# surrogacycost.guide

Site grounding for agents without the surrogacycost.guide repository: its seven charter files, unchanged except that headings sit two levels lower and every term id the pinned version defines, in the frontmatter blocks too, is followed by its label from the pinned version. The YAML blocks are therefore for reading, not parsing; the repo files are the source.

- Domain: surrogacycost.guide
- Pins: editorial-charter@1.3.1, portfolio-icp@1.0.0
- Repo: f6ac94eee4b697628b4fa942facbab44b0a81470 (committed 2026-10-03T14:25:23-07:00)
- Built 2026-10-05T03:25:29+00:00
- Pages: https://taxonomy.tfw.bz/sites/surrogacycost.guide/

## BRAND.md

Version 1.0.1 · status draft · sha256 4cec7ad15984cc540f71228fa190cad7c236a1b53a6812605ac94a66152a86d8

```yaml
charter: 1
version: 1.0.1
profile: editorial-charter@1.3.1
domain: surrogacycost.guide
status: draft
reviewed_by: ""
archetype: charter:brand-archetype-sage (sage)
secondary_archetype: charter:brand-archetype-caregiver (caregiver)
claims:
  - id: c1
    text: Costs are published as ranges with a date and a note on what each range includes.
    basis: charter:claim-basis-documented (documented)
    source: about.manifest.json copy.summary150; briefs/site.md (site-specific rules)
  - id: c2
    text: The site is independent and not affiliated with any agency, clinic or law firm named in the guide.
    basis: charter:claim-basis-documented (documented)
    source: about.manifest.json copy.summary150
  - id: c3
    text: The site gives no legal or medical advice. It summarizes public cost and regulatory information.
    basis: charter:claim-basis-documented (documented)
    source: about.manifest.json copy.summary150; VOICE.md section 9
```

### BRAND

#### Name and entity
Surrogacy Cost Guide, published by Thomas Prommer. Entity home: https://surrogacycost.guide/en/about/ (`about.manifest.json`). Contact comms@flywheel.bz.

#### Promise
You get sourced, dated cost ranges and what each fee includes, so you can build a realistic budget and payment schedule before you talk to an agency.

#### Personality
The sage, with a caregiver streak: a warm, level-headed friend who is good with numbers and never sells you anything. It answers first, shows the line items, and hands the reader a question to ask at each decision point. It does not perform empathy, rank agencies, clinics, attorneys or countries, or claim first-hand experience with surrogacy.

#### Visual pointers
Locked direction "Terracotta" (warm colour field, tap-through calculator). Tokens: `design/tokens.json`. Rationale and rules: `DESIGN.md`.

#### Do / Don't
Do: date every cost and every legal status, and link the statute or regulator. Do: say what each fee includes and when it is due. Do: close every page with "Educational information only. Not medical advice."
Don't: name a best agency, clinic, attorney or country. Don't: describe workarounds where surrogacy is banned. Don't: write "we have helped families" or any first-hand claim.

## VOICE.md

Version 1.0.1 · status draft · sha256 5acfbb94ae6d07ed42709d23cc5576c577e2dd71f3e2c89cc432361dfa1b3e80

```yaml
charter: 1
version: 1.0.1
profile: editorial-charter@1.3.1
domain: surrogacycost.guide
status: draft
reviewed_by: ""
register: charter:voice-register-practitioner (practitioner)
person: charter:voice-person-second (second person)
languages: [en, de, es, fr, pt]
addresses: [us-intended-parents]
essence: "A warm, level-headed friend who is good with numbers and never sells you anything."
```

<!-- ASSUMED DEFAULT, 2026-09-17: recommended voice option 'a. Warm budget partner' from ~/reports/site-strategy/surrogacycost.guide.json, pending Tom's review in ~/reports/site-decisions/index.html. If Tom picks another voice this file is replaced. -->

### VOICE: surrogacycost.guide (Warm budget partner)

> Loaded by /humanizer (Step 0) and the content publishing gate (drafting Step 1
> + humanizer Step 3). If absent, both fall back to generic mode.

#### 1. Identity & Register
- Voice owner / who speaks: the site (surrogacycost.guide editorial team), second person to the reader, first-person plural only for the site's own method ("we list what each fee includes")
- Register: practitioner
- Language/locale: en (US English); de, es, fr, pt written natively (see section 9)
- One-line essence: "A warm, level-headed friend who is good with numbers and never sells you anything."

