Beta testers sought for a social network for outdoorsmen

At this point, there's a social network for everything, and Lifefitter is accepting beta invite requests for no less than nineteen (and counting) action sports-related networks going into private beta testing in December.

Lifefitter's brands include social networks for scuba diving, hunting, skateboarding, surfing, backpacking, motocross, and more. Each sub-site will be treated as a discrete property, but will all sport the same UI, as Lifefitter itself is more of a social network platform.

Lifefitter's 'Josh' said in the company's blog, "Web history has taught us that when dating Web sites fail to attract a large and active membership base very quickly they fail 99.9% of the time...Just like a dating Web site, we need enough members on each affinity/brand to create connections for you from day one. If we don't have a good base of beta members there won't be any connections and you won't find much utility in the site. So, we decided to launch the beta invite process early and aggressively solicit invite requests."

This aggressive solicitation includes a lot of giveaways through popular social network Facebook. Every month, the company gives away a $250 gift card for a random user who has become a "fan" of a Lifefitter site on Facebook. In addition to giving away free T-shirts, many of the sub-networks are offering further swag to rope in beta testers. The Fatboned Skateboarding Network, for example, is giving away free skateboard decks, and golf network SwingMatrix is giving away free golf balls.

Some have already been put off by Lifefitter's approach, as they are running ads on Facebook, and giving away loads of stuff, yet reportedly serving credit card sign-up ads during the beta sign-up process. However, BetaNews signed up on five sites, but saw none of these ads.