These guidelines exist so the group stays useful for mums and worth paying for as a business. They apply to every advertiser, on every package.
Who can advertise
Your business needs to serve families in or near the City of Melville. You don’t have to be based here, but our members do need to be able to use what you offer.
We don’t accept MLM or party-plan advertising, including recruitment posts.
Melville Mums is run by Lisa, who also owns Lilypad Photography, so we don’t accept advertising from photographers. Other categories aren’t exclusive, so you may share the group with businesses in your field.
Posting in the group
- Post as your business page or clearly identify your business in the post.
- Up to 2 posts per month. It’s a tight-knit group, and less-but-better posting keeps members welcoming business content.
- Posts must offer something useful: an offer, an event, news, availability. “Just bumping this” posts get removed.
- Don’t cold-message group members. One report of unsolicited DMs and your posting rights are paused while we look into it.
Recommendation threads
This is the part advertisers value most, so the rules are strict.
- You may comment as your business when someone asks for what you offer, or when a member has tagged you.
- Keep it short: who you are, what you do, how to reach you. Let your reviews do the selling.
- Never comment on a thread asking about a competitor’s problem, and never post negative comments about another business.
Feature articles
- Featured Partner articles: we write them from your completed questionnaire, and you get one round of edits before publishing. One-off articles: you supply the copy and photos through the same form, and we give it a light edit for tone and length.
- Articles are marked as sponsored. That’s non-negotiable and it protects you as much as us: readers trust what’s labelled.
- Articles stay on the website permanently unless they’re tied to a dated event.
Payments and cancellations
- Subscriptions are billed automatically through Stripe. Cancel anytime through the billing portal; your access runs to the end of the paid period.
- No refunds for partial months.
- If your payment fails and isn’t fixed within 7 days, posting rights pause until it is.
If the guidelines are broken
First time, we’ll message you and point to the guideline. Second time, posting rights are removed for the rest of your billing period without a refund. We’d rather never do either.
Non-advertisers
Businesses that aren’t paying members can’t promote themselves in the group, in posts or in comments. Promotional content from non-members is removed and repeat offenders are removed from the group. If that’s you and you’d like to do it properly, see our advertising packages.