Geek Chic – Brazil’s One Stop Technology and Gadget Portal for Women

Every month here at TFTS we like to offer a heads up concerning a technology/gadget site that, for one reason or another, has served to catch our attention, and this month we have great pleasure in featuring an exclusive interview with Veridiana Serpa, the owner and author of Geek Chic, a well respected Brazilian technology and gadget site catering for women with seriously geek credentials.

TFTS Interview with Veridiana Serpa of Geek Chic

TFTS: What initially inspired you to create the Geek Chic – what was your motivation and what were your aims?

GC: I lived in New York for a while and my husband being as a geeky as he is motivated me to watch TechTV everyday and I got so into the gadgets and technology world I decided that I was going to make a internet show where I would be the host. I started to watch and read a lot about gadget/tech news, then I decided to create a blog about it, for the Portuguese speaking girls and, so far, it’s working fine. As for the show, I guess I will be able to put it on the internet some time next year, since we’ve already started to work it.

TFTS: Could you define what the term ‘Geek’ means to you? Would you say that you are a Geek yourself, and if so, why?

GC: A geek, for me, is someone that loves technology and cannot live without it. It’s someone that is always looking for new gadgets, and new technology and they usually read a lot about the subject and know a lot about computers. Saying that, I guess I am quite a Geek, even though I am not a computer expert, unlike my husband, but I can not imagine myself getting by for even two days without internet access.

TFTS: With Geek Chic having just celebrated its first anniversary what have been the highlights in the past twelve months?

GC: I was very happy because a newspaper from north of Brazil recommend us to their readers, as well as Capricho Magazine, a magazine for teenager girls, we also have been featured in the Pix Magazine for young adults. We are regularly invited to events for bloggers and now we will be feature at TFTS, so I have to say that we’ve been blessed since we created GC.

TFTS: Were do you see Geek Chic being in the next twelve months? What, if any, are your targets and, if you don’t set targets as such, how do you gauge how the site is performing?

GC: I really hope that in the next twelve months will have more readers, more sponsors so that GC can support the project (internet show) I mentioned above. I gauge how the site is performing by using Site Meter and Google Analytics besides the statistics from the server, and by the fact that we are being invited to more and more events. Also, we’re being featured more often in different Brazilian media, so I guess we are doing well as far as the Brazilian blogs for women are concerned, even though I suspect most of my readers are male.

TFTS: How long do you spend working on the site in an average day (be it finding material, posting and responding to comments, networking and/or site promotion)?

GC: Not less then three hours per day since I visit about 25 international blogs related to technology daily to find what I am going to post on the site that fits in with our slogan: “daily news about technology, news and design: for her, her family and friends”. After I decided which posts I’m going to work with I then, of course, have to translate it into Portuguese prior to posting on GC.

TFTS: Could you name five tech/gadget sites that inspire you in some way and explain why these particular sites appeal to you?

GC: When I started I knew some blogs like Gizmodo, Coolest Gadgets, Engadget and others, but I then started to search for women’s blogs and that’s when I found TecnoCHICA, Techie Diva, Chip Chick and a number of others. They all inspire my posting on GC and gave me an idea, at the beginning, as to the quantity of posts I should produce per day as well – though, without getting any help from contributors I cannot post quite as much as I would like to. They also inspired me due to the level of their professionalism and how they are respected by corporations, figures from the media and, most importantly as far as I am concerned, by the readers.

TFTS: If you had to single out one particular aspect of the site that you’re especially happy with, what would it be? Conversely, is there anything that you are not happy with or anything you would like to implement but just haven’t got round to?

GC: I am happy with the feedback I get from my readers, they really help me to improve on the site and a lot of them write to me that what they especially like is the size of the GC’s posts. Most of the time I try to be very concise, I usually do not write my opinion about the product because I am writing from Rio and not New York where people readily have access to the latest technologies and gadgets are cheaper. Gadgets sold here are sometimes 200% more expensive than elsewhere as the taxes are pretty high.

We use MT (MovableType – a blogging platform) though I am really thinking about moving to WP (WordPress) sometime next year – I have my other blogs based on WP and I think it’s much easier to work with and to install plug-ins. Hopefully I’ll make the conversion in 2008.

TFTS: Geek Chic is written in Portuguese and yet your level English is frankly superb. Have you ever thought of offering your posts in both Portuguese and English as, though online translation tools help open you your site to English speakers, the quality of translation is no where near on par with your English skills?

GC: Thanks so much Andrew, but I do not think I could post in English, I do not think English native speakers would enjoy reading a post that may have mistakes. I would love to write in English, but I am not that confident. I never thought about having Geek Chic in English, but now you’ve got me thinking (thanks).

TFTS: What would you say are the three most important gadgets you own, and why?

GC: I love my PC, which my husband put together for me. I also love my laptop, a Toshiba Satellite R-15, and my old camera, a Pentax Option 6.0 megapixel, that’s so compact that it fits inside my purse so I can always take pictures wherever I go.

TFTS: Having got past the magic (extremely harrowing) first year, what would your advice be to new bloggers trying to break into the gadget/tech market?

GC: I think that lately a lot of new bloggers create their blogs and think that they just need to write some posts, add some ads from Google/Amazon/etc and they will be famous and rich. Sorry, but at least in Brazil, it just doesn’t happen that way. They also have to read a lot and complete a great deal of background work, because these days so many bloggers are creating blogs geared towards the technology market. Personally I recommend initially seeing what other sites are writing about and studying their style of writing whilst looking to find your own style and your own voice. A thousand people can write about the same topic but that does not mean necessarily mean that they all will be written from the same perspectives. Most importantly, I think that you should love doing it and that, if you do, the rest will follow.

TFTS: If you had to name just one manufacturer in terms of the overall desirability of their products or the general feel that their brand conveys who would it be, and why?

GC: Microsoft. I do think they make nice products, even though sometimes they can be a little buggy here and there, but they are a great company. I believe they are reliable. I especially like their software and their (Xbox) console.

We would like to thank Veri for taking the time to talk to TFTS and we have absolutely no hesitation in adding Geek Chic to our much hallowed links page as well as recommending that you pay Geek Chic a visit as, whilst the site is written in Portuguese, it fairs fairly well when translated with the numerous online translation tools currently available.

We wish Veri all the best for the future and we very much look forward to the internet show she’s planning.