Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to get people to check out my little restaurant guide. I’ve tried a few different channels that I’d like to talk about.
First of all, I am currently willing to spend about $100 per month; this is because I fund this endeavor out-of-pocket. Since I launched the site back in July, I’ve tried buying Google adwords, and also experimented with Facebook ads. When I first configured my Google ads, I was getting about 8 clicks per day, but I was getting a lot of users that I simply couldn’t offer value to (foodfinder.net is still has very limited US restaurant coverage). On the next round, I did a bit more targeting by geography both in terms of keyword selection and making my landing pages a bit smarter. By click rate dropped to 2-3 per day, but my bounce rate also fell by about 10%.
Facebook offers super targeted advertising, but I started with a small geographic search area (San Diego and surrounding cities). This yielded about 1-2 clicks per day (although my total ad spend was under 10 dollars over a 14 day period).
Clearly, I’ve got a steep learning curve here. I think I’m going to try some less conventional forms of advertising. A friend and co-worker who just release a cool viral object tracking game site turned me on to a cool new ad channel. The site is called Girl in Your Shirt and it takes an innovative approach to marketing via social networking.
This will be my next endeavor--I’ve got shirt printing now, and will soon drop $75 bucks to see what kind of traffic this can drive. I’ll keep you posted. In the mean time, any thought on how to spend $100 a month to drive some web traffic? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
My Biggest Challenge: Data Acquisition
I've gotten a couple of requests this past week that relate to the most difficult part of building the intrepid restaurant guide that is FoodFinder.net. Both of these, while very different from each other, tie into the same theme--gathering restaurant data.
The first one inquired about adding international restaurants. Wow...this would be super cool. I really look forward to expanding overseas. Unfortunately, I'm years, not months away. Reason one--I have limited database space (about half a gig). Even my US coverage is a work in progress. I've collected restaurants in about 20 major markets, and have filled out areas around the two places where I've lived (southern New England and Southern California). These 2 regions also get the most attention in terms of new restaurants and updates.
The second request was for an update to the menu for Martha's Exchange & Brewery. Normally, this would be a simple matter, but their menu is not available electronically (normally, I would have told the manager to send me an electronic copy of the data, but since I used to frequent their on the weekends, I figured I'd knock it out and brush up on my typing skills at the same time). In the future, I won't make a habit of doing this.
Also, I'd like to expand the amount of data available for an individual restaurant. I think Yelp does a great job providing detailed meta information about their listings. I plan to add this by opening up control over some of the restaurant data to the community and the owners or managers. So much to do, and so little time.
The first one inquired about adding international restaurants. Wow...this would be super cool. I really look forward to expanding overseas. Unfortunately, I'm years, not months away. Reason one--I have limited database space (about half a gig). Even my US coverage is a work in progress. I've collected restaurants in about 20 major markets, and have filled out areas around the two places where I've lived (southern New England and Southern California). These 2 regions also get the most attention in terms of new restaurants and updates.
The second request was for an update to the menu for Martha's Exchange & Brewery. Normally, this would be a simple matter, but their menu is not available electronically (normally, I would have told the manager to send me an electronic copy of the data, but since I used to frequent their on the weekends, I figured I'd knock it out and brush up on my typing skills at the same time). In the future, I won't make a habit of doing this.
Also, I'd like to expand the amount of data available for an individual restaurant. I think Yelp does a great job providing detailed meta information about their listings. I plan to add this by opening up control over some of the restaurant data to the community and the owners or managers. So much to do, and so little time.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Food and Restaurant Resources
When promoting a website, one of the most important criteria in organic SEO is backlinks. A few days back, my little restaurant rating website was included in a blog post. The site is called www.culinaryschoolguide.org and the topic was 100 useful food resources.
At first, I was just happy to get an unsolicited link to FoodFinder.net (the first of it's kind). Of course, I took a few minutes to check out the entry and there are some really great resources on there, ranging from search engines for micro breweries to cooking videos.
If you're a foodie, check it out.
At first, I was just happy to get an unsolicited link to FoodFinder.net (the first of it's kind). Of course, I took a few minutes to check out the entry and there are some really great resources on there, ranging from search engines for micro breweries to cooking videos.
