The welding industry is all too often thought of as a boy's club. Although it may seem that female welders are uncommon, there are many women involved in all different aspects of the industry. The Web site CarmenElectrode.com reaches out to these women, giving them a voice in a male-dominated business.

Broadening horizons
Before it was a Web site, Carmen Electrode was an online persona that began as part of Arc-Zone.com. According to Jennifer Simpson, editor of CarmenElectrode.com, the persona was the brainchild of Jim Watson, founder and president of Arc-Zone.com. In 2003, Arc-Zone held a contest to select a Miss Arc-Zone. Carmen Electrode won, beating out fellow contestants Mig Ryan and Brittany Sparks. "The contest was a fun way to get publicity and drive some traffic to Arc-Zone's e-commerce store," says Simpson. "We use the Carmen Electrode persona as a fun name to put on things like e-mails, return address labels and shipping documents."

Simpson was looking for new ways for Arc-Zone to reach out to its customers and in 2005, she decided it was time Carmen Electrode got her own Web site. The site, a fully owned subsidiary of Arc-Zone, became one of the welding industry's first blogs. "2005 was pretty early for businesses to adopt blogs," says Simpson. "I was just testing the waters. It was like my own little playground. I wanted to see who else was out there online in the welding industry."

Simpson says she chose the blogging format because it's a flexible way to share information. "The Carmen Electrode persona is more of a fun spin than just straight selling products," she says. "It's more involved."

News and support
The site is a resource to share industry information. It announces news and new products from Arc-Zone, as well as any industry news from manufacturers. It relays various welding tips and how-tos, and it links to articles on the Web that may be of interest to welders or people looking to get into the industry. Simpson says the site often posts customers' advice and feedback, even if it's not necessarily about Arc-Zone products.

Simpson says the site is moving in the direction of becoming more of a magazine format, with articles about and interviews with female welders. The feature "The New Rosies" profiles women in the industry, giving a new twist to the iconic Rosie the Riveter persona.

While in junior high, Simpson wanted to take shop class instead of home economics, but she says she was talked out of it because "the boys take shop and the girls take home economics." She sites that incident as part of the reason she chose to focus on women in welding, noting that the industry is often viewed as a man's world. "Unfortunately, even in today's day and age, most women don't think of the trades as a place where they can make a good living," she says. "We don't really think of it as an option, but there are some really good jobs out there. All kinds of women are welders, and they do it well and enjoy it."

CarmenElectrode.com has evolved from a simple blog that posted Arc-Zone news to one of the fastest-growing destination sites for welding industry information.

"When I first started it, I don't think anyone read it," says Simpson. "I wasn't tracking it and just blogged when I had a minute. Now it's definitely a big part of how we communicate to customers. We get about 10,000 page views a month." FFJ