Ekşi Sözlük
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
Ekşi Sözlük ("sour dictionary") is a Turkish platform built as a collective explanatory dictionary. All content is arranged under headings (başlık) — which may be a word, an event, a company or a film — and under each heading come entries written by members. There are no forum threads and replies here: you write your own entry under a heading rather than reply to a specific person.
It is worth understanding this format before you decide what to do with the platform as a marketer. A heading with your company's name most likely already exists and lives without you: customers, employees and competitors write under it. The platform calls itself the "largest Turkish-language reference source in the world" — that is a statement about itself, not an independent measurement.
The site is closed to automated reading: its robots.txt file explicitly prohibits access to bots and carries an ai-train=no signal.
Who's here
The audience is Turkish-speaking. The platform publishes figures on its page for advertisers: "ayda 26 milyon aktif kullanıcının, 78 milyon kez ziyaret ederek, 400 milyonun üzerinde sayfanın görüntülediği" — 26 million active users a month, 78 million visits, and over 400 million page views. The page states neither the date these figures were calculated for nor the methodology; it is the platform's statement in a commercial context.
The number of members who write is noticeably smaller than the number of readers: writing requires an account, reading does not. The Turkish-language Wikipedia gives 115,852 registered authors as of 2019 and dates the start of operations to 15 February 1999. That is encyclopedia data, not the platform's own.
Getting started
Registration is free, but member status is not granted immediately. A newcomer gets the status of çaylak ("rookie") and becomes a full author (yazar) only after the editors review their first entries. The English-language Wikipedia describes the threshold like this: you must publish at least 10 entries, which are then checked for compliance with the dictionary's rules and for quality, and the wait can take months or years.
Judging by the public sources, the platform has no separate business account with document verification. A brand's work runs along a different line — through the advertising dashboard (see "How to grow"), not through a company profile.
A rookie's rights are cut back. The Turkish outlet bianet, citing an administration announcement from March 2023, lists the current procedure: rookies cannot create headings at all, and an author who has left rookie status gets that right only after 6 months and 100 entries; for every deleted entry another month is added to the six-month term. An author whose entry was deleted at the demand of the law cannot create headings for a month.
What you can publish
An entry is a text under a chosen heading. The English-language Wikipedia states that the heading length is limited to 50 characters, while the entry length is unlimited, and that capital letters are not used in entries — an established house style where everything is written in lower case.
What is known for certain about commercial texts: the platform sells advertising precisely in the entry format. On its advertising page it offers advertisers the option to "sözlük formatına uygun olarak hazırlayacağınız metinleri, seçeceğiniz ilgili başlık altında ekşi sözlük anasayfasında yayınlayabilir" — to publish texts prepared in the dictionary's format under a heading of your choice. In other words, the advertising message looks like an entry, but it is placed for a fee and through the dashboard.
How to grow
The platform offers no organic "brand promotion". The only tool it describes itself is the advertising dashboard on the subdomain native.eksisozluk.com. Its terms of use name the operator: the service is run by Crenvo Bilişim Danışmanlık Reklam ve Tic. A.Ş. (Istanbul, Kadıköy), not by the dictionary's editorial team.
The procedure is described in the same place: an advertiser tops up a balance in advance, and material is published only after moderation; unapproved material does not go out, and the operator may reject content "without any obligation to give a reason". Payment is by card or bank transfer. The terms place responsibility for a campaign's content entirely on the advertiser.
The Turkish outlet Webrazzi describes the format's history: Ekşi Sözlük's native advertising launched on 30 April 2018, and even then the service let an advertiser choose the placement, the publication date and the budget themselves and pay for the campaign by card.
bianet reports that entries by authors who have not met the requirements for seniority and entry count do not affect the trends algorithm.
Path to monetization
Ekşi Sözlük is built as voluntary writing: the platform offers its authors no share of advertising revenue, no donations and no affiliate programme. The money goes the other way — from the advertiser to the operator of the advertising service.
Tools and automation
The platform has no public documentation for a programmatic interface. What is more, it technically closes itself off from automated access: its robots.txt lists prohibited bots, including AI system crawlers. That is a direct signal of the owner's position — you should not plan scheduling or scraping here.
The only official "tool" for a company is the native.eksisozluk.com dashboard, with moderation of every publication.
Limits and rules
- Advertising is paid only, and through the dashboard. The platform's own format is a paid entry under a heading, subject to moderation that the operator may fail you without explanation.
- A rookie's rights are cut back. Creating headings is closed off until 6 months and 100 entries.
- Moderation of entries. Entries deleted at the demand of the law extend an author's restrictions.
- Automated access is closed off. robots.txt prohibits bots and AI training.
- Legal risks in the country. The platform has been blocked in Turkey more than once: the English-language Wikipedia records a block from 21 February 2023 and its lifting on 22 January 2024. For a brand that means the risk of the channel becoming unavailable inside the country through no fault of yours.
Who it's for
It suits companies working in the Turkish market that already have a reputation with this audience: people write under the heading with your brand's name without your involvement, and at the very least reading it is useful.
It suits advertisers ready to pay for placement in the platform's format and to accept that every message goes through moderation and that a rejection may go unexplained.
It is not for organic promotion by your own employees: the path to the right to create headings is long, and the platform has no "company blog" tools. It is not for automation: the site is technically closed to bots. It is not for you if you need a channel with guaranteed availability: the history of blocks in Turkey argues against that.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
Languages
the interface language of the home page: tr
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
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