Name of your website?Wines Bee Yard
Your name?
L. Desmet
Your Location (city, etc)
Palmyra Michigan
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Wines Bee Yard is a dream being fulfilled by Debbie Wines, as she pursues the lost art of beekeeping. She is constantly striving to improve the quality of her honey, to discover new products, and to create a healthy, happy, hive.
Her log cabin home in rural southern Michigan provides a home base for Debbie's bees. She creates locally produced, quality products, which can be purchased securely online.
Products include- Seasonal honey offerings, whipped honey, hot and cinnamon honey, molded beeswax candles and ornaments, gifts, natural lip balm.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Honey is Debbie's passion, a websie allows her to share her products with the world!
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Debbie has had a lot of creative interests; she makes glass beads, stained glass, and many other artisitc endeavors. However, nothing has held her interest like beekeeping. At first her site was a chance to let people uns derstand beekeeping, and it evolved into a site with a shopping cart.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name was the easy part!
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We not only offer honey products to purchase, we offer recipes and our blog offers a view of what it's like to be a beekeeper.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The goal is to use this website to let people all over the world buy our natural honey products. In summer we are busy at Farm Markets, we need to make this a year-round business, which this website allows.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
So far Wines Bee Yard is a lobor of love, not a cash cow! However, we are growing all the time. We're hoping there will come to be a better balance of time spent vs. money earned!
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
It would be great to get our site out there for people to see, advertising would get a large chunck of that unlimited budget!
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
We like to think so! We have been hoping and planning for that possiblity, and we have the product available to meet demand.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
It takes a lot of money for start-up- the hives, the bees, the supplies to create our products to market- all of this was a big expense off the top. And when dealing with bees, weather can literally be a killer.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Time management! Starting a labor intensive business, while still living a "normal" life- it takes a lot of jugglng!
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Actually, going to Farm Markets and through word-of-mouth has been our most successful so far- tasting our honey is te best promotion! However, we are trying to get the word out there on the web through sites like this!
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It's not easy to set up a little window on the world, and have the world start visiting. Getting the word out is tougher than anticipated.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We've been around for over a year, and we're going to stay put! We just want to grow and grow!
What products do you offer?
All natural honey, delicious whipped honey, a lovely spread created by combining honey, dried fruit and all natural flavors. Find the finest hand-poured and hand-dipped 100% pure beeswax candles, made from wax from our own bees. Or, revisit old favorites like Hot Honey and Cinnamon Honey!
What is your website address?
Wines Bee Yard
