Canada Food Critic

Site Updates

2009-02-02T07:53:00.001-08:00

Starting in early January I began the process of moving the site to a new server. Many of you may have noticed errors and missing pages during the move. At this time everything appears to be functioning perfectly. I hope to not have to do a server move for a very long time!

For a limited time you will find that every new member and every existing member can log in and download a voucher for $300 free groceries and another for $300 free gas. Take advantage of this offer!

You will also notice 2 new sections to the site. There is a Nutrition Index and a Recipe Index. I have started the nutrition index I just have to start filling it with information. You will be able to use this index to determine what foods are beneficial for what ails you. You never know it may help reduce the number of trips you make to the doctors office.

The recipe index will be a user driven index. I will depend on you to submit your favourite recipes. I will notify everyone when I am ready to start accepting recipes.

I am also going to start an articles section to the site. Every new letter will get published on the site.... Well, the article within the news letter. I hope to have this running in a week or so.

Right now please use our forum to offer suggestions for the site or to let me know of any problems with the site. If there are bugs I need to fix them!

Site Update...

2008-11-30T16:53:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that the site is under construction right now. It was time to clear out the dead files and free up server space. Sorry for the length of time that this is taking. I hope it will be done tonight. There are only 2 provinces left to go.

Redesign

2008-08-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

Redesign

I have just started a slight redesign of the site. I hope everyone likes it. To me it seems cleaner and more inviting. I am going to make more improvements this coming week.

New Listings

Last week I added several thousand new listings to the database. I will continually add listings on a monthly basis.

Rewards Program

It has finally arrived! Everyone will now be rewarded for voicing their opinion. The more you speak out the bigger the rewards. The values range from $300 - $3500 so this is a very good rewards program considering all you have to do is give us your opinions!

Thanks all for this update.

Back In Action!!!

2008-07-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

I was away for almost 3 months so I fell way behind on the contests. I will be making that up to everyone very soon.

While I was away I was able to work diligently on the site it self. If you visit you will find that I have added Google Maps. I have been wanting to add that for a long time so that everyone can get directions directly from the site.

I have also added the search by postal code feature but its not activated yet. I will be setting that up very shortly.

Thats all for now, I will post again soon.

Technical Difficulties

2008-03-30T13:15:00.001-07:00

Because of technical difficulties we had to cancel this weeks contest. If you have visited the site in the past 48 hours you would have noticed some errors on the site. We are working to fix the errors and the site should be fully functional by Monday night.

Site News

Proximity Search: This feature is soon going to be ready. I suspect it will be running by this Friday!

Google Maps: I have installed the software but this is what is causing the server errors that you are seeing on the website. We are working to fix this. Once the errors are fixed I will be able to map the restaurants at a rate of 15,000/day. So, it will take 5 days to map every restaurant in Canada!

Rewards: The rewards program is on hold until the proximity search and google maps are completed. Details will be announced at that time.
Sincerely,

Stephen Richardson
webmaster@canadafoodcritic.com
http://www.canadafoodcritic.com

Weekly report

2008-03-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

Just dropping in on this long Easter Weekend for a quick update. Yesterday (Sunday) we announced 12 winners for this weeks contests. All contests had participants so we will be running all 12 one more time. I will soon be upgrading the database of restaurants. When that is done I will post the additions and I will get all of last weeks reviews posted at the same time. I fell behind on that because of the server problems this week.

That's all for now, I am going to enjoy whats left of my long weekend!

Stephen Richardson

First round of winners!

2008-03-16T06:40:00.001-07:00

I have just completed the mailing to announce this weeks winners. You can find the list here:
http://canadafoodcritic.com/winners.htm

Two of my promotions where not as popular. The refere a friend feature http://canadafoodcritic.com/cgi-bin/birdcast/birdcast/birdcast.cgi
only had a single user. I am testing it for one more week. If people use it I will continue that contest, otherwise I will drop it. The other contest that was not so popular was the joining of the Canada Food Critic Face Book Group. I was hopeful that this would go over well because it provides a forum to comment on reviews and chat with other members. I will also continue this contest for another week but it its popularity does not pick up I may stop this one as well.

