Name of your website?Recipes From Bahamas
Your name?
Nicole A. Farrington
Your Location (city, etc)
Nassau, New Providence Island
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Recipes from Bahamas is primarily a Bahamian and Caribbean Soul Food Recipe site. Focused on providing authentic Bahamian and Caribbean recipes which have their soul food roots from Africa. What many people are not aware of is that The Bahamas is a melting pot of many nations too. Our food is predominantly African, but slashes of British, Italian and Indian cooking are also tested in those dishes.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Hospitality being my background I love cooking. One day, I went in search of a Bahamian recipe online and purchased a cookbook and what I discovered bothered me. The Bahamian recipes and cookbooks I found were not written by Bahamians and many lacked key ingredients that made them authentic so with the help of my husband we launched the website. Being a home maker I found it a great use of my time to test the recipes that I placed on the website. My husband enjoyed the process also.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website www.caribbeanknights.com was launched in May 2004. It is a site for our local Leadership Development Organization powered by TEAM - a Premiere US based Leadership Development Service Provider building communities of leaders throughout Northern America.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Deciding on the name was pretty simple. Millions of people visit The Bahamas annually and encounter the authentic tastes of the Bahamas. I wanted them to know that they were getting those authentic recipes from The Bahamas to recreate in their own kitchens.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
What makes my website different from other recipe sites is that the recipes are authentic Bahamian recipes that not only give you ingredients and preparation techniques, but we have added, need-to- know preparation techniques, stories and cultural snippets related to the dishes.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
It is my goal that one day recipesfrombahamas.com will be the number one site for Bahamian and Caribbean recipes, Food History and culinary insite. I recently launched my first e-Ccok book "Dis we Style: Authentic Bahamian Soul Food Recipes" and hope to produce many more of its kind in the future.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
The time it took to research, accumulate, organize, test and edit the recipes was the major investment. Actual financial investment has been minimal. The power of the Internet has made it possible for us to Break-Even in the fist year of operation and we look forward to achieving profits by early 2008.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
With an unlimited development budget I would start my own Bahamian Cooking Network on television. Create brochures, business cards to distribute to persons visiting our island so that they can cook up a Bahamian meal when they return home. I would also use more online marketing strategies to get the word out the recipesfrombahamas.com is their opportunity to have the Bahamas at home.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Oh definitely. My website is fully automated and the wonderful thing is that our product is intellectual and digital so distribution to customers is as simple as a download.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
I have had no unexpected cost and headaches at all at this time.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The establishment of our website has been quite simple and as I noted earlier the biggest investment has been the accumulation and organization of the actual recipes.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
With the assistance of an awesome marketing company here in the Bahamas - SEOBahamas.com has used Search Engine Optimization to position us within days of launching on the front page of the major search engines, like Google. About 90% of our individual recipe pages have hit the first page of the search engines. I am really excited about that.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I have found the running of our website not much different from what I expected in the operation of any business. I had to invest time and money in letting people know we are here and ensuring that my customers are satisfied with the product. I didn't expect it to be so easy to make money while I sleep, but it feels great.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I have had the site running for about one and a half years and have already hit Break-Even point. I anticipate profitability by next year with continued marketing and regular upgrades. It is not a strain to maintain the site and the opportunity to share my Bahamian heritage with the world will keep this site up for a long time. The internet has made my passion for Food and Country profitable.
What has been your biggest accomplishment from this website?
My biggest accomplishment thus far has been the launch of my e-Cook book "Dis We Style: Authentic Bahamian Soul Food Recipes" found at www.greatbahamianrecipes.com. It was a labour of love and again thanks to SEO Bahamas I have begun to see a doubling of sales on a weekly basis.
What is your website address?
Recipes From Bahamas
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