In February and part of March, we overhauled the existing
site. We gave it a brand new look and feel. Unfortunately, because of the major
changes, we were unable to keep the preexisting 30,000 recipe submissions.
Basically, we started over, from scratch. But we are happy with the new format
and with our new website. We’ve also learned a lot from this experience.
The website is Yumgoggle.com. If you’ve never heard of it, food
bloggers from all over the world submit a photograph, description, and a direct
link to a recipe from their blog. We
have great categories available for the bloggers to select when they submit a
recipe link. Submitting a recipe is absolutely free.
After the submission is published, we go about promoting the
link to the recipe all over the internet. We promote on some combination of
Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Tumbler, StumbleUpon, etc… Not
every recipe is promoted on every social media outlet, except, everything goes on Pinterest, Bloglovin, and Twitter.
In addition to the individual promotion, the website is open
to the public. People can access the site and search for what interests them.
One of the ways they can do that is by browsing Categories. They can also
search for key words. Searching and accessing the recipes is also free.
Some of my favorite Categories are:
Geeks & Nerds
Half-Way Homemade
Quick and One-Pot Meals
What makes us different from other, similar sites? For starters, no one has
to sign up for an account to use us. That process has always seemed cumbersome for
both submitters and users. We want our process to be as easy and enjoyable as
possible. Also, we don’t want people to be afraid to submit their
recipes/photographs. Some sites, similar to ours, are hyper critical of the photographs
and recipes submitted. Being bloggers and food bloggers, ourselves, we know your
ability to take an incredible photograph is not directly connected to your
ability to cook good food. We want people from all over the world to share links
to their recipes with us and we want to share them with the world.
So, how do we make money if everything is free? We have a few,
unobtrusive, ads placed on our site. When people visit our website and click
ads that interest them, we make a few cents. That is where the money to maintain
the website will eventually come from. That is one of the lessons we have
learned, when you visit a blog or site that has some ads, take a moment to
click one or two. Running a website takes money and often that money comes from
ads. Think of it as tipping. If you are using a site, blog or otherwise using
free content on the internet, be kind enough to click an ad (if there is one).
It’s an easy way to support your favorite sites.
We hope you’ll take the time to check out our site. We
update content, daily. And if you see some gaps in my blog posts on this site,
now that it’s likely because I’m working on the new website. We are still
finding a balance between our new venture and our existing lives and jobs.
Thank you, all, for your support!
