Michelle Madhok is the founder of SheFinds.com and SheFindsMom.com, online publications distributed via e-mail and blogs that help busy women everywhere shop the web for the latest beauty and style finds.
A widely regarded expert in online shopping, Michelle is also a contributing editor at East West Woman and Cotton Incorporated. Her style and shopping tips have been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines, radio and television interviews, including Women’s Wear Daily, The Tyra Banks show, NBC, Investor’s Business Daily, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Post and the Washington Post.
Prior to launching SheFinds, Michelle enjoyed a career in new media. First, she was the Director of Entertainment Marketing for CBS Broadcasting New Media and then she was the Group Director of Editorial Products for women and oversaw all content for women at AOL. Michelle has a BS in Communications from UC Berkeley and a MS in Marketing from Northwestern University. She currently resides in New York City.
Read our interview with her below the fold!
Q: When did you launch SheFinds? Did the SheFinds blog launch at the same time?
A: SheFinds launched in Feb 2004. The blog launched in June 2004.
Q: What was the inspiration behind launching SheFinds? And/or the SheFinds blog?
A: I spent five years overseeing the women’s audience for AOL, which at the time had 35 million subscribers - 50% of which were women. I sat through numerous focus groups where women told us they want to look nice, know about the hottest trends and where to find a great bargain. Unfortunately, most of these women are “time-starved” because of family, work and personal obligations. What emerged was that a woman sees herself as two people - the “woman” as CEO of the home (work, bills, errands, carpool) and the “woman” as “me” (fashion, style, entertainment.) As life gets busier, there’s less time for “me.” I frequently watched girlfriends lose their sense of self and I noticed the huge success of beauty and fashion features on AOL. What was missing was the link between an expert suggestion and fulfillment. My goal is to create a blog that is a good friend to time-pressed women who are often too busy to turn to a buddy for shopping advice. Most women don’t have time to go through magazines, such as Vogue (the fall issue of literally weighed 10 pounds.) A lot of women don’t have time to read the fashion magazines anymore, so we try to make it more bite size. We synthesize everything down so that readers can click, buy it and be done. Right now, if you go and search on Google “black pants,” you’re going to get 10 million responses. So how do you sort through that? We edit the beauty and apparel available on the Web for you, and deliver it on SheFinds.com/blog.
Q: You have a lot of freelance responsibilities for big pubs. How do you find time to maintain all the fresh content on the blog?
A: The two work hand in hand. The blog requires that I am constantly researching trends and solutions for my readers. When I write an article it’s frequently a summary of blog posts. I also have help - two managing editors - Jacquie Phillips on SheFinds and Judy Yun on SheFindsMom. Both are passionate e-shoppers and a rotating group of about 10 writers across the country. I try to find writers in all different locations, so we’re not too NY-centric - a downfall of much of the big magazine editors. According to those editors, Ugg boots went out two years ago. The rest of the country disagrees - Uggs are our #3 searched item. #1 is underwear.
Q: What other blogs do you read?
A: I have about 50 blogs on my blog roll - lots of fashion, so I can keep up with the trends.
These are my gulity pleasures:
Q: How has SheFinds evolved/grown since its beginning?
A: The blog is on fire! This year, page views are up 159% and site visits are up 67%.
Q: What advice would you give other bloggers?
A: Be picky with your posts. There’s so much content out there now, people don’t have time to indulge in mediocre writing or write-ups. You’re asking people for their attention. Make sure you make it worth their while.
Q: Why did you join the BlogBurst Network?
A: Getting distribution to local newspaper sites can significantly expand my reach, and it makes it so much easier to work through blogburst than to try to negotiate these relationships on my own.
1 Response to “Michelle Madhok interview: Founder of SheFinds talks blogs!”