FRANKLIN, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Just A Pinch Recipe Club (justapinch.com), one of the fastest-growing food-focused social networks on the Web, has surpassed 1 million monthly unique visits for the month of November. The website has also topped the 300,000-member mark to more than 320,000, just 18 months after its launch, founder and CEO Dan Hammond announced today.
The site, since it went online in April 2010, includes some 70,000 user-generated recipes, electronic recipe boxes, user groups, contests and other features that have created a virtual online social community which has distinguished itself from other recipe and gourmet food sites. It crossed the 1 million unique visitors mark during November, and continues to grow exponentially.
“Through the last week of November, we’ve more than tripled our page views,” said Hammond, whose American Hometown Media created the site with the idea of tapping into the vibe of home cooks. “The numbers show we are succeeding in creating a real online community that connects with our users, and we’re doing it by letting them build that community to a large extent rather than us pushing it on them.”
“To exceed 300,000 members in just over 18 months is a testament to how we have built a site that our users can relate to on a number of levels,” Hammond said. “Their word-of-mouth testimonials, Facebook posts, emails and tweets are helping us add an average of 25,000 members a month, and we are enjoying one of the highest time-of-engagement ratings among women for all food sites. Members average more than 17 minutes and 20 page views per visit.”
“One of the reasons for our growth is that 100 percent of our recipes are posted by users and our members recognize this,” Hammond noted. “Other sites often purchase or scrape the Internet to build their recipe database, but users prefer real recipes from real home cooks.”
Feedback from members consistently centers on the site’s user-friendly features, robust capabilities and the sense of community they feel with the site.
“It really is a one-of-a-kind,” said Jane Freed, a member from Clarkston, Mich. “It’s not just a recipe site, or a recipe chat room. The big difference is the way it is organized, and the comment section is the best – it’s just like sitting in the kitchen with your mom or grandma or your best friend and asking questions about their recipes until you get it just right. And no questions are thought to be stupid because we know there are brand-new cooks as well as seasoned veterans there, and we all learn from each other.”
Didi Dilaba of Greece, N.Y., agreed, saying she loves the various groups. “They are so diverse, and you can find an answer to almost any question you have.”
The site even attracts professional chefs such as Paul Bushay of Mesa, Ariz., who says he enjoys interacting with people from all across the country and making new online friends. “Just A Pinch has helped me come up with dinner ideas for myself and for when I cook for church functions,” Bushay said. “Even with my 36-year career as a chef, I’m always looking for new ideas, and I don’t buy into this stuffy garbage that ‘oh, well, they aren’t trained, so they can’t possibly know what they are talking about.’ I’m classically trained, and I’ve seen some home cooks who are every bit as knowledgeable and competent as I am.”
“The growth in membership, recipe posting and page views, as well as the increased ‘stickiness’ of the site, is positioning Just A Pinch for further growth and expansion into other platforms,” says Hammond, who previously founded Publishing Group of America and oversaw the creation of American Profile, which enjoyed the second-largest magazine launch in U.S. history. Plans being developed include full e-commerce capabilities and mobile apps, nationwide traveling cooking shows, and possibly the repurposing of online content through national magazines and television programming.
Earlier this year, Hammond brought on two industry veterans to help on that front. Veteran magazine industry executive Anne Balaban, the former publisher of Every Day with Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, joined the JustAPinch.com team as consulting publisher and chief revenue officer. Carl Trautmann, former senior vice president of sales for Allrecipes.com, was named senior vice president and will direct all day-to-day efforts and management of national advertising sales.
FAST FACTS (11/1/11 – 12/1/11)
- Total Monthly Visits:* 1,766,101
- Unique Monthly Visitors:* 1,019,628
- Total Members: 315,649
- Most Viewed Recipe: Melissa’s Peanut Butter Passion Cake (121,886 page views)
- Recipe with Most Facebook Likes: Oreo Cookie Balls (52,029 likes)
*Google Analytics
About JustAPinch.com
JustAPinch.com is a true social medium built around recipes, with interaction through posting, rating, voting, testing, comments on all, chat groups, private messaging, and use of Facebook connect, Twitter, and other third-party platforms. Home cooks use the site to swap and discuss thousands of “family-tested and -approved” recipes, share cooking tips, earn blue ribbons, and print grocery coupons, all for free. Premium-perk membership is $0.99/month or $10 per year. The site is owned by Franklin, Tenn.-based American Hometown Media, which was started by founder Dan Hammond in 2011 as a spinoff from his American Hometown Publishing company, owner of a network of community newspapers.