Other than that there is nothing new to report this week. I will have some big announcements in the next few weeks so stay tuned!

Stephen Richardson

WE NOW RUN WEEKLY CONTESTS!

2008-03-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

This was sent to our news letter but its worth announcing in the blog...

Canada Food Critic

http://www.canadafoodcritic.com

Well, here I am working on my website on a Saturday afternoon! Not only that, I am sending out a news letter and I am bothering you! So, you know I must have a good reason! I do have a good reason, I am announcing my contest startup!

Now, this is going to be a great opportunity for all of you to win great prizes and they will only get better. Starting this week I am going to run 4 weekly contests. You can participate in all 4 if you wish. Here are the brief details...

#1) Be a member! If you are getting this e-mail you are already entered in contest #1!

#2) Tell a Friend! If you go to our site and use our tell a friend form (get it on the contest page) you will have a chance to win. Every friend you invite gets you one entry!

#3) Write a Review! Every review you write you will get a chance to win. Please write good honest reviews with real information that will help other members.

#4) Join our Forum! We want active members, join our forum and have another chance to win!

Now, what can you win! Well, right now I am giving away FREE VACATIONS to your choice of 1 of 19 destinations. You can get the full details on our contest page. Now, I must tell you there is a $15 redemption fee for the vacation and you must register your vacation in 30 days and use it in one year. The reason is simple, we want to know if your going to use it and if you are we need you to use it before we can no longer honor the vacation. Basically, when you register your vacation it will be honored for a full year.

I am excited about being able to offer this to the members of Canada Food Critic and I hope you are excited too. If this goes over well I will be working to find bigger better deals. But for now, get entered into these contests and win your self a vacation!

CONTEST PAGE http://www.canadafoodcritic.com/contest.php

That's all for this issue folks, have a great weekend and get ready to win a vacation. If your like me and your watching another snow fall right now you likely need a vacation!

Sincerely Yours,

Stephen

Fully Loaded

2008-03-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

Fully Loaded?

Fully loaded is what CanadaFoodCritic is tonight. The restaurant database is now 62620 strong. It is the biggest Canadian Restaurant Database online! I have rebuilt all of the pages and I have dropped all of the town with no restaurants.

What does this mean for you?

1) when you want to find a restaurant we will have what you are looking for.
2) when you browse our site, there are a lot fewer pages to move though.

At this time I am still working on a "proximity search" I want everyone to be able to enter a postal code and find all of the restaurant within X kilometers. This should be a very useful tool.

New Additions

The other thing that I am going to add to the site is Google maps. Yup, Google maps! Finding a restaurant in our directory is the easy part, finding it in your city or town can be the hard part. So, with Google maps you will get directions right here on our site!

I will be accepting reviews daily but I will only be posting new reviews every Sunday. So, if you get a confirmation e-mail and you do not find your review right away, check back on Sunday night or Monday morning.

Contests.....

Coming soon, its going to be big, its going to be huge!!!
Sorry no details yet :)

Stephen

Toronto Food Critic!

2008-02-29T04:46:00.001-08:00

We have just launched TorontoFoodCritic.com This is our third site to go live. We will be rolling our more over the next few weeks. Torontofoodcritic.com is already recieving traffic so hopefully it goes over well!

Stephen

The First Post

2008-02-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the CanadaFoodCritic Blog. I will be using the blog and the forum to keep everyone in the loop as to what is going on with CanadaFoodCritic.com. The site is still new and is still growing. As I write this I am rebuilding all of the pages. Not much will have changed but there are about 20,000 new restaurants listed. What that means for you is that when you want to review a restaurant it should be there and when you want to find a place to eat your options are maximized.

Right now we are the largest Canadian Database of restaurants.

Also, keep in touch with other members in the new forum located over at http://www.facebook.com/ (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8290213004) I have linked it from the main page http://www.canadafoodcritic.com/

Someday restaurant owners will be browsing our forums trying to improve on their service by getting input from the masses!!

As for the immediate future, I think I am almost ready to start that contest that I told all of you about in the last New Letter. Lets wait until the site is fully rebuilt!

Until next time,

Stephen Richardson