[PROGRESS THREAD] From 0 Subscribers to Money Making Website

[Ohmshanti]

I've sat here for a while now, Should I Start a Progress Thread... Will People Care... Will it Help me at all...

And the ultimate answer I've had to come to is yes and I hope that's the case. I currently run a few online 'businesses' but won't go into them as it won't add to this progress thread. The one thing I will say is that they are not particularly Fastlane and I fear, one day, they could just diminish and I will be left panicked.

So what's my plan? I am going to take what I have learned about marketing online, building email lists to market to and monetising those lists to create what I would deem a Fastlane business. One that I can then grow and grow and grow.

And the website from which I will achieve this: http://fiverfeeds.co.uk - It has been live since February 2013 (WHAT?!) but has been a site I published the odd blog post to, lost a little interest in and let it sit there not doing an awful lot.

So here's my plan broken down into a few stages:

Stage #1: Build up the email list to 2,000 through Facebook advertising, Google Adwords, Twitter Advertising as well through outreach to blogs in the niche by guest posting and/or getting them to guest post and hopefully mention their guest post to their subscribers and followers.

Stage #2: Launch a competition to double the list (more details on this method to follow once the list hits 2,000). And I will of course continue to grow the list as in Stage #1.

Stage #3: Digital Monetisation... This is when I will implement the first level of monetisation which will be solely digital based producing low ticket guidebooks on specific areas of cooking. For example, 97 Dishes you can make with 2 Eggs or 50 Recipes with Only 5 Ingredients. These are guidebooks that slot perfectly into the niche of cheap meals for the family and will be low ticket.

Stage #4: Physical Product Monetisation... This is when I think it gets interesting (for me). Admittedly I have zero experience in the world of physical products so this might be a bold move (but it is a way off yet). I plan to create post-able 'food packs' (small enough to arrive in the post box as standard post) that are based on a theme. For example, the essential spice pack which will contain 10 of the most important spices for all your cooking needs. The focus here will be on saving the buyer money compared to the standard way of buying spices in large jars. More details on this to follow as I approach this stage in the cycle.

Stage #5: Segment the list and expand into other areas such as saving money in the home, growing your own fruit and vegetables and so on. I believe the initial list built will be highly valuable for a range of differing niches which is where further growth could come from.

I plan to update this thread weekly(ish) with what I have done to grow the site further and will update you with all the numbers.

I'm a very private person who rarely shares anything with anyone with regards to my businesses and work online. I feel none of my family/friends really have the same mindset as myself (think 9-to-5) and this forum has changed that for me and given me a place for motivation and to talk with people of a similar mindset.

I welcome questions, thoughts, criticism or even a friendly hello. Thanks guys!

 

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[RoadTrip]

How big is this market for low cost recipes? Are people actively looking for low cost recipes? And how many visitors do you currently have on your site?

I like your idea of creating ebooks with recipes. That's definitely fastlane! Thought about creating a ebook myself with easy to make Paleo or Low Carb recipes. The weight loss market is huge and I know from experience that finding easy to make recipes is hard. Just not picking it up now as I have another venture I'm working on at the moment.

If the market is big enough I think I would do step 1, 2 and 3 simultaneously. Look at the competition, diversify, create the ebook and upload it to Amazon and offer it on your website or to your list.

Also like the idea of sending packs with food. However, I'm not sure if your service will be cheaper than bulk shopping at the cheapest grocery stores.... Also, I buy my spices at the local market where it costs almost nothing. I suggest you talk to people with a low budget and see if they are willing to pay for your service. Or better yet, make use of the email lists you already have

Thanks for putting up the progress thread. Looking forward to your updates!

 

[Ohmshanti]

The market is large enough - What I've done is look at the markets for saving money in the UK and also popular chefs and cookery magazine numbers. The people that fall into both of these markets are a part of my market.

Visitors numbers are currently average 50 uniques a day (I know, certainly not ground breaking).

