Members Only Group Forum At American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (APPPA)

Members Only Group Forum At American Pastured Poultry Producers Association APPPA LIVESTOCK Poultry Mark Newhall Managing Editor: At FARM SHOW we regularly read hundreds of publications and websites The members-only group forum at the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association APPPA is one of the best sources of information out there for anyone interested in raising poultry on pasture for retail sale to the public Discussions among members going back to 2003 are archived under topics such as production marketing processing health nutrition shelter design feed and more Members taking part share their real-world experiences with producing pastured poultry A recent discussion focused on websites for selling online Some of those mentioned have been covered in FARM SHOW The following is a condensation of comments For more on the subject go to https://pasturedpoultry groups io/g/APPPA Like most discussions they start with a question that leads to sharing of information from experienced members Chuck and Lisa reported trying Square www squareup com but found it didn’t work well with varied weights of birds They switched to Eat from Farms www eatfromfarms com While they found it was low cost and worked it was missing things that other sites offered like search engine optimization SEO SEO helps move a website closer to the front of the line when a search is initiated Search Google for pastured poultry and you get 5 4 million results Their farm White Oak Pastures Vol 37 No 1 is third on the list indicating a highly optimized site Other sites the couple considered included GrazeCart Vol 45 No 5 and Barn 2 Door While they found both great the price tag was higher than they felt they could justify selling less than 10 orders per month from their website Should they spend more money given their few orders or try something else? Mike at APPA responded in detail regarding the purpose of a website and how the multiple purposes affect SEO He suggested taking advantage of free trials of any online marketing websites some of which offer ongoing marketing consultancy and/or offer courses He encouraged setting up and demonstrating the technology to see if they understood it liked it and could live with limitations Dave didn’t think simply switching sites would do much to increase sales possibly not enough to cover costs He warned that improving SEO ranking requires a lot of time and effort no matter what site a person is on Once you find a new customer work is required to retain them he warned He advised having one person on the farm be dedicated to the project regardless of the online site they went with Jerica endorsed the tips from Mike and Dave while emphasizing building sales before investing in a higher-cost e-commerce website She recommended making it easy for customers to place orders which she said doesn’t require an expensive platform She advocated for a strong website for the farm that told its story something her farm has maintained as it grew sales separate from the online platforms they eventually used for sales Shelly suggested asking what customers wanted and the producer wanted before selecting an e-commerce site She uses Shopify at a low monthly rate and laid out the reasons why One of the beauties of the group is the members asking the original question respond to the input As they clarify their question it often leads to even better more detailed suggestions APPPA is a great place for pastured poultry producers of all sizes to go for answers to problems and ideas to grow their businesses

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