Let’s face it, the idea of vacations filled with new destinations is what makes work worthwhile. While many of us remember the road trips of old, research shows that there have been some major changes in the mentality of today’s travelers. More people are looking for a culturally fulfilling experience. They want to “Visit Like A Local”. The flood of travel blogs, vlogs, and e-papers puts loads of destinations in the palm of your hand. Too often the articles are simply lists of businesses, lacking the details that travelers need to make good decisions. You need detailed information to be able to make your plans for a successful vacation.
Why We Write
We started Our Changing Lives after five years of toying with a localized restaurant blog. While this early endeavor was merely an outlet for Jeff’s writing fever, it soon gained exposure and a solid following. Launching our travel website was done only after considerable research and discussion. We wanted to set ourselves apart from the crowd and offer our readers more detail. The decision was made that we would produce multiple articles about each destination we visit, and then later wrap up the whole trip in an overview article or “Guide”. This allows our readers to get a look and feel for the place, while still in their trip planning mode. It also allows us more original content for our website and fuels the fresh articles that we deliver each week. We found this to be a win-win for our readers, as well as the businesses we highlight.
Keeping It Clean
One of the first things that people notice, when visiting our website, is the lack of pop-ups and advertisements. We have chosen a self-funded approach to make our reader’s experience more pleasant. To do this, we work closely with CVBs, Tourism Bureaus, and businesses to offset our travel expenses. This allows us to feature more sites at each of our destinations. It gives our readers more options when determining their travel plans. This approach is a cost-effective form of advertising that reaches our highly engaged, quickly growing readership. We also feature our visits on our social media feeds, during our stays. Our goal will be to keep our website clutter-free and user-friendly.
Who We Work With
Our Changing Lives has had immense success, due to our partnerships. We have created many new relationships, and continue to expand our reach. The list of businesses we partnered with is too large to showcase here, and we would hate to overlook even one. Our Media Kit does list a few of our key partners. More information about Our Changing Lives is available upon request at jeff@ourchanginglives.com
While the bulk of our work is done directly with the tourism bureaus, we are always open to individual partnerships. If you are looking to promote your particular business to our readers, you can find a list of our standard social media charges below. Please note that we choose to get to know a business before we will promote it. The trust of our readers is something we take very seriously and we will not jeopardize it for monetary gain.
Here are what some of our partners have to say about working with us.
“Visit Wichita truly enjoyed partnering with Jeff and Crystal of ‘Our Changing Lives’ for a visit to Wichita. They made the most of their time in the city – experiencing many of Wichita’s museums, attractions, and restaurants. The volume and quality of content they produced from their trip was tremendous.”
Jessica Sawatski – PR Manager for Visit Wichita
“Jeff approached me about helping them with a trip to the Amana Colonies to write their blog. It was a wonderful experience working with a professional like Jeff. He was organized and did his research to find out about the Amana Colonies. When they arrived, we gave them some final insight on what might be of interest. They did a great job of experiencing a wide variety of activities that their readers could expect to see in the Colonies. The result was a well-written blog.”
David Rettig – Executive Director for Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau
“Out of all the bloggers we host, you are the most organized. I love the weekly recaps of your trip. It’s very impressive and I would be happy to be a reference anytime you reach out to another CVB for a hosted trip. You went above and beyond what we normally experience!”
Julie Roller – Director for Abilene Convention & Visitors Bureau
“Thank you for covering Branson. Your site is very nicely presented.”
Lynn Berry – Director of Communications for Explore Branson
“Thank you for your precision and detailed information. You and Crystal are real pros. I’m currently attending TBEX (Travel Blogger Exchange) and was talking about you with a colleague. I was telling him how fantastic it had been working with you. Let’s keep this good relationship going.”
Paule Bergeron – Account Executive for Québec City Tourism
“Thank you so much for all of the coverage you have provided on OKC. The blogs have been well received and I have been sharing them with our partners.”
Tabbi Burwell – Senior Manager of Destination Communications for Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau
How To Work With Us
We will usually complete 8 to 12 new destination per year, as well as toss in plenty of day trips. Our goal is to build a network of featured cities for our readers to choose from when planning their explorations. Of course, we are still flexible enough to make some alterations to our schedule. Would you like us to feature your hometown in some great articles? We love planning visits to new cities. Contact us to see how we can work together. You can email us at jeff@ourchanginglives.com
See You Soon
We invite you to take a tour of our website and see the articles we have written for other cities. You will find that we approach our writing with a positive attitude, and try to showcase locally owned businesses, when possible. Whether exploring a downtown venue or a more relaxed countryside stay, we always seek out the best way to highlight our visits. We look forward to working with you and hope to hear from you soon.
