Current Approach
The new Cedarwood website is being developed using an AI-assisted platform that dramatically reduces the technical burden normally associated with web development. Instead of manually writing HTML5, CSS, or managing WordPress child themes, the AI interprets natural-language prompts and produces functional code.
Timeline
A working version of the site is expected within one to two weeks. The goal is to produce a visible "Version 1" that can be reviewed on the development site.
Key Considerations
The site must present information aligned with user intent and support both professional users (tree officers, forestry companies) and educational users (teachers, parents, forest schools) with clear pathways for each audience.
The "Oscar's Tree Academy" Search Problem
Search engines currently associate "Oscars" and "Academy" with the Academy Awards. The recommended approach is to consistently use the full name "Oscar's Tree Academy" and ensure all metadata reinforces the tree-education context.
Recommended Tools
- Keywords Everywhere — Browser plugin showing search volume and related keywords
- Google Ads Keyword Planner — For identifying high-volume adjacent searches
Keyword Strategy
Direct terms like "tree education for kids" have low search volume, but adjacent terms like "Home schooling UK," "Forest school activities," and "Educational resources for childminders" have higher traffic. Position content within broader educational themes that parents and teachers already search for.
Current Situation
Somerfield Books, the current distributor, has become inactive. Only one copy has sold in three months. This makes it necessary to reconsider distribution channels.
Placement Decision
The manual should only appear on Cedarwood if it is clearly relevant to Cedarwood's professional audience. Cedarwood primarily attracts tree professionals, forestry workers, and local authorities — not the same as the educational audience targeted by Oscar's Tree Academy.
Physical Books
Physical books offer tangibility but come with high upfront printing costs, storage requirements, and slow update cycles. For low-volume titles, physical production is financially inefficient.
Amazon
Amazon provides global reach but fees can consume 50–60% of revenue. Niche educational books receive little visibility. Amazon is useful for distribution but not for profitability.
Subscription Model — Recommended Strategy
Benefits: Predictable recurring revenue, easy content updates, strong IP protection, and ability to license by class size or organization.
Possible Inclusions: Seasonal activity books, teacher guides, printable worksheets, professional updates, and monthly webinars.
Key Segments
Tree Professionals
- Arborists, forestry companies, local authority tree officers
- Planning departments, rights-of-way teams, environmental consultants
Education Sector
- Forest schools, primary schools, home-schooling parents
- Childminders, youth groups, outdoor learning organisations
Product Bundles
Content can be packaged as seasonal editions, classroom packs, professional reference guides, and subscription tiers for individuals, classes, schools, or organisations.
Webinars & Live Sessions
Regular webinars can provide direct Q&A with experts, case studies, legal updates, seasonal guidance, and community discussion. These strengthen user engagement and justify subscription pricing.
Community & Support
A supportive ecosystem could include online forums, resource libraries, downloadable templates, and activity ideas that builds loyalty and positions the platform as a long-term partner.
For the Website
Maintain clear separation between professional and educational content. Ensure navigation reflects audience segmentation and use metadata to support SEO.
For Publishing
Prioritise digital formats and subscription access. Use physical books selectively for high-value audiences. Protect intellectual property through controlled access.
For Marketing
Use keyword research to guide content creation. Target high-volume adjacent searches and create content that answers real user questions.
- Distributor inactivity and lack of promotion
- Unclear placement of the Tree Manual
- Need for cohesive long-term publishing strategy
- SEO conflicts with the "Oscars Academy" naming
- Difficulty protecting IP in uncontrolled digital distribution
- Need for sustainable, recurring revenue
- AI-driven development reduces cost and accelerates delivery
- Subscription-based educational content offers strong recurring revenue
- Clear segmentation strengthens brand identity
- Digital distribution enables global reach
- Webinars create ongoing value and community
🧩 Website Development & AI
N
Nigel
00:00
The website is user-friendly and developer-friendly. Google will eventually catch up to these AI-controlled website platforms. The main point about having a website is being found, and the second point is users being able to carry out tasks once they find it.
D
Derrick
00:43
Users can then achieve the goals they want. Once humans see the website, it's easier for them to navigate and complete tasks.
N
Nigel
01:01
I'm too old for this. AI-assisted development is a completely new way of developing content and structure that helps users. It cuts away the complexity of understanding HTML5, CSS, or WordPress child themes.
D
Derrick
02:04
I sent a prompt for an app from my bed at 9 o'clock at night with my fat fingers — everything was typed and spelled wrong, and the AI still understood it and did it. In traditional coding, everything has to be perfect. This is the opposite — I'm calling it "user coding."
D
Derrick
02:55
A friend with a WordPress plugin company is using AI to read forum comments, suggest fixes, and create implementation plans. He replaced an underperforming developer from Australia and got neglected plugins up to speed in about a week or two.
N
Nigel
03:14
Are you fairly confident that the website is going to be in a state for us to have a look at in the next week or so?
D
Derrick
03:27
Yes, I think so. I can commit all of your recommendations to it within a week or so. If this doesn't work, I'll revert back to WordPress.
N
Nigel
03:39
The best thing is to get your Version 1 out so we can see it either on the development site or on the public domain.
📚 Tree Manual & Distribution
M
Mark
05:30
The people selling the Tree Manual for me are being very inactive. They've sold one copy in the last three months, and when I contacted them in October asking for a chat, there's been no reply. Somerfield Books seems to have other priorities. I'm wondering whether we need to get a tab on the Cedarwood website showcasing the Tree Manual.
