One of the website projects I have been involved in has just (January 12th, 2012 – 10:40 Romaian time) crossed 1,000,000 page views and almost 300,000 visitors in it’s 3 years of existence. The website I am referring to is Andreea’s (my life partner) Romanian speaking website Feminitate. It is dedicated to women’s health focusing on the unique feminine cycle of menstruation, sexuality, pregnancy, birth and motherhood.
The site has a very basic design that has gone through numerous revisions all driven by its evolving content. It didn’t go through any branding – it’s logo is a bit of basic font-work. It’s colors have changed to reflect a balance of feelings I have witnessed in Andreea – both present and wished for. It went from soft, delicate and serious to bright, demanding and happy. The image in the header is processed from a lovingly taken photo I took of Andreea – though apparently some women thought it was a marketing image of femininity.
Feminitate was born as an after though on the heels of a similar website in Hebrew – at the time we were living in Israel. The Hebrew website got some traction but felt lifeless and unappreciated. Then, out of nowhere, Andreea asked me to create a Romanian version. It started as a subdomain on the Hebrew website but soon after departed on it’s own path (the Hebrew website no longer exists).
Feminitate has less then 200 posts – most of which are written in a style I would describe as informative-accessible. It is meant to empower women by making information available to them when they need it. It does not offer entertainment or distraction. It is clear and focused. It has never been marketed and never been promoted (SEO or otherwise).
Why has it been so successful? I could probably formulate an intellectual answer like “it has a very specific niche in a very specific culture” and “it doesn’t have to compete to be overheard in the pollution of the English speaking Internet” and I may be right … but I think those are consequential side effects of something deeper.
Feminitate was created to cater to the needs of one person – Andreea and her need to express herself. It came as a surprise to the both of us because on the surface she had no connections to Romania, it’s culture, people or language (other then it being her mother tongue). Yet under the surface there was an intense movement … an awakening.
By catering to her own needs Andreea reached and touched other women … and together their momentum grew. The more ripples her writing had the more motivation she had to reach out and write more. Within a year Andreea was in a dialogue with Romanian speaking women (from Romania and around the world) and was receiving thankful emails regularly. She was also starting to give online consultations (by email, messenger, skype, etc.).
I remember a point in time where the site statistics indicated that a post about female anatomy had been viewed over 20,000 times (it is now nearing 40,000 views and there are over ten such “technical” posts that have been viewed more then 20,000 times and over 20 posts that have been viewed more then 10,000 times). What an amazing result … thousands of Romanian women are educating themselves simply by reading what Andreea had (literally) to write. I remember thinking to myself how powerful blogging can be … that no other medium has such an amazing and effective reach. How much effort would it have required to print 20,000 copies of that post and get it into the hands of 20,000 women?
However it wasn’t all smooth sailing. I don’t remember exactly - but my impression is that for at least half of its online existence (3 years) the website continued to thrive without Andreea’s attention or involvement. Andreea lost her motivation to write or engage. We talked about it … a lot. Sometimes it felt to me as if she was failing to appreciate the value of her own work and as a result was also neglecting her responsibility to maintain it. Yet Andreea, being a woman, was not particularly moved by my motivational talks (it’s not that she doesn’t listen, she does) – she only wrote and only writes when she has a need to do so – when she feels connected.
Andreea’s second wave of writing was associated with her visit to Romania in the autumn of 2009. The response to Feminitate was so intense that we decided she should visit Romania and meet women in person. At the end of her 10 week visit I joined her for two weeks of vacation. 10 months later we had folded our life in Israel and were on a plane to Romania where we are in the process of creating a new life. We arrived in Romania with Andreea already a well known online figure. Now that online presence could begin to manifest in the physical world. I think it’s safe to say that almost all of her friends and social circles are a direct or indirect result of Feminitate.
I could not have imagined a better example of a website as an exploration and expression of purpose. Feminitate is an expression of Andreea’s Dharma – a website that has gone way beyond binary bits in a computer. Andreea is just now entering her 3rd wave of writing. I am excited to see what the future holds for us as we continue to explore this leg of our journey through life where Feminitate has been and continues to be a cornerstone.
