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Issues with local Restaurant Portal website... thanks for your help!

by Warrior Simon
18 replies
Dear fellow Warriors!

Please allow me to ask for your advice.

I live in a city with about 1.5 mio. citizens. There's a quarter with lots of restaurants, and a few months ago I set up a portal website about this quarter. This website ranks #1 for the keyword "restaurants 'quarter'" and has about 700 unique visitors a month. It displays about 20 or so restaurants .

My initial idea was to have the restaurant owners pay me $50 per month to maintain their listing.

I did contact the owners by (paper) mail and followed up on them via phone.
I could already present their listing and the website was already ranking on #1, so I really was optimistic regarding their reaction.

Thing is: either their restaurant went so badly, that they couldn't (or didn't want to) afford the fee, or it went so well, that they didn't need any additional advertisement.

Not even one restaurant owner was willing to pay!

Next thing I did was contacting restaurant owners, whose website was ranking on page #2 for my keyword, saying "you can have position #1 instead of page #2"... nothing!

Then I put a Groupon-ad on the site, hoping to get at least a little bit income this way... not working! :-)

Any advice here, how to make this website finally make money for me?
If you like to see it, just pm me!

thanks a lot, your help is much appreciated!

Simon
#issues #local #portal #restaurant #website
  • Profile picture of the author Ehsan_am
    It seems that restaurants are not an ideal market. Especially in large metropols where they get business by their sole location. View my thread here : http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...staurants.html
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    • Profile picture of the author TyErickson
      Originally Posted by Ehsan_am View Post

      It seems that restaurants are not an ideal market. Especially in large metropols where they get business by their sole location. View my thread here : http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...staurants.html
      Google just bought Zagat for $125M. Zagat charges restaurants $25/month for "membership"

      Open Table charges roughly $700 for their reservation software install and another $199 per month and another $1 per head for people who make reservations through the site.

      Restaurants on average spend 8% of their sales on advertising.

      8% of 500,000 = $40,000 annual spend
      8% of 1M = $80,000 annual spend
      8% of 2M = $160,000 annual spend
      8% of 5M = $400,000 annual spend

      In a good sized city like you are talking about there should be plenty of $2M restaurants.

      There's lots of money there - it's your offer or your approach or both. You need to show them the value and they will divert the funds -- are you sure you are adding the value currently?

      PS - are you in New Orleans - I haven't heard the word 'quarter' referenced very often. If so then there is a ton of money to be made....
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      • Profile picture of the author social2nite
        totally agree with this. Now days this field also have some problems and market conditions are going down.
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      • Profile picture of the author mojo1
        Originally Posted by TyErickson View Post

        Google just bought Zagat for $125M. Zagat charges restaurants $25/month for "membership"

        Open Table charges roughly $700 for their reservation software install and another $199 per month and another $1 per head for people who make reservations through the site.

        Restaurants on average spend 8% of their sales on advertising.

        8% of 500,000 = $40,000 annual spend
        8% of 1M = $80,000 annual spend
        8% of 2M = $160,000 annual spend
        8% of 5M = $400,000 annual spend

        In a good sized city like you are talking about there should be plenty of $2M restaurants.

        There's lots of money there - it's your offer or your approach or both. You need to show them the value and they will divert the funds -- are you sure you are adding the value currently?

        PS - are you in New Orleans - I haven't heard the word 'quarter' referenced very often. If so then there is a ton of money to be made....
        This analysis is quite timely
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      • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
        I'm shocked and impressed open table could command that kind of money from restaurants for reservations.

        Do you or anyone know how much new traffic open table actually generates for restaurants or are they getting a kings ransom for just providing a reservation app for traffic coming to restaurant specific sites?



        Originally Posted by TyErickson View Post

        Google just bought Zagat for $125M. Zagat charges restaurants $25/month for "membership"

        Open Table charges roughly $700 for their reservation software install and another $199 per month and another $1 per head for people who make reservations through the site.

        Restaurants on average spend 8% of their sales on advertising.

        8% of 500,000 = $40,000 annual spend
        8% of 1M = $80,000 annual spend
        8% of 2M = $160,000 annual spend
        8% of 5M = $400,000 annual spend

        In a good sized city like you are talking about there should be plenty of $2M restaurants.

        There's lots of money there - it's your offer or your approach or both. You need to show them the value and they will divert the funds -- are you sure you are adding the value currently?

        PS - are you in New Orleans - I haven't heard the word 'quarter' referenced very often. If so then there is a ton of money to be made....
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        In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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  • Profile picture of the author tonyscott
    Might be your pricing Simon. I run a portal that gets 64 x the traffic that yours gets but my pricing starts from 1/2 of what you are asking for.

