Jane Seymour fronts
today's wowOwow

Websites for women, by women, have undergone rapid growth in the past few years, nearly doubling since July '06 and rising 35 percent last year alone, reaching 84 million visitors in July, according to comScore.

"Women love to reach out and talk," said founder Joni Evans of wowOwow, a site for women over 40. She added that women love anecdotes, and the web is a perfect medium for that.

Many woman-oriented properties attract the attention of media buyers because they perceive the trust, intimacy, and interest the content generates. And the content itself usually fits neatly into existing ad niches, inspired by women's magazines: fashion, beauty, celebrities, and love life.

Advertisers served 4.4 billion display ads across women's websites in May, the New York Times reported.

What's more, growth in traffic and ad revenue on woman-to-woman (W2W) sites has not gone unnoticed by major media companies and venture capitalists:

• Last week cable giant Comcast bought shopping and entertainment e-newsletter DailyCandy for $125 million.
• BlogHer, a network of 2,200 blogs for and by women, landed a $5 million investment in July from Peacock Equity (venture partnership of NBC Universal and General Electric) and venture capital firm Venrock.
• Yahoo's Shine — an aggregation of original content, reader blog posts, and articles from women's magazines published by Hearst and Condé Nast — was formed in March.

Companies are also working closely with publishers to create sponsored content on W2W sites:

• CaféMom passed gift certificates to bloggers that wrote about Wal-Mart's green products.
• Glam Media — which stepped over iVillage to become the No. 1 women's online network last year — incorporated editorial content about "steak style" on their site to accompany (and even link to) Wal-Mart steak ads.
• JC Penney used Federated Media's blog-oriented ad network to introduce their women's line for fall.