The New York Times has a good roundup today on the proliferation of venture-backed social networking sites. The article catalogues some of the more prominent launches, including Eons, TeeBeeDee. Most recent deal to be announced is a $16.5 million round for Multiply. Not all these sites are aimed at the 50+ demo, but the article’s key point is that venture capitalists are discovering the value of older consumers - defined as anyone past their teen years. Why? One VC, Paul Kedrosky, told the Times: “The older demographic has a bunch of interesting characteristics . . .not the least of which is that they hang around.”

The current glut of sites points to a shakeout. But 50+ social network sites have these trends in their favor:

• Boomers are demonstrating that they will join communities where they feel comfortable–witness strong growth in unique visits, page views and time-per-visit at Eons.
• They are launching into a strong growth demographic. In fact, the 50+ age bracket will be the only growth demo between now and 2015, according to Census Bureau data.

That sounds alot better than battling over a shrinking audience of fickle teenagers.

Eons issued a press release yesterday marking the site’s first anniversary. Along with trends already noted here, the release offers this perspective from Compete on Eons’ broader audience development:

According to Web analytics company Compete, Inc., if compared to the top 50 most-trafficked Web sites by 50-plus people, eons.com would rank No. 3 in the amount of time these people spend on the site in a single visit “The amount of time that Web visitors spend on Eons tells marketers that baby boomers are drawn to the Web 2.0 offerings and communities that Eons has aggregated,” said Don McLagan, CEO of Compete, an Eons partner. “Eons visitors aren’t merely touching the site, they are immersing themselves in discussions and in online relationships, and that’s a powerful message to marketers who are eager to reach this affluent population.”

I’m checking to see if the broader list of top 50 sites is available, and will post.

Eons continues to show strong progress on audience development compared with AARP or ThirdAge, the two other largest 50+ web sites. It’s not just the number of people visiting Eons, but their engagement with the site that is impressive. Eons strategy focuses on social networking and that seems to be paying off in the number of pages viewed and length of visit–key metrics for overall audience development and advertising success. Some key data points that caught my eye in new July data from Compete.com:

Unique visits: This is the broadest measure of traffic–the number of times an individual visits a website in a month. Eons and ThirdAge were bigger than AARP in July.

Engagement: Here’s where you see Eons’ social networking strategy paying off. Eons total page views are much higher than either ThirdAge or AARP. And the average length of visit is three times as long.

Earlier this month, I wrote about the rapid growth of social networking at Eons. That site’s business model calls for developing large-scale traffic and advertising revenue. But smaller networking sites serving Boomer interests are thriving, too. A case in point is Boomer Women Speak, started by Dotsie Bregel 2002. The site’s mission: to “help women live their passions” at midlife. Boomer Women Speak has about 2,000 members, 60 lively forums and thousands of posts. The most popular areas: marriage, single life, grandchildren and travel. Faith-oriented discussions also are crowded, Bregel says. “Women are embracing these forums because of the anonymity. Some don’t care about that, but others have a screen name. So women will post comments like, “I haven’t even told my best friend this . . .but here’s what’s going on—what do you think?” In late 2005, Bregel decided to extend beyond the free discussion forums, starting up a paid-subscriber association for professional Boomer Women looking for services beyond online conversation. The National Association of Baby Boomer Women provides professional networking, visibility and public relations services and discounts on services for its 425 members.

Jeff Taylor’s Eons.com closed a second round of venture capital earlier this month, raising $22 million. And the site appears to be gaining traffic momentum, with sharp upward ticks in unique visitors and page views in February. The new investors are led by Charles River Ventures, and also include Intel Capital and Humana Inc. (the first round last year raised $10 million and included General Catalyst Partners and Sequoia Capital).

Eons.com traffic picked up sharply in February, probably the result of the site’s…uh, unusual television advertising campaign featuring none other than Taylor himself. If you haven’t seen the ad, a long-form version is posted here on YouTube. I found it a bit creepy, but you’ve got to give Jeff credit–he’s a true believer. And the marketing is working. The only other 50+ niche site with traffic sizeable enough to talk about is AARP; Quantcast.com shows Eons’ traffic leapfrogging the mega-association unique visitor count during February. Eons tells MediaPost that it is logging about 500,00 unique visitors per month:

“We’re already ahead of plan and on our way to a couple of million unique visitors by the end of the year,” said Taylor. Eons isn’t aiming for a MySpace- or YouTube-like audience. The goal for now is a more modest 5 to 10 million users, “which is still fathoms larger than anything that’s been put together for this age group,” said Taylor.

Eons execution remains spotty. None of the articles, for example, would pass muster at most national magazines. And the site has a disturbing habit of mixing up editorial and advertising content. Still, Eons does some very important things very well. The social networking and user-generated-content components help generate buzz … and keep content costs low. More important, tools like the Eons 100 (wish list fulfillment) and the cRANKy custom search engine help Eons learn more about what’s on the minds of Boomers. That data should feed continuous improvement of the site. One interesting feature: cRANKy publishes a running list of the top search topics–a good page to check if you’re trying to keep your finger on the pulse of Boomer mindsets. Topping the list for 2006: alternative health, entertainment, finances, health/disease and “hearth and home.”