Running a vegan business can be tough as many are run for altruistic reasons, rather than purely to make money. The internet brought with it an opportunity to help vegan businesses by giving them more marketing muscle, and twelve years ago we set up the Vegan Village website to do this.
The Vegan Village website went live in September 1997 with contact details for 44 vegan organisations. We sent out monthly newsletters to help establish the Vegan Village concept and encourage people to get involved. In addition to the listings, there was a noticeboard for small ads, a newsdesk for press releases and news stories, and a recipe of the week to encourage people to visit the website regularly. Mini websites were offered at below cost price to help vegan businesses take their first steps on the net.
The Vegan Village was supported by an offline marketing campaign, including leaflets, regular press releases, full page adverts in The Vegan, a presence at Christmas Without Cruelty and sponsorship of the National Vegan Festival.
The Vegan Village was an immediate hit, winning the Vegan Society's Best New Vegan Product Award in 1998. It was runner up in BT's Innovation in E-commerce Awards soon after, and more recently was voted Best Vegan Media/Publication in the Yaoh Vegan Environmental Awards 2007 and nominated again in 2009.
The noticeboard has now run continuously for over ten years, during which time it has processed more than 5,000 free adverts and become one of the most popular vegan pages on the web. The recipe of the week feature ran for 2 years from 1998 to 2000, and the recipes from this now form the Recipe Book section of the website.
The Vegan Village is an ever-present in the Google rankings, is a recommended site on BBC Search, and remains the quickest, most cost-effective way for new vegan businesses to announce their presence to the marketplace.
In 2009 we were pleased to be invited to participate in the UKWAC Web Archive by the Wellcome Trust. This means that the Vegan Village will now be archived as part of the 'unfolding recent history of UK events, interests and activities'.
You can visit the Vegan Village website live at www.veganvillage.co.uk or follow the Vegan Village on Twitter.