Weezl and friends Phase 2 -giving it a whirl for Shirl! Testing meal plan for a month

weezl74

aless02 wrote: »

Promotion on OS, what about DFW? (that board scares me so I don't go)

Facebook would be relatively easy - someone (doesn't even have to be weezl if she doesn't mind giving up administrative control) sets up a "page" on Fbook and then we can all "like" it and share it on our profiles which will also show up on our friends' news feeds.

If we could get a mention in the weekly e-mail that would be ace, but no idea how to go about it. I would think it's the sort of amazing stuff Martin is looking for, but we'd have to be lucky enough for it to get through the prolly 1000 emails they get suggesting things for it.

eta: weezl, you or someone has to advertise it a little bit otherwise Shirleys will never see it. In order to determine whether it's useful to Shirleys we have to get at least a little word out IYSWIM?

EEEk:eek: Aless I'm a bit scared now as having come across as saying I want people to promote this :o:o:o:o

thanks for helping me see I haven't been very clear!

I DON'T FEEL I SHOULD ADVERTISE/PROMOTE THE SITE:D

I shall just pause and wait, and see if anyone feels it's worth mentioning to shirl, and then see what she makes of it.

Is that ok?

Allegra

Sorry Weezl, I think I'm having a blonde day. I understand you want to pause, and understand the reason for this is because you do not want to continue giving so much of yourself until you are sure that you are helping sufficient numbers of people to justify the effort. Is that right ? If so, makes perfect sense to me

Not at all sure what else you are saying, though That you'd like the rest of us to go off to other parts of MSE and plug the website ?

ETA: Oh, cross posted. I get you now. Ignore the above

taka

weezl74 wrote: »

sorry, just spotted this!

I probably haven't made this very clear before, sorry.

I won't be able to link to the site on MSE because I own the site.

Some people get given permission to link to their own site, but I imagine it takes quite a while. I wrote last week asking how to go about it, but no answer yet.

I'm not suggesting I remove the website, it's obviously attracting visitors via google, frugal living forums and so on, I know this from the stats.

It's just that since there are shirleys reading MSE forums right now (I feel) who could save a lot of essential cash using the planner 1 which is already out there (I feel).

But until I see if these feelings are more borne out in reality, I can't justify carrying on at the pace I have been. I have spent 600 hours on the website, not including nutritional research. This is matched by the hits on the site, so I don't currently feel I've over-invested in the project.

If I were to do 600 more hrs, but didn't land up helping proportionally more shirleys, it may not have been worth the time.

Is that making any more sense at all?
(I am not moaning by mentioning the hours, I'm just not sure if people would understand my reasoning for pausing if I didn't spell that bit out )

Soooo... If I'm understanding this correctly you want...

a) ... us all to link to the site if we see anyone on MSE who may benefit from it?
b) ... us all to link to the site if we see/know anyone elsewhere who may benefit from it?

Then wait and see if anyone is interested enough to look at the site?

And... you are holding off on further web work until you know the site is getting enough hits for it to be "worth" the further time spent per hit?

*I'm a bit confused...*

In_Search_Of_Me

600 hours works out as 25 days...ie one month of kesters 2 month life spent on bob n shirl...theres this thing weezl called maternity leave and I as your friend who loves you thinks a month off would be simply marvelous! That way you can let bob n shirl settle and then come back to kitty etc refreshed, renewed and having had a lovely month with the boy with perfect ears and that there bum shuffler! Plus you could even have time for snoozes and maybe a little adventure chez isom...and ferg and kester...!! Go on...you know you want to!! I could even do a violin recital for you!!

poohbear59

weezl, I have just posted your website on my facebook link and have already had a couple of comments!!

Can one of us recommend your website to Martin? Is that how it works?

Thanks for the comment re my age?

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

weezl74 wrote: »

Hi all, I'm going to upload all the new changes in approximately half an hour.

After that, I'm going to now guage how worth it it is to continue based on whether people feel it is good enough on MSE generally.

As I've said before, all very well a band of a few on a litle read part of the forum working hard, but it needs to see the light of day to be valuable!

We need to see whether people feel it's worth recommending to Shirley.

If people do, it is clearly worth more of my time.

I know I've said this before, but no-one really responded to it, so I wondered if it perhaps hadn't been very clearly worded!

I definitely think you should continue. I came to this party late, but I'm inspired to follow the plan (starting next week) and see what money it saves me, how I feel, how hubby feels, if I mind or enjoy the batch cooking and little extra thought, all the usual stuff.

Shirley DEFINITELY needs a plan like this. It's all very well being told, for example, to "eat 5 a day", but what if Shirley's like I was 20 years ago, with no idea how to get 5 a day in? Cooking for a family is confusing enough - but when you've got no money and no inspiration and mounting bills and a head full of stress and panic, a plan like this is invaluable.

Anyway, keep at it. It's a very worthwhile 'project' for which millions of people may benefit. My bank balance will be thanking you in about a month's time!

:T:beer:

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

poohbear59 wrote: »

I gained in the first two weeks because it would have been such a waste not to eat all the cake that DS2 didn't want. The last two weeks I lost the weight and have continued losing since:D

Oh I hear you about the cake, would have been a shame to let it go to waste

The subsequent loss is encouraging :j

aless02

I'm confused too. You want to see if there are people out there who will benefit, yet in order to find those people you don't want to ask us to advertise/promote it? How will anyone know about it in order to reach the Shirleys out there if we don't do at least a tiny bit of something? I know you're not ASKING us to, but I think a lot of us are offering! (if not to do anything ourselves, then at least to help brainstorm)

I have no beef with you wanting to wait and see if more man hours are worth it, I'm just lost on how we can ever evaluate whether Shirley finds it useful if she doesn't know about it in the first place? Am I being thick?

poohbear59

I agree with ISOM re the time you have spent on this work during your'maternity leave'.

Possibly, I understand where you are coming from because when my 3rd and 4th were teeny like yours I decided to set up a Fair Trade shop co-operative. It took all my waking hours when I wasn't feeding, bathing etc. You seem a lot like me:D

If you feel happy with sticking with the menu 1 (meat eaters) to see how it goes for a while leave the other plans and have a break. It is no good ending up burnt out. Think of yourself and your family:)

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

weezl74 wrote: »

oooooh good luck with your deadline arty!:T:T:T

I'm not planning on advertising the site at all.

I'm just going to quietly wait and see if I should invest more time.

I hope people understand my thinking on that from my posts above?

But I think I'm not saying very clearly, sorry

I know what you mean. You want to see if viral marketing takes it to "the next level". Word of mouth, power of the written word, hopefully a snowball effect.

This is where some YouTube "how to" vids would be invaluable. How to make the pastry, bread, pie, pudding etc - with a link to the webby in the description and at the beginning/end of the vid. People will find the vids, post to blogs and forums, send to friends. Theoretically, at least.