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VerticalScope Vendor Program

VerticalScope takes great pride in the immense wealth of user-generated content and discussion venues across thousands of communities within our family of sites.  To better serve those communities and offer unique value to both members and commercial partners, we operate a vendor program that designates official representation status to our commercial partners on behalf of their respective companies.  Vendors are welcome participants in our communities, serving as direct, engaged touchpoints with the companies that our audience knows and loves. As a member of VerticalScope Vendor Program, we’ve laid out a few simple rules of the road to ensure a quality experience for your business as well as our resident community members.

Rules for Vendors

  1. Post only from an officially designated vendor account.
  2. Commercial posting (part of any marketing offering of product or service) is limited to your specific sponsored area or the public vendor deals. Vendors are allowed and encouraged to make recommendations as posts in response to direct requests for product/service suggestions by members in the broader forum, provided they are relevant. Vendors may post one new thread within a classifieds section every 72 hours after reaching a minimum post count of 5 forum-wide.
  3. Vendors are required to adhere to and respect Terms of Use found in the footer of each site as well as forum-specific rules, generally located as pinned threads in the Intro section. Any issues encountered with other users, moderators, or staff should be surfaced immediately to your contact with VerticalScope +1 855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.
  4. Vendor program group buys are permitted, but must be reserved to the specific vendor category or vendor deals section.
  5. Active vendor program sponsors have certain moderation powers over their specific sponsored subforum. This includes the limited ability to edit, delete, and organize posts and threads within the sponsored area expressly to keep the section clean. Do not edit or remove unfavorable member feedback that does not violate the Terms of Use.

Best Practices for Vendors - Getting the Most out of Community Engagement

  1. You are welcome and encouraged to participate in regular, non-commercial conversations with the membership of our communities. Be respectful, civil, and helpful in your responses and you’ll get a lot more engagement with your commercial endeavors.
  2. Engage with our communities positively, especially if there are particular topics you or your representatives are well-versed in. The sharing of knowledge and passions is the currency of any community, and taking a friendly approach in a non-commercial way is a great method of establishing trust and interest.
  3. Keep it casual!  Avoid corporate lingo and jargon, taking a more straightforward, personal approach. Members are less likely to engage with a user that sounds like a marketing brochure, and more inclined to interact with someone who they can relate with and convey the value of the product or service on a personal level.
  4. Being detailed matters with commercial posts - so be sure to include the price, dates of the sale, how they can get it, and as much information as possible.  Be sure to include keywords related to the product in the thread title and post content.  Do your best to have the most commonly expected questions answered in advance with your posts.
  5. Respect the flow of conversation for best effect.  Necroposting (posting to threads 6+ months old since the last response) and thread hijacking (redirection of a topic subject discussion to your product or service) are disallowed.
  6. Be conscious of the line between rivalry and bashing when it comes to competitors. You are welcome to respectfully compare and contrast your products or services with those of your competitors, but please keep discussions regarding comparisons to rival offerings civil and factual.
  7. Resolve any disputes with members who are customers personally and succinctly.  Vendors may encounter customer and member disputes over products and services on the subject of refunds, defects, or issues. For individuals, work to resolve the dispute via private message or through emailed details to the appropriate department or offline.  For broader-based issues, use public threads and posts in response to demonstrate customer service and product expertise to potential customers who may be researching how your company responds to consumers.
  8. Report any problems with users to the Moderators on the site using the “Report” function at the bottom of the post or thread. Any issues that are technical in nature or cannot be addressed within the scope of the moderators should be raised directly with your customer service contact with VerticalScope.

Getting Started

There are 3 business plans available.

  • Free Business
    • Basic Directory Listing for your business
    • Promoting Your Business is not permitted
  • Supporting Vendor
    • Upgraded placement within the Business Directory that will allow for more exposure in comparison to the Free Business option.
    • Stand out with a vendor badge and specialized posting privileges.
    • Engage with the community while promoting your business.
  • Premium Vendor:
    • All the features in the Supporting Vendor Plan, plus
    • Premium placement on the Business Directory.
    • A Dedicated Business Forum (see Business Forum section for more information).
    • Manage and moderate your Business Forum.

You can post to the General Member Introduction section to introduce yourself to the community. Please read the section stickies and Vendor Rules prior to posting.

Please find the general FAQ section to find out more about forums, posting and general How-To’s.

 

Navigate to the Business Dashboard from “My Business” by clicking on your avatar to bring down the menu, and click the “Edit Business Profile” section.

You may edit your business information such as email, website, address, etc.

 

Please see Vendor Rules and Best Practices located at the top of this page. You can also find information in the general FAQ section along with stickies that are found within certain sub-forums.

If you need assistance, please contact our customer support at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

You should follow both. Please read through both sets of rules. The Forum Rules address the forums in general and the Vendor Rules address vendor advertising guidelines.

Yes, you may have a business account and a personal account.

Yes, you have the ability to make unlimited edits for the first 24 hours after the post goes live.

  • You will receive notifications regarding updates on any sub forum that you have followed.
  • You will also receive notifications when updates are made to a particular thread.

A signature serves as a watermark at the bottom of each post. It is a reference point where you can showcase your company's contact information, company logo, product information, business updates, or any other visual that you would like to include.
We encourage you to create your signature and update it frequently to keep our members engaged with your company offerings.

Navigate to the account settings page and then to the signature settings page.

 

You can find the number of posts and members on the homepage of this forum.

You have the ability to Edit or Delete any thread or reply created by our community members on your Business Forum.
We strongly suggest that you sparingly use the Edit or Delete feature and recommend that you respond to negative feedback. By doing so, you are building your brand's credibility and authenticity among our community members.

