Name of your website?The Maryland Healthy Dining Guide
Your name?
Tom
Your Location (city, etc)
Leonardtown
Please give us a short summary of your website?
I have developed a listing of healthy dining choices for restaurants in Maryland including a locator, restaurant reviews, and dining tips to eat healthy.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I lost 45 pounds two years ago and I have been trying to keep the weight off. My biggest obstacle to keeping the weight off was when I was dining out. I travel a lot in my job so it was a real problem so I came up with some basic rules to follow to eat healthy. This website is a journal of where I have eaten out and the best things to order at these particular restaurants. I also added a locator in the website so you can locate a restaurant in whatever town you happen to be.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched my first website six months ago about how to lose weight because so many people were asking me how I managed to lose so much weight and keep it off. Once I launched that site I got the idea about the dining guide. I hope these websites help people like me who are trying to stay healthy and lose weight.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
It wanted a name that was descriptive of what I was doing and it seem to work.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
My website is independent and I am more detailed than most. Most of the dining guides are funded by the restaurant association and anyone can get in that pays a fee. Other websites are independent but the reviews are written by everyone and are relatively short. My restaurant reviews are detailed and written by someone that is actually trying to lose weight, myself. I only include restaurants in my dining guide that offered healthy dining choices and that I enjoyed. There are a lot of restaurants that did not make it on my guide.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My main goal is to help people that are losing weight and get the restaurants to offer more healthy dining choices. This is my way of giving back. If the dining guide gets popular maybe I could appear on the food network evaluating restaurants. That would be my dream job.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
At this point I haven't made anything but I haven't invested a whole lot of money. I mostly have invested my time. I have just started so I don't expect to make any money anytime soon but that is really not the point of the website.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would hire a staff of website developers to work on the website and tour the country dining out and writing restaurant reviews.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
That would be tough. I would have to quit my day job but I would be willing to do it if I started making money.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
I never understood how much time it takes to develop and maintain a site. I only started marketing it and that takes more time than I anticipated. I have renewed respect for the website developers at work.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Setting up the website to be user friendly. That is one of my complaints at work so I want people to be able to use it as easily as possible.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Publishing articles seems to be the most effective.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It has taken a lot more time than expected.
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 started this particular website three months ago and will continue it for at least two years. I am figuring it will take two years for a large number of people to realize it exists. I think there is a real need for this type of website so I think I will be successful.
What is your website address?
The Maryland Healthy Dining Guide
