What should I do with a food related domain?

Hi all!

I purchased a food related domain just because I thought it sounded good. It was inspired from a conversation I had with a friend who cooks a lot.

For some reason, I feel I need to keep it. But I don't know what to do with it. LOL

There are an infinite amount of food websites already.

If you are in to the food industry, is there something missing from the sites you've visited? Which one is your favorite and why?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Cheers!
Barb

 

I do not visit food websites - but I had dabbled with the thought of a food-specific blog website. People laughed when I mentioned it, but it has been one of those niche topics that have remained with me - if I ever decided to develop a niche content marketing blog. Non-proprietary food recipes are universal so can't be copyrighted. These search terms guaranteed to be searched for in search engines: food, blog, eat, recipe. You should however, have only original images found on your food website this will make you more marketable and will be great for your website branding - as well as boosting website content (which equals better stickiness, and SERPs). Just don't break the food content with too many ads. That is if you intend on monetizing. Stick to food only - not cooking supplies - unless you want to create reviews of food products. I hope that this helps you. Good luck on your endeavors with the food website.

 

Thanks @davilama2682! Appreciate the feedback.

 

I do not have a food website nor a career in food. That said, I love to eat! (See my signature line for evidence of that.) Additionally, so you understand where I am coming from, I am a high tech sales and marketing guy.

Were I wanting to start a food-based website, I would look at what is working now. Nothing succeeds like success, you know. Since I am based in the US like you, I would be most interested in the Cooking Channel and the other cable TV channels that offer 24x7 cooking shows. I would make a list and then visit their websites to see what types of categories, content, etc., they are pushing prominently. They likely get millions of visitors per year and have analysts who spend time understanding what is working for them and what isn't. I would then think about putting up a website or a blog covering one of the categories/topics that seem to be featured prominently on these websites. You can be much more focused and do deeper dives than those larger, more broad-based websites.

However, that is the easy part of the process. The problem is that "...if you build it, they will NOT come..." to paraphrase the famous movie quote. You need to have a strong marketing plan and the problem is that those successful sites that you just researched will not be sharing their secrets with anyone any time soon. (Actually, would not matter, anyway, as their media campaigns will include TV promotion through their channels and this will not be an option for you.) So, you will need to think about your potential audience(s) and how you might go about reaching them. FYI, most good business ideas fail right here: the inability to implement marketing programs that result in customer acquisition. You need to plan to execute a few different marketing campaigns to test for results and to gather the funds and/or resources necessary to implement them effectively. Keep in mind that much like real estate where only three things matter: Location, location, and location; it is the same for marketing in that only three things matter: testing, testing, and testing. Use the testing to find what works and then scale those campaigns that produce for you.

 

Understood. I was mostly looking for some non marketing specific insight. As someone who has used them, what might be missing. The stuff you can't necessarily find through normal marketing processes. Generally speaking.

Have you used a food website personally before?

 

Well, if this is a really rare domain, maybe you can partner up with a restaurant or a local bar to promote them in exchange for profit sharing or free drinks

 

Rarely. Would be for a recipe of some sort.

 

If it's a short dot com domain name you can hold it as an investment and sell it in the future, I buy and sell domains in the thousands of dollars and you would not believe what companies are willing to pay to buy the domains that they want.

Average sale of a dot com domain name is in the high $x,xxx

 

Creating a food blog is the obvious option.

 

Creating a site related to pet foods (home-made, gourmet) can be an option. People love to pamper their pets. May not work with your dn though.

 

You can use it to share food related contents, ads and pdfs (to build list).

 

Carnivore versus vegan is a very polarizing topic these days, bringing lots of engagement.

 

For anything food related i honestly find Pinterest the best option. so I would base your website on a blog and advertise via pinterest. What is the domain related to?

 

Purchasing domain names THEN trying to figure out what to do with them is like buying a bunch of commercial warehouses then trying to figure what you can fill them with to start a business. It's crazy. I have purchased DOZENS of domains over the years because they sounded great and most likely would be great if tied to a web site. However, I have done nothing with those domains as the idea behind the web sites never truly held my interest or passion. Some of these domains I have kept for 10 years to only finally let go. The domain, name of business etc are things that come AFTER the idea. You can't start executing without the idea first. Your domain name is useless and worthless. What should you do with it? Well if you have to ask you will most likely do nothing with it. Scrap it and put your focus on your idea. Stop trying to come up with an idea based off a $0 value domain name.

 

If you could share the domain with us, I suppose we could give better advice
But overall, if some very nice domain is laying around, some blog is always a good idea. Otherwise, just try to sell it and get some $$$.

 

Use your domain for a blog, and share food recipes, expensive foods, cheapest foods, healthy foods or regional foods. You will get huge traffic in this and believe me, you could make a lot of money from this.

 

I'm no expert of the food industry, but if there's one thing the food world cannot have enough of, it's reviews. So see, if you can come up with a unique way of reviewing/covering your favorite food types.

 

Eat it! Just kidding. Sell it?