Sarah Elton ([info]sarah_elton) wrote,
@ 2007-04-05 12:43:00
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Current mood: chipper

Promoting an online business - how?
Need help from one and all!

Some good friends of mine have launched an online business. Basic premise is it's a recipe website, and all the recipes are tried-and-tested, good recipes, written by an experienced chef. Users pay £15 a year to access them. www.reallynicerecipes.com

The selling point has been the quality recipes, but what I love most is the fact they have photos at every step. I always get scared when cooking that I've made a mistake, when halfway through it looks a bit weird. :o)

Anyway, this is all turning into a bit of a plug, which it wasn't meant to be.

Their biggest problem right now is promoting the site, and getting traffic. Starting up, there is next to no cash for Marketing. I've suggested (a) ads on foodie discussion groups (after checking their policy on ads carefully) and (b) partner links with small sites like organic ingredient sellers, farms promoting quality meat, etc.

What else? I'm in Marketing, primarily producing text, so I've given them a lot of feedback today (possibly more than was welcome lol) on content, look, etc. But I've not been involved in promoting a site before - can anyone think of other cheap methods for when you're getting started?

Comment here. Also, if you have any (nicely put and constructive) feedback on the site, post it here. Ben will be reading....


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[info]declanw
2007-04-05 12:10 pm UTC (link)
This is where those cookery programs on tv may come into their own.
Try to get onto Ready Steady Cook or similar if you can. I think they are always trying to find interesting people to go on, and the Beeb still seem to think that internet businesses are automatically interesting.

As you say tit-for-tat ads with other start up sites.

Is there a recipe / cooking 'webring' that wouldn't mind a commercial company signing up?

How much do small ads in the back of dedicated mags costs these days? I'm thinking 'Good Food' - working from memory here - or similar.

Give the first 'x' registered users the site for free

Offer 'referal' cashbacks, extensions to membership, or similar.

Go to the shopping 'loyalty' points type places and offer cashback to get on their list (I don't know how much you would have to offer, but look around). I'm with QuidCo who seem quite good from the 'buyer's end'.

All this does, of course, add to the admin burden so make sure that they have sufficient time to devote to any cashback/referal schemes they may be interested in.

And, not to be mean or anything, but ask LtCmdrJim what the company he worked for did 'wrong'.

Hope that helps a little. Just off the top of my head.

D

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[info]sarah_elton
2007-04-05 12:18 pm UTC (link)
Cashback websites! I didn't think of that! I use Quidco too (Ben, see www.quidco.com) and they're by far my favourite.

I wouldn't have thought of trying to get onto a cookery show - that's genius. I think you're wasted working in Accounting. :o)

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[info]declanw
2007-04-05 12:33 pm UTC (link)
nah... I think I like it here. Except that it does tend to get you ignored at parties...

...allowing one to break out the laptop and do some work of course

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[info]sarah_elton
2007-04-05 02:29 pm UTC (link)
Accountants go to parties?

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[info]ameet
2007-04-05 08:12 pm UTC (link)
To begin with, a lot of the traffic will probably come from people stumbling across the site for search engines. To help improve the chances of the site being indexed, many search engines recommend the creation of a formal sitemap. This can then be submitted to Google's Webmaster tools to analyse which pages have been indexed and which search terms are generating the most hits for the site.

The choice of recipes listed as free can also play a big part in how many sites link to the website. Cooking.com have a list of the most popular recipe searches on their site so finding one that gives relatively few results would improve the chances of having a high ranking for particular searches.

In terms of the site itself, one possible future enhancement that may help to differentiate the site from other recipe sites is to tag recipes with positioning claims (i.e. low GI, vegan, gluten free) and to structure the ingredients to help facilitate a potential search engine where someone for example search for low GI recipes without rice. This may help keep people returning to the site after they have found their favourite recipes by allowing them to use it as a tool to help suggest meals on particular occasions (i.e. catering for a dinner guest with particular dietary requirements or finding a good use for a surplus of a particular ingredient).

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