Advertise

Media Kit.

elephantjournal.com & Walk the Talk Show.

Advertising & Marketing to elephant’s 1.5 million monthly readers.

elephant, now at 1.5 million readers a month (GA), winner of “best of Twitter” nationally twice for #green, offers something much better than conventional ads.* We offer partner columns.

*We do offer a few, prime location, big, beautiful advertising spots on elephantjournal.com. Want one? Conventional ads include our new sponsored advertising. See “ADVERTISING PLUS SPONSORED COLUMN,” below.

We offer innovative and effective advertising on elephant—through partner blogs. Why?

1. Google search rankings pick up blogs, not ads
2. Readers’ ad blockers block approx 20% of all ads, but not blogs
3. Mobile often blocks ads, but not blogs
4. Social Media sharing: we can share blogs (but not ads), on our Facebook, twitter, pinterest, tumblr, Google+, & mention them in our youtube videos.

Ads are prepaid. Don’t want to prepay? That’s fine: reserve with two credit cards, add 10%.

So what’s the deal?

1. ADVERTISING PLUS SPONSORED COLUMN

>> Prices: deduct 20% if you prepay quarter, deduct 25% if you prepay six months, deduct 30% if you prepay full year. Flash: 25% extra. For Benefit: deduct 10%.

> See below for images and sizes of advertisements

SITE SPONSOR: $15,000/month: main banner, prime interblog banner >and< prime side prime banner, sponsored blog in every daily and weekly newsletter & daily newsletter sponsored blogs.

GREEN SPONSOR: $5,000/month: main banner [if available], standard interblog banner >or< side prime banner & sponsored blog in every weekly newsletter ad & daily newsletter.

GOLD SPONSOR: $2,500/month: two prime square ads + sponsored blogs in weekly newsletter

BASIC SPONSOR [two available]: $1,500/month: prime square ad + sponsored blog in weekly newsletter

SPONSORED COLUMNS

Blogs are more valuable than ads, since unlike conventional ads, they can be shared via our social media—pinterest, tumblr, facebook, twitter, linkedin, Google+, instagram, Vine etc, they come up in Google searches (unlike ads) and they raise your company’s Google search and Alexa rankings. They are transparently labeled: “elephant is proud to partner with xxxx because yyyy.”

One article, featured on front page: $250
10 articles a month:
> $1000/month for one month, + $100 per front page feature
> $900/month for a quarter, front page feature $60 per blog
> $750/month for a year, front page feature $50 per blog

Here’s how it works: Our sponsorships aren’t just “ads.” Because of ad blocker, and ads being ignored, we offer blogs—with transparency. Our partner columns have a clear, supportive note at the top: “elephant is proud to partner with [YOU] because [XXXXXX with Link to You].” Then at the bottom, you can include all your info, links. Your column appears—with your logo—on our front page. You can feature links, events, videos, excerpts from books by speakers at your event, giveaways of your product, articles of general interest that intersect with your product/event…you name it. We can feature your blog on the front page of elephantjournal.com, tweets, tags, and, if pure editorial, business info at bottom of article. Facebook posts (at our editors’ discretion).

Want to get your money’s worth? Put up your max number of blogs. More importantly: 1) blogs need to be interesting and shareable for you to get money’s worth, keep marketing stuff out of it except for top, indented and bottom, indented which can have info about program, links or 2) they should be straight up ads, info, event listings, coupons that are interesting to readers. This is a relationship. You get back love, but only if you put love into it.

elephantjournal.com offers free media sponsorship to select colleges throughout US—click here for more information.

FAQ:

Q: Why are you doing advertorial?!
A: We’re doing more than that, we’re doing straight up advertising. This just enables us to get all those crazy flash ads off the site and make the site cleaner, more fun to read, and it’s better for you advertisers, too.

Q: Why are you supporting XXXXX advertiser or company!?
A: Great question—we only support those we feel at least okay about in terms of our mission to be of benefit…but mainly, we regard our readers as adults, not children, and if you don’t like something, you don’t need to support it, of course!

Q: I’m a non-profitable non-profit or truly good-cause kickstarter. Is there a discount?

A: We offer discounts for frequency, because we value maintaining mutually-beneficial relationships. That said, if you’re deserving, free free to ask for an additional discount or free partnership.

Horizontal Banner Advertisements

Main Leaderboard

Appears on the top of every page—main page, section directories, videos, and every article. Over 1.5 million each month and growing rapidly.

Size 728 x 120 Pixel Banner

Prime Interblog

On top of each article in each section.

Size 728 x 90

Standard Interblog

At bottom of article on top of popular comments section.

Size 728 x 90

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Vertical Advertisements

Appears on left side of content on every page of the site.

Lead Side Prime

 Size 240 x 360

Standard Side Prime

Size 240 x 240

Square Advertisements

Size 120 x 120

We charge $100 fee for early cancellations

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Newsletter Advertising

elephant journal’s Best of the Week Newsletter goes to over 27,000 subscribers.

