# 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.
- [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

- [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.