Mountain biking online community YourMTB.com helps companies get objective user product reviews; site's members get free stuff

Boulder, CO, August 2, 2006 -- YourMTB.com, a citizen media based online community for mountain bike enthusiasts and athletes, has inaugurated an innovative program where some of the website's users can get free biking-related products in exchange for posting product reviews on the YourMTB.com website.

Companies with biking-related products participate in the program by giving away a set number of products to YourMTB.com members who express interest in receiving them. Recipients go out and use the products, then return to YourMTB.com and post a review of the product – which can be used by the companies as part of their marketing efforts.

Product recipients are encouraged to post objective reviews; if the product has flaws, those will come out in the reviews – but so will the product's good points.

YourMTB.com recently finished a demonstration of the product review giveaway program with Spenco Cycling, which gave 10 pairs of its new MTB Series gloves to 10 YourMTB.com members who asked to be part of the program. After trying out the gloves on the trail, the recipients posted their reviews.

Participants in the demonstration program were enthusiastic about it. The majority of reviewers even posted photos of themselves with the gloves, to accompany their text reviews. One glove recipient even posted two short video reviews. (YourMTB.com supports and encourages its members to post videos, photos and stories to the website.)

Spenco Cycling Gloves sales/marketing manager Anne Miller may use the reviews and some of the photos in her marketing campaign for the line of mountain biking gloves. She wrote of her experience with the giveaway program:

"YourMTB.com has been great to work with on the Spenco MTB Series consumer review program. The response was great and the 10 free pair of Spenco MTB Series glove spots filled quickly. (YourMTB.com publisher) Steve Outing has been a pleasure to work with on this program and I look forward to more opportunities to work with YourMTB.com in the future. What a great place for MTBers to drop in and check out what is going on in the industry!"

Outing, who is also the co-founder of YourMTB.com parent company Enthusiast Group LLC, says the product review giveaway program represents a new form of product marketing that fits with the "everyone has a voice" nature of the Internet. "If a company has a solid product, then it should welcome the objective reviews and feedback from users," he says. "This program is similar to what you see when you go to Amazon.com to buy a book – objective reviews that help you make a wise purchasing decision. The voice of actual users in talking about a product is so much more powerful than the standard advertising slogans and pitches."

Spenco MTB glove reviews can be see at these web pages: Spenco Gloves Review

Companies wishing to participate in the YourMTB.com product review giveaway program should contact publisher Steve Outing: e-mail publisher@enthusiastgroup.com, or phone 303-543-7810.

Mountain bike enthusiasts wishing to receive free products and participate in the product review program should watch YourMTB.com's Contests page, where announcements of new product giveaways will be posted.

About YourMTB.com

YourMTB.com, currently in beta, is an online community designed as a friendly place for mountain biking enthusiasts to share their adventures and advice in the form of videos, photos and stories. The site runs frequent contests to reward the best submissions by YourMTB.com members. Participation in the site and all its services are free. The website is led by Enthusiast-in-Chief Walker Thompson, a Durango, Colorado-based semi-pro mountain bike racer. Thompson writes a daily blog about mountain biking, produces a weekly YourMTB.com Podcast, and shares his own biking videos – but his larger job is in encouraging participation in the website by MTB enthusiasts and athletes.

About Enthusiast Group LLC

The Enthusiast Group publishes a network of online communities about adventure and participant sports. YourMTB.com is the company's first live website. Additional websites on rock climbing and running are scheduled to debut in August and September, with several more sites covering other sports planned by year-end. The company was founded by interactive media expert and journalist Steve Outing and Internet entrepreneur Derek Scruggs. The company is based in the outdoor mecca of Boulder, Colorado.

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