programme run both, and we set out realistic plans at three budget levels in traditional PR versus guaranteed placement.
Structure the first order so a mistake is cheap
You cannot fully evaluate a placement service from the outside. You can make the first purchase small enough that being wrong costs little, and structured so it tells you what you need to know.
- Buy one placement, not a package. Whatever the volume discount, a first order is a test. Packages remove your ability to walk away and are the most common regret in this market.
- Choose a mid-tier title, not the most expensive one. You are testing the process, not the masthead. A service that handles a trade placement well handles a national one well; the reverse is not reliable.
- Put every answer in the order. The named title, the format and label, the writer's language, the deadline, the link attribute, the refund rule. Attach the email thread if there is no formal contract.
- Judge the process, not just the article. Did the draft arrive when promised? Was the revision handled without friction? Did the delivery report contain what was agreed, unprompted? Those three tell you more about the next twenty orders than the article itself.
- Check indexing a week later yourself. Search a distinctive sentence from the piece in Google. A service that does not check this is not verifying its own work.
If all five go well, scale. If any go badly, you spent one placement finding out rather than a quarter's budget.
What a good answer sounds like
For contrast, here is the shape of a reply worth trusting, on the two questions vendors most often dodge:
"This title runs your piece in its contributor section. The reader sees a Contributor Content banner above the headline. The byline is your founder. The URL will sit under /contributor-content/. Here is a live example so you can check it yourself. If the outlet changes its policy before we publish, we tell you before we run and you can cancel for a full refund."
"We cannot guarantee that title. It has no contributor or paid programme, so the only route is a pitch, and nobody can promise that. Here are three titles reaching the same audience that we can guarantee, with their status and prices."
Neither answer costs the vendor anything except the ability to let you assume something better. Vendors who will not give them are protecting the assumption, and the assumption is what you would have been paying for.
Frequently asked
How do I know if a PR agency is legitimate?
Read the portfolio before the pitch. Open five sample placements, look at the URL path, look for a label above the headline, check the outbound link attribute, and verify the publications have real newsrooms. Then send nine specific questions by email. Legitimacy shows up in whether the answers are specific and in writing, not in the size of the logos on the homepage.
What questions should I ask a media placement service?
Which exact title and a live example in the same section; editorial or labelled and the exact wording; who writes it and in what language; when you approve the text; the link attribute and whether you get the HTML; the deadline in writing and what happens if it slips; what happens if the outlet declines; what proof you receive; and what they cannot deliver. That last one sorts the market fastest.
Is guaranteed placement a red flag?
No, provided the service says which route the article takes. Publication can genuinely be guaranteed in titles that accept contributed or labelled commercial content. It cannot be guaranteed in staff editorial. A guarantee is a red flag only when the service also implies the coverage is independent editorial.
Why do agencies refuse to name the title before quoting?
Usually because they are selling a slot rather than a specific placement, and the title depends on what is available when they get to it. Insist the exact publication is named in writing before payment, with no substitution clause hidden in a follow-up email. Substitution without your agreement is the most common complaint in this market.
Should I pick the cheapest quote?
Judge the audience, not the invoice. Cheap becomes bad when the price reflects a publication with no genuine readership, or when it buys a promise nobody intends to keep. The expensive failure is not overpaying; it is paying a fair price for something that never runs, or runs in a format you did not expect, with no written record of what should have happened.
Put these questions to us first
Send us the same nine questions you send everyone else. We answer all of them in writing before you pay anything, including the ones about what we cannot deliver.
Or write to contact@rublovkamedia.com. We answer with the outlet list, the status of each title and a timeline.