The Family Groove is an online magazine for a more urban hip mom demographic. They feature regional as well as national newsletters and a full online resource of articles for all topics relevant to parenting. From hip clothing, travel trends and local shopping-they cover a wealth of information.
After speaking to a sales representative and being sold on advertising, I decided to jump in and try working with this online magazine. I reviewed their statistics and everything looked good, the site does generate a good amount of traffic. I did contact other retailers that were advertising with them and did not get a favorable response, but they were both new into the program. This magazine does make you sign a 6 month contract at $300 per month. I went ahead and took the plunge, 3 months later I had received a total of 24 hits to my site, that is all and as per Google Analytics. I emailed the publisher to let her know my disappoinment and was told how people need to see you 6 or 7 times, which I know, and have been doing marketing long enough to understand. But based on traffic and a newsletter database of several thousand subscribers I would expect more than 24 hits for $900. By month 4 I was fed up and asked to cancel my contract with them, at first they said no, but after putting my foot down I get my last month refunded to me. I still wasted $1,000 with this magazine and am pretty disappointed. I would not recommend working with them, but if you do, please do your due diligence by contacting advertisers that have worked with them. And do NOT contact the list they send you, find out on your own who has advertised in there!
I’ve been an advertiser with this site for almost six months now and have seen very favorable results. They do a lot of offline events on their advertisers’ behalf and I’ve gotten sales and emails from people all around the country who have seen my products at these events.
From my experience, they don’t make you sign a 6 month contract, but they do recommend it. I did a lot of research before I signed on and found everyone that I spoke to had a good opinion and would recommend it.
I guess it just depends on what you’re selling.
I also know that they’re working with Nickelodeon now, so I am excited to see how it will impact me.
Jennifer, we would really love to know the company that you work with or own so that we can verify your feedback! It will really help others make an informed decision if they can prove the facts of your post. Thank you! the HowIsTheBiz team.