Parenting may be traditional or progressive but there are two things all good parents have in common: love for their children and an open mind to consider how other parents are raising their own. The continuation of the Niche Network Series explores the basic features of three niche networks for families: Cafe Mom, Disney Family and Patch. These are listening posts for an established audience that forms a huge consumer market.

While inspecting the following three niche networks for families keep in mind the value of passionate insiders in the form of active community participants.

CafeMom

The starting point for niche networks for families

CafeMom is an ad-supported niche network for families, specifically targeted at mothers and mothers to be. According to comScore, in its first year CafeMom became the most trafficked website for women by page views. Unique monthly visitors to CafeMom surpass 8 million. It is owned by CMI Marketing which primarily makes money via advertising revenue. Non-members can surf the site for information. Members have social features like questions, posting advice or creating blogs. Their blog covers celebrity gossip, parenting solutions, events, and decorating.

Disney Family

A corporate star among family-centric niche networks

DisneyFamily.com is Disney’s information portal more than a community forum. Its most popular content channels are recipes, crafts, printables, parties, holidays and parenting, with at least six subcategories each. Corporate partnerships are threaded with advertorial indoctrinating users to the many avenues of Disney’s profitable brands. Disney’s niche network family portfolio also include Kaboose.com, FamilyFun.com, and BabyZone.com.

Patch

The niche network for families out and about in their community

Patch is a US information platform based on local news. It is owned operated by  Patch Media Corporation and owned by AOL. As of June 2013, Patch operated some 900 local and hyper-local news websites in 23 US states. It is filtered by zip code and it reports on everything families need to know about their town, from local government to school news to weekend activities. Advertising is a local and national mix. While it has major competition in independent blogs, Patch has local reporters making it a good resource worth bookmarking for available zip codes.

~Tech Guerrero for Sindiek8