Explorations in Mixology Cocktails Drinking

Advertising

Profile
SummitSips.com was created in 2009 to document the growing worldwide interest in quality cocktails through fair and honest posts about ingredients, recipes, techniques and destinations. Our mission has always been to provide insightful details for curious readers by sharing our journey while providing appropriate history and credit, and above all, demonstrating how anyone with a casual interest in mixology can enjoy professional results.

Technology and Design
Summit Sips is owned and managed by Randy Hanson, a technology professional who is also a graphic artist. We are a self-hosted site using a customized theme on the WordPress platform. Our design aesthetic is inspired by the classic Vesper cocktail with an emphasis on clean lines and a simple, uncluttered interface that is easy to read and simple to navigate. Our home page has always shows links to the latest posts and is heavy on simple, navigational elements, with main links always appearing along the top banner, and everything alway summarized in the footer. On most pages, the large, left/center column is reserved for site content while advertising is restricted to the right sidebar.

Content and Activity
Randy Hanson writes all content on the site. We do not have contributor posts from any outside sources. We may write honest reviews of products if requested, but we do not write sponsored posts. For several years early on, we had been running featured recipe posts that we initially called Drink of the Week. This constant rhythm of new content is augmented by additional posts that include product reviews, homemade ingredient how-tos, events and destinations. By covering most popular classic cocktail recipes and evaluating tools and techniques, we have amassed hundreds useful articles that now comprise a valuable, growing online resource.

We shoot all cocktail photos ourselves and only rarely may include a royalty-free image when we cannot create our own. We post double-resolution images and thumbnails that look fantastic on laptops, iPhones, iPads and other high-DPI (retina) displays, detecting such capabilities on the fly and delivering the image most applicable. This saves bandwidth and decreases load times for readers using older devices while ensuring those with retina displays enjoy an optimized visual experience.

Audience and Traffic
Our target audience includes any reader over 21 years of age at any experience level with an interest in quality cocktails. Our growing archive of relevant topics continues to draw new readers as well as return visitors through RSS feeds, Twitter follows and Facebook likes.

Recent Statistics:

Monthly Page Views: 9,878
Pages per Visit: 2.14
Average time on site: 00:02:09
New Visitors: 68.08%

Credibility
Summit Sips was an early partner with Liquor.com as a content contributor. Randy Hanson is a Bar Smarts™ certified member of the Northstar Bartender’s Guild of Minnesota where we have been referenced in local media for developing Lynden’s Soda Fountain 1886 cola recipe. We moved to Portland, Oregon in 2012 where we continue to emphasize local events and destinations. We have also been selected as Foodista featured drink blog.

Banner Ad Specifications

  • The right sidebar is displayed while viewing posts and during shop checkout. We make every effort to leverage this area in the most responsive manner to feature an ad. On mobile, the sidebar stacks beneath the post.
  • Typical width is 380px, though responsive design has built-in flexibility.

Banner images can be self-hosted on our domain (not through an adserver) to avoid ad blockers. We can also link to your banner image hosted elsewhere or insert your custom widget code. We are also happy to assist with graphic design needs if necessary.

We reserve the right to reject banners that we consider inappropriate or that detract from our site.

Banner Ad Zone Examples
The following ad zones are available. All ads appear in the right sidebar, and will be visible on all pages, and posts except the Summit Sips Shop pages.

Premium Square

  • Located top-right (most visible sidebar position)

Premium Skyscraper

  • Vertical rectangle banner
  • Located top-right (most visible position)

The options above are mutually exclusive, so once booked, another advertisement cannot supersede its location in the sidebar for the duration of the contract.

Rates are flexible based on the position in the sidebar, so banners can be positioned lower at your option. However, ads not booked in the premium position will leave that spot available to be booked by another advertiser or will be filled with our own sites featured content links.

Odd, mid-sized banners are also negotiable if neither a square nor tall rectangle is suitable, so long as it fits appropriately into our sidebar.

Booking an Ad
Once we have agreed on the placement, type, timing and rate for the ad campaign, we will send an invoice via PayPal. Ad placement is not confirmed until full payment is received.

We are friendly and flexible, and we have a long professional history with both graphic design and technology. We are happy to help in whatever capacity is necessary, but we do recommend giving yourself and us plenty of time to setup the ad so that it will be posted on or before the start of your campaign.

Product Reviews
Oftentimes, a better option for our partners is a product review. We are passionate about craft cocktails and always interested in exploring new products, tools and techniques. If it makes sense, a product sample or service can become the subject of an honest review. This has the benefit of demonstrating the practical application of your product from a trusted source, but it also has staying power, since a review is often accompanied by a recipe, or features relevant tie-ins to a technique or cocktail category we might have written about anyway, making your product part of our content archive forever (or until you ask us to remove it).

We have many cocktail recipe post ideas in draft form to fill our ongoing content pipeline, but we can always collaborate on a specific use case to best highlight your product in a review.