Ladies' Choice

Brandweek, June 5, 2000 by Kristina Feliciano

WOMENSFORUM.COM

*

The Point: To unite smaller women-targeted sites and grow up to be iVillage or Oxygen.com or [ldots]

Vital Statistics: First launched in 1996, then relaunched last February as a portal. Owned by The Women's Forum Inc., of San Francisco.

Target Demo: Females 12-65.

Traffic: 1.7 million unique visitors in January.

Content: Consists of 60-plus partner sites, but they're all smallpotatoes dot-coms. To become a womensforum.com partner, a site has to be "women's-focused" and attract an audience of more than 50,000 unique users or 300,000 page views a month. The sites they've partnered with (youmarriedhim.com, waycoolweddings.com and riotgrrl.com, for example) aren't terrible, but their packaging makes Copywriting 101 seem like a graduate course. The teaser for the "Fashion & Beauty" page one day was, "Summer is just around the corner! Get some tips on how to look cool in the heat." If womensforum.com were a print publication, it would be a tabloid on cheap newsprint.

Look and Feel: Like spray-painted carnations--mustard yellow with hot-pink titles. The illustrated flower serving as the "dot" in WomensForum.com makes the logo look like it came straight off of a feminine-protection pamphlet from the Fifties.

Usability: Simple in every way.

Advertising Opportunities: Banners, sponsorships, co-branding, category exclusivity and keywords. Advertisers include SpotOn.com.

Bottom Line: There are better ways to spend your ad dollars.

**** Excellent