Living Better at 50+

Carol Doyel

Carol Doyel has been a restaurant owner, a real estate broker, and an inventor. She’s sold cars, managed a business directory and spent 15 years at a health-promotions organization.

All of that has culminated in her latest venture: Living Better at 50+,  an online magazine for women in midlife that launched in March 2011. “We have great demographics,” says Doyel, noting that the graying population is expected to double by 2020. Moreover, she points out, women over 50 have more consumer buying power – and discretionary income — than any other demographic. “If you’re in business,” Doyel says, “you don’t want to overlook that demographic.”

Doyel has rounded up 300 contributors, largely by reaching out to women she’s met through Twitter. Most contributors are uncompensated, but she has several paid writers, and she hopes to expand that number as she grows the magazine and monetizes it.

“I think the biggest factor in my past experience and my decision to become an online publisher,” says Doyel, “is my belief in myself and that, with hard work, good people, a vision and resources, just about anything is possible.

Doyel says she researched the field before moving forward with her plans. She says most of the magazines she found online catered to the thirtysomething demographic. LivingBetter is more conservative and has a strong emphasis on the Christian faith. Doyel plans to increase her focus on women in business, contrasting the way business was done in the 1980s and ‘90s with how it’s done today. Other topics include beauty and fashion, home and food, travel, relationships, and health and fitness.

As a 50something herself, Doyel acknowledges that the online world is a new venture for her. “It’s definitely a learning curve,” she says. She’s embraced it; she has more than 600 LinkedIn connections, and she markets her publication through various LinkedIn groups, as well as via Good adwords, along with Facebook and Twitter. Although she has a team that focuses on social media, “I do a lot on my own,” she says. “I haven’t completely handed it off.”

Doyel is building the magazine using personal savings. She does get some money through advertising and sponsorships, and she anticipates being profitable by month 18. In addition, the magazine has been certified through a Small Emerging Business Development program in Louisiana that covers 50 percent of all costs for projects it approves. Living Better also has qualified for a program to hire displaced employees, with a portion of those employees’ wages paid through the program.

It took just three months from conception to soft launch, Doyel says. But there are elements she borrowed from past ventures.  “There are aspects of the publication that I have worked on for years,” she says. “An example is our feature on Women of Faith, which originally was titled after a series of classes I had written about called Women of Wisdom.  And some of the ideas “came out of my love for and work that I did in health promotion and preventive care many years ago.”

Doyel has a grand vision for 2012. “Right now we’re working with a media company to complete a brand assessment and develop a brand book. We need to refine our logo and strengthen our brand so we can create professional digital and print material,” Doyel says. Once that’s finished, readers can expect a website redesign. Doyle also has plans for a robust community forum, a guest blog and a series of offline events. The first event is planned for the fall of 2012.

Doyel’s top tips for women over 50:

1. Take time to dream.
2. Take care of yourself.
3. Develop a plan.
4. Give up the things in your life that you don’t love doing.