BlogCatalog.com Buys HalfHourMeals.com

BlogCatalog.com Buys HalfHourMeals.com

BlogCatalog.com, the premier social network for bloggers, has acquired HalfHourMeals.com, a niche social network that allows members to submit recipes, rate favorites, and customize a recipe file.

San Antonio, Texas (PRWEB) February 20, 2009 -- BlogCatalog.com, the premier social network for bloggers, has acquired HalfHourMeals.com, a niche social network that allows members to submit recipes, rate favorites, and customize a recipe file.

HalfHourMeals.com was originally launched in August 2008 as a social network for families who wanted to share easy-to-make meal recipes. The recipes are categorized by course, cuisine, ingredients, and include an approximate preparation and cook time.

"The concept, design, and development for HalfHourMeals.com was done right, but it never seemed to establish a sense of community," said Antony Berkman, president of BlogCatalog. "Most of the recipes were submitted by a handful of members. While many of those recipes are good, there seemed to be too much effort pushing the recipes out instead of pulling new members into the network. We'd like to turn that around.

Berkman is no stranger to developing a sense of community within social networks. After acquiring BlogCatalog.com, his team turned a directory listing with 50,000 members and relatively low visitor volume into a social network with more than 170,000 active members and higher traffic than any other network in its class. It has ten times the visitor volume of MyBlogLog.com, which is owned by Yahoo.com, and twice the visitor volume of Technorati.com

According to Berkman, his team wants to do the same with HalfHourMeals.com. It will be redeveloped to include blogs and provide enhanced member profiles. Since BlogCatalog.com already lists more than 3,500 blogs dedicated to food, HalfHourMeals.com could help these bloggers and other food enthusiasts gain exposure.

"Social networks are brining people together. At BlogCatalog, we work very hard to help bloggers connect, share ideas, and grow through group and general discussions," said Berkman. "We'll do the same at HalfHourMeals.com. We'll create an environment where bloggers and non-bloggers can connect, share ideas, and enjoy their passion for food."

Berkman added that the timing is right. In a Chicago Tribune article, Purdue University Retail Institute recently noted that consumer food buying habits has shifted, with families saving between $10 and $15 per meal by eating at home.

"As BlogCatalog members who love food join the new network, HalfHourMeals.com members might be surprised to find some real authentic dishes," said Berkman. "Our bloggers represent a global community, with most members writing from United States, India, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Germany. "

BlogCatalog.com was also the first blogger social network to develop a social awareness campaign; an RSS-enabled dashboard feature that delivers cross-network aggregation; and a mobile platform that allows bloggers to keep up with online social activities across 20 other networks using their phones.

For more information, visit http://www.HalfHourMeals.com or http://www.BlogCatalog.com

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Contact Information Tony Berkman

BlogCatalog

http://halfhourmeals.com

2103239670