(OK... I'll be the token girl who suggests you change your request to "+ friends" instead of "+ girlfriends" :D)
So... I checked out your site. Some early thoughts: the graphic assets and design could probably be improved a bit. There are a million aesthetics that could go here (urban sophisticate, funked up, modern Japanese a la MUJI), so I won't suggest any single one, but right now it's just a little too much like a YouTuber's personal channel.
I think the YouTube channel look can work IF it's matched by a really personal editorial voice, but this site is kind of "crowdsourced," so the design should probably be adjusted for that.
Idea: Stackoverflow, but for retail.
As others have pointed out, you need to entice people to join in, and I will make a radical suggestion here that will kind of disrupt your entire model:
Make it problem-centric, rather than product-centric.
As many other other sites have proven, when the "social object" is a question, it invites participation.
People asking what they should wear to a party, how to get rid of acne... all the same items at play, but just a different paradigm. Kind of like Stackoverflow.com, but for retail stuff. (Yes, I went there.)
Going back to YouTube, there is an incredible YouTube community around retail reviews, reviewing what sucks, what's a rip-off, who's having a sale. Sometimes it's 14 year old girls, sometimes it's adult make-up artist guys. But they are REALLY enthusiastic and doing it "for free."
(Proving people like this exist on the Internet.)
You might tap into that.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=xsparkage&view=video...
Also, as for the question-centric model, I think Yahoo! Answers also has a lot of questions about this stuff (and yeah, admittedly of varying quality.) You could mine that, too.
Back to design: here's a "digg but for shopping" site you might check out: http://www.stylehive.com/
So... I checked out your site. Some early thoughts: the graphic assets and design could probably be improved a bit. There are a million aesthetics that could go here (urban sophisticate, funked up, modern Japanese a la MUJI), so I won't suggest any single one, but right now it's just a little too much like a YouTuber's personal channel. I think the YouTube channel look can work IF it's matched by a really personal editorial voice, but this site is kind of "crowdsourced," so the design should probably be adjusted for that.
Idea: Stackoverflow, but for retail.
As others have pointed out, you need to entice people to join in, and I will make a radical suggestion here that will kind of disrupt your entire model:
Make it problem-centric, rather than product-centric.
As many other other sites have proven, when the "social object" is a question, it invites participation.
People asking what they should wear to a party, how to get rid of acne... all the same items at play, but just a different paradigm. Kind of like Stackoverflow.com, but for retail stuff. (Yes, I went there.)
Going back to YouTube, there is an incredible YouTube community around retail reviews, reviewing what sucks, what's a rip-off, who's having a sale. Sometimes it's 14 year old girls, sometimes it's adult make-up artist guys. But they are REALLY enthusiastic and doing it "for free." (Proving people like this exist on the Internet.)
You might tap into that.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=xsparkage&view=video...
Also, as for the question-centric model, I think Yahoo! Answers also has a lot of questions about this stuff (and yeah, admittedly of varying quality.) You could mine that, too.
Back to design: here's a "digg but for shopping" site you might check out: http://www.stylehive.com/