When Juliette Brindak drew a few characters on a rainy day just five years ago, she never intended to create a business reports GreenwichTime.com.
Founded in 2005 with the help of her father, marketing expert Paul Brindak, 55, and her sister Olivia, 16, Miss O and Friends (missoandfriends.com) is a family-friendly website based on a series of characters — including Miss O — featuring discussion boards, original Flash games, contests and articles with advice tailored to ‘tween girls, who are between childhood and adolescence.
“It’s for girls who have outgrown Barbie, but are not ready for Britney,” Paul said.
Just as Juliette’s involvement in the site has evolved — she’s now its chief executive — the site has also seen changes over its five-year run.
The company publishes a series of books. Originally, the company launched on a licensing platform — making money by letting other companies use the Miss O characters on products such as school supplies. Now, the company has moved to an advertising platform and hopes to increase visitors to its site, according to Juliette.
“We want to get monthly uniques (visitors) to a million,” she said. “That’s the magic number.”
While many websites jockey for traffic through aggressive Internet marketing and search engine optimization, Miss O and Friends relies on customer referrals. The site has been climbing the Alexa Internet-traffic chart — it was the sixth most popular “girls only” site as of Tuesday.
“This may not sound like much, but when you look at the sites we compete with, and the ownerships of those sites, we are the only independently owned site in the top 12,” Paul said.
Screenshot from Miss O & Friends