Two Companies Offer Bloggers Free Food & Travel

Free food? check. Free trips? check. Two of life’s greatest sources of enjoyment are now not only free, but could also help you to further your writing career.In much the same way that wine tastings have been twitterized, TasteCasting and YokMok are two innovative companies reaching out to the world of savvy social networkers to increase market exposure. With the word ‘Twitter’ being declared the most used word in the English language in 2009, its no wonder businesses are hopping on board the social media networks.

TasteCasting combines socially networked people and the social media platforms they use to help restaurants build awareness, gain exposure, announce grand openings, and introduce new menu items. Teams of tasters are being formed around the US and Canada, and they’re looking for organized, social-media savvy peeps to join them. TasteCasting teams post stories, pictures, and videos about new menu items, grand openings, and special offers to the TasteCasting website. Currently its free for restauarants and there’s no compensation for tasters, but as the company grows, they hope to be able to offer their tasters some bigger incentives. For now though, the free food and writing exposure’s gonna have to be enough.

YokMok is an adventure travel company based in Madrid that actively invovles past clients in the planning and creation of new trips. They offer trips of varying length, type, and intensity in Switzerland, France, Spain, Nepal, and Morocco. Now much like TasteCasting, YokMok is offering free trips to popular bloggers. Owners of popular blogs related to adventure, travel, or adrenaline sports are invited to apply for free travel on one of the company’s upcoming trips.  Bloggers only need to submit their name, the URL to their blog, a few sentances about themselves, and which trip they are interested in participating in, to be considered. If YokMok has an unfilled slot for a trip, they’ll invite qualified applicants to join. All they ask in exchange are 4 posts pre- and post-trip, and daily posts during the trip. Sounds like a pretty stellar way to hit the road on someone else’s dime.