Buzznet and Gaia Online
Buzznet
Estimated unique monthly visitors: 627,000
Buzznet is a site for passionate fans who want to spread the gospel of their taste. Everything is oriented around voting, rating and ranking pop culture by assigning "+Buzz" points to things you find relevant (e.g., "5 songs that changed my life;" "this week's top bands;" "celebrity playlists"). Each week, the members, photos, celebrities, songs, videos and tags that garner the most "+Buzz" points are prominently featured.
Buzznet is an outlet for the heady, breathless enthusiasm typical of a kind of hyperactive sophomore girl who can be heard shrieking about how amazing this or that band is in every high school cafeteria across the land. Sites like Buzznet underscore the radical shift underway in how people form opinions about and attachments to brands. Finding and rewarding a cadre of highly vocal brand cheerleaders to indirectly promote your brand is now a cottage industry within marketing.
Gaia Online
Gaia Online is Second Life for comic book and anime fans, complete with pastel lighting, big-eyed avatars, Hobbit huts, fairy wings and magical wolves. Fantasy role-play is par for the course.
With nearly 2 million unique visitors logging onto the community every month, Gaia bills itself as the world’s most active online community. Sites like Gaia that attract and cater to a very specific interest group demonstrate that no matter how niche a product is, there will always be an online community of potential users.
