Proliferation of excellent recipe sites

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Roger Burton

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Hi chaps, forgive me this is not a moan but I find it interesting that whenever I search for a recipe there are hundreds of sites offering solutions, they are all very similar (is there a template) ? they generally have excellent photographs and videos, most of them have a picture of an attractive young lady "Hi my name is Wendy, welcome to my food blog" (or something similar) the sites are all well designed with lots of clever features. There is a need to scroll a long way through lots of ad's to get to the information (though many now have a "jump to" button). Are there really hundreds of Wendies sat at home spending hours cooking, photographing, building and developing these sites or am I missing something ?
 
Roger Burton said:
Hi chaps, forgive me this is not a moan but I find it interesting that whenever I search for a recipe there are hundreds of sites offering solutions, they are all very similar (is there a template) ? they generally have excellent photographs and videos, most of them have a picture of an attractive young lady "Hi my name is Wendy, welcome to my food blog" (or something similar) the sites are all well designed with lots of clever features. There is a need to scroll a long way through lots of ad's to get to the information (though many now have a "jump to" button). Are there really hundreds of Wendies sat at home spending hours cooking, photographing, building and developing these sites or am I missing something ?
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No offence intended, but I find that most of these sites are from the US. Page after page of superfluous background text and step by step photos before you get to the actual list of ingredients. I usually set my browser to show only UK results to avoid these sites, but they are becoming more common here also.
 
I agree epicuric but I wonder why there are so many, someone must be making money out of them ? I have some website development knowledge and it's not simple it takes more knowledge, time and effort than most home cooks could muster.
 
Roger Burton said:
Are there really hundreds of Wendies sat at home spending hours cooking, photographing, building and developing these sites or am I missing something ?
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It appears to me that the number of followers you get inflates the ego within these sort of internet social networking. Having never wanted to blog I don't know how hard it is to create one but judging by content about a difficult as hard boiling an egg. Call me a cynical old fart, in my day we had Vanity Press. Publishing Companies people paid to have their books printed so the could claim to be a published author.
Apparently you can make money out of blogs How to Make Money with Your Blog in 2020 - Blogging Basics 101
 
The other ones I dislike are those that offer a list of things (i.e. top ten recipes) then put each one on a separate page, forcing to to go through them all sequentially instead of just scrolling down to find the one you want. I suppose this is to maximise advertising revenue.
 
Roger Burton said:
I agree epicuric but I wonder why there are so many, someone must be making money out of them ? I have some website development knowledge and it's not simple it takes more knowledge, time and effort than most home cooks could muster.
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They are using ready-made templates. These days sites like GoDaddy have hundreds of designs to choose from and all the on board tools. Its not like developing a website from scratch and having to understand code or website design. You don't need to know anything much about computers to produce a relatively professional looking result which includes a search facility etc.
 
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Roger Burton said:
Hi chaps, forgive me this is not a moan but I find it interesting that whenever I search for a recipe there are hundreds of sites offering solutions, they are all very similar (is there a template) ? they generally have excellent photographs and videos, most of them have a picture of an attractive young lady "Hi my name is Wendy, welcome to my food blog" (or something similar) the sites are all well designed with lots of clever features. There is a need to scroll a long way through lots of ad's to get to the information (though many now have a "jump to" button). Are there really hundreds of Wendies sat at home spending hours cooking, photographing, building and developing these sites or am I missing something ?
Click to expand...


My experience with recipe sites is that I often find the exact same recipe on multiple sites. That tells me they are just taking recipes they found, and using them to make money on their own site. They get paid for "hits" on their sites, so it doesn't matter if they actually "create" any recipes.

CD
 
Roger Burton said:
I agree epicuric but I wonder why there are so many, someone must be making money out of them ? I have some website development knowledge and it's not simple it takes more knowledge, time and effort than most home cooks could muster.
Click to expand...

There are companies that create easy website tools and templates. My company website is a template designed for creative professionals. Even though I am an Art Director and Photographer, I can't code. Like you said, it is not something everyone can do.

I am guessing that most food blogs and recipe sites are built with these "cheats."

CD
 
a lot of those sites simply cut&paste (stolen) material from other sites - and somewhere there's a link selling something on Amazon - their "seller code" is embedded in the link and they make a commission.
some are honest and tell you, some - especially the "blog" stuff with "The Best XXXX" hide it.
they have no interest in the actual topic, only the selling commission.
 
epicuric said:
No offence intended, but I find that most of these sites are from the US. Page after page of superfluous background text and step by step photos before you get to the actual list of ingredients. I usually set my browser to show only UK results to avoid these sites, but they are becoming more common here also.
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Facebook is full of them. I subscribed to one. Must be 50-60 posts per day
 
Some of these sites do have interesting recipes, but I get so annoyed spending 5 minutes scrolling through all that “you’re gonna love this recipe, why my naan recipe is the best, how beautiful are strawberries yada yada” crap and I’m so happy I’m not the only one. Why the need to get all philosophical about food, it’s food, you eat it, most of it comes out the other side and the process starts again. Just give the darn recipe!
 
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