Frequently asked questions
40questions, answered the way we’d answer them by email, and sorted into the same three parts as the main guide. Every question has its own link, so do send someone straight to one.
Part One
Vendor Listings
For vendors, product marketers, and the agencies working with them
Directory listings & enhancements
Getting in, claiming what's already there, and keeping it right.
How much does a Directory listing cost?
Nothing. Being listed and claiming your listing are free, and they'll stay that way. What we charge for is reach — a disclosed placement on a Buyer Guide — not for the right to have an accurate record.
For vendorsWe're already listed but we never submitted anything. Why?
We compile the Directory from public sources so buyers can compare a whole category rather than only the vendors who happened to sign up. Claim the listing to correct it, or ask us to remove it — either request is honored, no questions attached.
Claim your listingHow long does a new listing take to appear?
Typically two to three business days. An editor reads every submission before it publishes, which is what makes the Directory worth trusting.
Submit a listingHow do you verify that we're really from the company?
By email on the company's own domain — we send a verification link there and clicking it proves control. It's the one step we can't waive, since it's what protects your record from anyone else editing it.
Can our agency claim the listing on our behalf?
The claim itself needs to come from a company-domain address, because that's what proves control. Once it's claimed, whoever manages the profile day to day can take it from there.
Do our edits publish immediately?
They go through the same read as everything else on the site, which is usually quick. Factual corrections are rarely refused; marketing language tends to get edited out, for your listing and everyone else's.
Does a listing or a placement include a link to our site?
Your Directory profile carries your website, and claiming that profile is free — so yes, and you don't need to buy anything to get it. Links on paid placements and vendor-supplied fields are marked as advertising, in line with search engines' guidance. What isn't available is a link inside our editorial copy.
Claim your listingCan we have our listing removed?
Yes — ask from a company-domain email address and we'll take it down. Your listing is never leverage for a sale.
Contact usOur submission came back. What now?
It's usually one of three things: a duplicate of a listing we already have, a category that doesn't quite fit, or copy that sells rather than describes. Any of them is a five-minute fix, and there's no limit on resubmitting.
Buyer Guide Spotlight purchases
What a placement is, what it costs, and what it deliberately doesn't buy.
What exactly is a Spotlight Listing?
A disclosed paid card in a Buyer Guide's Spotlight module — up to 5 per guide — linking to your CIOPages Directory profile. It sits beside our analysis, labeled as a paid placement, rather than inside the editorial Vendor Landscape.
How Spotlight worksWhat does it cost?
Spotlight is $99 per guide per year. Featured Sponsor — the single exclusive slot above the Spotlight cards — is $499 per guide per year at the introductory rate. Both include the Enhanced Listing, normally $299 a year.
Buy a placementDo we need an Enhanced Listing before we can buy a placement?
No — Enhanced is included in the price of a placement. If you already pay for it, you won't be charged twice.
When are we actually charged?
Not at checkout. Your card is authorized and held while an editor reviews the placement, and only on approval is it charged and the card published. If we decline, the hold is released and you're never billed.
What do you review before approving a placement?
Two things: that you genuinely belong in that guide's category, and that your profile facts hold up against your own public information. We don't vet your marketing claims — a Spotlight card shows the same reviewed profile fields as every other listing.
Can we appear on more than one guide?
Yes, and most vendors relevant to several categories do. Pricing is per guide, so you can hold the Featured slot on your core category and run Spotlight cards on the adjacent ones.
There's no Buyer Guide for our category yet. Can we still buy something?
Placements are sold only on guides that are live — 132 of them today. If yours isn't covered yet, the Enhanced Listing ($299/yr) stands on its own, and telling us about the gap genuinely does feed into what we write next.
Will buying a placement get us into the guide's analysis?
No, and that separation is the reason the placement is worth anything. The editorial Vendor Landscape is chosen on market relevance and never references who has paid — which is exactly why the buyers you want still read it.
Our principlesCan we supply our own copy or creative for the card?
The card renders the factual profile fields we already review, so the lever you have is the profile itself — worth an edit before you buy. Featured Sponsors also get their logo and a one-line message.
Can we cancel?
Placements are annual and managed from the vendor portal. Cancel any time to stop the next renewal; the current term runs its course and the slot then reopens.
Vendor portalDo you sell newsletter sponsorships, webinars or other placements?
Not at the moment — Buyer Guide placements and the Enhanced Listing are what's available today. We do expect to open other formats, and this page is where they'll show up first, so it's worth telling us what you're after rather than assuming the answer is permanent.
