From For the Women, through La Donna, to Edna – how to make a successful female website
Creating a website that unites the interests of a group of people and turning it into a community is a challenge.
Creating a website that covers the widest possible range of spectrums and interests for some of the most demanding users – the ladies, is an event.
Ladies have long stopped caring only about the tricks of makeup, hairdos, or advice on ways to impress someone. Their interests can hardly be covered even by the longest list that can be made. Statistics speaks for itself.
An undisputable fact – women account for the majority of reading people in Bulgaria; when they are not at work, they take care of the household, the interior of the home, the kids, maintaining the car, organizing the family holidays, and all sorts of other things…
To cover the interest of this audience segment, in 2012 Elena Koleva proposed launching a For the Women subcategory in Vesti.bg, which would become not only the start of a standard "female" website, but also a place where every woman could find something for herself.
Pretty soon, it became clear that the subcategory had naturally become something more and should be transformed into a separate website.
The initial idea was to call it La Donna, but eventually Edna turned out to be the most suitable name, which tells something special: there is something here for each of the website's female users.
On March 8 (International Women's Day) 2012, Netinfo launched another website in its portfolio to meet the demands of its audience.
Edna is a place made especially for the female audience: it publishes not only exclusive news of the day, but also the female viewpoint on events happening worldwide.
With time, the website was able to develop another niche: the niche of contributors, who are not just celebrities or popular individuals, but also experts in their professional field.
However, not product can achieve lasting success unless backed by a solid, professional team of people who love their job.
In the case of Edna.bg, there is a special, unspoken "cooperative" between the editorial team and the website's readers. There is something in common between them, and it is the fact that they are all women who have opinions and distinct characters.
The female editors of Edna.bg create content which moves the ladies since it is based on their own experience: the challenges and everyday battles of the team are identical of the challenges facing their readers.
To secure even strong bond with its audience, the website allows readers to send their own stories, which are often published on Edna.bg. Thus, this is not just a female website, this is a community.
There are ladies of all ages in this community – the articles are read both by younger women, and by ladies aged 45+.
Currently, Edna is a place for all women who read and take interest in the world, successfully combing their family duties, career growth, healthy lifestyle, cultural events, travel and fun.
At the start of every workday, nearly 600,000* ladies look for advice, entertainment and various types of content on the website.
Still, La Donna (e mobile) maybe still has something in common with Edna.bg's philosophy. Just like women go through different stages, the website has also experienced its own metamorphoses, changing constantly in a bid to be not only interesting, but also useful for its users.
The success of Edna is evidence by another fact: the respected media Harper's Bazaar chose Edna's Instagram account to present a piece of news about Amal and George Clooney.
*data source: Google Analytics currently used by Netinfo