I'll be blunt, and I hope you take this all with the understanding that I'm only trying to help. I've tried to point out specific things you can do/add wherever possible. With that said...
Your home page is incredibly confusing, primarily because there is no call to action. Even though I know and use Airbnb, "Airbnb for food" could still mean several things, and I'm not even sure what the # of countries has to do with anything. Suggestion: ditch the Airbnb comparison and put up a 1-sentence elevator pitch followed by a 1-sentence call-to-action. Example: "Housefed.com lets you find and eat with talented chefs in your area. Get started by _______."
Continuing on the call-to-action thread, there isn't even anything for me to do! Am I supposed to search? Am I supposed to click on the food? Clicking on the food takes me to an equally confusing page with nothing for me to do there either. Suggestion: add an obvious thing for me to interact with (search box? I don't even know what...) and lose the sorting features, which add nothing to the first impression.
After signing up -- even though nothing on the site makes me want to -- nothing changes! I still have no idea what to do on your site, or where to do it. Suggestion: let a not-logged-in user browse the available food and understand WHY it's posted (so that they could eat it, I assume), and then invite them to sign up with a statement like: "Want to eat this and other delicious meals in your town? Sign up and get housefed!"
I suggest you spend a lot more time studying http://airbnb.com and the subtleties of their homepage and UX. Notice that their home page tells you EXACTLY what to do ("Find a place to stay.") and shows you HOW to do it (by filling out one field that tells them "Where are you going?"). I can use and browse everything on their site without logging in or signing up, and they detour me to the sign-up page only when absolutely necessary.
I remember your original "noob" post. Congrats on making it this far. Seriously. Most people would've given up long ago. Keep at it. I think your site fills a real need (at least, I would use it, fwiw).
Your home page is incredibly confusing, primarily because there is no call to action. Even though I know and use Airbnb, "Airbnb for food" could still mean several things, and I'm not even sure what the # of countries has to do with anything. Suggestion: ditch the Airbnb comparison and put up a 1-sentence elevator pitch followed by a 1-sentence call-to-action. Example: "Housefed.com lets you find and eat with talented chefs in your area. Get started by _______."
Continuing on the call-to-action thread, there isn't even anything for me to do! Am I supposed to search? Am I supposed to click on the food? Clicking on the food takes me to an equally confusing page with nothing for me to do there either. Suggestion: add an obvious thing for me to interact with (search box? I don't even know what...) and lose the sorting features, which add nothing to the first impression.
After signing up -- even though nothing on the site makes me want to -- nothing changes! I still have no idea what to do on your site, or where to do it. Suggestion: let a not-logged-in user browse the available food and understand WHY it's posted (so that they could eat it, I assume), and then invite them to sign up with a statement like: "Want to eat this and other delicious meals in your town? Sign up and get housefed!"
I suggest you spend a lot more time studying http://airbnb.com and the subtleties of their homepage and UX. Notice that their home page tells you EXACTLY what to do ("Find a place to stay.") and shows you HOW to do it (by filling out one field that tells them "Where are you going?"). I can use and browse everything on their site without logging in or signing up, and they detour me to the sign-up page only when absolutely necessary.
I remember your original "noob" post. Congrats on making it this far. Seriously. Most people would've given up long ago. Keep at it. I think your site fills a real need (at least, I would use it, fwiw).