If I get to the latter stages with physical products, I'd certainly implement some form of validation to ensure people would be interested in buying/using etc.

 

[Ohmshanti]

UPDATE 1

I've decided to come on here every Friday to make my update posts as opposed to my original plan of a Wednesday update. So here's the stats for Fiver Feeds as I stand:

Email List Subscribers: 121 (+50)
Twitter Followers: 712 (+106)
Facebook Likes: 1,839 (+696)

I've found Twitter isn't that responsive. You get the odd click but nothing that's going to make much of an impact on the traffic and subscriber numbers which is the main initial goal. Facebook however has been a great source of traffic. I'm paying for likes BUT the likes are highly targeted and paid for through FB PPC ads targeting only the UK. Costing just 5p per like too, it's not breaking the bank.

The Facebook account is not getting more and more active with people liking new recipes, sharing them and commenting on Facebook posts which is helping get people from the page to the site and then signing up to the list.

Just 1,879 subscribers to go to hit my initial goal of 2,000 subscribers and then I can look at putting the first of (hopefully) many guidebook together to then sell on.

Any questions just ask!

 

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[Ohmshanti]

UPDATE 2

So it's time for the second update on my progress with Fiver Feeds and here's the numbers for the week:

Email List Subscribers: 159 (+38)
Twitter Followers: 811 (+99)
Facebook Likes: 2,366 (+527)

Facebook is proving to be one of the highest sources of traffic and interaction on the page is on the increase with more and more people now making comments, liking and sharing posts. The next step would be to try and get people interacting with one another to build more of a community.

I also want to get a little more interaction started on Twitter - Obviously with Facebook having around 1,500 more fans than Twitter, there's a higher chance that some are going to be active. The plan with Twitter is to get a competition running. I'm not 100% sure on the type yet (anyone with experience of Twitter competitions??). But the most likely type of competition I will do is 'Follow and RT' whereby followers must 'follow' (which they will already) and RT for a chance to Win something niche related. The plan would be then to get their friends who are into cooking to follow and RT and so on...

HOPEFULLY it'll be a way to get some more followers and brand awareness across Twitter but we'll see. It'll be a bit of an experiment as I've never tried Twitter competitions and for the sake of a £25-£30 price I think it's worth a shot.

The next week is more of the same besides the competition on Twitter.

Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[Jam Wheel]

Chiming in with a thought here....

I was thinking about you possibly narrowing down a niche. For me, it seems like the natural market for you to target would be the student population. In London at least there are already 2-5 competitor companies doing businesses where they send everything you need (produce, meat, spices, etc) in a box to you weekly for the subscriber to cook themselves. Subscriber gets the benefit of no wasted food, tasty recipes, etc. Maybe you have heard of some of these? They are doing very well, but they are still expensive for most people and, frankly, isn't something I would purchase because I like to tweak recipes myself.

If I was a student though and living in halls where, at least in the UK, they seem to have access to a kitchen and appliances, I would possibly be interested in cookbooks or a package or something that would allow me to cook tasty, quick, cheap recipes without having to front all the cash for spices and the like. There is possibly a play in the product space, but I am not sure what it is off the top of my head.

For your content though.... if you targeted students with your cookbooks/recipes etc and focused on your brand and making really good, budget conscious recipes, I bet you would see more likes and sharing. Freshers ought to be settling in about now and getting tired of the pizza and takeaways etc. Look at the guy on this forum who put together a kitchen pack for students. You may want to reach out to him regarding thoughts on the market or some quick research for your product.

Going back to the value angle - instead of focusing on how you can build up your FB subscriber lists etc etc etc - why aren't you putting something together now that you can give away for free on occasion that your user base would value? Thats a lot easier than trying to build up a list through buying clicks etc (and is the user even really emotionally invested in your content?) and THEN trying to sell them on something valuable. Come up with some recipes with basic ingredients that are actually tasty/innovative and get those circulating etc. Build up enough of a presence/value/brand and you can start compiling more content into single, small purchase cookbooks centered on what your customers want (maybe its some wacky new diet, or cheap Paleo meals, etc). Don't worry about physical products now because I am willing to bet that if you do this value piece right, then the right partnership or product will make itself known in due time and grow out of customer need.

