• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 10, 2009

UrbanDaddy, the lifestyle e-newsletter for affluent guys, plans to relaunch its Web site today with more prominently featured content, new search functionality, and fresh opportunities for premium sponsors.

"Our objective was to unlock the value of our new and archived content by featuring it more prominently on the page and in the search bar," said UrbanDaddy founder and CEO Lance Broumand.

To ensure continued growth, the company is also dropping its invitation-only membership policy--a move that Broumand insisted would not dilute the company's image with advertisers.

"We've built great traction with the exclusive male demo that our advertisers want," said Broumand. "We've just reached a level of mass that was undermining the original intent of invitation only."

Indeed, since its 2005 launch, UrbanDaddy has grown to include some 500,000 subscribers in over five U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami.

In order to preserve the brand's spirit of exclusivity, however, UrbanDaddy has set up a Black List, which will offer special promotions to members of the larger community.

Along with rival Thrillist, UrbanDaddy is often likened to a male version of DailyCandy, the trendy women's e-newsletter, which investor Bob Pittman's Pilot Group sold to Comcast last summer for $125 million.

And at a time when many Web publishers see riches in distributed content and ad networks, UrbanDaddy has sought to set itself apart with highly selective offerings, coupled with its increasingly customized sponsorship campaigns.

As a result, UrbanDaddy claims to deliver higher metrics across the board, including click-through rates as high as 15%.

Over the past year, the company has parlayed its editorial staff's keen eye for styles and trends into several highly customized sponsorships for brands like Belvedere Vodka, Braun, and Sony.

According to Broumand, the new Web site will offer new ad opportunities for existing and prospective ad partners. Initially, he said, "we will be using the new site to give our current big spend advertisers more visibility during the month."