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Our Mission:
"Free Spirit Promotions (publisher of Big Blend Magazine) is
a company based on the belief that education is the most
formidable weapon that can be waged against fear, ignorance
and prejudice. It is our belief that education starts at
home and branches outward. Education leads to travel, and
travel leads to understanding, tolerance, and appreciation
of cultures and customs different to our own, and ultimately
to world peace. Our company is further based on the
principle that networking, communication, and helping others
to promote and market themselves leads to financial
stability; thus paving the way to better education, travel,
and the spirit of giving back to the community."
About Us ~ BigBlendMagazine.com -
published by Free Spirit Promotions
Free Spirit Promotions:
Blend Magazine has been published by Free Spirit
Promotions since 1997. Passionate and dedicated to
educating the public about the various and diverse
facets of the USA and the rest of the world, Free Spirit
Promotions is owned and operated by mother and daughter
team Nancy J. Reid - Editor and Production Director, and
Lisa D. Smith - Editor and Marketing Director. Together
we offer over 40 years of marketing, photography, and
editorial experience in the travel, lifestyle, leisure,
special interest, hospitality, business and retail
industries.
BigBlendMagazine.com
started off as a print publication in 1997, covering
North San Diego, and within 2 years we expanded to cover
the Southwest, and publish online. When our online
traffic reached an average of 1 million actual readers
per month, we stopped printing and devoted ourselves to
being a full fledged online publication -
SouthwestBlend.com. SouthwestBlend.com has now expanded
to cover all if the USA, and the rest of the world, and
currently has an average monthly readership of 2.1
million actual readers / unique visitors.
Email Newsletter
‘The Burro
Express’ - To keep readers informed of
new articles, radio shows, editorial features and
events, BigBlendMagazine.com has a weekly e-newsletter
called ‘The Burro Express,’ which is sent out to over
210,000 subscribers. This newsletter has an 87.7%
average opening / click through rate.
Blend Radio Shows:
BigBlendMagazine.com has 10 monthly online radio shows
that can be listened to live or on demand as a podcast. Shows include:
Big Bonanza Contest:
Three times a year, BigBlendMagazine.com features the Big Bonanza Prize
Contest, where new prizes are added to the pot
every week. After 4 months, one winner is drawn, winning
all of the prizes in the pot! We personally play
‘prize-patrol’ and deliver the prizes to the winner (who
must live in the continental USA). We receive an average
of 78,000 entries per week. Entrants have an optional
question to answer which will double their entries.
Their answers help us with our market research.
Mission Statement:
"Free Spirit Promotions is a company based on the belief
that education is the most formidable weapon that can be
waged against fear, ignorance and prejudice. It is our
belief that education starts at home and branches
outward. Education leads to travel, and travel leads to
understanding, tolerance, and appreciation of cultures
and customs different to our own, and ultimately to
world peace. Our company is further based on the
principle that networking, communication, and helping
others to promote and market themselves leads to
financial stability; thus paving the way to better
education, travel, and the spirit of giving back to the
community."
Readership
Overall Site Traffic
- Actual Readers / Unique Visitors to
BigBlendMagazine.com – 2.1 million per month. Over 53%
of these readers already know our site and visit our
site by typing in our web address. Over 75.5% of our
readers bookmark our site as a favorite.
Where do our readers come from?
In order of popularity, most of our readers come from
California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, North
California, Utah, Nevada, Washington State, Oregon,
Midwest USA, and North Eastern USA. Internationally, our
visitors come from Canada, Netherlands & Denmark,
Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Mexico, Singapore,
Japan, and more.
Major Departments on BigBlendMagazine.com These
departments feature articles, tips, and editorial
features; event & calendar listings; advertiser guides &
directories; audio & video features and radio
interviews, and more.
Art
- Accessed an average of 935,000 times per month
Put your company or organization in front of our
2.1 million readers.
Quality back links to your website helps your
placement with Search Engines.
Consistent Editorial and Radio interview
opportunities
All of your content is submitted to search
engines, and is trackable.
All of your content is easily accessible to our
readers via user-friendly directories and
guides.
Our marketing plans are very cost-effective and
give you year-round coverage.
Over 83% of our clients still advertise with us,
and our magazine has been published for over 11
years.
See how we can represent you on BigBlendMagazine.com
with a custom tailored marketing package designed
according to your marketing needs, editorial needs and
budget.
Please contact Lisa D. Smith, Marketing Director:
- Office (760) 367-9911
- Mobile: (760) 475-3308
- Email:
lisa@theblendmagazine.com
History: It
all began when Nancy, a successful
wildlife artist, writer, and photographer, led tours from Los
Angeles to Kenya, East Africa. This ultimately led to her moving to
Kenya - bringing a young Lisa along - and working out in the field for
writer and conservationist Joy Adamson, of 'Born Free' fame. Nancy was
the past editor of the "Born Free" newsletter and wrote conservation
articles for other publications throughout the early seventies.
