What is the site inventory?

[vegantriathlete]

I think what you are calling the site inventory is pretty much the same as what I call the site map.

Here are some main categories of the types of things that will be on the site:

• Blog posts / content marketing / shareable articles / advice (whatever you want to call them). These are the heart of what will drive visitors to the site and should be given priority in the site branding and design
• Nutritional information by individual vitamin, mineral, nutrient, etc (This is some of the fact based content and provides the information on what it does and how much is needed. This is supplemental [no pun intended!] information that just adds value to the site; it is not featured / front and center)
• Recipes (This is also supplemental information and could potentially be reasonably shareable. But, I'm not really prepared to test and create recipes. So, this is likely something that would be added later on. It probably has more interest to users that the nutritional information, but it's easier for me to gather the nutritional information than it is for me to gather recipes.)
• Resources (This is links to other sites that visitors may find helpful. I think this is even less important than the Nutritional information. Also, I don't really want to be giving people a reason to leave the site. So, let's consider the value of this and how best to handle it. Definitely, let's make it much less prominent. Maybe there is just a link in the footer that takes them to a paged section like I have now.)
• Sources (This is to give credit to the sites I used to research the information. They are meant to be a credibility booster. And, like the Resources I think they shouldn't be too prominently featured nor do I want them to be giving people a reason to leave the site.)
• Research / studies (These are supposed to give people access to primary sources so that they can see the data for themselves. Again, these are meant as credibility boosters. I don't think these should be prominently featured, either. I think I will write blog posts that summarize the things I learn from these. Let the blog posts keep center stage.)

Do we need?

• About Page
• Contact Form
• Home Page
• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy

Remove the Forum from the site. I'm not ready to take that on right now.

[vegantriathlete]

So, I think reading through the above comment, we can start to get an idea of different menus we will create.

There is clearly at least one secondary menu to link to things like Resources, Sources and Research / Studies. Maybe there is another secondary menu for About, Contact, Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

I think the Blog Posts and the Recipes will be on the Primary menu. But, I don't know when the Recipes will even come to the site. So, that would leave just the Blog posts, unless I wanted Nutrients in the Primary menu. But, I'm thinking that Nutrients should NOT be on a primary menu, since they are just supplemental information on the site.

Maybe the main driver will be the blog posts. I can link to other pages on the site within the blog posts. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be other ways to access those other things, though.

[kpalana]

The site inventory is simple the list of everything you want on the site. Then the navigation chart is figuring out how to organize it all in menus, secondary menus, etc. I feel it's better to do the site inventory first and the organizing second for most effective results.

It's wise to think about hierarchy as you are doing regarding blog posts, etc.

For recipes, I need to introduce you to my friend Justin Moore, an American expat living in Germany who also has a vegan cookbook, "The Lotus and the Artichoke." Maybe you could collaborate with him to feature new recipes on the site. He also has a young toddler son whom I THINK is also a vegan. There's also another Udemy instructor (mainly teaches animation) named Deejee Nick (also living in Germany) who has some amazing vegan recipes. Maybe they could help create content for this part of the site as well as possible guest blog posts.

[kpalana]

Maybe consider a page or category called "Lifestyle?" It could maybe provide more background information to visitors wondering what a vegan lifestyle is and what it entails as well as what it means to have children in the mix and the support or reactions/roadblocks one might come across while living this lifestyle. Stats might be useful here as well.

[vegantriathlete]

I think a "Lifestyle" page / section is an excellent suggestion! Let's talk about this more.

[vegantriathlete]

I'd love to be connected with and collaborate with some vegan chefs! That's a great idea. You may even be giving me a way that I could monetize the site. I can collaborate with different chefs and use affiliate links to sell their cookbooks. By collaborating directly with the chefs, I can also get around legal concerns for sharing recipes from cookbooks.

You have given me a great idea here! Please do introduce me to your vegan chef friends. I'll also be contacting authors of vegan cookbooks to discuss the idea of collaboration.

[vegantriathlete]

So, while I won't be ready with Recipes right at launch, let's do keep them in mind in our branding. How will they be styled? Will they be part of the Primary navigation?

[kpalana]

Thank you for friending me on Facebook. Now I can more easily put you in touch with my vegan chef friends.

I think it might make sense to include the recipes somewhere in the primary navigation. I suspect that on your site people will especially be looking for kid-friendly dishes that most kids will like and/or that can easily be made with kids.

[kpalana]

So I wonder if subcategories under recipes might be something along the line of "Favorites" and "Kid-Friendly."

[vegantriathlete]

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