Newsletter Vertical Prime Ad

$500/newsletter or $1500/month (four newsletters per month)

Deal of the Week: $250/newsletter

Featured at the end of our Top 10 articles of the week and as an article on elephantjournal.com, also featured on our Bulletin Board section on our homepage.

__ __ __

Dedicated Newsletter eBlasts

$2000/one time [We do not offer more than one per month]. Must be advertising on elephantjournal.com in order to buy a blast.

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Testimonials

Amy Ippoliti, Amy Ippoliti Yoga:

“I’ve got to tell you, that ad paid for our entire advertising budget because of how many purchases we got from one banner on elephantjournal.com. By far the most successful of all our online ads! Pumped we still have more time because it really worked. Amazeballs.” [04/03/12]

Ellen Hall, WildSpirit Yoga:

Sergio DiazGranados, Yoga Training Guide:

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Materials

Email to: ad at elephantjournal dot com.

Format: not illustrator. jpg or gif are preferred. .swf for flash.

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Payment

Send us credit card info, paypal or check. Generally, your ad or sponsored article won’t go live until we have invoiced you and received payment. Why? We don’t like to spend time on collections (and neither do you).

Note: early cancellations will move cost back to regular pricing and difference for previous ads will be due.

Update: Google Analytics: elephantjournal.com at 1,350,000 readers this month / 2,137,000 pages read ~ Google Analytics (real #s, not hype).

Because our partnership is active through twitter, facebook, and articles (of our editorial department’s choosing) we only accept sponsorships from those who share our values.

Want to partner with elephant? Here’s what you get: an active, supportive partnership. Love. Presence. National presence thru twitter (named #1 in US in #green by Shorty Awards), facebook (with a sizeable following and active presence).

Our Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis and elephant journal demographic is choosey, active, affluent, 73% female, averaging 33 years old  (our tone is generally “young,” but our interests are shared by older demographics).

If you’re a fit for our readers—fun, bold but family-friendly, hip, a little wild, caring and dedicated to changing your industry for the better—please contact us.

FIRST TIER SPONSORSHIP

ELEPHANTJOURNAL.COM/WALK THE TALK SHOW

$36,ooo/year ($3,000/month, payable monthly). This is the discounted rate—rates are higher if you want an ad for a month or quarter.

Includes:

1. elephantjournal.com’s lead banner up top, as well as side ad on left above the fold
2. one article a month (subject of our choosing)
3. access to our award-winning twitter account (once a month)
4. access to our facebook page (once a month)
5. lead logo on Walk the Talk Show videos
6. thanks live at Walk the Talk Show events (audience 250, also live-streamed nationally)
7. schwag bag and booth at live events
8. five commercials (you provide, or we can do custom for fee) per month, viewed live and live streamed
9. giveaways on facebook, twitter (unlimited)
10. coupons emailed to all paid reader subscribers
11. logo presence with all author/contributors (leading voices nationally in green, yoga, adventure, ecofashion, natural products).
12. product placement (tee shirts, product) in videos.
13. one custom audience interaction video a year.

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SECOND TIER

ELEPHANTJOURNAL.COM/WALK THE TALK SHOW SPONSOR

$36,000 ($3,000/month, payable quarterly). That is the discounted rate. Rates are higher if you prefer to advertise just by the month or quarter, not for the full year.

Includes:

1. inter-blog banner ad (example above), displayed six (!) times on the Front Page (can be six different ads with revolving messages) and then again between our comment section and blogs on every single article/video on the site.
2. one article a month
3. tweet and facebook page post of that article
4. logo at end of all videos
5. thanked live
6. schwag and booth at live events
7. giveaways on facebook + twitter
8. coupons emailed to all subscribers
9. secondary logo presence with all contributors.
10. custom video tie ins
11. One custom video a year.

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THIRD LEAD

ELEPHANTJOURNAL.COM/WALK THE TALK SHOW SPONSOR

$24,000/year ($2,000/month, payable monthly). That is the discounted rate. Rates are higher if you prefer to advertise just by the month or quarter, not for the full year.

Includes:

1. big side ad top left above the fold
2. one article a month (subject/angle of mutual choosing, we reserve final editorial approval)
3. tweet and facebook page post of that article
4. logo in credits on Walk the Talk Show videos/month
5. thanked live (audience: 250 plus live-stream) and or you can welcome audience personally
6. schwag and booth at all our live events (we sponsor approx 40 events a year total)
7. presence on all Press Releases, posters, flyers.
8. giveaways, event notifications via facebook & twitter
9. coupons emailed to all subscribers (if applicable)
10. presence with all our featured writers (leading voices in green, yoga, adventure…).
11. One personal custom video tie in a month via editor/host Waylon Lewis.

What’s next?

