Welcome to Macaroni Kid. Thank you for considering us to help increase your organization's visibility.

Macaroni Kid is a local website dedicated to events that stimulate, entertain, and exhaust kids and other information for parents of children of all ages.

Our mission is to help provide families with a multitude of choices and information to allow them to make the most out of our area, find what works best for them, and expands learning and life lessons for children.

• Why Macaroni Kid
• Macaroni Kid Statistics
• Testimonials
• Advertising
• Ad Creation
• Editorial Policies
• Social Media Help--want someone to manage your organization's social media promotion?
• Contact Us

Reach your target market every time--the right demographics in the right area. Ads with Macaroni Kid are cost effective because of our local focus. Why advertise your service to people in towns who won't drive to use it? Point your marketing efforts to the family member who makes 80% of purchasing decisions: Mom.

• Facts about on-line advertising, women, and moms:
  • Women have embraced the web for shopping, saving and research.
  • Women account for 80% of all consumer purchases
  • 85% of female internet users say they click on on-line ads
  • 92% of mom say referrals from other moms influence their purchases (Macaroni Kid is published by a local mom)
  • 44% use social media for word-of-mouth recommendations on brands and products
  • 73% say they believe they find trustworthy information about products and services through online communities focused on their specific interests
• Ads are rotated to the top with each click, and viewable from every Macaroni Kid page (excluding the business directory and monthly calendar view). Your ad will be seen.
• Include a hyperlink back to your website for readers to click from the newsletter or the website.
• We have a Facebook fan page, Twitter account, and many other tools we use to get the word out to families in our community.
• Rather than publishing two months ahead of schedule, we can publish in our calendar or website daily and can accommodate any schedule.
• Ads are included in the weekly newsletter as well as the website.
• Our readers have self subscribed as active families that want to know about resources, events, and activities in our community each week.
• Reviews:
  • Reviews are trusted 12 times more than information coming from a business.
  • 70% of consumers trust opinions of unknown users and 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.
  • 55% of moms who use social media daily buy based on reviews posted on a personal blog.
  • 1 in 4 moms have purchased a children's product because of a recommendation from a social networking site or a blog.

Web Traffic:

• Most recent page views per month: 43,511 
• Average page views last three months: 37262

Social Media:

• Facebook: 196 fans
• Twitter: 390 followers
• Pinterest
• Google+ page

Newsletter Subscribers: 378

Google Page Rank: 4

Updated 2/21/2012

Reader Testimonials:

"...a fun and informative site.  My granddaughter is visiting next week and I already see some new things to do when she arrives."

"What a great idea"

"I found it online looking for things to do with a 12 year old! I found it and I love it, it's great, very helpful! And I love the name!"

"It's things like this that make Macaronikid.com my favorite weekly email. I read it very carefully because I don't want to miss out on all the great things there are to do"

"I'm new in town and really appreciate the information"

"What a great site"

"I really love this newsletter!!!"

"I had a chance to look at the Macaroni Kid website and WOW!!  You've done an excellent job compiling events of interest to local readers."

"Your newsletter is terrific."

"I found you on the web. What a great site you have. Thank you so much!!!"

"Preschool teacher forwarded your link. Love it"

"I love Macaroni Kid! No more surfing the web when I can now find everything in one place, here! This is fantastic!"

"Wow!!!! I have three little boys in this house who are thrilled to be going to Monster Jam because of your newsletter. I really cannot thank you enough. My three year old started jumping up and down when I told him where he was going this weekend and my six year old ran up to me and hugged me and told me I was the best mom ever. Thanks for making all of us winners (dad is a winner too because he is taking them!). Love your newsletter."

"LOVED the ease of your site the other day for what to enjoy with the boys on the day off from school - thanks so much for making it so easy to find fun, affordable things to do around the area :)"

Ads and Promotions:

"Everyone we talked to was excited to get the information about Macaroni Kid."

"It looks GREAT, thanks again.  We just posted a BIG thank you on Facebook and will add you to our Friends page on our site...again feel free to give us some flyers to hand out"

"The logo is an eye-catcher and [the ad] looks great."

"People said they found out about us on Macaroni Kid."

"Thanks so much for all of the work you did to help us promote our event."

"I love to work with you."

"Thanks so much for the review."

"A customer came in yesterday after hearing about us from Macaroni Kid."

"We'll find more opportunities to work with you."

Macaroni Kid loves local businesses. We want to help parents find out about the resources right in our own backyard. We have many options.

Graphic Ads:

All graphics need to be a ".jpg" or ".gif" file format (animated GIF is OK) and no larger than 40K. Each ad links to a URL address.

Leaderboard Ads on Top of Page

• Ad size is 728x90 pixels
• Exclusive placement at the top of the page.
• Only one ad is available at a time.
• Guarenteed 75% of impressions and usually 100%.