    Tony
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    • Profile picture of the author Warrior Simon
      hey guys,
      thanks for your replies!

      @Ehsan_am: Interesting to read your post in the other thread. Seems to be a tough market, as you said.

      @Tony: ok thanks. I was just comparing the prices with the Yellow Pages or with ad posters in the subway (they charge 50 € per poster!) and my argument was, it ain't getting any more targeted than presenting your restaurant to people who are looking for a restaurant in the quarter you're in...
      but it seems so difficult to make restaurant owners to realize that!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ehsan_am
    It seems that highly populated parts of city have the highest concentration of restaurants and there is a logical reason for this. Restaurant owners count on the passing by and spontaneous clients more than anything else. We've had some success with restaurants but they have all been located in remote places of the city or suburbs and the owners knew they needed some kind of marketing. You need to put yourself in their shoes.

    A restaurant in a very crowded part of a city will cost much more than a restaurant in a remote part (I mean the restaurant itself). Obviously an owner that buys an expensive restaurant counts on its location to bring in clients and money so they will be less open to paying for marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author baconman
    So I think I'm trying to do the same thing that you did with your site. In fact I had the same two ideas that you had. I just started mine a few weeks ago so I haven't really invested a lot of time in it yet. Send me a pm because I can't pm yet
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  • Profile picture of the author tonyscott
    Hi Simon, my reply was somewhat brief - have been running the portal for almost 4 years and around 1 year in used up plenty of shoe leather calling on prospects. Initially, we met with lots of resistance and almost in desperation were punting up a special offer of a 3 months trial for £10 ($15) - we got zero takers. I should add that we spent the first year building a large site and building up traffic.

    If you beleive that you're in the right market, persevere.

    Tony
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  • Profile picture of the author ExquisiteMedia
    Find a way to make the community active on your site. That way the restaurants can see interaction and how it's important for them to get placement on the site. You may also look into doing presentations to engage restaurant owners. You need the chance to get theme excited about the opportunity and to be honest that doesn't seem like something you get when you open up a letter.
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    The best copy on WF is right here....
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  • Profile picture of the author mouseffects
    Maybe it's not the restaurants but the sales technique? (no offense to you)

    I've found that, to sell mom-and-pops online services, you have to equate it to something they are used to. In the restaurant business, I found that I had to get them to realize how many customers it took to pay for the marketing. When they realize it's only a couple, I make sure they understand that my offering has a better potential of generating MANY more sales than what is required to get positive ROI.

    If I'm successful at conveying that, I get the sale most every time. If not, I leave empty-handed.

    These people only understand one thing -- more customers.
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    Larry Perry
    innovedia
    www.innovedia.net

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  • Profile picture of the author baconman
    Simon, any update on this. Any luck renting out space?
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  • Profile picture of the author tonyscott
    Maybe you could go down the free or paid seminar route - get them all together to network with each other and throw a few free ideas out there.

    After 7 years of doing this stuff, that's what I'm finding to be the most effective form of marketing.

    Providing food and drink for people who provide food and drink, just might get you some respect in that community - then you're golden.

    Tony
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  • Profile picture of the author KCNL
    Hi,

    Offer them qr codes and a mobile website...
    Your portal could be a good foot in the door because you have already contacted a lot of them..
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  • Profile picture of the author Warrior Simon
    hey guys,
    thanks a lot for your suggestions and help!
    (I didn't realize there were more responses so I didn't check this thread, sorry for not answering...)
    @baconman, no luck yet...
    @Ty, no I'm not in New Orleans... :-) English is not my native language, I thought "quarter" would be a common term in this connection... :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author baconman
    Warrior Simon,

    I've been working on my website, and its finally in the top 3. Going to make sure I get it in to #1 and then try to sell it.

    I'm building the site right now to have it ready when I get #1 and then filling it up with some of the larger corporate restaurants and leaving only a few spots open to create the sense that people are using this to advertise already and that if they aren't on there, their competitors will get the customers.
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    • Profile picture of the author Warrior Simon
      hey guys!
      I know... it's been a while...
      thought I'd update you on my restaurant website...
      YES, finally I made money with it... ;-)
      the new owners of a restaurant contacted me if I could update their info on my website...
      of course I could... for a hefty charge! ;-)
      they paid me 49 € which is $60...
      there you go, never give up! :-)

      (just kidding a bit... although it's a true story... ;-)
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