Hosting ads
Hosting is your half of the exchange bargain: your enrolled channels carry other members' ads, and that is what earns you the right — and the credits — to run your own. This page covers what actually happens in your channel and every protection you have.
The two host controls big enough to need their own instructions have their own pages:
- Reviewing ads before they post — approve each matched ad first.
- Refusing an ad — remove one specific ad, penalty-free.
What happens when your channel hosts an ad
- The matcher pairs your channel with an ad that fits — at or below the content level you chose, from a channel of a broadly similar audience size, on a related topic wherever possible.
- If you have Review ads switched on for that channel, the ad is held for your approval. Otherwise it goes straight to the next step.
- The bot posts the ad in your channel.
- The ad stays up for a full 24 hours.
- The bot removes it automatically and records the result. You never have to touch it.
- Credits land on your balance for a placement that ran its full term.
What protects your channel
You are never asked to turn your channel into an ad feed. Every one of these applies automatically, on every plan:
| Protection | What it means |
|---|---|
| Your content level ceiling | Nothing above the level you chose is ever matched to your channel. Levels 3, 4 and 5 (finance, gambling, adult) only reach channels whose owners explicitly opted in. |
| A weekly limit | Your channel is asked to carry at most a set number of ads per rolling week — the network default is 4. |
| A 20-hour gap | Your channel is never asked to carry another ad until at least 20 hours after the last one. |
| One placement per campaign | The same campaign is never placed in your channel twice in a cycle. |
| Size and topic matching | A 500-subscriber channel is not asked to carry a 200,000-subscriber channel's ad, and topics are matched where possible. |
| Review before posting | Optional, per channel — see Reviewing ads before they post. |
| Refusal | Any single ad, penalty-free, at any time — see Refusing an ad. |
| The 24-hour takedown | Every placement comes down on time, removed by the bot itself. |
What your subscribers see
Nothing tells your subscribers that your channel is part of an exchange.
- Ads from Free-plan advertisers carry one extra clickable line below their content: "Advertisement by Onflow Ads".
- Ads from paid advertisers (Lite and above) carry no line at all.
Neither version names the advertiser, names your channel, or mentions the exchange. And the advertiser is never told which channels carried their ad.
Your channel list
Under My channels, the header shows how much of your plan's allowance you have used ("N of N channels used"), and each channel row shows its name, @username, subscriber count, the level ceiling you chose ("up to level 3 (Finance, Trading and Crypto)"), and how many ads it has hosted.
Each row also carries a status badge:
| Badge | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Active in the pool and available to carry ads | Nothing — this is the normal state |
| Paused | Temporarily not receiving ads | It resumes on its own when the pause ends |
| Suspended | Paused by the exchange after a placement was removed early | Wait — the card names the date it lifts. See Rules and fair play |
| Review on | Per-ad approval is switched on for this channel | Watch for holds — see Reviewing ads before they post |
If a channel has a problem the exchange can see — for example the bot has lost a right it needs — the reason is printed under the channel's details in red, so you know exactly what to fix.
Alongside the badge, each row offers:
- a Review ads: On/Off toggle,
- a Hosted ads button, once the channel has carried at least one ad,
- a Leave button.
Earning credits by hosting
Every placement that runs its full 24 hours earns you SubX credits — 10 per placement on the Free plan, rising to 20 on Ultimate. Credits buy extra placements on your own campaigns.
The full flow, including what does not earn and the referral bonus, is on Earning credits by hosting.
Your reciprocity balance
The hub's How it works card includes a reciprocity note comparing what your channels offer to host per cycle against what your ads consume:
- Balanced: "Your reciprocity is balanced — your channels can host about N placements a cycle, and your ads consume about N."
- Out of balance: "Your ads consume about N placements a cycle but your channels only offer about N. Hosting more (or raising a channel's weekly cap) keeps the exchange fair — and earns you credits."
This is insight, not a cap. Nothing is cut if you are out of balance. But an exchange only works if members host roughly as much as they run, and hosting more earns you more credits anyway.
Withdrawing a channel
- Click Leave on the channel's row under My channels.
- Confirm: "Withdraw this channel from the exchange? Placements already live will finish their 24 hours."
What happens:
- The channel stops receiving new ads immediately.
- Any placement already live finishes its full 24 hours first. Leaving is never a way to pull a running ad down early — for that, use Refusing an ad.
- Your account's channel count frees up, so you can enrol a different channel in its place.
You can re-enrol the same channel later. Re-enrolling keeps the settings the channel had before.
Your level ceiling is not permanent. To change it, run Add a channel again for the same channel and pick a new level — re-enrolling updates the ceiling and keeps the channel's other settings. You do not need to leave first.
Edge cases worth knowing
- A suspended channel lifts on its own. Re-enrolling never shortcuts an active suspension; once one has been served, re-enrolling tidies the card.
- Hosting and advertising are paused together. If your account is cooling down after a strike, your channels stop receiving ads and your own campaigns stop being placed. The banner names the exact end time.
- You cannot enrol a channel someone else has enrolled. A channel lives in the exchange under exactly one account.
- A channel with very few subscribers may not be matched. The exchange keeps placements sensible in both directions.
- Leaving does not delete your history. Credits already earned stay on your balance, and your hosting record stands.
Next: Reviewing ads before they post — the host control that stops anything appearing in your channel without your say-so.