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What we publish

WaveLength Magazine (established 1991) is devoted to the world of paddling and its promotion. Published quarterly, the magazine is distributed FREE in print with 20,000 distributed at over 500 outlets along the west coast of Canada and the U.S. View our distribution network here. Every issue of WaveLength is also available as a FREE download on our website, and is read around the world in over 84 countries, with our downloads now rivalling our print distribution.

All ads appear in both the print and web editions for one low price. And all ads in our web edition are hotlinked to our advertisers' websites, so potential customers are just one click away.

When we publish: our 2009 schedule

Issue name	Ad deadline	Distribution date*
Wavelength Spring 2009	Feb. 15, 2009	March 15, 2009
Wavelength Summer 2009	April 15, 2009	June 1, 2009
Wild Coast Magazine 2009	April 15, 2009	June 1, 2009
Wavelength August 2009	July 1, 2009	August 1, 2009
Wavelength Winter 2009	Oct. 1, 2009	November 1, 2009

How we can help: advertising in Wavelength Magazine

Display advertising

Display advertising is the most common form of magazine advertising. The advertiser books a block of space, usually measured as a portion of the page size, and uses it for an advertisement either developed in-house, by an ad agency or by us. It can be expensive, but advertising regularly or buying larger ads reduces the cost. Download our 2009 rate sheet here.

Advantages: The glossy format makes for an appealing presentation. Magazines are a medium great for building image and brand recognition. Advertising regularly and in a prominent location can put your products and brand name at the forefront of the industry. Wavelength Magazine's free distribution at kayak dealers, outdoor retailers, marine supply centres and kayaking clubs ensures we reach your target market. The advertising is duplicated in the online downloadable version for free. In addition, the online version of the magazine has the ads "hotlinked" so that a click by the reader will take you to the advertiser's website. This is at no extra charge to the advertiser. Note that online magazine downloads are now rivalling our printed distribution.

Things to consider: A magazine advertising campaign using display advertising is an expensive proposition and may be beyond the budget of some businesses. Compensating with smaller ads means less impact and potentially less effectiveness. A well-designed highly visual ad with easy-to-read information will help. Advertisers selling a specific product and expecting instant returns can be disappointed, as brand recognition and building a business name is a long-term goal. If you need instant returns, a directory listing is a more economical and helps to target your service or product by being placed under a related heading.

Marketplace display ads

Wavelength Magazine groups smaller ads into helpful clusters in our Marketplace section. This allows us to place headings over related ads to help serve as a resource for readers. This also helps the smaller ads from getting lost amongst pages with larger ads and editorial content that can serve as distractions from the advertising. Display and marketplace ads are seamless; advertisers can request to be in the magazine's main body or in the marketplace section. If you do not specify, we'll choose a location where your advertisement will be most effective.

Marketplace directory ads

In 2009 Wavelength is offering a new program. The directory ad is a new category, replacing the classified ad to make it more noticeable, appealing and effective. An example is shown to the right. The price is now $59 per issue, and with that you get a prominent heading (usually the company name), 30 descriptive words of your choice, your email address, your website address and your phone number. New in 2009: it contains your logo.

The limitations: Your heading, website address, email address and phone number must all fit on a single line. The logo is limited to 0.5" deep and 2.25" wide in print. Logos should be designed at 300 dpi.

The advantages: This is the low-cost way to get access into Wavelength Magazine. It offers potentially more information than traditional display ads thanks to the emphasis on text. A heading at no extra costs ensures customers shopping for your service find you. The setup provides a quick reference link between the heading, your services and your website, phone number and email address. The logo provides brand recognition. This directory ad can also be rolled into our new seamless web and print ad package for one low package price.

Who best benefits: Businesses hoping to keep a magazine market presence and whose services appeal to kayakers or are looking for wide exposure to an outdoor-oriented market will find this a good economical option. Also, businesses with a lot of information to get across but little opportunity to tell the story through more traditional display advertising will like this option. For instance, a bed and breakfast with beach access perfect for launching kayaks is an ideal candidate. So is a tour operator with specific points that set the business apart (such as a mothership or a resort base).

Things to consider: Placement is limited to Wavelength's Marketplace section. This type of advertising will have a generally lower ability to build image, and is not recommended for manufacturers or businesses that rely on product recognition to attract customers. It may, however, work for gear manufacturers who have a very specific niche to fill.

