SEO for cottage industries and small industries

You might not think there is much money in cottage industries but many people would be surprised to learn how much of even the North American economy is driven by cottage industries. Technically, cottage industries are home-based industries, but along with cottage industries I’m going to discuss SEO for small business-based industries where there are few or no standards, no governing bodies, little to no government regulation, and few to no manufacturing facilities (I am only concerned with the production of goods).

For example, you could say there is a hamburger cottage industry where some people still make and sell hamburgers from home kitchens, small roadside stands, etc. Their businesses are home-based and they are not competing with McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Jack-In-The-Box, et. al. And then there is the hamburger small business industry — the single-location hamburger restaurants, the small diners, etc. Of course, the hamburger small industry is regulated by a lot of local, state, and Federal ordinances and that makes a difference in how marketing for small business industries works.

Let’s look at truly small, underdeveloped industries where major manufacturing and distribution corporations have either not taken an interest, or their interest is light. As many of you know, I have a Mexican Cheese Dip Web site where I glorify the recipe for a creamy Mexican sauce that is used in many foods. I enjoy it mainly for dipping but restaurants have served it on steaks, burritos, chicken, tacos, nachos, enchiladas, etc. White cheese dip goes with just about anything but it is what I think should be called a “gourmet food”.

White cheese dip has been served in restaurants throughout the southeastern United States for decades but it has only been commercially produced by a few companies. One company, Land’O'Lakes, attempted to distribute the dip through grocery stores a few years ago but pulled the product. Another company, Casa Nobleza, had pretty good success with its white cheese dip but one grocer told me the company’s other dips didn’t sell so well and the grocers were required to order all the dips together. Casa Nobleza, so far as I can determine, is no longer in business.

Today (thanks in large part to my Web site, I am told) you can find a delicious white cheese dip in many grocery stores across the country. It is manufactured by Charley and Sons, Inc in Georgia (where, ironically, I first learned about the white cheese dip). A few years ago they contacted me and asked for a link to their Web site. I gladly obliged because my email was overflowing with requests for info on where to find the cheese dip. At that time Charley and Sons only manufactured the dip for restaurants in the southeast but their product was hardly known.

They experimented with a Superbowl radio ad one year and told me that they received 30,000 hits that day. I had wondered why my traffic spiked over the Superbowl weekend, as I don’t ever do anything related to the Superbowl. In time, Charley and Sons asked me to share some statistical data about the traffic to the cheese dip site (which has long been one of the top three most popular sections on Xenite.Org). I gave them as accurate an accounting as I could, but as many of you may recall, Xenite.Org gets so much traffic it burns through servers pretty fast. My data was incomplete.

Nonetheless, I understand that the data I provided (as well as my ongoing promotion of my beloved Mexican cheese dip) helped Charley and Sons expand into retail markets. Today you can find their Gordo’s Cheese’N'Salsa Dips in many grocery stores (including one very large, well-known, national chain). And if you’re curious about what’s in it for me, well, I guess I’ll always have cheese dip when I want it. I’m good.

Generally speaking, I’m not much of a fan of gourmet foods. My girlfriend has broadened my horizons somewhat. We enjoy collecting teas now but the tea industry is ancient and can hardly be compared to cottage industries and small business industries. The tea economy is very much like the hamburger economy. You’ll find production at all levels, and a fair amount of industry and government regulation and standards.

We also like huckleberries. Now, I only recently learned about the western huckleberry and I’m still learning about it. My exposure to huckleberries so far is in buying huckleberry products like huckleberry honey, huckleberry preserves, huckleberry pancake mix, huckleberry chocolate, huckleberries in the bag — well, all things huckleberry. One popular cookbook offers 170 huckleberry recipes. I’m beginning to wonder if all 170 recipies haven’t been bottled and sold by cottage industries.

The western huckleberry grows wild in mountainous areas ranging from Montana to Alaska, as far south as Oregon. A few small companies manufacture huckleberry products as seasonal products (for example, a number of honey farms sell huckleberry honey). A few enterprises may be trying to cultivate huckleberries for commercial production but they have not yet been domesticated. Most huckleberries are still picked in the wild by hand (or by rake). There may be hundreds of family-operated cottage businesses making and selling huckleberry products.

You can buy huckleberry products in a few grocery stores and gift shops. I know they’re also sold in some of the national parks in the region as well. But most people don’t get to sample huckleberry products and you certainly cannot go down to the store (in most areas) and buy them. To the best of my knowledge, there is no place in Seattle (where I presently live) to buy huckleberries. I’m having to drive 4 hours to buy huckleberry products. It’s worth the 4-hour drive, but if I can get huckleberries some other way, I will.

