Express and Word your Passion at Cupidspeaks.com - An Online Youth Lifestyle Magazine

In a world full of buzzing news, she tried to fit in but soon realised that not all talented writers are good reporters. Twenty two year old Akshita Jain saw this as an opportunity to build an online platform for all those who have a passion to express their interests through writing.“I wanted everyone talented to be heard and seen, whatsoever talent that may be - reading, writing, sports, music, or anything else,” shares Akshita. Over random conversation with her friend Ankul Barar she voiced her idea. He suggested they start a community website rather than a blog. “We decided in an instance, she’d oversee the content, PR and advertising while I’d look into the design and technical aspect of the venture,” recalls twenty one year old Ankul.

And that is how Cupidspeaks.com was born in April this year, in Delhi with a humble initial capital of Rs 40,000. The online youth magazine caters to all those who wish to not just express themselves but also opine themselves on almost any subject. “Ours is a lifestyle magazine which caters to everything that is happy, positive, hip and happening. Yes, we call it hip and happening, because that is what our youth is and we also wanted to be looked upon as that,” describes Akshita.

For these young entrepreneurs the toughest challenge was the name of the website – ‘Cupid Speaks.’ Almost everyone they knew and even didn’t know disapproved of the name saying it was suggestive of ‘only love.’ Industry peers had website names that included the word ‘youth’ which worked in their favour.

Ankul laughs, “We had a tough time telling people that we are an ‘Online lifestyle magazine’ and ‘Not a dating site’. Cupid Speaks only means expressing and bringing out inner desires and passion, which could be anything like writing, designing, rapping, singing or anything else as well.”The founders of Cupidspeaks.com were even contacted by an entity to buy the website and turn it into a dating site. But of course Akshita and Ankul refused with determination saying – Cupidspeaks.com is a lifestyle youth magazine and that is what it will remain!

In just a few months, Cupidspeaks.com has over 160 freelance writers. When the portal started off it was a small team of around ten people. “Our first few writers were friends and family who wrote to help us out, and now every day we have someone new who joins Cupidspeaks.com not for us but for the love of writing and for the product that we present to them,” says Akshita.

Cupidspeaks.com clocks around 30,000 unique visitors per month. Being a youth online magazine, ‘campus ambassadors’ are important part of Cupidspeaks’ team. It runs the campus ambassador program across 9 cities, as of now, with the core team operating across 4 cities. “They are our face in the campus. We make sure to keep all of them in mind while planning something because they are the youth and they can make a difference,” she adds.Apart from the campus ambassador initiative which they plan to take pan India, Cupidspeaks.com relies on search engine optimization and social media marketing to increase its reach. “We did take time to learn the tricks and tips of the business since we were doing it all by ourselves. Our aim to make Cupidspeaks.com an online community for writers not just within India but globally as well,” shares Ankul.

Registered writers at Cupidspeaks.com receive mails giving them a heads-up on trending stories, incase they wish to contribute or want to comment on an article that’s being talked about. Before the start of 2012, each Cupidspeaks.com writer will have his/her own author page. The page will integrate the writer’s bio-data, social networking connections, and personal blog if any, along with 3 to 5 recent posts. “We have tried our best to make the site easy to navigate and a platform where users can themselves feed content. One of the website's we look upto is Hubspot,” says Ankul.

The founders believe that the difference between Cupidspeaks.com and other online magazines is that only the best can write for the other magazines. “While we want everyone to write for us and be the best. We are here to build India's best online youth lifestyle journal,” says Akshita.

In the words of Ankul and Akshita, Cupidspeaks.com is all about making it big with words.

Website: http://cupidspeaks.com/

Aminah Sheikh