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

aless02

i think we're all happy to start a thread on a board or two...the questions are who's brave enough and which board?

And weezl, u silly girl, no one is mad at u for wanting to step back a sec!!!!

weezl74

tiamai_d wrote: »

Who is Shirley?

I have a plastic thingy a christmas cake came in, I'll use that.

:rotfl:

Shirley is the mythical woman I invented the crazy plan for she's in financial trouble and needs to save money on her groceries. She's 46 but hasn't yet hit menopause, and is 5 foot 6. Married to Bob, 5 foot 11. He won't give up having meat a few times a week.

Children: jenny 14, jason 16

All calculated for reasons of making the plan require the most nutrition if you see what I mean, so no-one can say 'ah! but my situation is harder because...' So shirl has to be pre-menopause, with a daughter old enough to have periods, so that the iron and calcium need is as high as it could faesibly be for a UK family

Don't let the bottom of the plastic thingie sit on the bottom of the saucepan tia, it might melt! Can you steam in a slow cooker? That'd be better.

But my fairies are very willing to bring you a bowl

weezl74

I mention this for no real reason

SusanC_2

weezl74 wrote: »

However I am too close to the project to see why the voice of the people is not active about this project.

If it's just that it's not active yet, cool, I'll wait and see.

Or maybe it doesn't have more value than currently. Cool, I'll maintain what we've got now, it's still valuable

I think partially there is/was an uncertainty as to whether the website was "ready" for people to be told about it.

Also the impression seemed to be that you thought "we" shouldn't spread the word and were hoping for random other people to discover it and then them spread the word.

It may not be the case but it sounds like your intention is to not do any site promotion at all (which obviously you personally can't do on MSE but could in other places) and just sit back and see whether the site becomes popular and then if it doesn't just abandon the project as a failure.

Whilst MSE and personal recommendations are both ways in which people might find out about the website (and hopefully is targetted at the right audience), search engine traffic is also important. Whilst a lower proportion of people searching for recipes may be in Bob and Shirley's extreme financial postion, they are possibly more willing to try the cooking and therefore more likely to grab the rope. "Bread recipe" for example has a global monthly search volume of 1.8 million, "no knead bread" 74 000. ("Cheap bread recipe" however has a global monthly search volume of 110.) If peole find the site from a search for a particular type of recipe and just use that one recipe, they have still benefitted and some people who find it in that way may then read more and decide to use more. Some Bob ond Shirleys may be looking for the rope and believe it could exist and therefore be looking for cheap recipes but others who don't realise it exists or don't realise they need it might just be searching for recipes and then happen upon it. Of course this is just my opinion but I think the site needs to gain a standing as a recipe site if it is to reach a wider audience. One way in which this could be helped would be if people who have tried recipes out were to write about the particular recipes they have used (either in other suitable forums or on their blogs) and link back to the specific recipe (rather than the "front page" of the site) using the name of the recipe as the anchor text.

I hope that doesn't sound like criticism as it isn't meant to be - just suggestions as to a ways forward. I do think the biggest barrier at the moment is that people have the impression you are telling them not to tell other people.

SusanC_2

Incidentally if anyone is posting elsewhere about the website, don't post about it too frequently and make sure you make it relevent to whatever thread or site you are on or it may look like spam.

weezl74

d'you know susan, I was mega hoping you'd pop up

I get in a tangle with saying things and then you come along with refreshing clarity

I think I understand.... (slowly-blame the cheese rinds!)

people don't feel it's ready. Right, ok I get that. I think I just got to the point where I thought that doing 30 edits a day of minor typos wasn't going to make it significantly more alluring IYSWIM?

I am very happy to keep tweaking those bits until they are perfect, but I didn't think they were the deal-breaker for people in suggesting that shirley has a little look at the site.

I thought it was more that people weren't convinced of its value, either economically, gastronomically or nutritionally. Which is fine. But it made me want to pause.

How much more ready would people need it to be to quietly tell a few MSE friends about a work in progress?

weezl74

SusanC wrote: »

Incidentally if anyone is posting elsewhere about the website, don't post about it too frequently and make sure you make it relevent to whatever thread or site you are on or it may look like spam.

Which is why it must only be that anyone links if they themselves are genuinely trying to offer someone something they feel is of genuine value.

I do NOT want anyone to spam about the site.

Sian_the_Green

weezl74 wrote: »

ps hello lovely sian, I see you lurking I am still loving my cook book:j:j:j

Hehe, I know I haven't been posting much but I have been regularly checking in to keep an eye on the project.

I think I understand the mentality of backing off a little, I understand that you are in a difficult position at the moment, that you can't promote too much or encourage us to. Is there a forum for a message board on the website? I have put a linky on my facebook and a friend who has a degree in nutrition who has 'liked' it. I have talked about your project a lot and will pass on the link to the site to women I work with that I think will be able to use the recipes, if not the whole plan.

For now, maybe we who lurk can keep on 'thanking' the posts we like, passing on the website details to the people we think could use them, linking within MSE to this thread... etc etc etc.

On a personal note, I think the nutrition page looks much better with the fruit on it, it's like entering a supermarket to the section with the fruit and veg in, it sets you up thinking about healthiness.

Well done Weezl, I think you are fabulous :T:T:T

The rest of you are okay too ;);):rotfl::rotfl:

Sian_the_Green

Would some of the testers be willing to put their stories on the site? Like a little cameo of how it worked for them, an honest verdict on how much money it cost to feed your family for a month, how it felt when you made your first loaf of bread by hand, how you enjoyed trying new food, some of the comments your friends and family made on the recipes...

Helen105

Weezl, it seems to me you are having a bit of a wobble and doubting the worth of the project. By all means reassess the amount of time you are putting into it compared with the amount of time you are spending with your family (the dreaded work life balance) but don’t give up now.
I came to this site because I was reading Hypno’s diary on DFW where she said she was having Weezl’s Chick Pea Curry for tea. It sounded good so I did a search and found this thread. I intended going back to Hypno once we’d finished proof reading the site and thanking her for putting me onto it and telling her how the site had developed.

It may be that a lot of the posters & lurkers on the thread have held back from talking about it because they thought you weren't ready for visitors yet.