Comments on: Will Yahoo’s Shine Be the Next Big Site for Women?

By: Paige

Paige — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:17:29 +0000

Don’t you all think that Oprah.com covers all of this? Oprah has “experts” that provide new and unique content on money, health, decorating, relationships, spirituality, all without being overly glam and gossipy. There is so much content on the site that doesn’t even pertain to the actual show.

By: Trisha

Trisha — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:38:36 +0000

I feel out of place on many women’s sites also. On mine, I do have a health section – but none of those others.

The question that’s nagging at me constantly is – is it possible to have a successful web site (or whatever) targeted to women without including astrology, celebrity stuff, fashion, etc.?

And Shine – offensive!

By: World Traveler

World Traveler — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:35:33 +0000

I have to wonder if the reason all these “women’s” sites have the same celebrity/glamor/horoscope content is because there is some demand for it. If it didn’t generally work, I don’t think such sites would proliferate. It seems like Shine is trying to cater toward all women, but is maybe failing to promote all of its parts equally.

By: Holly Buchanan

Holly Buchanan — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:15:06 +0000

Vicki, Love your blog. This post is a must read - Open Letter to Internet Marketers: Top 3 Things To Stop If You Want To Sell To Women. Great stuff. Holly

By: Vicki Flaugher

Vicki Flaugher — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:52:21 +0000

I love the point of view you have, Holly. I cater to female entrepreneurs, aged 35-55, on my blog at smartwomanguides.com and I frequently surf the web looking for resources. There is an amazing drought of material that reaches directly to that audience. One of my goals in creating the site in the first place was to begin to unify the field, to pull together the best sources of inspiration and resources for this group.

What I’ve found, as you point out, is that some of it is so fluffy and soft or it’s written very forcefully. You strike a good balance here. I like it. I will write you up on my site–my audience needs to come here. Maybe you’d do an interview? I’d love it!

Together, we are stronger.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

By: Melissa Foster

Melissa Foster — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:02:47 +0000

If you are looking for a site that deals with real women and real life issues, please take a look at The Women’s Nest. We do not have a large budget, so our referrals are word of mouth. We went live in February ‘08 with our new site and already have about 600 members. The entire site is free.

Please contact me – I’d love to discuss it with you!
Melissa Foster
Thinkhappy@thewomensnest.com
http://www.thewomensnest.com

By: Holly Buchanan

Holly Buchanan — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:15:45 +0000

Lindsay,

I like the “voice” of BeThree.com. But this little bit is what really won me over –

“Can I pay to be written about on BeThree.com?
Sorry, not a chance. We are all about trust with our readers and maintain a strict editorial line (or more like a barbed-wire fence) between advertising and the words in our daily emails. We will write about relevant products, events, services, travel and advice that we think will inspire our readers.”

LOVE that – in a world where that line is increasingly blurred I’m glad to see you guys towing the line, er, barbed wire fence.

Good luck with the site!

Holly

By: lindsay yaw

lindsay yaw — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:08:58 +0000

Hi Holly,
thanks for your post. What I don’t understand on Shine is that their content is, excuse the phrase, regurgitated from print publications. Why wouldn’t Yahoo, with the resources they have, produce original content for this site? As a writer myself, that’s what instantly turned me off of Shine because I thought…if I wanted this, I’ll just go to the original publisher’s site! There are hundreds of news aggregator sites and sites that reproduce content. Why another? Anyhow, in the spirit of full transparency, I just started a site called BeThree.com which is attempting to make health (emotional, intellectual, physical) mainstream and relevant for 20- and 300-somethings. You said you like humor? Check out some of our stories, they reference every woman’s every experience with humor. Enjoy and thanks again for the post on Shine! best, lindsay

By: Diana

Diana — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:11:27 +0000

Check out mimimag.com. It’s an online free magazine focusing on women over the age of 50. Good articles, lifestyle, coaching, menopause. Timely, informative and educational.

By: UniqLooks - Cashmere Scarves

UniqLooks - Cashmere Scarves — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:07:29 +0000

Hi Holly,

Whatever the future of SHINE is, it was quite good for us to know about this. You mentioned in your article about “Yahoo has the advantage of being able to tap into other verticals, like their Green section” Could you please let me know which GREEN section you are talking about. Just asking as that might also be of interest to us as we sell Green Products.

By: Nishi Viswanathan

Nishi Viswanathan — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:30:10 +0000

I really liked their layout and presentation plus the fact that I can leave comments. As for the stereotyping, I really don’t mind. When a website wants to be niche, it cannot avoid stereotypes.

However, Yahoo’s Shine is not very different from MSN’s Lifestyle section, which by the way, has some good content too. And ivillage is pretty similar too. Not to mention Oprah.com.

It is too early to say who will lose in the race. Perhaps none of them will. Perhaps, there is space for everyone out there. Irrespective of what we might say, we gals do like to read the same stuff over and over again, don’t we?

By: Linda Bustos

Linda Bustos — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:33:34 +0000

It’s interesting that the big portals/search engines are building women-focused properties (like Ask.com giving up the search race to focus on married women http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/05/technology/ask_makeover.ap/)

What’s next, Girlgle and Guygle?

By: Robert Gorell

Robert Gorell — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:49:35 +0000

Advertising Age says that Shine will be headed by the former Jane Magazine editor in-chief. That bodes well for them having a fresh perspective on women’s interests, does it not?

I don’t know much about Jane’s readership, but they seem to get a lot of respect among the arty urbanite set.

It’ll be interesting to see if this takes off. Is anyone else surprised Yahoo didn’t do this sooner (not that this is a bad time, or that they’re late to the party… they could be right on time)?

By: Joelle Nebbe

Joelle Nebbe — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:19:16 +0000

I first heard of shine when they said it was going to be a bit different, but it’s not.

It is simply plugging a gap in yahoo’s content offering, and getting revenue (why else have astrology?)

Just looking at the headings: Fashion + Beauty , Healthy Living, Entertainment, Parenting, Love + Sex, Work + Money, Food, At Home, Astrology

Where is art (if anything they could have women artists!), culture (not even books), current affairs, politics (if anything some issues around feminism!), sports, science and technology, or even creativity? No mention of it anywhere! I know that content is elsewhere on Yahoo but I would expect it to be repurposed here, perhaps with a different perpective.

I get the point that most “men’s” magazines have more about sports, cars, gadgets, fitness than most men care about – but they usually have a section or two still covering more generic news, as acknowledgment that men have brains.

There’s almost never anything of the sort in women magazines, especially not in the english language (some european magazines will have at least some .

Still it would have created a lot of buzz if Yahoo had integrated the more news/thinking headings within this platform, maybe with comments and perspectives from the editors. That would have gottent the attention of all the smart, articulate women bloggers out there in a big way.

But i suspect this is not necessarily a mistake by yahoo, as I bet convincing advertisers of the value of something like this would be hard.

By: John Hyde

John Hyde — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:51:17 +0000

Holly – why not turn the question round a bit.

Would a man visit a website aimed at “men” ?

By: Brick Marketing

Brick Marketing — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:34:42 +0000

Definitely agree with this article. It seems that women are obviously stereotyped when it comes to these websites targeted to us. Why must we always be assumed to be interested in Diet and Celebs? There has to be a more inventive way to get to us…whether through more variety or a more innovative approach. It sure will be interesting to see if they can be successful but we’re sure it’ll be just like any other site geared towards women.