So if that means building an industry from the ground up, well, I’ve almost done it once before. I might as well give it another shot and see what happens.

To that end, I’ve created a Web site I call Huckleberry Wild which shares some of my recent experiences but which also (in typical Michael Martinez fashion) provides a directory of huckleberry providers. It’s not a very large directory but I expect it will grow as people find out about it and see the site show up in search engines.

Oh, yes. I did some keyword research. People like huckleberries. They search for … well, let’s just say there is a lot of searching going on. So it’s not like I decided to build a query space (not that there is anything wrong with doing that). There are already huckleberry Web sites out there and even some AdSense huckleberry sites (which I won’t include in the directory — only direct providers are listed). Huckleberries may not be the next big thing but if I can help organize the huckleberry Web I’m going to do it, mostly for my own personal convenience.

I’ve taken the first step by creating what I call an elite directory, which I described on SEOmoz last year, where I wrote:

An Elite Directory is built on passion for a topic. It is not all-inclusive. It is very small. Many people might argue it’s not a “real” directory. An Elite Directory will have fewer than 100 listings. I think 50 listings is pushing the limit for an Elite Directory. You can have categories or not (I prefer one page per category). All that really matters, however, is that you only include the creme de la creme for the topics you select. You have to review dozens if not hundreds of Web sites and winnow them down to fewer than 10 per category/topic.

The purpose of the Elite Directory is to point the spotlight of your opinion at a handful of truly unique, useful Web sites. Your opinion is expressed through mini-reviews crafted for each listing. I also include a sidebar article, 2-3 paragraphs long, that may describe how I selected the sites, or which may profile a very special site. Or the sidebar may offer interesting facts and anecdotes about the topic.

Okay, I have to admit I haven’t expressed much of an opinion at the Web sites in my huckleberry products directory, but I’ve indicated who I’ve bought from and where I’ve shopped. It’s a start.

It takes more than an elite directory to build a cottage industry Web community. In fact, it could be argued there is no real cheese dip Web community. You’ll find people asking about it on a few food forums and occasionally those forums and other resources link out to Xenite or other cheese dip sites. About.com’s Mexican food section editor gave Xenite a link. But not many people are as willing as I to write paeans to cheese dip. Nor do I expect many people to write glorious prose about huckleberries, although Val Kilmer may give huckleberries the added leverage that I could not give to cheese dip.

When I moved from part-time SEO consulting to full-time SEO consulting last year I created an SEO Web site on Xenite.Org (through a sub-domain). At the time a number of high profile SEO forum personalities laughed and snickered at me for hanging my shingle on a sub-domain. Well, let the laughing and sniggering start now because I’ve hung my huckleberry shingle on a Xenite sub-domain as well. Xenite, after all, is already known for a gourmet food and it has a very strong intrasite promotional network.

I may not be able to compel any national grocers to stock huckleberries but I’ll sure be able to tell 100,000 or so people a month that I love huckleberries. People will see my intrasite promotions and they’ll eventually find the huckleberry site. Maybe someone will link to it. Maybe not. Doesn’t matter. I’m there and I intend to stay.

Now, I don’t just link to huckleberry businesses. I also link to a few other resources, including some government documents. There is actually ongoing scientific research into the potential domestication and commercial development of huckleberries. So even though the huckleberry cottage industry has existed for decades, I think we’re only standing on the threshold of real huckleberry production and distribution. I’d like to be a part of the process of popularizing huckleberries, just as I was part of the process of helping popularize retail cheese dip.

It’s neat to be able to say you were part of something that involves a lot of people. And if I can help a few families build a business that they love and which sustains them, all the better. And, yes, I hope to get some more traffic for Xenite. My partner Dixie rolls her eyes every time I launch a new Web site on Xenite because she knows “it’s all about traffic”. Maybe, like cheese dip, huckleberries will generate persistent traffic for Xenite. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, I’ll be monitoring the search results, doing more keyword research, looking for more huckelberry providers who have Web sites, finding more interesting huckleberry articles, maybe writing some more huckleberry articles. I’ll add content to Huckleberry Wild. I’ll promote it across my network. I’ll mention it where I feel appropriate without resorting to link dropping. Huckleberries will be on the radar for a long time to come.

The goal is to build a lot of visibility for huckleberries, to stimulate interest in the berries and in the industries that have grown up around them, and to give people a glimpse at the possible birth of a new gourmet food star. I was blessed with the opportunity to watch white Mexican cheese dip transform itself from a restaurant-only product to a consumer product. For those of us who enjoy the marketing process, that’s just such a neat experience. This time around, I’ll try to share the joy with other people.

Why?

Because when it comes to marketing and promoting cottage industries and small business industries on the Web, I’m your huckleberry. ‘Nuff said!