#### 2. Audience
- Primary audience: intended parents in the US (primary), plus parents abroad reading the English pages
- Reader's job-to-be-done: build a realistic total budget and a payment schedule before talking to agencies
- Assume they know what IVF is and that surrogacy is expensive; always explain what a fee includes, when it is due, and which state's law applies.

#### 3. Tone Axes  (mark where this voice sits)
- Formal   ────●───  Casual
- Authority ──●────  Peer
- Serious  ──●─────  Playful
- Concise  ──●────  Expansive
- Default editorial_track: factual

#### 4. Person, POV & Cadence
- Person: second (you) for guidance; first-plural (we) only for methodology
- Sentence rhythm: mixed length; a short direct answer, then one or two explaining sentences. No fragments.
- Paragraph length: 2-4 sentences.
- Structural tics to keep: answer first; a line-item table on every cost page; "what is included / not included" lists; a "questions to ask" list before any decision point.
- Avoid: pep talk openers, reassurance without a fact behind it, hypotheticals about the reader's feelings.

#### 5. Lexicon
- Preferred terms: total cost, line item, agency fee, surrogate compensation, escrow, gestational carrier, intended parents, pre-birth order, reimbursed expenses, range (with year)
- Banned phrases (beyond humanizer's generic list): "journey" (except in quoted names), "miracle", "dream family", "affordable surrogacy", "cheap surrogacy", "best agency", "guaranteed", "rent a womb", "surrogacy package deal", "don't worry"
- Capitalization & spelling rules: "IVF", "IVF clinic", "gestational carrier" (lowercase), "intended parents" (lowercase, never "IPs" in body copy), "pre-birth order", "escrow", state names spelled out, currency as "$45,000" with a year and source attached.
- Domain-jargon level: moderate: define each legal or medical term once in a clause ("a pre-birth order, a court order naming you as parents before the birth"), then use it.

#### 6. E-E-A-T / Experience Claims  (anchors gate Step 7)
- Authentic experience this voice can claim: none personal. The site has no named surrogacy practitioner yet. Do not write "we have helped families", "in our experience with agencies" or any first-hand claim.
- Named author + bio source: open. Byline "surrogacycost.guide editorial team" until a reviewer is recruited. Target reviewer: a licensed assisted-reproduction attorney (US) and a fee-only financial planner for cost pages.
- Quantified credential for bios: none yet. Do not invent one. Fill only with verified facts (bar admission state and year, years in ART law).
- Citation posture: primary sources only (state statutes, health departments, court and regulator pages, agency fee schedules published by the agency itself, CDC/SART data with year). Aggregator blogs and agency marketing pages are not evidence for a range unless the page is the agency's own published fee schedule, and then say so.
- Original-data hooks this voice owns: the line-item budget model behind the calculator; a dated table of published agency fee schedules (what each includes, not a ranking); a dated state-by-state legal status table.
- "What I got wrong" angle: the cost lines people leave out of first budgets (a second embryo transfer, a failed match, the surrogate's lost wages and life insurance, travel for the birth, legal fees in two states). Use these as the experienced-sounding beat instead of invented anecdotes.

#### 7. Gold-Standard Examples  (few-shot anchor)
No published pages yet. These seed examples were written for the strategy decision and must be replaced with real published paragraphs once pages pass review.
- Example A (seed, planned page /en/paying-for-surrogacy/): "Most intended parents pay for surrogacy from several sources at once, not one loan. The common mix is savings, a fertility or healthcare loan, family help, and sometimes a grant. Specialist lenders such as Sunfish and Prosper Healthcare Lending advertise loans of up to $100,000 for fertility and surrogacy costs, with multi-year repayment terms. Before you compare interest rates, find out when each bill is due. Agencies usually ask for fees at signing and matching, while the surrogate's compensation sits in escrow and is paid out over the pregnancy. That schedule decides how much you need in cash and how much you can borrow later."
  - Why on-voice: Answers first, names sources for the number, then turns to the practical sequence a budgeting parent needs.
- Example B (seed, planned page /en/surrogate-compensation/): "Surrogate compensation is the base payment a gestational carrier receives for carrying the pregnancy, and it is only part of what intended parents pay her. On top of the base fee, most contracts reimburse expenses such as maternity clothing, travel, lost wages, and extra payments for events like a transfer or a C-section. If you are thinking about becoming a surrogate, ask any agency for the full contract schedule, not just the headline number, and ask who pays your legal counsel. In New York, the law requires that compensation be held in escrow with an independent agent before the pregnancy begins."
  - Why on-voice: Speaks to both sides of the contract, plain and warm, and hands the reader a question to ask rather than a promise.

