Mother, Wife, Blogger: Womens' Web Sites Get Spotlight
Heather Armstrong’s wickedly funny blog about motherhood, Dooce, is more than just an outlet for the creativity and frustrations of a modern mom. The site, chock full of advertising, is a money machine, so much so that Armstrong and her husband have quit their regular jobs.
J.C. Penney and Crate & Barrel, the U.S. retailers, hawk their furniture and offer decorating tips alongside notes of Armstrong’s talks with her 4-year-old daughter, Leta. Walgreens touts its photo- printing services next to pictures of her dog. Starwood’s W Hotel chain brags about its Internet-friendly rooms on the Dooce home page.
All of these advertisers are eager to influence the 850,000 readers, mostly women, who avidly follow Armstrong’s adventures. Although Armstrong won’t disclose exact numbers, Dooce’s revenue this year is on track to be seven times what it was in 2006, according to Federated Media, which sells ads for the blog.
“Advertisers want more inventory than we can give them,” said Chas Edwards, chief revenue officer and publisher of Federated.
Dooce is hardly alone. Sites aimed primarily at women, from “mommy blogs” to makeup and fashion sites, grew 35 percent last year, faster than every other category on the Web except politics, according to comScore, an Internet traffic measurement firm. Women’s sites had 85 million visitors in May, 42 percent more than the same month last year, comScore said.
Logo from dooce.
No comments yet.
Leave a Reply