Meaning & use
paid post
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A piece of online content that a company paid someone to publish, marked to show it is advertising.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a paid post' or 'three paid posts'.
Patterns
- publish a paid post
- a paid post on something
- a paid post for a company
The influencer labeled the video as a paid post for a skincare brand.
Instagram now lets users see when a paid post has been sponsored.
She earns most of her income from paid posts on her blog.
nouncountable
A message or article placed on a website only after the sender has paid a fee.
Grammar: Countable and often used with 'a' or a number: 'a paid post', 'two paid posts'.
Patterns
- submit a paid post
- a paid post on a forum
The job board only accepts paid posts from employers.
He put a paid post in the local newsletter to advertise his shop.
Word forms
| plural | paid posts |
|---|
Common combinations
- sponsored paid post
- The rules require every sponsored paid post to carry a clear label.
- publish a paid post
- Companies often publish a paid post through a popular account.
- a paid post for a brand
- He wrote a paid post for a travel brand last summer.
- mark something as a paid post
- You should mark the story as a paid post so readers are not misled.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sponsored post
- Very close in meaning, but it stresses that a company sponsored the content rather than simply that money changed hands.
- advertisement
- More general and used for any paid promotion, including print, TV and radio, not just online content.
- advertorial
- Refers specifically to an article that looks like normal editorial writing but is paid for; a paid post can be any format.
Word family
Commonly confused: paid post or postpaid? paid post or prepaid?
paid post vs postpaid
'Postpaid' means you pay a bill after using a service, as with a postpaid phone plan; 'paid post' is content that has been paid for.
paid post vs prepaid
'Prepaid' means you pay before using a service; a 'paid post' is a piece of content that someone was paid to publish.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'paid post' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Paid post' is a noun meaning paid online content, so it fits sentence A. Option C confuses it with 'postpaid', which describes a phone plan, and B and D wrongly use the phrase as a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “paid post”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.