New Sugarbush Directory

[BryanEx]

Continuing on from This Thread , I'm now at the next stage of questions and once again looking for feedback and suggestions from MapleTraders.

I will be listing suppliers, associations, resources, and the like but the main focus will be on collecting links to sugarbush / maple production web sites. Given the large area where maple syrup is produced and that most visitors are local day-trip customers I need to carefully think out how to organize the categories to make it useful for the end user - our customer. The obvious is to start with Canada / US and then break it down again by State or Province but that's where I get stuck. Smaller States would be fine to list all sugarbushes in together but most are too large to pick up sales from the other side of the State and Ontario / Quebec are almost 2 day drive to cross. I need a way to further break down the larger States & Provinces with many listing so customers can find what's reasonably close to them.

Looking at most of the Maple Producer Association web sites I see they group by region but the person submitting the link would have determined what region they wish to be included in. As a webmaster in Eastern Ontario trying to add links for sugarbushes in PA, NY, or WI I have no idea on the regional names or where exactly lines may be drawn. For that matter, I couldn't tell you where "the line is drawn" to divide Eastern and Central Ontario and I live here.

I was thinking maybe telephone area codes would work. They clearly divide regions and are identifiable by customers as to what's local to them but I see that Maine, Vermont, & New Hampshire only have one code each and Ontario & Quebec have just divided existing ones into new area codes.

Do we need to divide up the listings in each State or Province category? How can we make it as easy as possible for someone 20 minutes away to find out about your sugarbush and come visit?

[vtmaplemaker]

how hard would it be to do a zip code search, like other busnesses do?

[BryanEx]

Excellent suggestion vtmaplemaker. It wouldn't be hard to add in... just a matter of money. I would need to purchase both the Canadian postal code and US zip code databases along with programming to do the calculations. Unfortunately I don't have any of that in my collection of web stuff so far and a quick search online seems to indicate most packages are running between $130 & $150 to buy. I'm going to do some research into it to find out which package will best suit my needs and what's well rated by users. Maybe Santa will bring me some new software this Christmas for my "free" site.

[BryanEx]

how hard would it be to do a zip code search, like other busnesses do?

Alrighty... been researching this issue and it seems it will be a little larger task than I had anticipated due to having to have every single US zip code AND Canadian postal code in a database along with latitude and longitude for each AND programming to figure out distances AND still integrate it into the rest of the link list database. Total cost will be anywhere between $200 and $600 to pull it off but I'm still going ahead with it because I believe in this idea but I don't think I will have that part finished until the end of January (don't quote me on that because it depends on my household budget).

Another question... I want to have simple check boxes available for when a sugarmaker submits a new link so they can just check off their facility attractions to display in their listing automatically. What are the common "selling points" to customers? So far I have the following;

• Restaurant
• Gift shop
• Sleigh rides
• Event hosting

What else should be added to that list of options that is common at sugarbushes?

[DrTimPerkins]

Rest rooms
Handicapped accessible
Groups welcome
Syrup - candy - cream for sale
Times open (dates/hrs, year-round, seasonal)

[BryanEx]

Thanks for the great suggestions Dr. Tim.

Rest rooms

I would think that this one would be understood but I may be wrong. In my jurisdiction any business with public access or employees must provide rest room facilities.

Handicapped accessible

This one is excellent but from the 200+ sugarbush web sites I've collected so far I don't recall a single one marketing this benefit. To be honest, even my own little web site fails to mention it even though we've built temporary wheel chair access to a half dozen trees, my wife is fluent in sign language and has a degree in various brain disorders, and we even have sound beacons available for sap buckets.

Groups welcome

Perfect! I missed this one but I can see many sugar operations able to handle people stopping by anytime but be swamped by a tour bus showing up.

Syrup - candy - cream for sale

Kind of falls under the "gift shop" option but has me re-thinking the actual wording. Farm gate syrup sales is very different than a full store with deco bottles and all confections. I need a better wording for "we sell stuff" yet leave it open to how & what they actually sell.

Times open (dates/hrs, year-round, seasonal)

I can understand that suggestion as well but it isn't really necessary. The concept for www.sugarbush.info will be to basically round up Internet traffic and send it to the actual sugarbush web site. Hours would be good if I was looking at "captive" traffic but I'm going more in the direction of a maple syrup portal which just collects and then immediately disperses web surfers to web sites of interest. Hours and exact features of each maple business should already be listed on each web site.

I'm just looking for a few key features offered by many sugar operations so customers can easy come up with a listing of pancake houses, sleigh rides, tours or exhibits, in their area.

[BryanEx]

I've been able to find maple syrup web sites in all of the following States so far;

Connecticut
Illinois
Indiana
Kentucky
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Delaware should be in there too but all my searches keep turning up Delaware, New York or Ohio (kind of why I'm building the web site in the first place). Anyone have a link for a maple producer in Delaware? Any other States that should be on the list?

[BryanEx]

Maple Trader exclusive sneak-peek @ www.Sugabush.Info !

I'm planning on officially launching the site January 1st, 2011 but members here can check it out early by using this link;

http://www.sugarbush.info/links/

If you own your own domain name and have a maple site online feel free to go ahead and list it in the directory. Just go to the right category and then click on "Submit Link" in the silver menu bar near the top. There's still work to be done on the site but most of it is writing, rewriting, and graphic design issues so not all sections are complete. Please try things out, poke buttons, click on links, watch for typos, etc and let me know what you think.

vtmaplemaker - I plan on adding the location search you suggested but decided to wait until the site gets going to see if the response and number of listings warrants the time and expense. It will end up costing me more than I figured and a bunch of time but if the idea is well received I'll certainly add it in.

DrTimPerkins - after all that and when I had 80% of the programming completed I realized there wasn't really a need to get fancy with listing categories. Each producer's web site represents how they want to present and/or promote their business so it seemed silly for me to duplicate it all and only create more problems by trying to sort things even further. As the saying goes... "KISS".

Anyone - still looking for an online producer in Delaware.

I could use some help. I was looking at the Quebec listings and it seems most are in French only. I am not bilingual so I'm asking for help imputing the Quebec links so they make sense. It will be a little tedious, a little boring, only temporary, but very much appreciated.

State maple producer associations... I have found the following States;

• New York
• Minnesota
• Pennsylvania
• Maine
• Ohio
• Massachusetts
• Connecticut
• New Hampshire
• Vermont

Are there any other State associations online that I've missed? I'm kind of wondering about some of the more Southern or Central States. On that note, congrats to the Maine Association for such an excellent web site! By far the best design and content I saw from any of the producer associations.

Any how... check out my progress so far, add your own site if you have one, and let me know what you think of the design and/or idea.

Thanks to everyone for their input and interest!

~Bryan

[BryanEx]

I have found the following States;

Found Wisconsin, Indiana, & Michigan to add to that list. Michigan's site is excellent as well BTW.

[maple flats]

May search sights use a radius search. Such as within 20, or 30, or 40 miles of the searchers location. Can you set up your search criteria that way, even across borders? If possible I would think that would be the best way.