By rescuejoe on

My family had some questions about some issues with their business and went looking for a forum. They quickly found that all the restaurant forums were paid membership sites. They asked me if there was something I could do. A few months later I had www.FoodExec.com. Basically I was just going to do a forum but then started to think about the idea of a blog to go with the forum. Next thing I knew I was talking to people about also writing blogs.

Modules in use
Leech
Forums
AdSense
Blog & Blog API
Meta Tags

Any ideas to make it better?

If anyone in the restaurant business would you pass the link on to them.
www.foodexec.com

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

jonathanwinn’s picture

jonathanwinn commented

I always thought it would be cool to build a Drupal menu-making website. It's possible with the CCK and printerfriendly modules, I think. The idea would be to let everyone with an account build nodes that represent appetizers, entrees, desserts, drinks, etc. on the menu. Flag the node with a taxonomy term to indicate if the item is current, then render a view that can print onto letter, a4, or some other standard-sized paper that can be slipped into menu sleeves. This might be an easy and economical way for restaurants who switch out their menu offerings often keep the menus current without paying a production artist to lay them out every time. A theme genius might even be able to make it look really good on the page. It could even serve, through the OG module, as an engine for restaurant microsites like on citysearch.com, only with this, you could see the most current menu,wine list, beer list, etc. Anyway, I know that's all really ambitious, but it's a thought...

Jonathan

PS - I'm also looking for feedback on my site: http://drupal.org/node/161810

rescuejoe’s picture

rescuejoe commented

The Menu maker idea is great. Looks like I know what my weekend project is.

Synchrophoto’s picture

Synchrophoto commented

....the existing Recipe Module so users would enter recipes for dishes that could be added to menus. this is what I am looking to do, but have a LONG ways to be in a place where I have the time and skill to do it.

nimazuk’s picture

nimazuk commented

Hi,
I think the website theme is not suitable for a Food Industry Web site,
light, warm and vivid colors would be better, i think.

Thanks.

N.Mehrabany
Baruzh web design & programming

Nima

rescuejoe’s picture

rescuejoe commented

I just used one of the themes off drupal.org I need to work at getting one with food colors in it.

Thanks for the feed back.

SweeneyTodd’s picture

SweeneyTodd commented

When you reduce the size of the browser window in IE 6, your left sidebar on the front page starts drifting across the page and blocks your content.

I agree with nimazuk, the colours seem to make the site a bit stern, you could do with softer colours and a few graphics. If you want to get money out of the GoogleAds, you might want to shift them to a better location.

A place for visitors to mention their restaurant might get you more visitors and more repeat hits.

Modules: XML Sitemap will help your site visibility with the search engines and FiveStar (or other user voting system) will help with feedback from people too shy to post comments.

Good idea though and I wish you the best of luck.

rescuejoe’s picture

rescuejoe commented

Thanks for the feed back. Also thanks for the reminder on the Sitemap module that will help.

Where would you suggest to place the GoogleAds?

SweeneyTodd’s picture

SweeneyTodd commented

I have put the GoogleAds under the title banner, but above the content. This means that they will be seen by a reader (even if it is just a word jumps out) and, if there is anything of interest, you might get some clicks. Most other places will be too far out of the natural eye-line.

Not all themes will let you put a block there without some editing. The Zen themes have Content Top and Content Bottom positioning which is perfect, but I think there are too many bugs in the current version to use it off-the-shelf. I am using the default Garland at the moment (I need to do some major redesign) and had to edit it to move the Header Block to above the main content. I plan on putting another some more ads in a banner here as well, but I have not sorted out a block to show random ads yet. See what you think about the position of the GoogleAds: www.contractorinfo.co.uk

Ooops. I have just found a bug in my edited version of Garland which prints the JavaScript code to the screen for GoogleAds in all browsers except IE. I have had to switch to using Zen until I sort it out.

I know that some of the comments that I made about your site (lack of pictures, etc) also apply to mine. I am aware I have to do some major work, but I am trying to balance writing new content, getting ads on the site to earn some income, developing a better theme, publicising the site and working a day job.

jmanico’s picture

jmanico commented

The Weekend Is Over - I am ready for your code!!!!