We Surf, We Blog, We Decide - Women's Power Felt on the Internet

We are in good company, you and me. 'We' being readers (and writers) of internet sites geared toward women. Earlier this week, the New York Times cited some statistics:

Sites aimed primarily at women, from “mommy blogs” to makeup and fashion sites, grew 35 percent last year — faster than every other category on the Web except politics, according to comScore, an Internet traffic measurement company. Women’s sites had 84 million visitors in July, 27 percent more than the same month last year, comScore said.

Advertisers are following the crowd, serving up 4.4 billion display ads on women’s Web sites in May, comScore said. That is more than for sites aimed at children, teenagers or families. “Moms are the decision makers of the household as far as purchases are concerned,” said Chris Actis, vice president and digital director at the ad agency MediaVest.

You and I already knew that.

In fact, I'm writing this while on my family's summer vacation, and guess what? All our airfare, rental cars, accommodations, meals, dinners out, even shopping - all decisions I made while surfing the internet for the past 8 months preceding the trip. Yes, women are the decision-makers, and we base a good portion of those decisions on things we find on the web.

It's about time advertisers acknowledged how much we're worth.

Related articles:

• What Women are Worth - Word-of-Mom
• Mommy Tells All - Blogger Heather Armstrong and Dooce.com
• Online Communities and Websites for Moms
• "That's What She Said" - BlogHer '08 Women Bloggers Conference