I'll be the first to admit that I find most of the social media marketing and email list building stuff confusing and its certainly not my area of expertise. To me, building the list for the sake of building the list comes under wantrepreneurship... if you aren't actively engaging and providing value simultaneously.

 

[Ohmshanti]

The student thing is a great idea I just fear that the money is not in it. I know the kitchen product you're talking about and think it's a great idea as a one off purchase but not something you're going to see a regular income from and I can't see that many students 'splashing out' on cookbooks online etc which is why I am targeting families.

I agree I need to work on getting a freebie in place to offer people when they sign up on top of the weekly newsletter providing them with a recipe to check out. The likes/shares etc as getting more and more common now and are not something I pay for. The thing I do pay for is fans (but carefully targeted, UK only) and then targeting those fans to visit the site (a form of retargeting I suppose) as I know these people are aware of the brand (as they're fans).

The next step is to get these leads engaging more and more with the site. One of the big hurdles I NEED to get over is getting people to comment on the site more. The odd one gets through but people just seem reluctant to comment. I can put up a Facebook post saying "What would you do with a bucket of tomatoes" and there would be a fairly constant stream of comments but trying to replicate this on the site is proving more difficult.

The next few things I want to do/try:

1. Sort a free recipe book out - Perhaps based on recipes that only use 3 main ingredients (for example) or focus on a particular ingredient and fill the book with recipes for that ingredient (although this may alienate some groups for example choosing chicken would exclude vegetarians and so on).

2. Sort a paid recipe book out - Initially I thought that I should aim to get 1-2,000 on the list before promoting a paid product but the more I think about it, the more I realise it takes 1 person to buy it. That's it. I could have a list of 10 with 5 buyers and I could have a list of 1,000 but still with just the 5 buyers so I think monetisation as early on as possible is key. Of course, in terms of business the aim of the site is to make money, but I don't want to produce a book for the sake of making money and instead what it to be something that people WANT and NEED. As guides in the niche are fairly evergreen, I'm thinking about including a scheduled follow up series a few weeks after they join to promote the book. No hard selling, just letting them know it exists.

3. Competitions - Both on social media profiles and on the website itself. I want to look to grow the sharing/liking/sign ups through competitions giving away niche related items (so not just giving away £50 in Amazon vouchers as anyone would apply) but instead, really focussing on cooking and a product that only keen home-cooks would be interested in.

I welcome any questions, thoughts, criticisms etc.

 

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[Ohmshanti]

UPDATE 3

A bit late for this update but had lots going on that just meant I didn't get a chance to get onto The Fastlane Forum. So what's happened in the last week. Just so you know, these stats were accurate on Friday when I should have done my update:

Email List Subscribers: 231 (+72)
Twitter Followers: 938 (+127)
Facebook Likes: 2,862 (+496)

I know some people don't think these numbers mean a huge amount but they do to me and it's a great way to see some growth on the site/brand.

So what else have I done:

• Started Work on a Free Book - This will be given to all new sign ups containing the essentials/basics for cooking cheaply at home with some basic recipes that can be adapted etc. The idea here is to give people more of an incentive to sign up and to also show people the level of quality they can expect from products produced from us.

• Begun Contacting Bloggers in the Niche - I've been 'networking' (sort of) with bloggers in the niche with their own loyal following and asking them to submit a recipe to the 'Fiver Feeds Archives' just to get another stream of recipes onto the site and hopefully some traffic were they were share their recipe their followers.

That's all really at the moment. Just more of the same besides that. I will looking to put together my first paid book in the next week or so which is exciting but that's it really.

Questions welcomed etc.