Celebrating 1,000,000 Page Views
One of the website projects I have been involved in has just (January 12th, 2012 – 10:40 Romaian time) crossed 1,000,000 page views and almost 300,000 visitors in it’s 3 years of existence. The website I am referring to is Andreea’s (my life partner) Romanian speaking website Feminitate. It is dedicated to women’s health focusing on the unique feminine cycle of menstruation, sexuality, pregnancy, birth and motherhood.
The site has a very basic design that has gone through numerous revisions all driven by its evolving content. It didn’t go through any branding – it’s logo is a bit of basic font-work. It’s colors have changed to reflect a balance of feelings I have witnessed in Andreea – both present and wished for. It went from soft, delicate and serious to bright, demanding and happy. The image in the header is processed from a lovingly taken photo I took of Andreea – though apparently some women thought it was a marketing image of femininity.
Feminitate was born as an after though on the heels of a similar website in Hebrew – at the time we were living in Israel. The Hebrew website got some traction but felt lifeless and unappreciated. Then, out of nowhere, Andreea asked me to create a Romanian version. It started as a subdomain on the Hebrew website but soon after departed on it’s own path (the Hebrew website no longer exists).
Feminitate has less then 200 posts – most of which are written in a style I would describe as informative-accessible. It is meant to empower women by making information available to them when they need it. It does not offer entertainment or distraction. It is clear and focused. It has never been marketed and never been promoted (SEO or otherwise).
Why has it been so successful? I could probably formulate an intellectual answer like “it has a very specific niche in a very specific culture” and “it doesn’t have to compete to be overheard in the pollution of the English speaking Internet” and I may be right … but I think those are consequential side effects of something deeper.
Feminitate was created to cater to the needs of one person – Andreea and her need to express herself. It came as a surprise to the both of us because on the surface she had no connections to Romania, it’s culture, people or language (other then it being her mother tongue). Yet under the surface there was an intense movement … an awakening.
By catering to her own needs Andreea reached and touched other women … and together their momentum grew. The more ripples her writing had the more motivation she had to reach out and write more. Within a year Andreea was in a dialogue with Romanian speaking women (from Romania and around the world) and was receiving thankful emails regularly. She was also starting to give online consultations (by email, messenger, skype, etc.).
I remember a point in time where the site statistics indicated that a post about female anatomy had been viewed over 20,000 times (it is now nearing 40,000 views and there are over ten such “technical” posts that have been viewed more then 20,000 times and over 20 posts that have been viewed more then 10,000 times). What an amazing result … thousands of Romanian women are educating themselves simply by reading what Andreea had (literally) to write. I remember thinking to myself how powerful blogging can be … that no other medium has such an amazing and effective reach. How much effort would it have required to print 20,000 copies of that post and get it into the hands of 20,000 women?
However it wasn’t all smooth sailing. I don’t remember exactly - but my impression is that for at least half of its online existence (3 years) the website continued to thrive without Andreea’s attention or involvement. Andreea lost her motivation to write or engage. We talked about it … a lot. Sometimes it felt to me as if she was failing to appreciate the value of her own work and as a result was also neglecting her responsibility to maintain it. Yet Andreea, being a woman, was not particularly moved by my motivational talks (it’s not that she doesn’t listen, she does) – she only wrote and only writes when she has a need to do so – when she feels connected.
Andreea’s second wave of writing was associated with her visit to Romania in the autumn of 2009. The response to Feminitate was so intense that we decided she should visit Romania and meet women in person. At the end of her 10 week visit I joined her for two weeks of vacation. 10 months later we had folded our life in Israel and were on a plane to Romania where we are in the process of creating a new life. We arrived in Romania with Andreea already a well known online figure. Now that online presence could begin to manifest in the physical world. I think it’s safe to say that almost all of her friends and social circles are a direct or indirect result of Feminitate.
I could not have imagined a better example of a website as an exploration and expression of purpose. Feminitate is an expression of Andreea’s Dharma – a website that has gone way beyond binary bits in a computer. Andreea is just now entering her 3rd wave of writing. I am excited to see what the future holds for us as we continue to explore this leg of our journey through life where Feminitate has been and continues to be a cornerstone.