CBC — Feb 15 — Andrew Lekas is a busy man looking for love and tired of the bar scene. So he's hired a matchmaker to do all the leg work. Ruth Fox, an It's Just Lunch Matchmaker: "What we basically do is set up fun first dates, easy first dates." It's Just Lunch hand picks a blind date and no need to worry about choosing a restaurant, its all taken care of. Now let's say you want to meet people in a bar but not leave home. Omnnidate is a virtual date where singles can interact in a simulated dating environment online from the comfort of their own home. SEE THE VIDEO HERE
Month: February 2008
Read OPW On Your Mobile Phone
OPW — Feb 15 — Bookmark mippin.com/mippin7848 on your phone to get a slimmed down mobile version of Online Personals Watch to read while you're out and about. – Mark Brooks
Casual Dating Affiliate Payouts Top The Industry
OPW — Feb 15 — Does anyone know of any dating affiliate programs that pay out higher than casual dating sites? The super fast growing dating sites Fling and SexSearch are topping my research on payouts. SexSearch is paying out $90 and Fling $50 per paid sign up over Valentines. Adultfriendfinder is definitely feeling the heat on its tail from these two. I'm surprised how many dating sites don't have affiliate programs. Match, eHarmony, Perfectmatch and Yahoo! have good programs, but many top and second tier players have relatively small programs, if they have them at all. From the affiliate perspective adult dating sites just plain convert better, which would partly explain the rise in popularity of casual dating sites over the last few years. CJ, Linkshare, Azoogleads, Shareasale, Primary Ads, and Link Connector all drive significant amounts of traffic to dating sites. CJ seems to have the most offers. Email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com for a copy of my spreadsheet listing all the dating offer payouts on the top affiliate networks. – Mark Brooks
Gay Matchmaking Sites Find A Growing Market
SF CHRONICLE — Feb 14 — After eHarmony said its psychological research is based exclusively on heterosexual relationships, a growing number of rival online matchmakers are using their algorithms to find same-sex love as well. "There are just not enough services for creating healthy relationships, and it is a major gap in the gay community," said matchmaker Patrick Perrine, founder MyPartner.com, which caters to "sophisticated, cultured and relationship-oriented gay men. "There has been a long-held stereotype that gay people are only looking to hook up." Matchmakers like Chemistry.com, which estimates that about 10% of its 3.7 million clients are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, say all love is equal, straight or gay. The matchmakers claim "you can actually find people who are compatible, and this is a major advance that is going to keep the industry alive for the upcoming 50 years," said Mark Brooks, an Internet dating and social networking consultant. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
Online Dating Boom
OTTAWA CITIZEN — Feb 14 — Unlike traditional dating, people's intentions are more evident online than in the non-virtual world. PlentyofFish.com is virtually a dating haven for millions of people around the world. The site rakes in $10 million a year in advertising and Ontario is one of the biggest hot spots for PlentyofFish users. Founder, Markus Frind says that meeting people in today's fast-paced world is just too hard, and it only gets tougher with age. "The baby boomers are signing up in droves now," says Frind. "They never used to use the site, but now it's the biggest growth market for all dating sites." Lavalife has started a dating service called LavalifePRIME, exclusively for those 45 and older.
The full article was originally published at Canada.com, but is no longer available.
Don´t Call It A Dating Service
24 — Feb 14 — A singles service, Meet Market Adventures, organizes
gatherings and invites singles to sign up for them online. "We’re not
really a dating service, so to speak," said Mark Smith, president of
the company’s Alberta franchise. "What we do is bring singles together
in a safe evening and they mingle among themselves." Meet Market
Adventures, launched five years ago in Toronto, and has 3,000 members
since it set up shop in Calgary six months ago. Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com
and a consultant to the Internet dating industry, said the number of
people visiting online dating sites in December 2007 was down 10% over
December 2006 (according to comScore). He said that doesn’t mean the
industry is declining, but that the people who are still doing it are
serious about it. FULL ARTICLE @ 24 (page 8)
Digital Dating In Canada
CORD WEEKLY — Feb 14 — Each month, 20% of Canadians visit an online dating website. According to the CBC, online dating sites in Canada get approximately seven million unique hits every month; that's just over one-fifth of the population. As our generation ages, the amount of people turning to the web for intimacy will rise.
The full article was originally published at Cord Weekly, but is no longer available.
Avoid Being Duped By Online Dating Sites
SMART
MONEY — Feb 14 — Complaints about online matchmaking and dating sites
are up 73% from 2005, according to the Better Business Bureau. A common
complaint about online dating is that sites exaggerate the number of
potential dates. In 2007, while 10% of Internet users posted a personal
ad on an online dating site, only 5% became paid subscribers, according
to Jupiter Research. The most common complaint about matchmaking
sites, is that the quality of the singles don’t meet the seeker’s
criteria. Also nearly 70% of complaints against online-dating sites
stem from billing issues. FULL ARTICLE @ SMART MONEY
Money And Relationships: It’s Love 3.0
REPORT ON BUSINESS– Feb 14 — Unlike Facebook and MySpace, whose values are based largely on their potential to generate future revenues, online dating sites are making millions from user fees and advertisers now. For Vancouver-based PlentyofFish.com, the emergence of love 3.0 has generated what its creator Markus Frind admits is a global cash machine. More than 600,000 people log on to his site every day. Online dating has become a billion-dollar industry; companies that own a portfolio of sites, such as Spark Networks, are ringing up revenues of between $15-million (U.S.) and $18-million every quarter.
The full article was originally published at The Globe and Mail, but is no longer available.
Saon Group Acquires Maybefriends.com
ONREC — Feb 14 — Saongroup.com has entered the online dating business with the purchase of Maybefriends.com, an Irish online dating website, for an undisclosed sum. Saongroup.com is an online recruitment company with operations in Ireland, the UK, Europe, the USA, China, India, South Africa and the Caribbean. With a worldwide online dating market of €1billion and online dating in Europe expected to reach €650million by 2012, this diversification represents major growth prospects for Saongroup.com," said Leslie Buckley, Chairman.
The full article was originally published at ONREC, but is no longer available.