SavvyAuntie Archive

Earlier this week I sat down with Girl Ambition co-founder Hilary DeCesare. The service is launching to the public today and I was able to capture our interview on video below. Hilary describes the service as, "Girl Ambition includes an inspirational online show, games, contests and other activities that promote self-esteem and teach on-line safety". The real goal is to help tween girls (ages 9-13) feel better about themselves.

The site also offers video hosting and chat/IM. In our discussion, we talk about what makes Girl Ambition different than Club Penguin, what about boys?, how the email service works and online safety. The site also offers information for parents. I wonder if they should explore creating a desktop/Adobe Air application that could make sure the child can’t get out to the full Internet and only live within the Girl Ambition service.

Hilary also noted that MySpace deletes 25,000 profiles a day due to underage use.

Girl Ambition is launching with a multi-faceted business model. Account access is $4.95/month and they also are partnering with a variety of companies on content and sponsorships. I think there’s also a great opportunity for brands to leverage the community for focus groups and product learnings. The company is looking to raise a round of funding currently.

We covered the launch of another niche community last summer named SavvyAuntie. Both SavvyAuntie and Girl Ambition have business models and communities that are supportive and encourage heavy usage. Perhaps Hilary and SavvyAuntie founder Melanie Notkin should partner as there could be some good crossover traffic.

apologies for the sound, the cafe was quiet before we started then the staff decided to prepare for lunch!

We covered the new aunt-community SavvyAuntie when it launched earlier this month. SavvyAuntie reminds me of Dogster in that both are very niche in their user demographic but drive very passionate, loyal users. To learn more about SavvyAuntie, I headed over to their headquarters in NYC and met with founder and Auntrepreneur Melanie Notkin.

Some of the topics we discussed in the video interview below are:

• Who is Melanie Notkin
• What’s SavvyAuntie all about
• What types of content are on SavvyAuntie
• What are you doing to make sure that members who signed up in the initial press buzz continue to remain active in the community
• What’s the business plan
• How do you effectively use your blog to drive traffic but more importantly share your expertise
• Long or Short? (stolen from Wallstrip) Twitter, iPhone, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Hulu

Melanie says you can follow her on Twitter and she will follow you back unless you tell her that you are looking for a girlfriend – she blocks those people. Thanks Melanie for the time this morning learning about SavvyAuntie!

You’ve heard of niche sites before – what if I was to tell you that a new site is launching today that targets Aunts. Yep, there is now a site that targets not women, not moms, not girls, but Aunts. SavvyAuntie is dubbed a "parenting site for non-parents." The demographic they are targeting is PANK (Professional Aunts with No Kids).

SavvyAuntie is an online resource and community for Aunts including content designed specifically for Aunts, gifts for their nieces and nephews, activities and a community where Aunts can connect and share their experiences.

SavvyAuntie CEO Melanie Notkin notes, "It’s estimated that today, non-moms represent 50% of American women, and that number continues to grow." Initially I was thinking that SavvyAuntie would fit well under a larger umbrella site but perhaps over time other Savvy sites will launch and then an overall umbrella site will form out of the niche sites.

While it’s a very niche site, it’s still in the women’s larger demographic so the chance for revenue from advertising and affiliate sales remains high.

The real question is: when will SavvyUncle or SavvyGrandmother launch?