Large Side Ads

• Ad size is 300x250 pixels. 
• Ads are located to the right of all Macaroni Kid pages (with the exception of the calendar monthly view, the subscription page, and the business directory).
• Each ad rotates through positions with each page view.
• 8 local ad spaces are available. 
• Ads will always have 100% of impressions.

Giveaways

• Goodwill and excitement will be associated with your organization when you offer a great giveaway.
• Most giveaways will last over two weeks (up to a month) and will be on the website and sent in the newsletter each week for the duration of the giveaway.
• Giveaways can be items, gift certificates, or a service.

Local Business Shout Out

• Let us write an article about you.

Contributor Column

• Write your own column!
• It is informational for parents and those involved with kids as well as great visibility for you and your organization.
• This is your opportunity to grab the attention of our highly targeted audience and show how you are different from your competitors.
• Make it at least 300 words and also send an image and a URL for the image link.
• You own the copyright to the article and grant us license to edit it, publish it in our newsletter and on-line, and keep a copy in our on-line archives.
• See our editorial policy--we reserve the right to not publish and refund the fee.

Enhanced Listing in a Resource Article

• Would you like to have a clickable logo that leads to your website or directory listing, a paragraph description of your business, and primary placement (first come, first served) in our special resource articles for parents?

• Need a web presence but don't want to pay a web designer a fortune? Have people find you on Macaroni Kid where they will see a description, address,phone number, up to three photos, and a map of your location and even have your Macaroni Review right on the same page.

Product review

• Give us a product to review and we'll let people know how we like it. 
• Please ask in advance to be sure the product is a good fit.
• We may choose not to publish a review if we cannot recommend the product.

Cross promotions

• When we go to events, you can be there--at least your paperwork and promotional products. Let us help you get your brand to local families.
• Invite Macaroni Kid to your events.
• Have an idea and think your organization and Macaroni Kid would be a good fit? Tell us about it!

Ad policy:

• Payment in full before ad/article becomes live.
• In the case of scheduled features, payment needs to be made before the deadline 5 PM on Tuesday before publication.

Expand your reach to families in Newtown-Monroe-Trumbull, or Danbury-Bethel and New Milford with a deal including Macaroni Kid in all areas!

Previous ad and promotions include:

• Green Turtle Planet Consignment Sale
• Go the Distance for Scholars Scholarship Run
• The Before and After School Program
• Sunnyfield Studio: A Creative Movement Studio
• Senor Panchos
• Webster Bank of Southbury
• Guitars Plus
• Sylvan Learning Center
• Astronomy Classes by Turner Classes
• The Nest Day Care and Learning Center
• Spookytown
• Basically Ballroom
• Southbury Women's Club Turkey Trot
• Mon's Night Out at Walzer Community Center
• Ladies Night Out at the Heritage Hotel
• Letters from Santa
• LEGO Kids Fest
• Disney on Ice
• Monster Jam
• FMX Freestyle Motocross
• Brown Tufts Montessori Preschool
• Coming: Harlem Globetrotters

Ad Creation

• Would you like to have the advantage of on-line advertising with Macaroni Kid but don't know a layer from anchoring or gradient? We can help.
• Fee covers placing your logo in into the right size and adding text and possibly additional graphics.
• Logos that need to be transferred from paper will have an additional fee. 
• Pick up of logo is more.
• An additional fee for a license to use the design outside of Macaroni Kid for Southbury, Middlebury, Roxbury, Bridgewater, Waterbury, Oxford. Fee eliminated for other Macaroni ...

• Macaroni Kid has final approval of all ads, columns, and reviews with respect to editorial/creative content.
• Macaroni Kid reserves the right to decline to place, or to remove an advertisement from its website at any time for any reason. Any refunds would be prorated.
• Editorial discretion alone determines what events may be promoted through special call outs in the weekend round up article, social media promotions, or events attended by Macaroni Kid.
• Any additional questions or comments related to advertiser specifications should be directed to the publisher.

Social Media is the newest way to get the word out. All of the big companies that can afford a Public Relations office are dedicated to it, even increasing their social media budgets as their overall marketing budgets decrease. Here is what they know:

• 86% of US businesses have Facebook fan pages
• New media contact with companies and brands fosters goodwill in a majority of users, with at least seven in 10 respondents reporting positive impressions, stronger connections and a greater willingness to engage with the company
• Brands with the highest social media activity increased revenues by as much as 18%
• Facebook is the fourth most visited site in the world
• 75% of US online adults are active online social participators
• "To be successful, you need to shift your mindset from social media to social strategy."

Kim McNeill has been in social media (blogging, Facebook pages, Twitter, Google+) for over eight years. Each one has it's own rules and techniques. 

I love it. I do it for fun for me. I do it for my business, and I can do it for you.

I can help your organization with its Social Media presence. Contact me for additional information.

Kim McNeill

phone: 203 417 0640

e-mail: kimberly_anne_mcneill -at- yahoo -dot- com (please replace -at- with @, and -dot- with .)

My additional work:

The Navigator

Freelance writing