#### 8. Anti-References  (do NOT sound like)
- Agency marketing pages ("begin your journey", countdown offers, all-inclusive guarantees).
- Cost-comparison clickbait that ranks countries by cheapness.
- Generic AI listicles ("10 things to know before surrogacy").
- Grief-forward mommy-blog register that performs empathy instead of giving numbers.

#### 9. Languages and compliance lines
#### Other languages (write natively, do not translate)
- de (Sie): calm, precise, no Anglicisms where German has a term (Leihmutterschaft, Ersatzmutter, Wunscheltern). Legal context first: surrogacy mediation and advertising are prohibited in Germany (AdVermiG §§ 13c, 13d, 14b). State the law, never describe how to get around it, never name agencies.
- fr (vous): sober and factual. Use GPA and parents d'intention. French law penalizes intermediation (Code pénal art. 227-12): describe it, do not coach cross-border workarounds.
- es (usted on legal and cost pages): gestación subrogada as the neutral term, vientre de alquiler only where quoting search language. Spain bans commercial promotion of surrogacy aimed at the Spanish public (LO 1/2023, art. 33): no agency names or calls to action on es pages.
- pt (você): decide market first (Portugal uses gestação de substituição, Brazil searches barriga de aluguel). Do not mix pt-PT and pt-BR in one page.
- All languages: currency and figures localized with a local source, dated. Closing line localized: "Educational information only. Not medical advice." plus "Not legal or financial advice." 
- Every page closes with: "Educational information only. Not medical advice."
- Never recommend, rank or name a "best" agency, clinic, attorney or country. Explain how to evaluate them.
- Legal status is per jurisdiction and dated ("As of September 2026, in Michigan..."), linked to the statute or regulator.
- Where surrogacy is banned, say so plainly and do not describe workarounds.

## STRATEGY.md

Version 1.1.1 · status draft · sha256 20c23c41f6cf9344ab1009ccf028f8332e6145a8fc2bd6cb87c525a8af0a71a7

```yaml
charter: 1
version: 1.1.1
profile: editorial-charter@1.3.1
domain: surrogacycost.guide
status: draft
reviewed_by: ""
mission_shape: charter:mission-shape-serve-x-to-achieve-y (serve X to achieve Y)
horizon: charter:horizon-12m (12 months)
positioning:
  primary: charter:positioning-axis-authority-depth (authority depth)
  secondary: [charter:positioning-axis-locality (locality)]
audiences:
  - kind: charter:audience-kind-consumer (consumer)
    name: US intended parents
    segment: us-intended-parents
    job_to_be_done: Build a realistic total budget and payment schedule, and check the law in the relevant states, before talking to agencies.
profile_required: true
```

### STRATEGY

#### Mission
We help intended parents in the United States build a realistic surrogacy budget from sourced, dated cost ranges instead of marketing claims, with a clear view of what each fee includes and which law applies.

Source: the drafted default from briefs/strategy.md (ICP a), sharpened with the approved entity copy in about.manifest.json (copy.summary150).

#### Positioning
Authority depth first: primary sources only (statutes, regulators, agency fee schedules the agency publishes itself) where agency and law-firm sites bundle different items into quotes that cannot be compared. Locality second: surrogacy law differs by country and by state, so every legal status is dated and tied to its jurisdiction. We concede reach and link budget, because agency and law-firm sites dominate these results (briefs/strategy.md, risks).

#### Audiences
US intended parents are couples and single parents who have decided, or nearly decided, that gestational surrogacy is their route. The trigger is the first agency quote or a first search for what surrogacy costs, followed by the question of how to pay for it. Assume they know that surrogacy is expensive; always explain what a fee includes, when it is due and which state's law applies.

#### Competitors
Agency sites and law-firm sites dominate the cost and agency-fee queries. Cost-comparison articles that rank countries by cheapness answer the same question with the opposite posture (VOICE.md section 8).

#### What we will not do
No rankings or "best" lists of agencies, clinics, attorneys or countries. No referral fees, paid leads or listings from agencies, lenders or attorneys. No description of workarounds where surrogacy is banned. No first-hand experience claims. Definition, film and sexual-surrogate queries and agency brand names are excluded from the plan (briefs/site.md). No ad slot or product goes live until Tom confirms.

#### Bets for the horizon
1. Own the cost core: total cost, agency fees and the cost components parents budget, each as a dated line-item table (moves gsc_clicks).
2. Make the calculator and the line-item budget model the reason to return (moves content_engaged).
3. Keep the dated state-by-state legal table current, so the laws cluster stays citable (moves pages_indexed).

