Hot Dog Cart News

Hey Slinger,

If you ever wondered how you can use the internet to bring tons of new customers to your hot dog cart, even if you are “computer illiterate”, now is your chance to find out – for free.

I decided to open the vault and make my private members-only marketing tutorial videos available to everyone.

We just took down the password protection and we’re letting it all hang out.

You can watch all the videos right now for free by clicking here:
http://hotdogprofitspremium.com/blockbuster-marketing-machine/website-tutorials/

I’m not sure how long I’m going to leave the password protection off so get over there now, watch the marketing videos, and most importantly use what you learn to take your hot dog biz to the next level.

-Steve

Hey Slinger, want to break out of the $2 hot dog rut and get $3, $4, or more for your dogs? The key lies in “signature” hot dogs and photo menus.

I just got an email from a Hot Dog Profits reader in Bellingham Washington who uses both of these tactics extremely well. Read on and learn how to double the price of your hot dogs in a way that makes your customers happy to pay you more!

Chicago Dogs – A Hot Dog Cart With a View!

Steve,

I notice all your posts regarding everyone’s dog cart setups. Some of them are kind of cool, but I haven’t seen any that enjoy the setting that I do up here in Bellingham, Washington.

I get a view of the ocean and the islands all day long. Sometimes I can watch the sailboat races from my stand as well.

I have attached a picture of my setup, which does Chicago Style food. We do Italian Beef sandwiches, brats, Polish, and a variety of dogs. All products are Vienna Beef and are imported from Chicago. I also attached a picture of the Hawks Dog.

The Hawks Dog has become a local favorite along with the Italian Beef sandwich. I start with smoked bacon chunks and mozzarella with a Vienna Firedog. It is then topped with hickory smoked bacon mustard and Mediterranean feta cheese.

I operate one stand right now, but have two more coming after Christmas and will be operating three by Spring.

Take care,

Frankie,
Chicago Dogs

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Wow Frankie, that view is spectacular! Operating a hot dog cart is fun and rewarding in and of itself, but to be surrounded by that kind of natural beauty is icing on the cake.

Having grown up in Chicago myself, you are speaking my culinary language. Italian Beef sammich – yum! And Polish from Da Coach, Iron Mike himself. Nice! (By the way, as you can see in Chris’s email Chicagoans don’t say “sausage” after “polish”. We just say, “Gimme a polish”.  But if you are talking about Italian sausage then we do say “Italian sausage”. I have no idea why, but that’s how we say it.)

Frankie, your Hawk Dog sounds ridiculously delicious. But your presentation is what really deserves the kudos!

Listen up slingers – “Signature” dogs are all the rage and command much higher prices. Naming each hot dog on the menu conveys a sense of exclusivity. Whereas there are any number of places that you can get a hot dog with mustard, onions, and cheese, you could be the only one in town that sells the “Wisconsin Lumberjack”.

The second benefit of signature dogs. Giving a hot dog a name makes it memorable and easy to communicate. That increases word of mouth advertising. People will say things like, “I had the Big Rascal yesterday at JimmieDog. I think it’s the most awesome hot dog on their menu! You gotta try it.”

Photo Menus Rock. The next step is to take a nice high resolution photo of each of your signature hotdogs and have a picture menu made up. This is critical if you want to command the highest price possible. People make a buying decision within seconds of approaching your cart. If they can actually see the delicious finished product they will be much more inclined not only to buy but to pay top dollar. (Check out Frankie’s photo menu in the photos below.)

So name all your hot dog creations and make a photo menu to display them. Folks love it!

Thanks for the pics Frankie and good luck with your business expansion plans. Keep us posted!

Sell ’em all!

-Steve

Are you selling assorted chips on your hot dog cart? I don’t know about you but whenever I buy the assortment packs of chips for resale I always end up with leftover Fritos. Every time.

I am over run by bags of Fritos!

I’m not sure how a company’s flagship product (Frito Lay, right?) has fallen so far out of favor as to need to be recycled into frito pies and walking tacos just to move the bags out of my inventory.

How would you like to be able to order custom quantities of just the chips you need? No more extra Fritos bags to contend with… (insert sound of angelic choir here).

Snacks to You. Hot Dog Profits Premim Member Bernie Null just sent me a link to a program sponsored by Frito Lay. It’s called Snacks to You. Looks like just what the doctor ordered. Check it out:

https://www.fls2u.com/pages/index.asp

I’m going to give away all my left over Fritos at Halloween and never look back. Snacks to You.

Thanks Bernie!

-Steve

When you are ready to get your free hot dog vending business website, be sure to use the coupon code “FREEHDCWEB” to save 25% on your hosting. Then forward your confirmation email to “steve@hotdogprofits.wpenginepowered.com”. We will build your free website and give you free access to HotDogProfitsPremium.com, the worlds largest and most complete hot dog cart business training program.

Hey Slinger,

In the last week or so we have seen a big spike in the number of people taking advantage of our free hot dog business website offer (which also gets you free access to all the Hot Dog Profits training books, built a hot dog cart videos, audio training, forms, menus, etc.). That’s awesome, however I did get one complaint from a new user. A really valid one as it turns out.

