Gearing up for 2013
Greetings from Practical Travel Gear: the #1 site on the web for gear reviews.
Upcoming OR Show
The attending media list will probably go out any day now for the winter Outdoor Retailer show. I will be on the convention floor for three days, as will my writer Jill Robinson. (She may make the demo day as well). Since there will be two of us this time, we'll be able to split off sometimes and cover more brands. To request an appointment, see the e-mail addresses below. We'll finalize our appointment schedule by 12/28. And yes, we'd be glad to attend your happy hour...
For me, top priority goes to any brand who can hook me up with a marketing/advertising contact to talk about more than just running the occasional product review. We can do a lot more than that with brands we like that want to reach our targeted readership every day.
Keep in mind we're on a consumer schedule, not a wholesale one. So looking at next winter's items is useful for trends/info purposes, but if we can talk about spring and non-seasonal items at the same time, we can act on that more quickly.
tim@practicaltravelgear.com
jill@practicaltravelgear.com
Partner With Us
If you put "travel gear reviews" in Google you'll find Practical Travel Gear at #1. If you search your brand and "reviews," there's a good chance we're on the first page. Or terms like "travel hats," "travel shoes," or "daypacks." There are only 3 large ad spots on the home page though and our buddies who make the awesome P^Cubed Pants have one of them, so don't sit on your hands too long. Site and ad details here.
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| Tim in Bolivia |
Upcoming Reviews
At the moment we're working 6-8 weeks out on average from when we get items in, sometimes longer. Ramsey (biz gear) is probably the lightest at the moment, me next. ramsey@practicaltravelgear.com.
We've got our annual "Best of the Year" post going up December 31, for watch for that to see our picks!
What's Popular?
Each month we update the most popular reviews on our site, so you can always see those in the right sidebar of the home page. It's usually a pretty varied lot.
And we sell a lot of gear through affiliate links. December is a great month, of course, but January is usually close. So far this month our readers have bought 121 items from 38 brands. In other words, our readers are in buying mode, not just killing time. As for what people click through and purchase, it runs the gamut from bags to shoes, gadgets to hats, watches to jackets. If people would travel with it, they're probably buying it based on our reviews.
A MONTH of Visibility for Cheap - I do a monthly gear giveaway on the Perceptive Travel webzine and am putting the 2013 calendar together now. You get featured on the home page for a month. See the left column here for how it shows up, plus you go out in a newsletter to 1,800, go in a blog post or two, and get on the Facebook page a couple times. Looking for any item worth $50 or more that would be of use to a widespread number of travelers. If you can ship beyond the U.S. even better. Past months have featured Magellan, Property of..., Polarmax, Tilley, Vasque, and Eagle's Nest Outfitters. We're currently booking spots for February onward.
What Tim is wearing - We use what we review! In the photo above, editor Tim is on an overland tour of southern Bolivia wearing Wolverine shoes, Darn Tough Vermont socks, Craghopper pants, Casio altimeter watch, New Balance t-shirt, Colombia Omni-heat fleece, Costa sunglasses, and Headsweats beanie.
If you want to follow us and keep up with the latest travel gear, we're on RSS, Twitter, and Facebook. Sign up for any and all on the home page.
Talk to you soon!
Tim Leffel, Editor
Practical Travel Gear
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