## AUDIENCE.md

Version 1.1.1 · status draft · sha256 d84c6919f3aa02e6ab6835dcae2d0eb09a53fb77ab845db83462845b8e0c5d5f

```yaml
charter: 1
version: 1.1.1
profile: editorial-charter@1.3.1
domain: surrogacycost.guide
status: draft
reviewed_by: ""
segments:
  - slug: us-intended-parents
    name: US intended parents
    kind: charter:audience-kind-consumer (consumer)
    archetype: icp:self-pay-medical-planner (Self-pay medical planner)
    priority: charter:segment-priority-primary (primary)
    job_to_be_done: Build a realistic total budget and payment schedule, and check the law in the relevant states, before talking to agencies.
    funnel_stages: [charter:funnel-stage-consideration (consideration), charter:funnel-stage-decision (decision)]
    languages: [en]
    regions: [US]
    pains:
      - Agency quotes are not comparable because each bundles different items.
      - Headline totals leave out second transfers, failed matches, insurance and travel.
      - It is unclear whether health insurance covers the surrogate's pregnancy.
      - Financing options are marketed by the same agencies that sell the service.
    channels: [charter:channel-organic-search (organic search)]
    entry_paths: ["/en/surrogacy/", "/en/gestational-surrogacy-agency/", "/en/surrogacy-laws/"]
    size_signal: {metric: monthly_searches, value: 34500, unit: count}
    evidence:
      default: {basis: charter:evidence-basis-assumed (assumed), source: "agent draft 2026-10-03 from briefs/strategy.md (assumed default ICP a, pending Tom) and briefs/site.md", as_of: 2026-10-03}
      size_signal: {basis: charter:evidence-basis-researched (researched), source: "briefs/strategy.md (about 34,500 monthly US searches across the mapped en pages, briefs/keywords.json; part of the agency and compensation volume belongs to prospective surrogates)", as_of: 2026-09-17}
      languages: {basis: charter:evidence-basis-researched (researched), source: "about.manifest.json entity.languages lists en only; the de, es, fr and pt trees are drafts (commits 2026-09-25) and are not published", as_of: 2026-10-03}
      channels: {basis: charter:evidence-basis-assumed (assumed), source: "agent draft 2026-10-03 from briefs/strategy.md (Google, cost-intent and commercial queries)", as_of: 2026-10-03}
```

### AUDIENCE

#### US intended parents
US couples and single parents who have decided, or nearly decided, that gestational surrogacy is their route, and who are building a budget. The trigger is the first agency quote or a first search for the cost. They want a total with what is and is not included, a payment schedule, and the law in their own state and the likely surrogate's state. Source: briefs/strategy.md, VOICE.md section 2.

The de, es, fr and pt page trees are drafted but not published, and about.manifest.json lists English only. They get no segment yet. Per briefs/strategy.md those markets restrict surrogacy advertising, so a segment for them would be informational only. It gets drafted when those trees publish.

#### Excluded audiences
Not written for: prospective surrogates weighing an offer (the strategy note names this as an unchosen alternative), readers asking how to work around a ban, and readers who want an agency, clinic or attorney recommendation. Source: briefs/strategy.md, VOICE.md section 9.

## MONETIZATION.md

Version 1.0.1 · status draft · sha256 0fe1222b9998b7fc4f5feba844a32156ba5355867d6802f46c571e71cc95ac08

```yaml
charter: 1
version: 1.0.1
profile: editorial-charter@1.3.1
domain: surrogacycost.guide
status: draft
reviewed_by: ""
revenue_lines:
  - slug: display-ads-informational
    name: Display ads on informational pages
    type: charter:revenue-type-display-ads (display ads)
    network: Mediavine Journey or Raptive
    commission_model: charter:commission-model-rpm (RPM)
    placements: [charter:placement-type-display-slot (display slot)]
    segments: [us-intended-parents]
    kpi_key: ad_revenue_recorded
    status: charter:revenue-status-idea (idea)
    share_band: charter:revenue-share-band-minor (minor)
    start_trigger: Tom confirms the monetization choice and traffic reaches the network minimum
    evidence:
      default: {basis: charter:evidence-basis-assumed (assumed), source: "agent draft 2026-10-03 from briefs/strategy.md monetization option a (network thresholds not re-read in this run)", as_of: 2026-10-03}
  - slug: budget-workbook
    name: Surrogacy budget workbook
    type: charter:revenue-type-own-digital-product (own digital product)
    commission_model: charter:commission-model-unknown (unknown)
    placements: [charter:placement-type-tool-result (tool result), charter:placement-type-dedicated-page (dedicated page)]
    segments: [us-intended-parents]
    kpi_key: null
    status: charter:revenue-status-idea (idea)
    share_band: charter:revenue-share-band-minor (minor)
    start_trigger: Tom confirms the monetization choice and the calculator ships
    evidence:
      default: {basis: charter:evidence-basis-assumed (assumed), source: "agent draft 2026-10-03 from briefs/strategy.md monetization option a; no price or sales figure exists", as_of: 2026-10-03}
```