Advertising on www.wavelengthmagazine.com

Wavelength's website is an industry leader, and has been for over 14 years now as one of the first kayaking resources on the internet. Wavelength is the only kayaking magazine that has published free online for this amount of time, meaning an unrivalled inventory of written information about kayaking - from where to kayak to how to get there through skills development and gear instruction. We've even taught how to build a wooden boat! And it's all readable online in perpetuity for free.

Because the text information covers so many topics picked up by search engines, because the magazine has such a long history and because the website is backed up by a magazine that allows us to promote the website, we get a lot of traffic. The website was redesigned in July 2008 to be easier to navigate, plus we promoted it heavily in the magazine in fall 2008. The result has been an almost instant 30% increase in traffic.

Website banner ad

The Wavelength Magazine website has 1,605 pages and grows with every issue. This means a huge traffic flow, above 70,000 page views per month now, and there's only one way to take advantage of this traffic: our banner ads. They appear at the top of every web page, and rotate among the participants. Those are limited to 12 per year per slot. The cost is $299 for the year - an incredible deal to place you at the top of this busy website.

Website directory listings

Become a part of the list of Wavelength resources by getting listed. For $99 you get to describe your business and list your contacts and display your logo. Better yet, your logo and website address are hotlinked directly to your website - one click takes a Wavelength website visitor to your own website. Categories for 2009 are Tours, Retail Outlets, Kayak/Canoe Manufacturers, Gear Manufacturers, Accommodation, Destinations, Kayak Fishing and Schools and Instruction.

The limitations: In 2009 we are limiting descriptions to 30 words.

The advantages: Cross-linking your website from another website is one valuable way to not just boost traffic to your website but it also ranks your website higher in web search engines.

Introducing the Seamless Web and Print Directory Package

New for 2009: This is the future of magazine advertising - one purchase gets you one year of both print and website exposure for one surprisingly low price in one seamless package.

The combined package gets you full market exposure in the magazine and online. You get a marketplace directory ad in four issues (one full year) plus a web directory listing for one year for just $299.

This is by far the most economical package available in magazine advertising, combining the best of print and web marketing into one deal. If your business can benefit by reaching people interested in kayaking but your marketing budget is tight, this package is unbeatable.

Advantages: You get your logo in print to build brand recognition, making it more beneficial than a traditional classified ad. You get to promote the information you value about your business and get exposure to 280,000 readers per year* plus the online visitors to your web listing.You get an uninterrupted term of one year of marketing for a fraction of the cost of traditional print advertising. You get ads duplicated in the online version and hotlinked at no extra cost. Plus you get the same exposure on wavelengthmagazine.com through the website directory listing, which attracts 250,000 visitors per year.

> Download an information sheet on the Seamless Web and Print Directory Package.

> Download a Seamless Web and Print Directory Package insertion order. Fax to 1-866-654-1937.

* Based on circulation of 20,000 per issue at four issues per year times the industry average 2.5 readers per magazine, plus an estimated 80,000 downloaded magazines per year (calculated as individual readers only).

Our latest website stats

Here are some traffic statistics about wavelengthmagazine.com:

Magazine downloads: The Summer 2008 issue was downloaded 21,220 times by the end of October 2008. That number is more than the print circulation of Sea Kayaker Magazine (19,888 magazines, according to the audited statement in the Dec. 2008 issue, page 47).

Page views: wavelengthmagazine.com had 92,229 page views in Oct. 2008.

Who reads us: almost 80% of our page views are from the U.S. Canadians account for 12% of page views, followed by Russia and the Netherlands (go figure).

Visitors: Unique visitors rose 22% in October 2008 from the previous 3-month average to 14,613 visitors.

Referrals: Our largest referal page was our Tours Directory page at 5,932 for Oct. 2008. Our Kayaks and Canoes Directory page made 4,918 referrals the same month.

Who to contact at Wavelength for advertising information

We'll happily walk you through your options. Contact us any one of these ways:

Phone: 250-244-6437
Toll-Free: 1-866-984-6437
Fax: 250-244-1937
Toll-Free Fax: 1-866-654-1937

Email: info at wavelengthmagazine.com

Our advertising manager: Frank C. Croft, frank at wavelengthmagazine.com