Review of OpenBottles — it’s a wine social network and my marketing suggestions

In February I reviewed a Wine 2.0 site called BottleTalk. Today I am reviewing another site in the genre called OpenBottles. Wine is an extremely popular subject worldwide and I can see these sites doing well, especially if they were accessible in other languages.

One of the things I like about OpenBottles is how light the advertising is. I almost think they will need to increase the ads to sustain themselves but I will leave the financials up to them!

I asked Sagi Solomon, OpenBottles founder, to describe the service and he noted, "OpenBottles allows wine consumers to share their wine and winery experiences with the community and with their personal network of wine buddies.  We also allow members to manage their wine collections using OpenBottles Cellar – a free, hosted cellar application that is easy to use and is packed with powerful features."

They have a weekly newsletter along with multiple RSS feeds for different content sections of the site. Lastly they offer some helpful tools for when you go wine tasting or to a vineyard. I have been to several wineries but never knew what to look for. These pages will make me look smarter around the ladies when tasting wine! :)

This is a great example of building a social network around an area you are passionate about. Check out Sagi's history page for more details.

Both BottleTalk and OpenBottles have asked me for my advice on how to grow. Here was my suggestion to BottleTalk…. offer a way for people to buy the wines your visitors recommend. Don't make me go search Google or a wine site to try to find the specific wine that is rated 1st on your respective sites.

Here is my 2nd suggestion and a new one to both sites… create a way for members to trade wines. OpenBottles has a "Cellar" feature where I can catalogue my wines. Give me a way to lilst the wines I would be willing to trade with other members. It could really be a great service and a way to try new wines you may never try otherwise. Almost like an eBay for wine.