If you're a foodie, check it out.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
How to Optimize SEO for a New Website
Actually, I'm not instructing--I'm asking. SEO is something very new to me. It’s funny, you spend years working on B2C web sites, and many of the changes requested by the marketing group revolved around SEO--somehow, very little sunk in. Anyway, I've been fumbling through the process, trying to get my restaurant guide website up to snuff. Fortunately, there are resources available.
A co-worker and friend of mine has a great mountain bike trail site and I've learned quite a bit from his efforts. Primarily, using URL re-writing to allow search engines to process dynamic pages easily, as well as getting some important keywords into the URL. Apparently search engine bots weight this heavily.
Also, I've subscribed to a service to submit my website to several directories. This creates a pool of back links, which search engines use to determine the value of a website. I've slowly seen my Google page rank jump from zero to a whopping one.
A really cool website that I found on Chris Brogan's blog is the Website Grader from Hubspot They have a tool that analyzes your site's content, features, back links, and a whole bunch of other factors, and then give it a grade. I use this thing every couple of days and try work off their recommendations. I've grown my grade from 55 to 88. I've also created Facebook and Myspace pages.
What should I do next? My Google ranking is growing, but I can't seem to make much progress in Yahoo or MSN. I'd love to hear any advice.
A co-worker and friend of mine has a great mountain bike trail site and I've learned quite a bit from his efforts. Primarily, using URL re-writing to allow search engines to process dynamic pages easily, as well as getting some important keywords into the URL. Apparently search engine bots weight this heavily.
Also, I've subscribed to a service to submit my website to several directories. This creates a pool of back links, which search engines use to determine the value of a website. I've slowly seen my Google page rank jump from zero to a whopping one.
A really cool website that I found on Chris Brogan's blog is the Website Grader from Hubspot They have a tool that analyzes your site's content, features, back links, and a whole bunch of other factors, and then give it a grade. I use this thing every couple of days and try work off their recommendations. I've grown my grade from 55 to 88. I've also created Facebook and Myspace pages.
What should I do next? My Google ranking is growing, but I can't seem to make much progress in Yahoo or MSN. I'd love to hear any advice.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Watching Data Evolve
Is it possible to say "I told you so" to yourself.
When I launched my new restaurant rating site about 2 and a half months ago, I made a decision. I decided to allow users to participate in the site without creating an account or logging in. This was calculated; The site will only come alive and be successful if users participate, so I wanted them to be able to interact without the hurdle of having to create an account. To give them value while asking for little in return. The same reason people can rate a restaurant or menu item without having to write about it.
Of course, this openness has an interesting side effect. I'm finding that some folks are rating restaurants with 10s across the board (the restaurant owners perhaps?). Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind. I'm just glad people are beginning to participate. Of course, this isn't exactly an unbiased view of an establishment's fare.
Eventually, I will implement an IMDB style mechanism so the ratings are only displayed when multiple ratings are collected. For now, thought...it's a free-for-all. It's actually a good play by the owners. A top-ten rated dish for a city appears on the home page giving a little extra exposure.
What do you think? Will people pass the site by if the ratings are obviously skewed? Should I do something to stop this at the risk of collecting less data? What would you do?
When I launched my new restaurant rating site about 2 and a half months ago, I made a decision. I decided to allow users to participate in the site without creating an account or logging in. This was calculated; The site will only come alive and be successful if users participate, so I wanted them to be able to interact without the hurdle of having to create an account. To give them value while asking for little in return. The same reason people can rate a restaurant or menu item without having to write about it.
Of course, this openness has an interesting side effect. I'm finding that some folks are rating restaurants with 10s across the board (the restaurant owners perhaps?). Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind. I'm just glad people are beginning to participate. Of course, this isn't exactly an unbiased view of an establishment's fare.
Eventually, I will implement an IMDB style mechanism so the ratings are only displayed when multiple ratings are collected. For now, thought...it's a free-for-all. It's actually a good play by the owners. A top-ten rated dish for a city appears on the home page giving a little extra exposure.
What do you think? Will people pass the site by if the ratings are obviously skewed? Should I do something to stop this at the risk of collecting less data? What would you do?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
How to Start a Website For $2853.80
How much moola does it take to get a website off the ground? Of course, that depends on a number of factors: the skills and experience of the person or people involved, the overall goal of the site, the estimated traffic, the marketing strategy/budget, etc. To get FoodFinder.net off the ground, I've amassed a whopping $2853.80 in one time expenses and $480 annually in recurring expenses. Here's the breakdown:
That's it; the remaining work is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I force myself to work an hour per day and that usually turns into 4 or 5. I started in April and would say I average 4 hours per day, 7 days per week. That's roughly 476 hours...ugh.
