Also Liz to your point, Disaboom was started by Dr. Glen House who has been a wheelchair user since around the age of 20. I wish they had more info on him as he seems to be the driving force behind Disaboom.

http://aboutus.disaboom.com/

“Maybe not being a boomer means also … can’t put up with crappy site design & weird marketing-speak.”

You’ve really nailed another good point: there’s a whole new demographic out there. It’s not confined to “people with disabilities”, either. Old-style marketing, and old-style demographic approaches, just don’t apply the way they once did. (And that new demographic even includes a whole lot of ‘boomers’, though not, apparently, Disaboom’s inventors.)

Misunderstanding that new demographic often seems to go hand-in-hand with not getting how the web works in 2008. As you also wrote, Disaboom’s approach seems to be this:

“Throw money at it, and a magic Community shall arise” where community means marketing demographic - but then ignore what it takes to really have a community.

Which is a sure prescription for failure. Great points, Liz!

Disaboom’s marketing is targeted to investors, and meant to convince them that the disability community will make them rich. This in no way affects people who “are uncomfortable or just don’t understand these issues”.

In addition, if you were an investor, as opposed to someone who uses the site for free, and has no financial interest, I suspect you’d be a little less patient with its failure to have developed more effectively.

When I poked around Disaboom the 2nd time all I could think about was the guy who runs Wheelchair Junkie forum and built up a whole giant web site and seems to just do it all himself. Why not find some awesome people like him, and give HIM 6 million dollars of VC money to burn. He could hire some other people to expand out what he has, collect some marketing data for his VC people and you would have something way cool. (I mean, it already IS way cool.)

I also think Ouch BBC does a pretty good job.

“Throw money at it, and a magic Community shall arise” where community means marketing demographic - but then ignore what it takes to really have a community.

Maybe not being a boomer means also … can’t put up with crappy site design & weird marketing-speak.

In contrast, I look at Patients Like Me and really like it. I just wish they had more categories and stuff, but for what they set out to do, it is pretty cool.

I, too, had never heard of this heard alleged “leading voice” prior to these attempts to market him and his site. The dreamy/visionary photographs of him creepily remind me that the site is as contrived as his photograph. It doesn’t help that his dewey-eyed photos are also reminiscent of the pathetic pictures of “disabled children” of the 1950s which were so often used by charities soliciting donations. How does Disaboom manage to strike so many wrong notes?

You’re so right, Steve, when you write “they should be working on giving visitors something meaningful to see when they get there.” Too bad the commitment wasn’t to content first, marketing second.

“When the Disaboom.com site launches in September of 2007, it will transform the way people with disabilities live their lives. … Disaboom.com’s goal is to become the single most important website for those living with disabilities.”

“… the first interactive online community for Americans living with disabilities…”

Give me a farking break. It’s odd that Disaboom thinks they’re doing something new or unique. They’re neither.

“J. Glen House, M.D., …a quadriplegic and leading voice for the disabled community…”

I’ve been a member of “the disability community” for 22 years, and I never heard of Greg House… until he promised to transform my life.

Disaboom claims to be this great resource for PWDs. But a search shows mostly info about their investors, their stock prices, their celebrity hob-nobbing, etc.

Disaboom has the marketing down. They managed to woo mega-bucks advertisers and go public WITHOUT a finished product. They obviously know how to “be seen” and sell an idea, so they have some big talkers in their camp. And they’re top notch at raising money. But being successful at raising money is one thing. Being successful at developing a website that will become the single most important website for those living with disabilities and which transforms the way people with disabilities live their lives is quite another. Not only is the latter extraordinarily arrogant, it’s also highly unlikely.

IMO… Disaboom is a money making business that hopes to capitalize on an “untapped market” and maybe share some disability related content along the way. They’re puffed up and full of themselves, like many doctors and venture capitalists are.

Disaboom is trying too hard. Actions (and website content) speak louder than press releases and write ups in Forbes. But Disaboom is all about “viral” marketing and driving traffic to their site, while they should be working on giving visitors something meaningful to see when they get there. Lay off the overbearing marketing blitz. If you build it, they will come.