1. You: Choose your ad size and location.
2. You: Figure your price.
3. You: Send us credit card info, paypal or check. Generally, your ad won’t go live until we have invoiced you and received payment. Why? We don’t like to spend time on collections (and neither do you).
4. You: Email us your ad artwork and where you want it linked to: ad at elephantjournal dot com.
5. We: Receive your payment.
6. We: Post your ad within 48 hours (or when agreed upon, say 1st of month).
7. We: start up our blog engine on some subject relevant and, as we feel is appropriate, push your blog via twitter (@elephantjournal) and Facebook (elephantjournal.com Page).

Questions? Email ad at elephantjournal dot com

Designer Info:

Advertisement sizes:

• LEAD BANNER: 728 x 120 (new, taller!) pixel banner ad.

• INTERBLOG STANDARD BANNER: 728 x 90 pixel banner ad.

• SIDE PRIME: 240 x 400 pixel vertical rectangle ad.

• STANDARD SQUARE: 120 x 120 pixel square standard sidebar ad.

Format: not illustrator. jpg, gif, png are all good. Pdf ok also. .swf for flash.

Email to: ad at elephantjournal dot com.

SOCIAL MEDIA: TWITTER, FACEBOOK:

elephant has a strong, active, daily presence on Facebook, and 1000s of friends. We’ve been named a top 10 green video blog and top 10 Green Twitter (by two organizations). Advertise on our site, and we’ll work our following for you. Become a Fan at elephantjournal.com’s Facebook page. Follow @elephantjournal on Twitter.

elephantjournal.com has been recognized by MNN and Opportunity Green as a “Top Ten Green Twitter User” nationally, and by Shift, Downtown Boulder, Grist and Green Matters as a leading tweeter.  @elephantjournal won Best  of #Green on Twitter two years running.

FAQ:

Why advertise on elephantjournal.com vs. in newspapers or magazines?

1. Does advertising on the web make sense? Web ads, unlike print advertising, are clickable (but remember, few readers click thru, let alone purchase on the spot. View link as a perk. Your ad is still—as with TV or print—all about presence, brand-building and reinforcement).
2. Link and clicks helps your site get noticed by Google (OneRiot, Yahoo, Bing), since we don’t protect our Alexa page rankings.
3. Web ads can feature multiple images, each advertising different product, event.
4. Web ads are everywhere. Unlike many web sites, readers will see your ad on every page of our web site.
5. Ads are updatable up to once a month to reflect specials, marketing pushes or events.
6. Finally, yearlong ads as are included in our weekly e-newsletter, which goes to thousands of LOHAS leaders and avid readers.
7. Generally, we’ll be happy to include at least one blog on products/programs etc you offer, by one of our 20 writers, as long as said products/programs are mindful, eco, wonderful. We also include a tweet and Facebook push for our blog on you.

What’s elephantjournal.com’s traffic?

elephantjournal has been a full-time web site since January 1st, 2009, when our last print issue sold off the stands of Whole Foods etc. around the country. Therefore, if you commit to an advertisement for a year, our readership should be far larger at the end of that year with a locked-in price.

• 815,000 unique visitors / month as of December 2011 (if someone tells you how many hits they have, that number is more or less meaningless and usually hyped).
• 1.8 pages per visitor
• 1,300,000 page views
• 22% loyalty (multiple visits by same reader each month—a lower loyalty rate indicates that our site is growing quickly).

How many click-thrus can I expect? Few readers click thru, let alone purchase on the spot. View clickableness as a perk. Your ad is still—as with TV or print—all about attracting ‘eyeballs,’ presence, brand-building, and reinforcement.

Do you offer Pay per Click or Affiliate advertising programs? No. Instead, gain, we offer super-low prices so we can keep things simple. We don’t offer pay per click, which doesn’t adequately honor the number of ‘eyeballs’ you receive, which is what folks pay for when they buy print ads—presence. We charge literally 1/3 of other sites because we choose to keep it a simple flat fee, less time for all concerned.

WHY DID ELEPHANT JOURNAL GO PAPERLESS?

The change is, as it happens, was partially inspired by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s experience in the early ’90s, when his company’s next move, if they wanted to continue to grow, was to begin selling Patagonia clothes in department stores. But Yvon didn’t want to impact the integrity of his products—so he decided to keep Patagonia (relatively) small, and keeping walking his environmentally-responsible talk.

By the same token, to grow beyond our circulation of 30,000 (available in Whole Foods and such around the country), elephant journal was ready to start distributing to Barnes & Noble, Borders etc…which was great… except that our sell-through rate would have plummetted from 8/10 (eco-responsible, and good for advertisers) to 3/10 (the national average, shameful considering even recycled paper magazines are milled/shipped/reshipped/re-reshipped up to six times).

So…elephant journal went paperless, sacrificing 6.5 years of building up revenues but maintaining our commitment to not being a!@#$%holes to Mother Earth—to proving you can do well and do good at the same time.