Every new client asks the same question, usually in the first email: once I send the brief, what happens next? How long does each step take, who does what, and where could it stall?
This article answers that, step by step. It is the follow-on to our guide on how to brief a sponsored article that African editors will publish — that one is about what to send us, and this one is about what happens after you send it. Between them, they cover the whole order.
The short version first: you request a quote, we reply within 24 hours on business days, you pay half on order, the article goes to the editor, it goes live under the site’s own policy, you get a live-link report, and you pay the balance within 48 hours of going live. The guarantee is that the article is live within 24 hours of us receiving the final article, or you get a full refund. The rest of this article is the detail behind each of those steps — including where the time really goes, and what the guarantee does and does not cover.
1. You send the request
Everything starts with a price request. Tell us the sites you want — or the market and the topic, if you would rather we suggest the sites — the article or the link you want placed, and the client it is for, if you are an agency. If you already have a finished article, attach it. If you do not, say so; writing help is available on request, and the editor will still review whatever is written before it is published.
You do not need to have the brief perfect. The briefing article explains what editors look for, but a request that says “fintech, Kenya, two sites, article supplied next week” is enough to start. We will come back with questions if anything is missing, and the clock on the quote does not start until we have what we need to price it. If you are an agency and want the full priced list instead of a single quote, ask for that — it is a separate offer, and it is the faster route if you place regularly. See how it works for the full picture.
2. We reply with a quote within 24 hours, on business days
Within 24 hours on business days, you get a quote for the sites you asked about. The quote is confidential, and every site is priced on request — there is no public price list for other people’s newspapers, and a seller who publishes one should make you suspicious, not reassured.
What shapes the quote is straightforward: which site, what topic, whether the article is supplied or written, and the timing and volume of the order. A placement on a national news title is priced differently from one on a niche entertainment blog, and a single placement differently from a pack across several sites in one market. The quote will say which sites it covers, what is included — one link, one round of edits, a live-link report — and what is not. If a site’s editor is unlikely to accept the topic, we will say so at this stage rather than after you have paid. That is part of what the quote is for.
One order covers multiple sites, and one invoice covers the whole order. Agencies reselling the placement add their own margin on top and report to their client under their own brand; your client is never contacted by us.
3. You pay half, and the article moves
When you accept the quote, you pay half the order value — by PayPal or Stripe — and the order starts. The balance is due within 48 hours of the article going live, not before. That split is deliberate: you are not paying in full for work you have not seen, and the site is not publishing for a client who has not committed.
If the article is already written, this is the point at which it goes to the editor. If it is still being written — by you, by us, or by the publication itself — the order waits for the final article. Nothing is submitted half-finished, and the guarantee clock has not started yet. That is why the most common misunderstanding about the process is about when the 24 hours starts. It starts when the final article is received, not when the order is placed. The section below on what “final article” means covers that in full.
4. The article goes to the editor — where the time really goes
This is the step where the time is spent, and it is the step we control least. The article goes to the editor of the site you have chosen, who reads it against their own standards: is it accurate, is it written for their readers, does it fit the section it would sit in, is it labelled the way they label sponsored content?
Editor review is the variable in the whole process. Some editors reply the same day; some take longer, and some come back with edits. That is why the guarantee is framed the way it is — live within 24 hours of receiving the final article — rather than as a promise about the whole order. We can control how fast we quote, how fast we pass the article on, and how fast we report back. We cannot control an editor’s diary, and no honest placement partner should pretend otherwise.
What we do control is the preparation. An article that follows the briefing guide — written for the market, with claims that can be checked, in the language the site’s readers actually use — goes through review faster than one that needs rewriting. The briefing article exists precisely to save you this time.
5. Publication, under the site’s own policy
When the editor accepts the article, it is published under that site’s own policy: its labelling, its link attributes, its placement in the section it belongs in. We do not ask editors to change their labels or remove disclosure, and we do not promise any particular label or attribute in advance. Each site decides for itself, and that is what makes the coverage credible to the reader — the publication is being straight about what the piece is.
This is also the point at which the honest limits of the service should be stated plainly. Publication is not a promise of search rankings, traffic, or mentions in AI answers. It is a placement on an established African site, in front of that site’s readers, with a link to your page. That is the product, and it is the whole product. If anyone offers you a placement with a ranking promise attached, they are selling something no one can deliver.
If an editor declines an article, we tell you why, and we tell you quickly. Sometimes the fix is a rewrite; sometimes the topic does not fit that site and another site in the directory does. Either way, you hear it from us before you have paid the balance, because the balance is only due after publication.
6. The live-link report, and the balance within 48 hours
Once the article is live, you receive a live-link report: the published URL, so you can check the placement yourself. For agencies, the report is unbranded, so it can go straight to your client under your name. Check the link, check the article, and check that the labelling is as the site publishes it. If anything is wrong — a broken link, a missing element, a formatting problem — tell us and it is fixed.
The balance is due within 48 hours of the article going live. That is the second half of the payment, and it is the only part of the process that runs on your clock rather than the editor’s: once the placement is live and reported, the order is complete, and the invoice closes.
7. After publication: the 12-month replacement
The order does not end at publication. If a link is removed within 12 months of going live, it is replaced free. That is the part of the guarantee that runs longest, and it is the part that matters most to agencies reselling placements to clients who will check the link months later.
If a link is removed, tell us and we will arrange the replacement on the same site, or on a comparable one if the original is no longer available. Keep your live-link report — it is the record of what was placed, where, and when.
What “final article” means for the guarantee
The guarantee reads: live within 24 hours of receiving the final article, or a full refund. The words that do the work there are “final article”.
The final article is the version the editor receives — the one that has been through your own review, and any writing or editing we agreed to do. If you send a draft and then send a revised version, the clock starts from the revised version. If the editor asks for changes and you send a new version, that becomes the final article for the next round. The guarantee covers our speed in getting a finished article live, not the time spent writing or revising it.
That is a fairer deal than it sounds. The writing and revision stages are where quality is decided, and rushing them produces articles editors decline. The guarantee protects you against delay on our side; it does not punish you for taking the time to get the article right.
What happens when an editor asks for edits
Editors ask for edits often, and it is not a bad sign. Usually it means the article is publishable with changes: a claim that needs a source, a paragraph that reads like an advert, a local detail that is wrong, a section that belongs elsewhere on the site.
Your order includes one round of edits. That means one pass of changes — ours or yours, depending on who wrote the article — in response to the editor’s notes. Most editor requests are settled in that one round. If the editor asks for a second round, we will tell you what they want and agree the approach before anything is rewritten; a second round is not charged as a surprise, and a rewrite that changes the article’s purpose is a conversation, not an automatic step.
The honest version of the process is that editors are the quality control, and their edits are part of the service, not a failure of it. An article that goes through an editor’s notes comes out better, and a site that edits what it publishes is a site whose readers trust it.
Start with a price request
That is the whole process, from the first email to the link still live a year later: a quote within 24 hours on business days, half on order, the article through editorial review, publication under the site’s own policy, a live-link report, the balance within 48 hours, and a replacement if the link is removed within 12 months.
If you have a campaign in mind, start with a price request — tell us the market, the topic, and whether the article is ready. If you have not yet worked out what to send, read the briefing guide first, then come back. Either way, you will know within a day what the placement costs and which sites will take it.
Start with a price request · How it works · How to brief a sponsored article that African editors will publish · Frequently asked questions · Browse the sites