Type of site religion, social Owner BN Media Associates Alexa rank 7,290 (April 2014) | Available in English Website Beliefnet.com | |
Slogan(s) Inspiration. Spirituality. Faith | ||
Beliefnet is a lifestyle website providing feature editorial content around the topics of inspiration, spirituality, health, wellness, love and family, news and entertainment. Beliefnet is independent and not affiliated with any spiritual organization or movement.
Contents
History
Launched in 1999 by Steven Waldman and Robert Nylen, Beliefnet filled a gap in the religious and inspirational content available online. In 2007, Beliefnet was acquired by the Fox Entertainment Group, with a strategy of being integrated into other Fox-owned faith-based entities. This strategy was short-lived and ultimately evolved, again with the sale of Beliefnet in 2010, to BN Media, LLC, an entity that includes the investors behind Affinity4 and Cross Bridge.
In September 2016, Patheos.com was added to the family of brands.
Site architecture
Beliefnet provides users with information on different faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, among others, and encourages interfaith dialogue across the site. They feature stories, quizzes, recipes, and other resources related to spirituality, inspiration, health and wellness, love and family, and news and entertainment. Beliefnet has also introduced concentrated mini-sections to answer the demand for more genre-specific content, like its Apron Strings section with resources for moms, as well as its Women's Health section. Beliefnet is independent and not affiliated with any spiritual organization or movement.
Criticism
Beliefnet has been criticized for their email sign up methods that do not require any type of validation. These criticisms also mention an inability to unsubscribe once an address is signed up. All one needs to do is type in an email address and that address will receive countless messages. The actual owner of the email does not need to confirm that they signed up.