Q&A: Should I start a new site for my food business?

Notes from Chris

Episode 1810

I feel like I’m not qualified to answer today’s question, and not because it’s highly technical or in a field I have no experience in—I just don’t take those questions in the first place, because I never want to lead you astray. I have no problem saying, “I’m not sure” or “I don’t know.”

The issue here is we have a listener asking about an outdated website … basically, what should she do with it? It’s a simple question, but it reminded me of all the old outdated websites I have. Way too many! I’m just not good at tidying up from old projects, although I have closed at least three of them in the past year, so maybe I’m improving.

Anyway, this listener has an older food blog that she hasn’t updated in a while, and now she wants to convert it to an ecommerce site. Is that the best approach, or should she start all over with a new site?

I’ll do my best to answer her question and also make a note on some more sites I should update myself….

"Hi, Chris, this is Mary Jo from Shakopee, Minnesota, I've been subscribed to your blog for years. I followed Side hustle school from the start and I've read all your books. I even brought a couple dozen homemade cupcakes to your born for this tour stop in Tampa, Florida. I started a WordPress food blog four years ago to share my love of baking. I soon realized that I didn't like blogging, so I made fewer than 50 posts and I never made any money from it. While the blog is still alive, I haven't done any new posts since mid-2020. I had two successful cottage food businesses pre-internet, and I loved doing that, so I decided to start a new one. I haven't made any sales yet, but I'm signed up as a vendor at two markets that are coming up fast. I have Facebook and Instagram accounts and a PayPal account for in-person and online payments, so I need an e-commerce website. Can you offer advice about the pros and cons of converting my food blog to e-commerce versus starting a new website from scratch? Thanks, Chris, for your awesome inspiration and encouragement. And if you're ever in the Twin Cities area, I'd be happy to bring you cupcakes."

Listen to today's episode to learn more...

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Plant-Based Lebanese Food Goes Online: As her health improved, this Aussie of Lebanese heritage started converting meat-based recipes to vegan equivalents. She’s now sharing her recipes with the world.
• Foodie Friends Blog Their Way to Free Stuff & Real Money: Two friends get paid to post photos of their lunch on Instagram. No, really!
• Engineer Beats Wildest Eggspectations With Recipe Blog: A Minnesotan software engineer turns healthy recipes into an online business that has over three million website visitors a month.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,