Women are In! (when were we ever 'Out'?)
March 10, 2008
So, Yahoo! is getting into the act now. This article from March 7th indicates that Yahoo! has decided to get female-friendly: "Yahoo's New Appeal to Women." According to Jon Fine, writing in BusinessWeek, "Yahoo is quietly putting the finishing touches on a major new content site aimed at women between the ages of 25 and 54." That's a good range, I guess. But, it just amazes me how more and more companies, both new and old, are hopping on the marketing to women bandwagon.
My advice to them: Too little, too late.
The article by Fine indicates that Yahoo! knows it's going up against the big guns (did I say guns...how about the big purses...) at iVillage, and some sites that this lady baby boomer doesn't even have on her radar...AOL Living (ok, I confess... I disdain everything AOL, sorry), and Everyday Health. Who knew? Funny they didn't mention ThirdAge. I know ThirdAge isn't technically just women, but...it's predominantly women.
Meanwhilte, the new site's editor, Brandon Holley (so says Fine in his article), is from Elle Girl (gone, baby, gone) and Jane (disappeared into cyberspace, I guess). Of the women they hope to attract to the site, Holley says we all want one place to go...one man, one purse, one house. Well, no she didn't say all that. We don't want one purse, for sure. She said women want a "one-stop shop..." I guess she isn't reading the same newsletters as I am. You know, the ones that say we like our choices, and we hop from site to site, in order to find the best deals, and the best content. Yep, we can be mouse-clickers with the best of'em.
Interestingly, the comment I left is not live. Guess they don't want competition from Lip-sticking. Ya think? At any rate, they're clearly trying to do the right thing...but, it's not clear that they understand how far back they have to get, in the line. Hey, Yahoo! a whole lot of us were here before you!
Within the article is a mention of a new women's site that will rock the net, IMHO. The NY Times put it this way, "Boldface in Cyberspace: It's a Woman's Domain." This because a group of great celebrity ladies (Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl, Mary Wells, Joni Evans...and the likes of Lily Tomlin and Candice Bergen) are now part of a site called Women On the Web. I love the clean look and the headlines. The navigation is also compelling and it has a Hair Day Weather link personalized to your locale. How kewl is that?
Of course, you have to register. I didn't much like that...until I did the registration. It was short and smooth. They clearly know how to do it. In fact, once you register, the header is personalized to your birth sign and your weather and doesn't change. I'm kinda feeling good vibes, here. Now, the only problem I see is in competing with all the other registered members... some of the posts have two or three dozen comments. Will my voice be heard?
I'm left wondering...do the women involved with this site read those comments? It's crucial that they do...else, lose credibility. And, I see Citi Bank is a sponsor or advertiser -- does that mean they want more women customers? They can have my business, if they treat me like a human being and not a credit score (my credit is good - used to be great but then I started a business and I have some debt; so what? men carry way more debt than I do - and the banks fall all over them to give them more; me - they just keep saying, come back when you pay off your debt. what's up with that?).
I like the site. I like the way it looks. I like the attitude that comes across. The like the women. I hope they are sincere in their reaching out to the 'masses'...because, we're all in this together. (oh, just one little nitpick...the red high heel...it's been done, and done again...and, I wonder if they know I coined WOW: Winning Over Women? Prolly not.)
I checked out Women on the Web, which does look interesting. However, I think they're really missing the boat by not having an RSS feed. I'm too busy to visit multiple sites. If I can't bring all the content I want into my feed reader, I'm probably going to just skip it.
Posted by: Average Jane | March 10, 2008 at 05:25 PM