Ypulse Youth Website Profile: Splashlife

Where do Millennials turn for life advice? They go to their friends, says Splashlife founder Melissa Helmbrecht. The problem is that their friends know about as much as they do about making it through life’s major steps to adulthood. That’s where Splashlife comes in…

What it is… A practical life guide for youth going through the steps to independent adulthood. The site has editors and interns based on both coasts, as well as content partners including Rock the Vote, Unigo, and LearnVest.

Who it’s for… The site is intended for 18-24 year olds, though the audience stretches more from 15 to 29.

What works… Splashlife provides a trusted resource for advice on all of the steps en route to becoming an independent adult — from how to register to vote to how to ask for a raise to how to get a car loan. These questions can be embarrassing to ask — who wants to admit to a parent or friend that they’ve dug themselves into a $20,000 hole with credit card debt in order to ask advice about what to do to pay it down. Splashlife gives actionable steps that users can take immediately to impact their future. While the site offers inspiration for millennials, it attempts to be practical rather than aspirational.

Among the features that offer inspiration are the 30 Under 30 profiles of successful young adults. From young crafters to young comedians, each standout Millennial on the list is making a unique contribution to youth culture.

The site also encourages users to give back to their communities. The “Do More” section informs visitors about causes they can become involved in. Following the recent nuclear disaster in Japan, Splashlife provided a guide to the issues and steps users can take to get involved. The “Take Action” widget makes it easy to make a contribution to a cause. The site not only wants to help Millennials grow up, it also wants to help them become engaged and effective citizens.

Site members earn points for taking action with charities, sharing articles with friends via social networks, and for contributing articles to the site. Membership is free and easy — users can log in using their Facebook account — and earning points comes with big benefits…

To help Millennials spend their money more wisely, Splashlife also has a “Score More” section with member deals from retail partners ranging from Office Depot to Target to Foot Locker. The retailers offer cash back to shoppers — and the more points members have earned, the higher the percentage of cash back on their purchase.

The challenges… Getting started. The site is a mere week old at the time of writing and is just beginning to get the word out, though it has been pretty successful already being featured on The View. It has the lofty goal of reaching 50 million members in the next five years and becoming the equivalent of AARP for youth (offering that level of benefits to members). It has a long way to go, but a great plan for getting there.