Month: February 2008

How To Find A Millionaire (Or Billionaire) Mate

Posted on February 29, 2008

Man_with_flowers DAILY STAR — Feb 28 — The find-a-rich-guy sites insist they provide a valuable service to wealthy people who are too busy running businesses to hang out at bars, clubs and other social venues. "It's very convenient to sit in your office and look through a catalogue of women on your computer. It's also cheaper than traditional matchmakers", says Steven Pasternack, CEO of Sugardaddie.com. In addition to millionaire dating sites, myriad other niche sites abound. Spark Networks operates 30 special-interest dating sites, including JDate.com and eHarmony are two of the most popular dating sites in the U.S., China's QQ.com Love is the No. 1 ranked dating site in Asia. Meetic.com and be2 are No. 1 and 2 in Europe, and Amigos.com is second only to MSN in Latin America, according to comScore. The number of U.S. visitors to dating sites has fallen steadily from a peak of 21% of all Internet users in 2003 to 10% in 2006, according to JupiterResearch. Despite the drop, the revenues rose 10% to $659 million in 2006, and Jupiter forecast a compound annual growth rate of 8% through 2011.

The full article was originally published at Daily Star, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: This article also mentions sayheyhey.com, a dating site that uses videos as profiles. Great idea. Jupiter says $889 million of revenue was generated in the USA on internet dating services in 2007 and that will rise to $1.9 Billion in 2012. Not too shabby. Beat that, social networking industry! 

Complaints To BBB On The Rise

Posted on February 29, 2008

Bbb_logo
GRANITE CITY — Feb 27 — The Better Business Bureau (BBB) warns that
complaints against match making and online dating services are on the
rise. Consumer complaints filed with the BBB on dating services
increased 73% in 2006 over the previous year, reaching 2,525 complaints
altogether. Early analysis shows that the numbers of complaints in 2007
are expected to again reach record-breaking levels for the industry.

Mark Brooks: Cause for concern. Your comments please. How can the dating industry do better?

iovation Expands Its Executive Team

Posted on February 27, 2008

Iovationlogo
BUSINESS WIRE — Feb 27 — iovation, the device reputation authority
for the Internet, announced two new executive appointments. Chris Reid
and Emmett Zahn have joined iovation as VP Sales and VP Technology.
Iovation’s innovative technology helps online companies stop tens of
thousands of fraudulent transactions each day, while protecting the
privacy and anonymity of their customers. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: iovation is a client of Courtland Brooks, and a client in very good standing. This company, and the people at this company have been nothing but totally professional, always follow through, and with the full weight of whatever reputation I’ve built since starting OPW, I can’t recommend them highly enough. I guess that’s why Intel saw fit to pitch $10 million in their direction
recently.

WhiteLabelDating.com Is Hiring

Posted on February 26, 2008

WldOPW — Feb 26 — While some social networks are laying off people, quite a few dating companies are hiring. WhiteLabelDating.com just listed these jobs:

PR and Marketing Executive

Pay is $50-$100k with flexible hours, remote working, 6% salary matching. But what caught my attention was the offer of your "own Blackberry/iPhone, 23" Cinema Display, Aeron chair and MacBook Air." The 1000 UK pound referral fee is kinda nice as well, so let them know you saw the job on OPW 😉 You can see more job listings, at any time, by going to the Quick Links section and clicking on Internet Dating Jobs. Please email me the link to your jobs board if your company is not listed. (Full Disclosure, WhiteLabelDating.com is a client of Courtland Brooks).

JDate: In-Faith Dating

Posted on February 26, 2008

Jdate_logo PHILADELPHIA JEWISH VOICE — Feb 26 — The Council of Jewish Federations's 1990 National Jewish Population Survey reports that an astonishing 47% of American Jews who married between 1996 and 2001 have done so outside their faith (in 1970, only 13% of American Jews intermarried). With over 600,000 active members, JDate is by far the world's leading Jewish online dating site. JDate is unique in that it also measures the users' religious compatibility by allowing preferences in adherence to the laws of kashrut, frequency of attendance of synagogue, and the form of Judaism practiced, if any. FULL ARTICLE @ PHILADELPHIA JEWISH VOICE

OKCupid Takes Aim At Online Dating

Posted on February 25, 2008

Okcupidnew_logo BOSTON NOW — Feb 25 — Free dating site OK Cupid markets itself virally, spending less than 1% of its budget on advertising. "Everything about match.com is geared toward the user getting out their credit card," said CEO, Sam Yagan.

