For featured status to be available you must first turn that feature on within the site here:

LISTING SETUP > LISTING EXTRAS

Then to make it available to specific users you would do that through the price plan they are attached. You would go into the cost specifics admin tool page to control for the whole price plan. Then if that price plan is fee-based you can then further customize access and pricing on a category by category basis. Look to these admin tools in the price plan admin tool:

PRICING > PRICE PLANS HOME > (EDIT A PRICE PLAN) > COST SPECIFICS
PRICING > PRICE PLANS HOME > (EDIT A PRICE PLAN) > CATEGORY SPECIFIC COSTS > (EDIT A CATEGORY) (If you are within a fee-based price plan)

There are multiple featured levels you can charge for. Each level would correspond to a specific place within your site where featured listings would display…or you can set up to where featured status allows display within any featured display on the site.

This feature allows you to charge sellers on your site extra for giving them extra exposure on the site. Depending on your placement of the featured module within your design you give additional exposure to pay for this feature to be attached to their specific listing.

Checking yes next to featured level 1 in the LISTING SETUP > LISTING EXTRAS admin tool will allow users to give their listing featured level 1 status. Note you must additionally turn this feature on within each price plan you have and set prices for this feature to users in that price plan.

What the featured status means on your site depends on the configuration of featured modules on your site. Within the default configuration at install we place two featured pic modules on the front page. We also suggest turning on the featured gallery feature of the core display addon to display scrolling featured listings at the top of each category browsing page. Where ever you placed a featured level 1 module on your site listings(classifieds & auctions) with the feature level 1 status attached have a chance to appear. Within each featured module admin tool is a setting of the maximum amount of listings(classifieds & auctions) that can be displayed in that module. Each featured module chooses listings at random. This means that if there are more featured listings than spaces to display them each featured listing gets an even chance at display in that featured module.

We suggest that you adjust the price and number of display of featured auction or classified ad display so that listings get a decent chance at display within a given location. You don't want clients paying for featured status only to need to refresh a page 10 times just to see their listing.

Also note that if you used a featured pic module that only featured listings(classifieds & auctions) that have images attached to them will appear in the featured pic module. All other featured listing modules (non pic-only) display all featured status listings(classifieds & auctions) equally whether images are attached or not. Featured pic modules display a thumbnail image that links to that listing's listing details page on the site. You can also choose to display the title of that listing below the thumbnail of that listing but the title will not be linkable like the thumbnail is.

There are several Featured Listings Levels. As the administrator, you have the ability to set up various levels of Featured Listing status and charge for each individually. How might this work? Well, the various levels of featured listings(classifieds & auctions) are tied to their own separate modules under PAGE MODULES > FEATURED. You can place the module tag for each Featured Listing Level in a different location within the html of your site’s templates. Based upon the expected visitor exposure for each Level, you can assess a different charge when a seller selects to have their listing placed in that Level. If going this route, you will want to set up an Extra Page on your site that explains the differences between each featured level.

This feature can allow you to place level 1 featured listings(classifieds & auctions) on the top of the home page. Level 2 featured listings(classifieds & auctions) lower on the home page. Level 3 featured listings(classifieds & auctions) in the category browsing pages….etc. And then charge accordingly for each distinct level of featured listing according to the exposure each location (level) would get on your site. If you had a featured level 1 module on the top of the home page that is prime advertising "real estate" as most coming to your site will start at the home page. You could charge more for placing your listing in top of the home page (featured level 1) than you do other locations. You could then place featured level 2 at the bottom of your home page. As many do not scroll down this advertising real estate is not seen as much as the featured level 1 module at the top of the home page. With less exposure you could charge less to have a clients listing displayed here. You could then place a featured level 3 module at the top of the category browsing page. When browsing categories for listings(classifieds & auctions) the listings(classifieds & auctions) in featured level 3 would be the first listings(classifieds & auctions) seen by browsing clients before the client browsing the site enters the category of their specific interest. So on and so on for each featured level available to you as the admin to place around your site as you want and charge what you want. Or you can just use one featured level. The choice is yours.