M
Mark
06:26
You could do that, but you need to be careful about what products and books are relevant to Cedarwood. If you're going to create a navigation structure within Cedarwood talking about the education side for adults and professionals in forestry, as well as educational content for schools, it needs logical context as to why it's there.
M
Mark
08:14
People looking at the Cedarwood site are almost certainly professionals or people looking for help with tree or forestry problems. Oscar's Tree Academy probably won't interest them. Without logical context, they'll think "what on earth is that?" and probably won't take it seriously.
N
Nigel
10:14
Architects may find the Cedarwood site useful, but domestic clients might also access it and see the educational content. I'm wondering if a tab, even if a bit of a naughty idea, is better than nothing at all.
M
Mark
10:39
Having it as a temporary thing means it's there forever. You'll be creating permanent links in the world wide web pointing to that content, and if you want to move it later without a proper 301 redirect, you're going to have a problem. I urge you to think about what you want to do permanently.
M
Mark
13:14
You could go down the Amazon route. It's expensive and you give up a lot of margin, but it's a route you can go down. Physical books are costly to produce, store, and ship. You can mitigate by using Amazon, but they charge significantly for storage, delivery, and commission — probably over 50%, sometimes 60% of your margin.
📦 Subscription Model & Digital Publishing
D
Derrick
16:07
What do you think about the subscription idea for an all-inclusive package? During COVID, kids did home school and logged into interactive websites with games and activities. Schools could buy an access package and download and print materials.
N
Nigel
16:58
Physical production of low-volume stuff is going to be significant. Ordering in bulk means you've got to tie up a lot of capital upfront in paper that sits there. We've talked about content being electronic and licensed according to class size, controlling classroom printing, and protecting intellectual property and copyright.
D
Derrick
18:30
I've had experience disseminating eBooks for free for a ministry using Draft2Digital. They submit books to Amazon and also submit eBooks to one central system that distributes to every digital library worldwide. You can sell and it's like Kindle, Amazon, and all these places. I've done this before.
N
Nigel
19:38
The question is about the revenue scheme. If you price a book at £7.99, what's the revenue stream? For libraries, you only get revenue if the book gets rented out — maybe a penny each time. You won't get loads of money.
N
Nigel
21:33
Electronic distribution through uncontrolled routes means the content is out there and it's very difficult to get the tiger back in the cage. It's a test and learn piece, but I'm not saying it's the perfect route.
N
Nigel
23:04
Forest schools want a hard copy. That's why having a bundle — maybe a £100 bundle with resources and a year's subscription to ongoing development — appeals to me.
N
Nigel
23:19
How do you stop them photocopying pages? The challenge is constant iteration with different content — seasonal books (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter), versioned updates (V1, V2, V3) to encourage repeat engagement. That's why people want to buy the next book — there's new stuff in it.
🎯 Market Segments & Content Strategy
N
Nigel
24:20
You've got to sit down and say: who is our target market? What are the segments we want to focus on? What material do we have that's going to be interesting to those segments? This includes content for professionals (forestry companies, logging companies, local authority tree officers, planning departments, rights-of-way teams) and forest schools.
N
Nigel
25:29
For the Tree Academy segment, you want colouring books, activity books, classroom stuff aimed at teachers. Once you know who's the target and what problems you're solving for them, the marketing piece becomes natural — but you've got to have budget for it.
N
Nigel
26:06
You've got to think about practicalities: how do you physically deliver this? Is it an actual book or an e-copy with a subscription? Subscription-based provides regular income rather than one-off payments.
D
Derrick
26:34
You provide value behind that subscription, constantly updating it.
🎥 Added-Value Services
N
Nigel
27:09
For the added value element of subscriptions, users get monthly webinars where they can discuss questions, areas they need more help with, or guidance. You can tell them about the latest things coming. For professionals, this includes legal cases, latest laws, and challenges in forestry.
🌐 SEO & Keyword Strategy
D
Derrick
28:50
If you put "Oscars" or "Academy" or even "Oscar's Tree Academy" into Google, you get loads of answers about the Oscars and Academy Awards. How do we get around that?
N
Nigel
29:10
You don't leverage it. You've got to be "the Tree Academy." We've talked about this since the very start. As long as you're talking about "Oscar's Tree Academy," it's as clear as you're going to get. The content and snippets need to reinforce the tree-education context.
N
Nigel
31:12
For keyword research, "Keywords Everywhere" is about £10 for six months and gives you up to 100,000 searches, longtail keywords, what other people search, and related keywords with cost-per-click data.
N
Nigel
33:22
"Tree education for kids" has very low search volume. But looking at related terms: "Woodland Trust trees for schools" — that's not relevant. However, "home schooling" has 17,100 searches per month at £1.39 cost per click. "Home education" has 2,400 per month.
N
Nigel
35:22
You need to think about who your content is relevant for and what those people search for in the education field. You integrate those needs into your copy so that when Google scans your site and sees content about "home schooling educational material," it can match it to relevant search terms.
N
Nigel
40:57
Forest schools, home schooling, home education, childminders, holiday clubs — these are the four key groups we're looking to reach.
D
Derrick
41:21
Is Keywords Everywhere worth it? You said £10 every three months?
N
Nigel
41:28
It's about £10 for every six months — it's nothing, just a couple of pounds.
✅ Meeting Close
M
Mark
41:45
Do you feel better equipped now?
D
Derrick
41:47
Yeah, I think so. It's confirmed a lot of my thoughts. It's given me a system for getting down and fleshing it out.
M
Mark
41:57
I've already been working on recognizing some of this. You've given me good insight about providing value for a subscription. The subscription model with ongoing online content, downloads, and packages is going to be the way forward.