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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: "Rainbow's End Farms & Orchards" <rainbowsend AT swva.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Websites
  • Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 15:56:25 -0800


It seems that there are websites that entertain
and provide the opportunity for updates and
communications, websites that are highly
informational in terms of resources and linkages
to other sites, and those that actually provide a
strong marketing/sales function. Assuming that
most of us seek to clear a profit and support our
families and that our websites are at least one
ingredient towards that goal, then what do our
sites need to stimulate sales, repeat customers,
motivation to buy?

I ask this in all earnestness as it seems that the
website should be a front door to our businesses
and provide tools for us and our customers to make
purchasing decisions, facilitate the placing of
orders, and track various activities. It doesn't
follow that our websites should be merely overhead
or for informational purposes. SO, how about some
creative ideas of what we can all do to use our
sites to greater advantage?

It occurs to me that there are some "gotta-haves"
and other things that would be nice. What does
Amazon.com do that could effectively be integrated
into our farm websites? How might we use them
more creatively? Are there any items of
commonality that we could develop as a group and
then share? What would be the components of the
ideal farm website? Would it be helpful to have
some kind of regional search mechanism for folks
looking to find farms and farm products in a
specific part of the country? This could also be
used to facilitate a search for a specific
product. For example, a person visiting one
website could find New England Maple Syrup, or
through an easy search, be led to southern Sorghum
syrup. Or another idea would be a bulletin board
function, where customers could go onto the
bulletin board and then be directed to our sites,
locations, and products, or simply discuss their
own concerns. We could even use a bulletin board
to post things for longer than they stay on a list
server, such as seeds wanted or bulls available
for breeding or other products or services we
might wish to share with each other. For example,
we have a prizewinning Dexter bull, but at some
point we will need new blood, so we might be able
to use the bulletin board to swap bulls with
another farmer for a year to keep the gene pool
afloat.

If we could work together and avoid recreating the
wheel, we could all benefit!


Rainbows End Farms and Orchards
880 Central Academy Road
Stuart, Virginia 24171
276-694-4324
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin & Steve Follette"
<follette AT midmaine.com>
To: "Market Farming"
<market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 12:12 PM
Subject: [market-farming] Re: farm website survey


> For those of you with websites:
> How long has your site been online?

Nine years. It was featured in The Crafts Report
magazine for our internet
marketing.

> Can you attribute new customers directly to the
site?

Yes. We maxed out on wholesale Christmas wreaths
this year thanks to our
website.

> How do you utilize the site?

Basic info on our farm, Christmas wreaths.

> What changes would you make now if you could
redesign it?

It will be redone over the winter as our farm
business expands. It will
include what's being harvested, classes/workshops,
children's activities,
info on our rare breeds of livestock and poultry.

Robin Follette
Thyme For Ewe Farm
www.thymeforewe.farmcollie.org



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