Unfortunately, Joy Adamson was murdered, and the unrest in Kenya made it
time for a change. Nancy and Lisa relocated to England, and toured
Scotland, England and Wales on a fundraising and conservation awareness
effort for World Wild Life Fund using Nancy's wildlife paintings and
photography. Nancy and Lisa then did a fund raising tour for the
National Cancer Association of South Africa.
They settled in South
Africa where they started a magazine called 'Splash!' - a travel,
lifestyle and leisure publication. Due to political pressure they left
South Africa and returned home to California.
Once in California,
it wasn't long before the old 'publishing bug' took over, and in
1997, Free Spirit Promotions was born. Since then, Nancy and
Lisa have enjoyed traveling throughout the country and Mexico, and
have published regional coloring-in / activity books for children, a
print magazine called 'The Blend Magazine' which grew into 'Southwest
Blend Magazine', ending, ultimately as The Big Blend Magazine.
Continually being updated with interesting travel, leisure,
lifestyle, and event news, podcast interviews, and photo tours of the
Southwest--plus featuring 'The
Burro Express' an email newsletter that is read by over
180,000 subscribers weekly;
The Big Blend Magazine has a loyal readership of over 1.8 million
readers/unique visitors. In January of 2008, they launched Champagne
Sundays, an online radio show that airs every Sunday (except
major holidays) from 11 am to 1 pm, PST.
More
about Nancy:
I began my career primarily as a Wildlife
Artist working in pen and ink, pastels and oils. I have painted
commissioned works including portraits, landscapes, seascapes, pet
portraits, still life and florals and have exhibited in the USA,
England, Scotland, Wales, Kenya and South Africa.
Living
in East Africa and
working for Joy Adamson of "Born Free Fame," gave me the
opportunity to study
wildlife up-close and personal in their natural habitat. My job with Joy
was to follow Penny, Queen of Shaba, who was fitted with a radio
collar. I tracked her movements every day, noting her behavior. I was
also responsible for shopping in Nairobi for supplies. Our tented camp
was located in Shaba Game Reserve just outside Isiolo, Kenya.
I
have always been concerned with the destruction of our planet and the
disregard for the place on earth that our wildlife should have. I have
used my paintings mostly as a way to raise funds for various causes,
including a two year speaking tour throughout England, Scotland and
Wales on behalf of World Wildlife Fund; and a two year+ tour
throughout South African on behalf of the National Cancer Association
of South Africa. These tours led to being written about in over 50
South African newspapers, appearing on three radio programs
and on the television show, "Good Morning South Africa" and Great
Britain's show "Pebble
Mill At One."
To listen to
a recent interview with Nancy with radio show host Lillian Brummet
from Conscious Discussions, please double click the Play button below:
More
About Lisa:
Lisa was raised in Kenya,
England and South Africa, having left the states at 1˝
years old. Her lifestyle in these countries has given her a very open
and inquiring mind, a love for travel, wildlife and natural places,
and a passion to protect our planet and it's inhabitants.
She is a keen photographer, a musician, songwriter and
singer, a writer, editor, and is the "social secretary" or marketing
director of Free Spirit Promotions.
Her love of music led her to starting a band, "Human Spirit" that
played in the San Diego area for 3 years, until the time constraints
of running a magazine requiring a lot of travel, made it impossible to
do both. Now, as co-host to Champagne Sundays, she loves to interview
other musicians and give them the opportunity to be heard.
QUICK LINKS TO OUR ONLINE RADIO SHOWS--TUNE
IN ANY TIME!
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This site developed by Free Spirit Promotions™, publishers of the Southwest Blend™,
The Blend Magazine™, Blend Radio & TV™, and Southwest Blend™ and
The Big Blend Magazine.com™. copyrighted since 1998. No part of it may be reproduced for any reason,
with out written permission from Free Spirit Promotions,
PO Box 1256, Twentynine Palms, CA 92277.
Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily that of this publication or any of its staff. We reserve the right to edit submittals. All subject matter is intended for general information only and not to be take as personal advice in any matter. Although every effort is made to be accurate, we cannot be held responsible for inaccuracies or plagiarized copy submitted to us by advertisers or contributors.
Living
in East Africa and
working for Joy Adamson of "Born Free Fame," gave me the
opportunity to study
wildlife up-close and personal in their natural habitat. My job with Joy
was to follow Penny, Queen of Shaba, who was fitted with a radio
collar. I tracked her movements every day, noting her behavior. I was
also responsible for shopping in Nairobi for supplies. Our tented camp
was located in Shaba Game Reserve just outside Isiolo, Kenya. 