### MONETIZATION

#### Revenue model
The assumed default in briefs/strategy.md is an independent reference: premium display ads on informational pages and a low-price budget workbook, with no pay from agencies or lenders. Both lines are ideas until Tom confirms. No line is marked core because no source gives a revenue split.

#### Disclosure rules
Ads are clearly ads. Any later sponsorship is disclosed clearly and conspicuously. Financing, insurance and escrow options are described editorially with no referral fees. Handover rules 6.3 (no rankings) and 6.5 (no affiliate language) apply (briefs/strategy.md compliance note).

#### Not monetised
No agency, attorney, lender or surrogate-recruiting money: no referral fees, paid leads, paid listings or financing referral fees. Agency and surrogate-recruiting ad categories are blocked, and non-English trees carry ads only with surrogacy-service categories blocked, because those markets restrict surrogacy advertising. Source: briefs/strategy.md.

#### Display ads on informational pages
Premium display ads on informational pages once traffic qualifies. Health-sensitive ad categories are reviewed and agency and surrogate-recruiting ads are blocked. Needs an ad category blocklist and periodic review.

#### Surrogacy budget workbook
A line-item budget model with a payment schedule and questions to ask each agency, sold as a low-price download from the cost pages and the calculator. No price is set. The catalog has no KPI key for own products yet, so none is assigned.

## KPI.md

Version 1.0.1 · status draft · sha256 4f2543d50a8f124248fa4f707f2391ac1f3273c583cf337e2447664dc722baf9

```yaml
charter: 1
version: 1.0.1
profile: editorial-charter@1.3.1
domain: surrogacycost.guide
status: draft
reviewed_by: ""
template: charter:kpi-template-editorial-traffic (editorial traffic)
template_override: ""
kpis:
  - {key: pageview_recorded, role: charter:kpi-role-primary (primary)}
  - {key: gsc_clicks, role: charter:kpi-role-secondary (secondary)}
  - {key: gsc_impressions, role: charter:kpi-role-secondary (secondary)}
  - {key: avg_position, role: charter:kpi-role-secondary (secondary)}
  - {key: content_engaged, role: charter:kpi-role-secondary (secondary)}
  - {key: newsletter_subscribed, role: charter:kpi-role-secondary (secondary)}
  - {key: affiliate_clicked, role: charter:kpi-role-secondary (secondary)}
  - {key: crawl_errors, role: charter:kpi-role-guardrail (guardrail)}
  - {key: pages_indexed, role: charter:kpi-role-guardrail (guardrail)}
catalog_sha: 4304fc97e9ac457725bdc25dcbb724c36257a707cbb3c237b69cd3e7ba04ac39
```

### KPI

#### Why these metrics
pageview_recorded is the number the site is run on while the first job is ranking the cost and law pages. gsc_clicks, gsc_impressions and avg_position show whether those pages earn search visibility against agency and law-firm sites. content_engaged shows whether the line-item tables and the calculator are used. newsletter_subscribed is kept from the template as a return path. affiliate_clicked is enabled only because the template requires it: no line on this site earns by referral, so it should stay at zero. crawl_errors and pages_indexed are the guardrails: errors must not rise, and indexed pages should follow the plan, where blocked legal pages stay out until verified.

#### Reading guide
Read pageview_recorded weekly against the target in kpi-mgmt once one is entered; none exists yet. Rising impressions with flat clicks means titles or positions need work. A non-zero affiliate_clicked would mean a referral link slipped in and needs removing.

#### Review cadence
Quarterly, with the 12-month bets in STRATEGY.md.

## taxonomy/binding.yaml

Version 1.0.1 · status draft · sha256 a5d29363328756581fcbfc6fd2751843f416461d8b0a899287c195c8342e7dcc

```yaml
charter: 1
version: 1.0.1
profile: editorial-charter@1.3.1
domain: surrogacycost.guide
status: draft
reviewed_by: ""
iab_content: ["iab:186", "iab:391"]
icp_profile: portfolio-icp@1.0.0
content_profile: null
languages: [en, de, es, fr, pt]
regions: [US, DE, ES, FR, BR]
```