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Your listing is free. Forever. That's the deal.
Maui Weekend Guide is a free weekly email read by Maui County residents — the customers who come back in the slow months. Every partner business gets listed in the events calendar and the guides free, because a complete calendar is what makes residents open the email. Your free listing is not a trial. It's the flywheel.
The counter card: how free pays for itself
Partners get a small printed card for tables and counters: "Get Maui's weekend guide — free" with a QR code. A customer scans it while they wait for coffee; the letter gains a subscriber who already loves your shop; next Thursday, that subscriber reads about the whole island's weekend — including your next event. One short weekly route keeps it alive: cards dropped off, next week's event details picked up face-to-face. The businesses that display the card are the distribution network no ad budget can buy, and the partner list doubles as the letter's reporting route.
The partner ladder
Nobody gets pitched cold at the top rung. Every business starts free, sees its own numbers, and climbs only with proof in hand.
| Rung | What you get | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Free listing | Your events in the calendar, your business in the Eat & Drink, Happy Hours, Fishing, and Hiking guides, a QR counter card, and a monthly proof report — your listing's clicks, the letter's open rate, the resident subscriber count. | Free — forever |
| Featured | Highlighted placement in the website guides and mentions in the issue, labeled as featured. Opens once the letter's open rates are proven — partners on the free rung get first claim. | Paid — founding rates set when selling opens |
| Sponsor | Title sponsorship of an issue, classified placements, and event promotion packages — priced on resident subscribers only, never on visitor traffic. | Paid — founding sponsors first |
Selling opens only after the letter can show proven opens — the plan's rule is roughly 1,000+ engaged resident subscribers, so no partner is ever quoted a rate against unproven numbers. Until then, everything is the free rung and the proof reports.
The numbers rule
- Residents only. Subscriber numbers quoted to businesses count Maui County residents. Visitors who find the site are segmented separately and never inflate the figure you're paying to reach.
- Proof, monthly. Opens, clicks, and your own listing's traffic — reported whether the month flattered us or not.
- Editorial stays editorial. Featured and sponsor placements are labeled advertising. A paid rung never buys a pick in Eat & Drink — the reader trust is what your placement is worth, and it isn't for sale in pieces.
How to start
The letter's business contact opens with the first edition — there's no separate business inbox yet, by design: partners are onboarded face-to-face on the weekly route, not by a cold form. Two things to do now:
- Subscribe to the letter — free, one minute. You'll see exactly what your customers will see, starting with Issue #1, and the founding-partner welcome runs in the early issues.
- Watch for the route. The first partner visits — free listing setup and counter cards in hand — begin as the letter launches. Businesses already on the list get visited first.