BostonNOW: What advice do you have for others starting a business?
Sam Yagan: One of the key drivers to my success is picking really great business partners. You also have to be 100 % passionate about it.

BN: What do you wish you had known before you started your business?
SY: Human resources really are the most important thing you have, so I wish I'd spent more time recruiting and developing the crew that we had.

BN: What's the biggest mistake you made in getting your business going?
SY: I think early on we didn't spend enough time differentiating ourselves from the competition. I spent too much time on the concept of "free". It's not about just being free, it's about being free and better.

The full article was originally published at Boston Now, but is no longer available.

Matchmaking For Muslims Is Custom Job

Posted on February 25, 2008

Muslims CHICAGO TRIBUNE — Feb 25 — Today, few Muslim Americans are interested in traveling halfway across the world for an arranged marriage. "There are so many young people in the Muslim community looking to get married, but they have a dilemma: They can't date. "We offer options within Islamic boundaries", said Imam Mohamed Magid, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America. The Islamic society's chaperoned speed-dating sessions. In addition to social networks such as naseeb.com or muslimsocial.com, some mosques have started adding matrimonial databases to their Web sites. Matchmakers offer a more old-fashioned approach. Athia Syed's is a popular matchmaker from Chicago. Syed counsels young Muslims to be more active in finding their future mates, rather than relying on their parents or matchmakers.

The full article was originally published at Chicago Tribune, but is no longer available.

Europe Online Dating Turnover Up To €103 Million

Posted on February 21, 2008

Jupiterresearch
JUST4BUSINESS — Feb 21 — Germans spent 85 million Euros on finding a
partner online in 2007, according to Jupiter Research. For 2008,
another increase to 103 million Euros is predicted. Currently about 6.3
million Germans visit online dating services each month. In Western
Europe turnover is expected to increase from 317 million Euros to 393
million Euros in 2008. FULL ARTICLE @ JUST4BUSINESS

SeekingArrangement & SeekingMillionaire Launch Affiliate Program

Posted on February 21, 2008
Seekingarrangement_logo PR WEB — Feb 21 — SeekingArrangement.com (130k members since 2006) and SeekingMillionaire.com (60k members since 2007), cater to millionaires and beautiful girls and has launched an affiliate program. "While other online dating websites pay a commission only when a customer pays, our affiliate programs pays when a visitor registers, and each time the customer pays to upgrade," said Brandon Wade, CEO of InfoStream Group Inc, which operates the sites. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Mark Brooks: WealthyMen, MillionaireMatch, FriendFinder's MillionareMate.com and SugarDaddyForMe.com also compete in the high niche.  The current rankings for this niche can be found under the Niche Internet Dating Rankings under the Official Internet Dating Rankings on this site. 
 

Sugar Daddie, Alexa ~ 1/08
1 SugarDaddie
2 SugarDaddyForMe
3 WealthyMen

This post also appears on FrequentFlirters.

Affluent African Americans Represent 45% Of AA Buying Power

Posted on February 21, 2008

Cfmrbrieflogo MEDIA POST — Feb 20 — According to a recent Packaged Facts study, reported by MarketingCharts, African Americans are crucial to the consumer economy, with a population of 39 million and buying power of $892 billion, and expected to exceed $1.1 trillion in 2012. Black media continue to offer advertisers access to African-American consumers, who also share many of the mainstream media preferences of other American viewers and readers:

    * Television is a top source of media consumption, with 4 in 10 households containing 4 or more televisions.
    * Spending on magazines is 6% more than the national average.
    * Radio and newspapers are less popular than the average.
    * Internet use is still lagging, but by 2012 penetration in the African-American community is expected to reach 62%.

The full article was originally published at Center for Media Research, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: You can see a ranking of the top African American dating sites by going to Internet Dating Official Rankings over on the right bar and clicking on Niche Internet Dating Rankings.  Here are the current rankings for Black Personals.

  • Black Personals, Hitwise ~ 1/08
    1 Black People Meet
    2 OnlineBootyCall
    3 Black Singles