MontanaWithKids.com

Due to the great friends we made on our trips and the number of requests for review that have come in since we first began publishing our Montana articles (and more since the launch of this site,) we’re now planning a 2009 summer tour to cover as many of the countless businesses and attractions we couldn’t get to on our previous trips.

SCHEDULE OF 2009 TOUR DATES HERE

If you think your community may have a number of businesses that can benefit from our news media review, now is the time to organize it and suggest to us that we should come back through your city.

If we’re already planning to visit:

• If we’re already going to be in your area, just write to invite us. If we’re there anyhow, we’re happy to do it in order to expand our knowledge base. We’ll need names and numbers of contacts for your business, but that’s all. We’re hoping to hit most major cities, but if we don’t know you’re interested, we may not be able to get to you, so act early and let us know so you won’t be missed.
• There is NO CHARGE to review your businesses and attractions if we’re coming through anyhow. We earn our revenue from ad sales and future guide book sales, so it is NEVER our intention to force businesses to pay for inclusion.

If we’re not planning to visit:

• Overnight accommodations for the days necessary to properly review the businesses requested. If this is not possible, we can discuss a modest per diem in liue. We can often review 3-5 per day, sometimes more, depending on the nature and extent of the attractions. No cities sell out 100% every day of the summer, so although it’s understandable that summer is when the income is earned, an empty room is of no value to anyone, and we can split that difference with you.
• One meal per day for our group during our stay. This can be provided by individuals or restaurants that want a review. If this is not possible, we may discuss a per diem for this as well.
• Local guide/assistant to help us find our locations, teach us about subtleties of the area, and seek out additional attractions to add to our reviews. This can be as simple as a contact at the visitor’s center to help us connect with the right people in town.

What we offer in kind:

• MontanaWithKids.com is an accredited Google News affiliate, so every review we publish will immediately become searchable in the news.google.com index, where it will remain indefinitely. That means that participating businesses WILL enjoy a review in the mainstream news.
• We will review each and every business requested. That means each hotel, restaurant, and every event and attraction will each get a unique review complete with directions, hours of operation and a direct link to their website. If we have breakfast at the diner, lunch at the pizzeria, and dinner at the steakhouse, that means all three will get a review that day, plus the hotel, plus any other tourist attractions or businesses we visit that day.
• All accommodating businesses will get a text link on all pages of the site for 1 year.
• Unused ad spaces will be randomly distributed to all businesses reviewed (in rotation) for 10-months.

In summary:

Even if you can’t find us a room or a meal, we’ll still come out and perform reviews to the best of our ability. We hope to hit every city and every attraction, and apologize in advance that this may not be possible, but we promise to do our best.

If you have an out-of-the way locale and you know your city deserves the reviews, consider that over a few days, and for just the cost of putting us up and providing a mean a day, we can make that happen for you. Even at that price there is no better value in advertising anywhere.

Use the CONTACT PAGE to request a site visit!

And please don’t be discouraged for any reason. If you fear cost may be an issue, contact us and we’ll try to work something out. Besides, we might already be planning a trip to your area!

Some Questions About the Tour

Why so little money asked to come out?
Because our publication model is built around having the vast majority of our operating capital come from the web site, not from charging for reviews. The articles we publish remain online virtually forever. Many articles we published in 2003 still pay fairly well today. Besides, if we’re going to make all our money by charging to be reviewed, we’ll lose the ability to be honest and objective.

Doesn’t charging at all slant the table a bit?
You can’t “buy” good press with us, but you can put your best foot forward when we come out. We don’t do “gotcha journalism” and we never try to trick anyone. You can read our reviews and see they’re fair, honest and usually (though not always) positive.

Then why ask for compensation at all?
When we went through last year performing reviews, we invested six solid weeks, and we didn’t hit half of the places we wanted to see. The best, easiest way for us to do our work, unfortunately, is by the path of least resistance. We wanted to visit Red Lodge and Great Falls, but no one wrote back to us. We wanted to see Yellowstone and Glacier, but nobody wrote back or even returned our phone calls. No discredit to these places, but if there are cities (like Billings and Missoula) where everyone is eager to meet with us, we’ll focus on those cities first.

Also, there are cities like Havre and Chinook that we’re eager to see, but they’re so far out of the way it becomes time-prohibitive unless we have our schedule lined up in advance and we can know that we’ll have a number of attractions to review.

Who should contact MontanaWithKids to schedule a visit?

Any city, chamber of commerce, or even individuals, so long as they want mainstream media coverage. It’s most important for cities that are off the beaten path, because getting tourists (and even us) away from I-90 can be tricky. If you’ve got a great little town with interesting things to see and do, you owe it to yourself and your city to do what you can. Contact us, because maybe we’re coming out anyway and are just waiting to talk with you.

How do I know how good this is?

I can provide you with traffic and readership statistics, as well as a long list of professionals in Montana I’ve reviewed in the past who can vouch for our professionalism and effectiveness. Just ask.

Use the CONTACT PAGE to request a site visit!