So that's all it takes. Now the path I took isn't viable (or recommended) for most people. In fact, for a non-experienced user, I would recommend creating a blog with links to static pages. Take this site for example (this actually came up recently). For eCommerce, I would probably leverage a subscription package like Ebay stores. There are a ton of free or low-cost options available that allow users with limited technical skill to develop an internet presence
What's your idea?
- Domain Names: $1849.80: I probably went a bit overboard here due wholly as a result of alcohol. There are actually 5 domain names pointed to the website right now. www.foodfinder.net ($1,300 - 6 years), www.foodsearch.us.com ($149.95 - 5 years), www.foodfinder.us.com ($149.95 - 5 years), www.lunchfinder.us.com ($149.95 - 5 years), www.lunchfinder.net ($99.95 - 5 years)
- Hosting/Database: I use discountasp.net which I love. I host my jeph.tv site there as well. They start at $10/month for ASP.Net hosting and you can add on from there (I think I'm paying about $40/month with add-ons, plus about $100 worth of various set up options). They do get you for some services, but for an experienced user, I highly recommend them.
- Images: In the early stages of design, I thought I was going to need a vast library of images. As such, I signed up for a subscription at www.123rf.com. The quality is great and for $199, I get a 90 day subscription which allows me 5 downloads per day. I've got a slew of images that I will probably never use, but that's OK.
- Logo: I am no designer; this will become clear as you use the site. The logo was purchased in a contest at www.99designs.com. I loved this process. Basically, you post a description of what you're looking for and what you're willing to pay and designers from around the world submit designs. I saw some really cool options before deciding; there are some very talented folks in that community.
That's it; the remaining work is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I force myself to work an hour per day and that usually turns into 4 or 5. I started in April and would say I average 4 hours per day, 7 days per week. That's roughly 476 hours...ugh.
So that's all it takes. Now the path I took isn't viable (or recommended) for most people. In fact, for a non-experienced user, I would recommend creating a blog with links to static pages. Take this site for example (this actually came up recently). For eCommerce, I would probably leverage a subscription package like Ebay stores. There are a ton of free or low-cost options available that allow users with limited technical skill to develop an internet presence
What's your idea?
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Birth of a Website
Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted on this blog. I find myself working on a really interesting development project these days though, so I feel compelled to talk about it. Recently, I was inspired by the story of Plenty of Fish and how Markus has found a degree of financial success creating a site that offers great value and is completely supported by advertising. "I could do that", I cried. And so it begins...
FoodFinder.net is a website that allows users to search and rate restaurants by the menu item. The idea came from a conversation we have pretty much every day at work.
"What should we have for lunch?"
"I don't know...where can we find a decent burger around here?"
"How about Chilis"
"I don't feel like that how about..."
You get the idea. Plus, as a big fan of the food shows, I'm always wanting to try stuff I see on TV. What's the current protocol for finding a muffuletta sandwich or croque monsieur. So there you have it.
I realize this is a technical blog, and will make sure to talk about the technical challenges and architecture involved in the site. I also am amazed that despite being the same technology platform (ASP.Net with a MS SQL Server 2005 DB), the code is night and day different than what I do in my day job.
That's it for now. Next, I'll run down the steps and vendors I used to get this thing off the ground. Remember, when checking it out that is a work in progress, but will one day be great ;).
FoodFinder.net is a website that allows users to search and rate restaurants by the menu item. The idea came from a conversation we have pretty much every day at work.
"What should we have for lunch?"
"I don't know...where can we find a decent burger around here?"
"How about Chilis"
"I don't feel like that how about..."
You get the idea. Plus, as a big fan of the food shows, I'm always wanting to try stuff I see on TV. What's the current protocol for finding a muffuletta sandwich or croque monsieur. So there you have it.
I realize this is a technical blog, and will make sure to talk about the technical challenges and architecture involved in the site. I also am amazed that despite being the same technology platform (ASP.Net with a MS SQL Server 2005 DB), the code is night and day different than what I do in my day job.
That's it for now. Next, I'll run down the steps and vendors I used to get this thing off the ground. Remember, when checking it out that is a work in progress, but will one day be great ;).
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