Health Social Networks

dLife is the first of the niche social networks I’ll be covering and there is a good reason for that – it's a great site!

Disclaimer – I don’t have diabetes, don’t wish I had it, don’t plan on getting it later in life and I know very little about it. Now that we’ve done that lets look at the site.

dLife look and feel is a combination of a friendly looking homemade site (MDJunction) and the pro Web2.0 stylish ones (OrganizedWisdom). It is balanced and beautiful and makes me really want to check it out.

Inside it is full of tools and features to control your diabetes and live a better life.

You can read and share Diabetic Recipes, join forums to discus experiences with fellow diabetics, read the many pages with pure info, ask your questions and get answers from experts FOR FREE! And there is even a section for ‘Tips for Smart Diabetes Shoppers’. The flow of the site as the UI suggests is friendly and welcoming and I found it easy to navigate (a big problem with social networks today).

dLife was founded in 2004 and if you’d look at their Advisory Board list you’ll find many well known celebs from sports medicine and a lot of TV (and yes they also have their on dLife TV).

I couldn’t really test the quality of the content and tools of the site (as I said I know nothing about it) but from a technical marketing point of view – it’s a very nice site, I’m just not very clear on how the ____ are they going to monetize it, cause the ads they are running now will probably not even pay for the water supply.

Final words

The Good:

1. I love it – it’s a great looking site.
2. Serious people with serious money behind it.
3. Very close to becoming a portal for diabetes – good for them.

The Bad:

1. How are they going to pay the bills?
2. While browsing I got the feeling it was not as crowded as I’d expect it to be.
3. Niche but busy surroundings – SugarStats & TuDiabetes are there too!

Will I go there if I had diabetes? Sure

The people rest their case.