You may include 1 external URL in your signature and as many internal forum links as you like.

Free Business

You cannot promote your business as a Free Business. Please see the options for Supporting and Premium vendors here

You will be automatically added when you register as a Free Business and start participating in the community via posting.

Please make sure you adhere to Forum and Vendor Rules when posting in the community.

You can find the directory at the bottom of any forum page.

In order to be listed in the "Free Business" section on the "Business Directory" page you need to participate in the community via posting. Businesses who fail to post regularly will be removed from the "Free Business" section.

Please make sure you adhere to Forum and Vendor Rules when posting in the community.

Supporting & Premium Vendors

  • Supporting vendors can create a thread in the Vendor Deals forum to promote their business.
  • Supporting vendors can reply commercially* by marking thair replies with a "Business" label.

* Commercial posting (part of any marketing offering of product or service) is limited to your specific sponsored subforum or the public vendor deals subforum. Additionally, it is acceptable to make recommendations as posts in response to direct requests for product/service suggestions by members in the broader forum, provided it is relevant to the thread. Vendors are disallowed from using member Classified areas for commercial posting, as these are expressly for member exchanges.

  • All the features in the Supporting Vendor Plan, plus:
  • Premium placement in the Directory Listing.
  • Dedicated Business Forum which acts as your virtual storefront.
  • Organize any posts within your Dedicated Business Forum with Moderation privileges.
  • Premium membership is a separate feature that is not included.

Billing & Payment

Typically within a few minutes, please wait for an email confirmation. If there are any issues please contact our customer support at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

Navigate to your Business Settings and then to Plan and Payment.

 

  • You can upgrade or downgrade any time.
    • If you downgrade your plan, it will be reflective after the next renewal date. 
    • If you upgrade, you will be charged a prorated amount to cover the difference and move to the next available plan effective immediately.

You will keep the current plan until the next renewal date.

Navigate to the ‘Plan and Payment’ page and click onto the ‘Manage Payment & Billing History' and you can update your credit card information under “Payment Method”.

Your charge will be under VERTICALSCOPE INC.

Navigate to the the ‘Plan and Payment’ page and click onto the ‘Manage Payment & Billing History and you can update your credit card information under “Payment Method”

We leverage a payment gateway that accepts major credit cards (Visa, Master, Amex, Discover etc.).

You can switch back to monthly, but it will only be effective after the yearly subscription ends.

Navigate to the the ‘Plan and Payment’ page and click onto the ‘Manage Payment & Billing History and you can find your invoices under “Billing History”

You may cancel the subscription anytime but your current subscription will remain active until the renewal date. Please contact us if there are any issues at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

To cancel your subscription please visit the Plan and Payment page.

Business Forum

Premium Vendors will be able to create and moderate a dedicated forum for their business. They can post deals, advertise and engage the community as long as it is within the forum and vendor rules and guidelines.

Navigate to My Business and find the ‘Business Forum Manager’ page.

 

Navigate to My Business and find the ‘Business Forum Manager’ page.

Inside the ‘Business Forum Manager’ page find a ‘Update Forum’ button to edit description and forum title.

You have the ability to Edit or Delete any thread or reply created by our community members on your Business Forum.

We strongly suggest that you sparingly use the Edit or Delete feature and recommend that you respond to negative feedback. By doing so, you are building your brand's credibility and authenticity among our community members.

Please refer to the Vendor Rules at the top of the page.

Vendor Deals

This is a forum that allows vendors to post deals and promotions for the community. This is only available to Supporting and Premium vendors.

You can moderate your own threads but not threads created by others. 

Please refer to the Vendor Rules at the top of the page and general FAQ.

Keyword Alerts

The Keyword Alerts feature is available to all users who registered their business and purchased a Supporting or a Premium Vendor subscription.

  • Users on a Premium Vendor plan can add up to 5 Keyword Alerts.
  • Users on a Supporting Vendor plan can add up to 3 Keyword Alerts.
  • Navigate to the "My Business" page and find the Keywords Alerts link on the left menu under Business section.
  • Click “Add Your First Keyword” to begin setting up your keyword alerts!

You can add a word or phrase between 3 and 150 characters

You can choose how you want to be notified while setting up or editing your keyword:

  1. Website alert - the alert will be displayed in the list of your Alerts and indicated as a red dot on your avatar.
  2. Daily email - the list of all post with the keyword found will be sent to you email address that you registered on the forum with.
  3. Both - if this option is selected you will be alerted via Website alerts and receive a Daily email.

Please note: if your keywords were not found in conversations in the last 24 hours, you will not receive an email.

Each business owner and team member on your vendor subscription account will receive the alert.

  • Navigate to the Keyword Alerts page and select a keyword you want to change by clicking on the “Edit” link.

  • In the edit popup, you can change the keyword or delete the keyword.

There is no limit. You can change your keywords as often as you like.

You can stop receiving your alerts by editing and deleting your keywords on your Keyword Alerts page.

 

  • Please ensure you are checking the email account on your account settings
    • You can find account settings by navigating to Your account → Account Details
  • Please ensure that the email is not in the junk/spam folder

In case you need any assistance, please contact our customer support at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

Please contact our customer support at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

Troubleshooting

In case you need any assistance, please contact our customer support at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

In case you need any assistance, please contact our customer support at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

In case you need any assistance, please contact our customer support at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

In case you need any assistance, please contact our customer support at 1-855-208-3936 or email premiumsupport@verticalscope.com.

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