Tell us what you wantBilling, portal & admin
Invoices, access, and who to ask.
Can we pay by invoice or purchase order?
Checkout is by card and self-serve, which suits most vendors. For annual commitments across several guides, or where procurement needs an invoice, get in touch and we'll work it out.
Contact usWhere do we get receipts and invoices?
Stripe emails a receipt on every charge, and your billing history sits in the vendor portal.
Vendor portalWe've lost access to the portal.
Use the password reset on the portal sign-in page. If the person who claimed the listing has left, write to us from a company-domain address and we'll reassign it.
Vendor portalWhat's the refund position?
You're not charged until an editor approves the placement, so a declined placement costs nothing. Once a placement is live, annual fees aren't refunded mid-term — cancel any time to stop the renewal.
Who do we talk to about something not covered here?
Use the contact form and pick the closest inquiry type — it routes your message to the right person instead of the general queue.
Contact usPart Two
Editorial Contributions
For technology executives and practitioners who'd like to write for us
Editorial contributions
Writing for us: who, what, and how to put yourself forward.
Do you accept guest contributions?
Selectively, and by invitation — from senior operators writing about work they were personally accountable for. We don't take unsolicited finished drafts or agency-placed articles, but a short pitch from someone who fits the bar is always read.
What we look forWho qualifies?
Sitting or recent CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, CISOs, chief architects and equivalent senior operators, writing under their own name on IT strategy, enterprise architecture, AI governance, technology cost, sourcing, or the organizational side of those.
How do we pitch?
Send your role, a three-sentence thesis, and three to five bullets on what the piece would cover — not a finished draft, and not an attachment. If it fits what we're working on we'll come back to you; if you haven't heard within two weeks, it wasn't a fit this time.
Pitch a contributionCan our contribution include a link to our company?
One, in the author bio — your company or your LinkedIn, your choice. The body of the piece stays free of commercial links, because that's what makes readers trust the argument.
Do you pay contributors, or charge them?
Neither. We don't pay for bylines and we don't accept payment for them — an offer of a fee to publish is the one thing that makes the answer an immediate no.
We're not writing a piece, but we have data or commentary. Interested?
Often, yes. Original data, benchmark numbers and specifics from real deployments are genuinely useful to us when they're relevant to a guide in progress. Lead with the substance rather than the product.
Get in touchPart Three
Our Editorial Principles
For communications and PR teams, SEO agencies, and anyone curious how we stay independent while selling advertising
Independence, links & corrections
How we separate what we sell from what we publish.
How do you decide which vendors appear in a Buyer Guide?
Editors select on market relevance to the category — who a CIO shortlisting that category would realistically evaluate. It isn't a paid list, an application process, or a popularity contest.
Can we pay to be added to a guide's vendor analysis?
That one isn't for sale, at any price — it's the thing that makes the guide worth reading. What is available is a disclosed placement beside the analysis, and a well-kept Directory profile, which is where our editors look when guides are updated.
What we sellYour guide says something wrong about our product.
Send it as a correction with the URL, the specific claim and a public source, and we'll fix it — usually within five business days. What we won't do is rewrite an assessment that's accurate but unflattering.
CorrectionsA competitor is in a guide and we're not. How is that decided?
Editorially, on relevance, and it gets revisited every time a guide is updated. A claimed, accurate, well-categorized profile is the single most useful thing you can do about it, because that's the record our editors work from.
Will you send us the draft before publishing?
We'll happily check a specific fact with you before publication — we'd rather get it right. What we don't do is give vendors approval over coverage.
Why so strict about links in the editorial?
Two reasons. Readers rely on our links pointing where the argument leads rather than where someone paid. And search engines treat paid links inside editorial content as a link scheme, so selling them would put both our domain and yours at risk. Neither reason applies to a disclosed advertising placement, which is why we sell those.
So what can we actually buy for visibility?
Today, a disclosed Spotlight placement on the Buyer Guides your buyers read, from $99 per guide per year, plus the Enhanced Listing's lead capture. We add formats over time — if there's one you want that we don't offer yet, tell us; it's useful signal.
See open slotsIs your content AI-generated?
We use AI tools in research and drafting, and every published guide, article and definition is reviewed and edited by people who are accountable for it. We don't publish unreviewed machine output, and we don't accept it from contributors either.
Will you publish our press release?
We don't run releases. If the news changes a fact in your listing — funding, an acquisition, a rename, a new product line — send it as a correction instead; an updated record outlives a news post by years.
Didn’t find it?
Tell us what’s missing — questions that arrive twice end up on this page rather than in a reply, which is better for everyone.