You see, we have been giving you two custom headers that you can use with your free website. They are already installed, you just need to click a button to switch between the two.

• One is a regular header with your business name already on it.
• The other is a contest header that is designed to work with the built in customer survey capabilities of your free website which lets you find out what kind of hot dogs and other foods your customers want to eat (even before you open for business if that’s where you are right now). That’s powerful info to have at any time in your business life cycle.

Anyways, the problem with the contest header was that it was geared towards a summer hot dog promotion and as you know, it isn’t going to be summer forever.

So my marketing team just came up with a new “evergreen” contest header that will be included with all future installations. This new header works no matter what the season, so now you have three pre-installed headers to choose from with the click of a button. Here is what the new evergreen header looks like:

As any one can tell by now, this isn’t some cheap one page website. It comes with eight pages and has the most advanced marketing technology available already installed for you including software that captures your customer’s email addresses so you can follow up with them. You can let them know where you will be that day, what specials you are running, stuff like that. The idea is to stay in front of them and give them a reason to come to your cart on a regular basis.

(Quick Marketing Lesson: Building an email list of customers is the most powerful form of online marketing there is. Email marketing beats Facebook hands down because not everyone is on Facebook – and those that are don’t check it daily. However, everyone has email and they check their email ten times a day or more. If you want people to know about your daily location and specials, and if you don’t want your message to be missed entirely by 70 percent of your market, you need to be in their email inbox. Think about it. Odds are you got to this page because I sent you an email about it, right? This stuff works.)

For those of you who already have one of our free websites you can get the new evergreen header for free. Just shoot me an email with EVERGREEN HEADER in the subject line and I’ll reply with your new header graphic attached. And if you tell me your business name I’ll even have my graphics guy put it in the header for you. No charge.

We have a series of free tutorial videos that show you how to get found on Google, how to put in your own photos, how to change the text, etc. One of those videos walks you through installing any new header with a couple of clicks. Just watch it and follow along to install your custom evergreen header if you already got your website from us.

And like I said, new users’ websites will come with the new evergreen contest header already installed – with your business name already on it.

This is drop dead easy, no computer skills required. It’s all just point and click. We have hundreds of satisfied users and 99% of them work on their own sites. However if you don’t feel like doing it yourself my team would be happy to take over website management for you for an hourly fee. It doesn’t take much time to make changes so the cost is really economical.

Mega Bonus: For those who don’t know, along with your free website you also get a free membership to Hot Dog Profits Premium which contains all the Hot Dog Profits training materials (over $350 worth) in an online format. You get access to the 250 page Carts of Cash training manual, 50 E-Z Built Hot Dog Cart Construction Videos, and 10 other amazing products to help you become more successful and have more fun slingin’.

You can get it all for free – a website for your business and HDP Premium (the largest and best mobile food business training package on the planet), by clicking this link while this offer lasts.

No brainer? Yep.

See you in the Hot Dog Profits Premium Member’s Area!

-Steve

Something I have been trying to find out is how long can you steam the buns for? Can they be in there for an hour? 2? Won’t they get soggy? I always thought you steamed the buns just before serving for 30 seconds or so…

Jeffrey T.

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How long you can hold a bun in the steamer depends a lot on the brand of bun you use. I now use Rosen’s which are made for steaming. They can sit in the steamer for a half hour without losing their firmness. Call Vienna Beef for a distributor near you.

That being said, I also used Walmart buns for years with good steaming results.

What ever bun you use the key is to not let your steamer get too hot. Turn down (or even off) the flame when necessary. You can also crack the lid open a bit to let excess steam escape.

Use a perforated pan or false bottom above the water and keep the buns away from the pan sides which are too hot. Place a clean white bar towel in the bottom of condensation is causing sogginess.

One or all of these tips should help you produce hot, fluffy buns that melt in your customer’s mouth!

Let’s hear your tips slingers!!!

-Steve

Steve,

I have another quick question. When it comes to burners and BTU what do you recommend?? For some reason I have seen hot dog carts for sale with burners from 7,000 BTU to 36,000 BTU. Thats kind of crazy. Could you shed some light on this.

Thanks as always,
John C.

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Hi John,

High BTUs let you heat your water a lot faster. After the water comes up to temp you can shut the burners off or at least turn them way down to save propane. A low BTU burner will require you to run your burners on full blast most of the time which uses more propane.

Cold weather vending will make it painfully obvious if you have too little BTUs. Waiting 45 minutes for your water to heat up is a pain in the you-know-what.

My personal E-Z Built cart has two burners each rated at 15,000 BTUs which give me 30,000 total. I wouldn’t want to operate with less.

I hope this helps!

What say you slingers? How many BTUs do you operate with and do you wish you had more?

Steve

UPDATE: This funding campaign has ended.

Although most of my students start with a hot dog cart then graduate to a brick and mortar restaurant, this gentleman is going straight for the permanent location.

If you would like to help him get started (or just look at pictures of his hot dog creations and menu) head on over to Kickstarter.

-Steve