CNET NEWS — Feb 14 — Visits to dating sites were up 26% in the week ending February 9 in comparison with the equivalent week in 2007, according to Hitwise. At the top of the rankings was SinglesNet.com, followed by PlentyOfFish.com. Rounding out the top five were eHarmony, True, and Yahoo Personals.
The full article was originally published at CNet News, but is no longer available.
USA TODAY — Feb 12 — Matchmakers seem to be popping up all over the country, many targeting their personalized services to eligible businessmen. Matchmaking has become such a buzzword that some dating websites use it in their marketing. In December, Match.com unveiled Match My Friends, which allows friends and family to play matchmaker. Engage.com came up with that premise when it launched in 2005. Matchmaking as a field also has grown since the 2003 opening of the Manhattan-based Matchmaking Institute, which sells a home study kit for $1,500. LaRosa's research suggests there are about 1,600 matchmakers in the USA, and about 100 are added each year. It is a very difficult business because matchmakers are dealing with emotional currency and extreme expectations. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY
SM SMALL BIZ — Feb 13 — Making a bundle in the dating industry, isn't easy for a small player competing against Yahoo! Personals, Match.com and eHarmony. At PlentyofFish, which now ranks among the top 10 dating sites in the U.S. for unique visitors, Frind's strategy was simple. "I undercut them on price," he says. When it comes to the business of love, newbie entrepreneurs need to figure out a way to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Here's how:
– Find a Niche
– Undercut the Competition
– Add Value
– Innovate
More narrowly focused niches have begun to surface. i.e. golfmates.com and vegetariandating.com. The best niche businesses are usually started by entrepreneurs who have a deep understanding of the community they want to serve. i.e. Patrick H. Perrine, a psychologist who spent years studying human sexuality and dating preferences, launched a gay male matchmaking service in San Francisco in 2004, and then expanded the service online – myPartner.com — to a national audience last year. "We discovered there was no space for gay men looking for a serious relationship on the web", he says. To compete with the big guys, Sam Yagan, co-founder of free dating site, OKCupid.com, offers users the ability to craft their own personality quizzes, or choose from 30,000 others. The idea behind the quizzes is that users will share them with their friends who, in turn, may sign up for the service.
The full article was originally published at SmallBiz, but is no longer available.
OPW — Feb 13 — You can now share posts with friends by email and add them to Digg,
Delicious, Facebook, Mixx, etc by clicking on the ‘Share This’ button
on the bottom of each post. I hope that’s useful. Thanks for
spreading the word. Please let me know if there’s anything else we
should add to the blog by emailing me at mark@courtlandbrooks.com, or calling me at 212-444-1636. Thanks. – Mark Brooks
MARKET WIRE — Feb 13 — Yahoo! Quebec launches Yahoo! Quebec Rencontres, powered by Quebec's No. 1 matchmaking site, Canoe's Reseaucontact.com. Partnering up with ReseauContact, the Rencontres launch follows on the success of Yahoo! Canada's English-language Personals website and further extends the leadership of ReseauContact. This past December alone, ReseauContact attracted over 500,000 unique visitors, while the Yahoo! Quebec home page drew in 375,000 unique visitors. ReseauContact generates more than 100 million page views per month, with an average visit time of over 20 minutes, twice a day.
The full article was originally published at Marketwire, but is no longer available.
NEWS.COM.AU — Feb 14 — MeetMyFriend.com.au is a new national dating site, built on each member's network of friends, and allows people to 'hook up' their single friends with other acquaintances, making it safer for those who are nervous about the online dating experience. Friends can nominate their single mates for membership or single people can also nominate themselves.
The full article was originally published at News.com.au, but is no longer available.
PR WEB — Feb 13 — The newest section of online dating website Hotenough.org
is exclusively for attractive and trendy singles, aged 40 and
above. Candidates can sign up at http://www.hotenough.org
by submitting three photos, including one full-body shot. Only active
members aged 40 plus rate Baby Boomer photos which ensures a fair vote.
25 votes and a minimum score of 6.0 must be maintained to be awarded
site access. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
PR WEB — Feb 13 — A recent poll of Date.com's female members found that 58% would not wait for Mr. Right to come along in order to have children, while only 42% still believe that marriage should come first. Single women who have decided to approach motherhood without any relationship commitment has intimidated many men from getting intimate. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
LIVE SCIENCE — Feb 12 — New research shows that popular
people who appear to be the most socially appropriate are often highly
sought after as romantic partners, but these people show
less satisfaction and commitment in relationships than socially-awkward
people.
PRESS RELEASE — Feb 12 — The Right One dating service's matchmaker, Brenan McGarrigle is celebrating her silver anniversary with the company – on Valentine's Day. With approximately 600 marriages to her credit, Ms. McGarrigle has been introducing compatible singles to each other and launching great relationships for 25 years. Now catering to more than 300,000 members at over 60 locations throughout North America, The Right One and Together Dating are the largest brick and mortar dating services in the industry. FULL ARTICLE @ PR.COM