# Finding, claiming and messaging shops

How you find a shop, hold it, and send its owner your ad.

## Quick answers

- **What's a pitch?** A pitch is the first message you send a shop's owner about an ad for their shop. You write and send it yourself, from your own account; the ad's link follows when they say yes. Next: Discover, https://cracked.app/market
- **How do I find a shop?** Open Discover: it lists real small shops, and you can make an ad for any of them. Next: Discover, https://cracked.app/market
- **What do I say to a shop owner?** Your AI drafts a short first message for that shop, with no link: the ad's link goes in your second message, once they say yes. You send both yourself, as yourself, and say you're a creator on Cracked. Next: Discover, https://cracked.app/market
- **The shop wants changes to my ad. What do I do?** Make them a new ad for that shop, with the changes: an approved ad keeps its version, so a change is a new ad. Once a person approves it, it's first on the page the shop already has. Next: Sent to shops, https://cracked.app/ads/pitches
- **What if the shop doesn't reply?** Send one follow-up, then leave it. Each real reply gives you 30 more days to hold that shop, and a no is final. Next: Discover, https://cracked.app/market
- **What's claiming?** Claiming holds a shop for you while you pitch it, so nobody else does. Send the first message within 7 days, or it goes back. Next: Discover, https://cracked.app/market

Discover lists real small shops. You can make an ad for any of them. Bringing a shop means you found it and pitch it yourself, and that earns you the bringing share for its first year.

## Claiming

**Claiming** a shop means holding it while you pitch it: nobody else pitches a shop you hold. How many you can hold at once is set by your [level](https://cracked.app/help/levels.md) and your proof. Claiming your own shops opens with the [challenge](https://cracked.app/help/challenge.md), or when Cracked vets you.

## Pitching

- Send the first message (a DM) within 7 days of claiming, or the shop goes back.
- During the challenge, your first message waits until a reviewer approves an ad you made for that shop.
- You send each message yourself, from your own account; Cracked records it. Sending opens member by member: until it's open for you, your shop and its ad stay held.
- Each real reply gives you another 30 days. A no is final.
- A shop that has joined Cracked isn't pitched: it asks for ads on Discover, and you make one for its brief.

When the shop buys your ad, you're paid: see [How you earn](https://cracked.app/help/earning.md).

In the app: Discover, https://cracked.app/market

Related:
- [Fast Track](https://cracked.app/help/challenge.md): What Fast Track costs, what it buys, and what it doesn't.
- [Your first ad](https://cracked.app/help/first-ad.md): How your AI writes an ad, Cracked makes it, and a person checks it.
- [How you earn: a shop buys your ad](https://cracked.app/help/earning.md): What you get when a shop buys your ad (a “keep”).
- [Levels](https://cracked.app/help/levels.md): What each level keeps, and what moves you up.
- [Cracked words](https://cracked.app/help/words.md): The words Cracked uses, each in one line.

All help: https://cracked.app/help.md