runamuk media kit

Who or What is Runamuk?

Runamuk Acres is an interesting combination of blog and farm-based business, which attracts a wide variety of visitors to the website runamukacres.com.

Hello! My name is Samantha Burns, freelance writer, certified master gardener, president of the Somerset Beekeepers, farmer, homeschooling mamma, and author of the Runamuk Acres blog-site.

In a bizarre twist of fate, my passion for nature and desire to protect wildlife through sustainable living led me to beekeeping. I went from entomophobic to pollinator conservationist practically overnight, established our local Somerset chapter of the Maine State Beekeepers Association, and was promptly elected president of the group. Now I spend much of my time teaching new beekeepers and promoting pollinator conservation throughout the central

Maine area.

Bees opened up my world to farming, and now Runamuk is an up and coming supplier of raw honey locally, as well as beeswax products like all-natural soaps and salves with bee-friendly certification. With the construction of a new farmhouse on our 50-acre property in central Maine, Runamuk has the opportunity to expand it's enterprise into new agricultural areas such as meat production and seedling production for pollinator conservation plantings.

Featured Writings

My writing has been published online by Helium, Squidoo, and Homeschool-Articles.com. The Maine State Beekeepers Association's bi-monthly publication, “The BeeLine”, along with the University of Maine's Somerset Cooperative Extension's monthly newsletter, have both featured articles I have written.

A short while ago, Runamuk's story was published on Mother Earth News' modern homesteader's blog, under the title “A Home-Based Business Opportunity that Started with Beekeeping”, and recently the Runamuk blog was accepted as a contributor to the Homestead Blogger's Network.

What's the blog all about?

The Runamuk blog is mainly about sustainable living. I write many how-to and DIY articles to teach others about various aspects of organic gardening, beekeeping, homesteading, and permaculture.

People also come to the website to learn more about our farm, to read about our progress as new farmers building a farm and business from the ground up.

As a conservationist I sometimes write about protecting pollinators and wildlife,

and about fostering connections to nature to teach good stewardship of the natural world around us.

Once in a great while I even write about homeschooling 2 rowdy boys or about local news and events relating to agriculture and natural resources conservation, such as Maine Maple Sunday.

Some of our most popular posts include: “How to make your own laundry soap”, “The amazing co-evolution of plants & pollinators”, and “How to build a mini hoop-house”.

Readers return every week for our themed posts: Monday's Musings and Sustainable Saturday. Our followers look forward to posts related to seasonal events such as spring gardening, swarm-season in the apiary, food storage in the fall, and winter livestock care.

During the winter months when I am not busy in the gardens or apiaries, I typically write more articles to teach, inspire, and inform readers—such as my series on genetically modified crops and how they are affecting our health and environment. In the warmer months I write more how-to articles, such as my article about how to construct a mini hoop-house for gardening.

Who are the readers?

Our readers consist mostly of American women—of all ages and walks of life, who are eco-conscious and are working to reduce their family's carbon footprint, to increase their self-sufficiency and sustainability. These people want a healthful diet and lifestyle. Some of them are homeschoolers and homesteaders like me, many of them are new to the world of sustainable living and are looking for guidance from a trustworthy voice of experience.

Since the publication of our story on the Mother Earth News' Modern Homesteader's blog we've seen a stream of traffic from their site to ours. We've also seen an increase of traffic and new followers from the Homstead Blogger's Network as their subscribers discover the Runamuk blog-site.

Blog Statistics & Reach

The Runamuk blog continues to grow it's readership. We've seen an increase in traffic to the site since this time last year by more than 400%!

Month Unique Visitors Page Impressions

March 1,327 3,307

April 1,872 5,614

May 1,576 4,079

3-month average 1,592 4,333

*Current as of May 29, 2013

Facebook: The Runamuk fan-page currently has a total of 74 followers. On my personal account I have over 200 friends to whom I frequently share events, articles, pictures, and blog-posts.

Twitter:As a freelance writer, master gardener, beekeeper, homeschooler, and beginning farmer, I have 586 followers under the name of Sam7anthaBurns.

Pinterest:Again as Sam7anthaBurns, a blogger, certified master gardener, beekeeper, pollinator conservationist, homeschooler and new farmer, I have 145 subscribers to my pin-boards.

Terms of Sponsorship

At the Runamuk website we're offering sponsors the opportunity to advertise with us in a variety of ways, including:

• 200 x 200 badges at $25 per month.• Quarterly and bi-annual value packages.• PREMIUM 12-month sponsorship opportunities at negotiable rates.• Payment & logo imaging due one week before new advertisements

become active on the site on the 1st of every month.• Top advertisement placements are reserved for PREMIUM sponsors.• Runamuk reserves the right to accept and promote only those

businesses whose values align with our own principles regarding green and eco-conscious living.

• We also reserve the right to change the terms of our advertising packages, however we will issue 30-day notice to established

sponsors, who may then choose to accept or decline continued sponsorship.

For sponsors that subscribe with us for a minimum of 3 months, Runamuk proposes several different marketing strategies:

• A post on our social networks announcing your support to our followers.• A blog-post write-up about your business to introduce your product or

services to our readership.• Product review or give-away, with samples provided by you--the sponsor.

Begin Sponsorship Today!

Contact Samantha Burns at runamukacres@gmail.com to begin sponsorship with Runamuk Acres, support beginning farmers and pollinator conservation in the central Maine area.