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Local Restaurant Menu webpage

by grd77
10 replies
Hi Warriors,

I'm looking to starting a local restaurant menu webpage. Similar to allmenupages.com and menupages.com but on a local scale. Submitting the menus needs to be free, just wondering how I can monetize the site/pricing model ideas. I know charging for banners is one way but not sure how to price. Another idea is to charge the restaurants if they want a spot in the top 10 list according to category. Aiming for a simple pricing model the restaurant owner can understand.

Anyone in a similar website project? Or has insider information on how menupages.com charges for advertising . Advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
#local #menu #restaurant #webpage
  • Profile picture of the author Micheal Perkins
    Here is an example of a site that does something like this in my area.

    MidMoDiningGuide.com - Your Online Menu to Mid-Missouri Dining - Restaurants, Menus, Reviews

    Not sure if it's the kind of thing you're interested in. I'm not sure how they are monetizing it, other than selling ads that are over on the sidebar.
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    • Profile picture of the author fasteasysuccess
      Can I ask why did you say submitting menus has to be free? There's so many ways to do that profitably.

      One way if going the free to submit menus way...is monthly charge after that. You need to prove to them why it's worth it to continue with your site and provide value to do that though.

      Like I said, a lot of ways to do it but that's one way.
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      • Profile picture of the author grd77
        @fasteasysuccess:

        I think submissions need to be free because you will first need to prove yourself. Another idea like @mcmillad said is to have a plain text form menu listing as free and charge for extra stuff like a downloadble pdf. a cool feature is to give them a youtube 30 sec. video

        @mcmillad:

        I like the coupon page idea, actually that's another little project which I'm messing with, customizing the wordpress template and is coming out great, hopefully put the core coupon template and merge it with the menu but for a price.

        @perkings:

        I like this approach. it would be tricky to track, unless I spin this service in a groupon sort of way, interesting.

        @devid farah

        I agree building the traffic is key, this needs to be my selling point. I think providing this service free (meaning, more than a text listing, jpegs, downloadable pdf and such) for at least 90 days (maybe too much), just to show other restaurants how their competitors are looking.
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  • Profile picture of the author mcmillad
    Create a coupon page and charge for companies to list their coupons. Then there is measurable results for the restaurants. Create opt-in forms for the restaurants under their menu listing which sends the information to the restaurants email. Create a review page for each restaurant, but only give restaurants that pay the ability to defend a bad review. Create a map and highlight paying restaurants like google places does. Just a few thoughts for you.
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    • Profile picture of the author mcmillad
      One more. Let menu submission be free, but only in a plain text form. Let premium members menu's be jpg or such and make them downloadable in PDF form.
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  • Profile picture of the author Micheal Perkins
    Maybe create a mailing list of customers looking for specials from the restaurants. Then you can email the specials to the customers. Each restaurant wanting to use your database of potential diners would then pay you to distribute their special.

    Every restaurant knows what day is their slowest. So they could have you send out a special to draw diners in to their restaurant on a specific day.

    Say you get 50 restaurants on board and you allow 1 or 2 special offers a day, that will be sent out together in the same email to your list. Charge the restaurants maybe $250 each mailing as long as you learn they are making that money back. You can track it by making the customer tell the wait staff they want that special, or print the email offer and bring it in.
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    • Profile picture of the author Devid Farah
      The coupons idea sounds good, restaurant coupons I am noticing are a growth area seemingly Worldwide as people try to attract customers in during the recession.

      Personally I would recommend keeping the registration free, concentrate on building the traffic up first and monetization second.

      Make it a “Must have” site to be seen on.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Solem
    Hey grd77,

    Doing a menu site and/or local business directory is something I've looked at often over the years, but for various reasons have never taken the plunge to get started.

    If I were to do this, my thoughts we always that I'd offer some premium services for free until I had enough traffic coming by on a regular basis, then offer a free basic level of service and one or two upgrades. I always thought I'd charge a restaurant $1/day - $30 a month for a full business listing with menus and some nice photos included. You could always upsell an animoto style video or do a real shoot with just some basic equipment - but I do think you need the traffic there before you can justify charging for things like that.

    I always thought it'd be best to maintain two email lists that you could profit from. One of visitors to your site that you could charge restaurants to advertise to...and one of the restaurant owners so you could sell them additional services like getting their own email list, sms marketing and even mobile or traditional web design.

    Before spending a lot of time developing a site and expecting people to signup
    though, I'd highly recommend doing some research in your area and asking some of these restaurants if they would consider being part of a site like this. While I personally like the idea and it's obvious this business model works well in some markets, I have known people to tried something similar in their town and couldn't get any takers...even for free listings.

    HTH some,

    Steve
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    Need Offline Leads? Get them more easily with two great Lead Gen reports and 65 pages of quality PLR PLUS flyers, postcards and other marketing materials. Starting at under $5!
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  • Profile picture of the author donnye
    I have done very well building a restaurant coupon list in my hometown of Tyler TX. Our city population is only 100,000 and I get around 30 people opting in a day. In 1 year this will be around 7,000 - 10,000 opt ins.

    You better believe you can sell coupon services to a restaurant w/ a list like this and upsell the restaurant owner on website creation, marketing, PPC management, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author flyinghammers
    I also like the coupon idea. On a side not Yelp has been adding menus from restaurants in select cities. They plan to roll out nation wide by the end of the year.
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