Choosing the Channel-Owner Side

Paid Promotions is a two-sided marketplace. An advertiser account books placements and bids in auctions. A channel-owner account lists channels, accepts bookings and gets paid. Every account is one or the other, chosen once, and the choice is permanent.

This page covers making that choice, what it locks in, connecting your Telegram account, and the short checklist between the choice and your first booking.

This decision cannot be reversed, undone or added to

Your marketplace side is written to your account exactly once and is then enforced by the database itself. There is no switch, no upgrade path and no support request that changes it. An advertiser account can never sell; a channel-owner account can never book. If you genuinely need both, register a separate account for the other side.

Before you start

• A signed-in Onflow Ads account at https://onflowads.com.
• A verified email address. Choosing a side without one is refused with "Please verify your email before enlisting."
• No side chosen yet. If one is already set, the choice page does not appear at all.

Step by step

1. Open Paid Promotions at https://onflowads.com/telegram/dashboard/paid-promotion. An account with no side yet lands on the chooser, headed "Sponsored posts, escrowed end to end."

2. Read both cards. The selling side is the one headed I own channels — "List your channels, set your rates per format, accept bookings on your terms — payouts as fast as 24h on higher tiers." Its ticks are the promises that matter: you approve every ad before it runs, and publishing is handled for you by the bot.

   One tick on that card overstates what you get

   The card still reads "Auto-post & pin handled by the bot". Auto-post is exactly as described. Pinning is not part of it: no format includes a pin, and an ad is only ever pinned when the buyer paid separately for the pin — which you have to switch on before anyone can buy it.

3. Press Continue as owner →. Nothing is written yet. The button arms and changes to Tap again to confirm — this can't be undone, and the page announces the same thing to screen readers.

4. Press the same card a second time. That commits the choice. Pressing the other card instead arms that one and disarms this one, so a stray tap cannot pick the wrong side.

5. What happens next depends on how recently you verified your email:

   • Verified within the last 48 hours — the side commits immediately ("You're enlisted!"), a welcome email goes out, and you land on your new owner desk.
   • Verified longer ago — a 6-digit confirmation code is emailed to you and you are routed to a confirmation page. Enter the code to commit. Resend code gets a new one; too many wrong entries lock confirmation for a few hours.

What the owner side unlocks — and what it closes

Unlocked: the owner desk, the listing wizard, the bookings queue, the listing manager, payouts, spotlights, buyer perks, blackout dates, auto-accept, dynamic pricing, category sponsorship and auction hosting.

Closed: booking placements. An owner account cannot use the cart, the booking composer, campaigns, the watchlist, the Channel finder or the buyer analytics page — those routes redirect back to the desk, and the buy-side APIs refuse an owner account outright.

Still open: browsing. You can open the Marketplace pill and any channel page on it, which is how you check what comparable channels charge before pricing your own. You can also open your own listing preview from the listing manager's Preview public page button — and, separately, copy the sign-in-free link a stranger can open, described in Your public channel page.

Choosing a side costs nothing and does not change your subscription plan. It is a permission, not a purchase.

Connect your Telegram account

Linking Telegram is optional for the website but close to mandatory in practice, because two useful things depend on it.

1. Go to your account page at https://onflowads.com/account.
2. Find the Telegram connection card and press Connect Telegram.
3. Telegram opens on a personal deep link to the Onflow Ads bot. Press Start there, then refresh the account page — it reads "Your Telegram is connected."

What the link buys a seller:

Without a linked Telegram	With one
Every listing goes to the manual moderation queue, because instant verification has to confirm that your own Telegram account is an admin of the channel	Listings on a paid plan can verify instantly and go live in the marketplace at once
No booking messages — the website queue is your only notice	A rich booking message per placement, carrying the channel, the ad slot, your payout, the go-live window, the OFO- reference, and a 📄 Get the post here button that sends you the whole placement in the chat
No way to reach the listing manager other than typing its URL	The verification message carries the 📊 Manage channel button, which is the only in-product route to the listing manager
Auto-posted ads are recorded silently	A "Your ad is now live" message with a 👁 View the live post button

Telegram is where you read the ad; the website is where you decide

The booking message carries two buttons. 📄 Get the post here sends the complete placement — media, caption, links and buttons — into the chat you are already in, so you can see what you are being asked to publish without leaving Telegram. ✅ Review & respond opens your bookings queue on that booking. The decision itself is always taken on the website, because accepting moves money, stakes a deposit and writes your reliability ledger. See Receiving, accepting and declining bookings.

Your owner desk

Once the side is set, https://onflowads.com/telegram/dashboard/paid-promotion becomes Your desk — "Approve bookings, price your slots, and get paid — money releases once delivery is proven."

• Booking requests and + List a channel — the two primary buttons.
• Four stat tiles: Channels listed (in your pool), Live now (visible in the marketplace), Wallet (one balance across every Onflow Ads product), Reliability (your score out of 10).
• My channels — one card per listed channel with its avatar, name, handle, subscriber count, its OFPL- reference and a status badge (LIVE in green, or the current stage in gold), plus two buttons:
  • Manage listing — opens the listing wizard in edit mode, at the pricing step. It does not open the listing manager.
  • Remove — takes the channel out of your pool. It arms first ("Confirm — earnings kept") and disarms itself if you do not confirm.
• With no channels yet: "No channels yet." and a List your first channel → button, plus a dismissible three-step guide — List your channel, Pass verification, Accept and get paid. The dismissal is remembered in that browser only.

What you need before your first booking

1. A public Telegram channel with at least 1,000 subscribers. The current minimum and your channel's real count are both shown if it falls short.
2. @OnflowAdsBot added as an administrator of that channel, with the Post Messages right. Add Edit Messages of Others (inside Manage Messages) as well only if you intend to offer the pin; nothing else needs it.
3. A published listing that has passed verification — see Listing your channel.
4. A rate card carrying at least the mandatory "1 hour top · 24 hours in feed" slot at $1 or more — see Prices and offers.
5. A reliability score of at least 4.0 out of 10 to accept a booking. Every account starts at 8.0, so this only bites if something has gone wrong.

Nothing is asked of you on the identity side until you actually earn: verification appears only once your lifetime payouts cross a threshold. See Identity verification.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What it means	What to do
"Please verify your email before enlisting."	Your email address is not verified yet	Verify it from your account page, then reopen the chooser
"You're already enlisted, and your role can't be changed."	A side is already set on this account	Register a separate account for the other side — there is no switch
"Please choose Advertiser or Channel Owner."	The request arrived without a valid side	Reload the page and press the card again
"Too many attempts. Please try again in a few hours."	Too many wrong confirmation codes from this address and address block	Wait out the lockout, then request a fresh code
A "too many requests" refusal on the chooser	The choice endpoint allows 10 attempts per network address per hour	Wait and try again

Related

• Listing your channel — the four-step wizard that turns your channel into sellable inventory.
• The listing manager — the per-channel control room, and how to reach it.
• Receiving, accepting and declining bookings — what happens when the first request lands.
• Connect your account — the full Telegram linking flow.