Closer Look; Cafe Mom

Cafe Mom is a website bringing moms together. It's main purpose is not to support groups; however this is the part I would like to write about. Cafe mom allows it's members to create groups for free. They can be local, or virtual.  The nice thing is they can be made private so there is no risk there.

Setting up a group event is easy. One thing I like is the category it will list for your event. You can set it to 'virtual' or 'in person' or 'playdate', etc. It allows you to set the date, and start and end time and address. Once posted, an RSVP and comment tracker is on the event page.  I personally do not like the fact that members can RSVP maybe.

The site will also have forums, chat, photos albums, and a member list.  Administration tools allow the organizer to select privacy, invite people via friend's email, and members of cafe mom that you have already befriended.

The one thing that I LOVE about cafe mom is the support group they have for administers. You have to join the group, but they have topics about getting your group to grow, and how to handle certain situations. Support is the number one thing that keeps the organizer going. It is such a valuable thing to have.

The main reason why I don't organize religiously on cafemom is because it is a free website. I know, sounds like I'm backward. Since the website is free the website's income in generated from advertisements. It really clogs up the screen page, and plenty of them are animated at that!

Another thing is cafemom's groups do not have high visibility on search engines. While cafemom does come up frequently in searches, there is still a difficultly for new members to find your group. Like I said before, cafemom is not just about groups. If one makes their way to the group section, I don't think they will spend enough time on the section to find the group.

OK. Let's wrap this up. Here is a list of pros and cons.

PROS

•  It's free
• Easy event management
• has online communication abilities

CONS

• ads
• low visibility
• not specifically met for groups

All together, cafemom is a great place to run a playgroup if you have a few members to begin with. If you are starting from scratch you'll find that it will be difficult to grow. Either way, it is just one of the very few options out there!