It’s still summer hot on both coasts, and probably most places in between, and yet I can feel the first taste of fall in the air. No mistake about it, we are approaching autumn, redolent with back-to-school ads, teachers preparing for this year’s class of rising students and excitement about the promise of new adventures.
This year, change is more on my mind than most. Not only because of my recent move to New York, but because we are hard at work behind the scenes at Vibrant Nation, laying the groundwork for our own period of growth and expansion.
Here’s a first taste of what’s in store for us. As we approach this fall, it’s clear that we’ve built a dynamic community that truly and uniquely matches the vibrancy of our members. We believed that women 50+ both deserved and would support having their own place online — a safe place to learn, vent, share and inspire. And do you know that we’ve had over a million page views since our launch in 2009?
We’ve grown large enough to share an ocean of communal knowledge, but small enough to find our own little ponds within the community to splash around in. But equally important is the quality of conversation, the depth of friendships and support we provide one another. In a world of media and advertising that consistently marginalizes and underrates the value, importance and needs of women 50+, we have found a way to find one another and build a community that functions as vitally as we hoped it would.
There’s just one thing. Everybody asks us — including our many members — how we’re funding all this. Answering this question has proven to be the cutting edge of our own growth, as we’ve grappled with the issue that faces every social networking site once it reaches the level that requires serious staffing and infrastructure: how to monetize the site.
This challenge has proven to be a tricky one, indeed, since we are determined to keep membership free, maintain all the features you know and love about Vibrant Nation, and yet trust that we can figure out new offerings to make available to women 50+ so enticing that we would all be happy to pay for them.
In speaking with many of you, as well as going through our own thought processes, we realized that the logical extension of our core mission would be to step in with in-depth reports on subjects pertinent to women 50+ but ignored or underrated by others. We would retain physicians and experts in health, beauty, finances, relationships and more who are also in our unique stage of life. And we would make summaries of their findings available to you for free, and if you want to learn more, make it easy for you to purchase in-depth reports at a fair price.
So, to make a long story short, over the next few weeks, we’ll be filling you in on what’s in store for us all this fall. Meanwhile, we hope you’ll share our anticipation as we capture the excitement of how it felt to start junior high, become a rising senior, go off to college and, in our case, crack how to ensure the viability of the site we have built together, and that so many of us think of as our own, special place on the web. Prepare to be surprised!
ReginaLove, that is SO great to hear! As for soy, it may help with menopause symptoms -- it it controversial. The best way to use soy is in the form of whole fermented soy foods (miso, tempeh, tamari and natto). Non-fermented soy foods such as soy mi
Agreed. I never thought I was vain until I had a mastectomy at age 39. I was devastated and told the doc I wanted to wake up with implants. Now at age 60, I am lopsided and wondering if I was just avoiding the inevitable. You get what you get and you
Sounds very interesting.
Spike, you are awesome! Love your perspective, thanks for sharing.
I’m looking forward to whatever you have in store for us. This is my favorite stop on the web! Thank you for a great site specializing in our particular stage of life.
How wonderful & exciting.!!! Please keep the membership free to us, as so many are on such a tight budget. I think the option of purchasing great info, will be great. I just love VN. I’ve been helped in so many ways & just when I needed it most. 2009 was the hardest year of my life, VN is a very important place for me to visit every day. Helps me heal & find strength. I’m so grateful to have found it. A great big thank you, to all, who is making this possible.
Monetizing a site is a challenge, for sure. I know that members–who are used to getting everything free on the Internet–would balk at paying. That’s an issue for me as a professional writer, too. Few sites pay for content, and most print publications are paying less than they were 10 years ago!
VN is a fabulous site, giving women of our age a place to gather and let our hair down (or get tips for putting it up, if that’s what we want), with a dynamic selection of blogs to stimulate conversation. You’re doing a wonderful job. How to monetize it? I wish I knew!
Thanks all! Yes, monetizing is a challenge for us all in this day and age. Many of us who used to be paid to speak, for instance, now find ourselves being hit up for “sponsorships” for the honor! Anyway, please watch, observe and support our effort as what we are doing may be a model for many worthwhile sites/causes/missions that can use some financial as well as emotional resources!