Online database

I am glad to announce the launch of FoodColumns.com, a new website that I have developed and that provides the following services:

1 – Non-members may search through and use our food column database for free. They can view search results, display recipes and their web photos (but not the introduction that is part of the column), and print them off for their own personal use. However, functionalities are limited in that most of the menu and information are only accessible to logged-in members (who either have buyer or seller accounts).

2 – Selected contributors, who have had their free contributor account approved, may start contributing their own food columns immediately. The reason why we assess contributor account requests individually is that FoodColumns.com is used by professionals and therefore it is imperative that we maintain the high quality of our food column database. Contributors receive an automatic email notification to let them know of the outcome of their application. Approved contributors must then have five of their food columns consecutively reviewed and accepted by us before their work is automatically included into our database (before then, every food column submitted is reviewed). Even once a contributor has a self-testing status, we conduct random testing in order to ensure that the high standard required of our database is maintained.

Contributors earn a specified royalty for each download of their food column. The default royalty rate is 20%, however this is variable depending on various criteria, such as the number of contributions made by a contributor and their popularity (which is based on and of downloads achieved as well as the average ranking of their columns). Every time a food column is downloaded, a sale notification email is automatically sent to its author, along with the new balance of their FoodColumns.com account. As soon as a contributor’s FoodColumns.com account reaches US$150, a payment is immediately and automatically sent to them via Paypal.

Every food column submitted by our contributors is automatically packaged as a zip file containing the food column itself (as a pdf file) and the corresponding print quality and web images. We generate the pdf file automatically from the information entered by the contributor into the submission form.

3 – Anyone who wishes to be able to download food columns may create a buyer account for free in less than a minute. They can then search the database and the results for their search are displayed on the page (or over several pages). Each result shows a summary of the food column including its title, web-size photo, rating, size of print-quality photo, cost and an “add/remove from favourite” link (most of this information is only available to logged-in members).

Once buyers click on one of the results, they will be able to view the text for the recipe and a short excerpt from the introduction. Logged-in members are also able to view the author’s name (linking to information about him/her), any comments previously made about the column by other buyers and its publishing history. They may then proceed to purchase the column or return to the search results. The default cost for all food columns is set at US$30, a much cheaper price than a regular food writer would charge for his work. However the cost may vary from column to column, based on the popularity of its author (which is based on the number of downloads achieved as well as the average ranking of his/her columns).

Once a purchase is confirmed, the buyer is redirected to Paypal for secure online payment. Almost immediately after the payment is processed, the buyer receives an email receipt from Paypal as well as an email from us containing an encrypted link to the zip file for the food column they have just purchased. Note that the introduction for a food column and its high-resolution image file are only provided to buyers as part of the zip file. The whole buying process can take as little as a few minutes. Depending on various criteria, buyers may be given a discount (this is taken into account in the column cost that is shown on the search result page and column details page). We may also give special discount from time to time for promotional purposes.

Click here to start using the website. For a summary of how the site works and its background, please read this document.