Ron Estes said he wanted to open a web site about food recipes simply because he loves food.
His web site, recipevote.com, launched in July of 2010 and currently has about 100 users. The site is entirely free and anyone can sign up.
Users can post recipes and pictures of themselves and of their favorite dishes, according to Estes, who designed the web site himself. Users can also vote on a recipe, grading it “good, great or awesome” and can post comments on recipes, according to Estes. Profanity is not allowed.
“It’s social networking for food,” Estes said. “It’s easy to register too. I tried to make things as user-friendly as possible.”
Estes said that people have always shared recipes, or even just ideas for recipes. He said he’s found recipes over 30-years-old already on the web site. A lot of recipes are handed down in the family.
“Have you tried this or tried that?” Estes said. “Sharing is what people do.”
He also said he wants people to share information about buying food locally.
“The thought process is, ‘think local, buy local,” Estes said. “You know, ‘there is a really cool place to buy here’, that kind of thing. The site is part ‘finding neat food’ and ‘part recipes.’”
That helps people because some “might not know where the best stuff is,” according to Estes. Recipevote.com is not tied to any particular type of food, either, according to Estes.
“Any type of food can be posted,” Estes said. “You could have the best fl ank steak or best rip recipe. Anything. I want people to post their recipes on recipevote.”
Estes said he wants to grow the web site nationally. Through only “word of mouth”, the web site is growing, according to Estes.
“I want to build a recipe-sharing community,” Estes said.