The publisher landscape is being rebuilt in real time by AI-driven discovery, shifting traffic referral trends, and buyers who are more selective than ever about where their budgets go. At Freestar, that shift is exactly why we’ve sharpened how we evaluate the sites we bring into our network. Our quality bar isn’t just about who we let in today, it’s about identifying and growing the publishers who will define quality monetization tomorrow. These are the sites that share our values and reflect industry best practices.
That forward-looking bar is what earns us a seat at the table with the world’s largest publishers, and it’s built on strategic, trust-based relationships with top SSPs, DSPs, agencies, and advertisers. It’s also driving results: we’ve seen over 60% growth in deal-based and audience curation revenue in the past year alone. Every time we raise our publisher quality standards, we’re really investing in something bigger, which is the confidence advertisers place in our network. That confidence is what lets buyers commit real budget across our portfolio, not just test it.
Meanwhile, the referral sources that built the last decade of publisher traffic — Google organic search, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest are no longer reliable growth engines on their own. That makes UX and content quality non-negotiable. Publishers who invest in genuinely high-quality site experiences are the ones building durable brand reputations and they’re the ones premium advertisers are actively seeking out for their campaigns.
Freestar’s Publisher Acceptance Requirements
- Fifty percent of traffic must come from organic audiences, such as search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo), social (Facebook, Pinterest, X, Instagram), Google News, Google Discover, YouTube, Reddit, and news syndication sources (Smart News, Flipboard, News360, Newsbreak).
- Content must be unique to the publisher, and meant for human consumption.
- Content must be high-quality, original, and feature meaningful human involvement.
- The majority of pages should feature long-form articles.
- 50% of traffic comes from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and/or Australia.
- Content must be brand-safe, with pre-existing content moderation practices enforced. This means the far majority of content should not include:
- Sexually explicit material
- Piracy issues
- Violence / Hate-speech
- Profane speech
- Illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia
- Cruelty to humans or animals
- Publishers must be in good standing with all major ad providers. If you’ve had issues in the past with demand flags, penalties or rejections, we may not be able to work with you.
In order to provide publishers the high CPMs we do today, we are committed to upholding high quality standards. As a part of our approval process, we will request access to GA4, and ask for insights into your website traffic, revenue historicals and the relationship status with current demand partners. And at any time, if it is discovered that a publisher is breaking these guidelines, Freestar holds the right to not longer monetize the site.
Rules Around Content
We pride ourselves on being content agnostic, with publishers representing 18 different content verticals. As long as you meet all the guidelines we just listed above, it doesn’t particularly matter the niche. Some of our largest content categories are sports, news, finance, automotive, gaming and entertainment.
Content should either be original to the publisher, or using content syndication best practices with proper permissions. The most successful monetization comes in the form of engaged website users. Content strategies that will not be accepted: stolen/scrapped, low quality AI-generated, clickbait headlines, and content with potential copyright issues.
Traffic Considerations
In order to bring you meaningful revenue, the average pageviews for our publishers are typically at least a million per month. Once accepted, we have a team of audience development experts ready to work with you on traffic growth strategies!
We do not monetize sites that incentivize users to view ads in exchange for rewards, discounts, or money. We also cannot except websites that allow gambling in exchange for real money.
Ad Layout
Our Onboarding and Yield Specialists will assist in getting ad tags created, and can answer any specific questions on the revenue impact of these modifications. We’re confident that prioritizing user experience with a conservative layout is the best strategy for the long-term revenue of your business.
- Ad refresh rate must be set at 30 seconds or more. The refreshing of non-viewable ads is not tolerated.
- On a given page, only one video ad can play at a time.
- Ad density must not be higher than 30%.
- No more than 5 ads can be in view at any given time on desktop, 3 on mobile.
- Ads cannot block content from users.
- Ads cannot be stacked, neither vertical or horizontally.
- No overlapping ads.
- Landing page layout cannot artificially initiate clicks or impressions.
- No auto playing ads with sound.
User-generated Content
User-generated content refers to any type of content (text, images, videos, etc.) that a user can upload directly to your website. Popular forms of UGC include article comments, forums, image generators, text generators, and article submission). If your website allows for any user-generated content, it is required that those areas be moderated by a site admin or third-party technology prior to monetization. UGC is particularly risky for advertisers, but if done correctly, can be incredibly valuable for users. Keeping these areas high-quality and abiding by all of our non-UGC regulation is mandatory.
If you’re ready to monetize with Freestar, meeting our publisher acceptance requirements is the first step toward unlocking new revenue potential. By partnering with us, you’ll join a network that prioritizes quality, transparency, and value, offering a seamless path to higher CPMs and premium demand
Are you ready for the next steps? Click the link below to get started. We can’t wait to meet you!
