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Why UKClimbing.com?

UKClimbing.com is the most popular and most read climbing media in the UK. It has been online since 1995, has a rich and diverse climbing content that is constantly updated, it is home to the most popular climbing forums in the world and has a proven brand loyalty amongst the UK climbing community.

Over 14 million (60%) households in Great Britain have internet access (Office of National Statistics) with 70% having fast broadband connection. Over 30 million people in the UK access the internet on a regular basis and if they are interested in climbing they come to UKClimbing.com.

Some UKClimbing.com Site Statistics

44,600 climbers are registered at UKClimbing.com (User Profiles) and are regular readers (six times that number of unique visitors read UKClimbing.com each month).

On average 10,000 different people visit UKClimbing.com everyday.

They visit about 190,000 pages at UKClimbing.com everyday, spending about, on average, 10 minutes at the site.

The most popular pages are the forums followed by the photo pages followed by the news page.

UKC News page gets 2,300 visits every day. It is the most comprehensive source of climbing news in the UK that is updated daily.

UKC Photos gallery has 70,000 climbing photographs. See the best of them here - Top 200 Gallery.

UKC Forums are a major attraction and are split into 16 sub-forums with weekly traffic in excess of 125,000 unique visitors.

UKC Articles section is a mix of user-submitted and commissioned articles (including Andy Kirkpatrick, Nick Bullock, Neil Gresham, Adrian Berry and Dave MacLeod) and covers the whole spectrum of the climbing and mountaineering experience from bouldering to extreme alpinism. Our most popular articles have been viewed over 54,000 times.

UKC Logbooks section has 100,000 climbs listed with over 650,000 route 'ticks' from users.

UKC Databases has 8,900 crags listed as well as comprehensive lists and details of Climbing Clubs, Climbing/Outdoor Shops, Outdoor centres/Instructors and Manufacturers/Distributors.

UKC Gear Database and Reviews is a new and exciting development at UKClimbing.com. It was rolled out March 2007, as a service to the climbing industry and climbers we think it is unparalleled. Read how to upload your gear.

Advertising at UKClimbing.com

Whether you are an independent climbing shop, a gear manufacturer or distributor, a climbing wall or a mountain guide, there is no place better to make climbers aware of your product or service than at UKClimbing.com.

Companies like Outside, Wild Country, Prana, Evolv, Red Chili, the Ordnance Survey, DMM, the BMC, Alpkit, Scarpa, Grivel, Joe Brown Shops, V12, Ground Up, Rockfax, Planet Fear, Rock and Run, Heason Events, Walkhigh Mountaineering and Nikkwax are committed UKClimbing.com advertisers (this is a partial list).

You can see all our current advertisers here.

Interactive Advertising

Internet advertising is different than print advertising, and far more effective.

It creates dynamic AWARENESS of your products and services via banners, newsletter adverts, gear reviews, forum discussions and premier posts that expose your message and product/service to the largest number of readers of any climbing media in the UK.

You can EDUCATE climbers about your company and its products and services, INTERACT* with your customers, and importantly show climbers where to BUY your products and services.

(* Click to search for your products and services on our forums in the last 6 months)

When you advertise at UKClimbing.com you also have access to our Gear Database where you can upload images and text about your services and products. These are then easily read and searched by our readers, and then no doubt discussed down the forums, where, if you like you can participate (see this reply - click here - by Simon Marsh of DMM using his Commercial Profile in the Gear forums to interact positively to questions asked about DMM products).

Internet Advertising

There are many ways to advertise at UKClimbing.com that create AWARENESS of your products and services, EDUCATE your customers, and allow you to INTERACT with your customers and importantly, the bottom line, provide an opportunity for your customers to BUY your products and services. This is a novel way of marketing but it is very effective and our advertisers have found that they recoup their advertising cost at UKClimbing fast.

Advantages

Inexpensive advert rates.
Your advert is working 24/7.
Cost effective.
Measurable results.
You manage your account and YOU are in control.
Inexpensive and fast to create advertising copy.
You know how often your advert has been seen and how many people have clicked on it.
You can change your ads immeadiately if they aren't working.
Customers are just a single click away from your web site.
Ad campaigns can be up and running immediately, no waiting for copy.
You can interact directly with your customer creating an emotional bond, loyalty and sales.

Print Advertising

Whilst print advertising is an important part of the marketing mix, it does have its drawbacks:

Low readership (unaudited). Magazine circulation is declining.
Expensive ad rates.
Very difficult to quantify results and effectiveness.
Expensive to produce print ads.
No or little interaction between you and your customer.
Adverts in competition with each other.
Adverts have low exposure rates to your customers.
Advert timing is dictated by the print publications: once per month, once every two months, etc.
Print ads can do little more than plant a seed in the reader's mind; they are still a long way off from learning about your product or service and many steps away from a purchase.

How does UKClimbing.com compare with other outdoor media?

UKClimbing.com, 215,900 visitors (Oct-2008)
Summit magazine, 40,663 circulation (ABC)
Trail magazine, 35,310 circulation
Climb magazine, 15,000 circulation
Climber magazine, 12,600 circulation