There is exactly one ranking signal on the paid boards: how much has been paid. No editorial picks, no quality score, no shadow ordering.
$5 is the floor — the least it costs to appear at all. $1 is the raise — pay that much more than the current leader's total and you take #1. They are separate numbers and never collapse into each other.
A bid smaller than the leader's total is perfectly valid. It simply lands at whatever rank the amount buys. Nothing is rejected for being low as long as it clears the $5 floor.
Every payment counts on the all-time board, on today's 24-hour board, and inside your category at the same time. Today's board resets daily; your all-time total never does.
Bidding again with the same URL adds to that listing's total instead of creating a second row. Rank is cumulative.
Free listings cost nothing and rank by views plus clicks. They never mix into the paid boards.
Whole dollars only. Anything below the floor, negative, or unparseable clamps back to $5.