HUFFINGTON POST – Feb 9 – At age 45, Rochelle Peachey seized the idea that she'd been dreaming about and ran with it. She took to the web and launched ILoveYourAccent.com, a dating site that bridges the continental divide by bringing Brits and Americans together. "I brought in a web designer," she says, "but I didn't have $50,000 to hire a P.R. company. So I started blogging and posting on forums. Just before Valentine's Day, 2010, Rochelle got an invitation to talk about her website on the London TV show BBC Breakfast. "Within 20 minutes of the time I was on the air, people were signing up." Word started to spread, and today ILoveYourAccent.com has 10K members, nine marriages and three babies. Rochelle also finds herself occasionally doubling as a dating coach, interpreting the cultural differences that can sometimes get lost in translation.
Month: February 2012
”Out Of My League”: A Real-World Test Of The Matching Hypothesis
INTERNET DATING SCIENCE – Feb 12 - Internet Dating Science, a new service by Courtland Brooks, summarizes the best academic papers so you can improve your idating site, and help users make better connections.
This study was conducted to try to establish if online daters chose to date people who they perceive to have similar levels of socially desirable traits ‘in their league’ or if this is not an important element of the dating process. The results were different for men and women but ultimately it confirmed that a good looking profile picture will attract anyone regardless if they are ‘in your league’ or not.
Dr Brenner: Based on this information, you should:
- Educate your members that an attractive and welcoming profile will increase the likelihood of receiving communication.
- Tutor your members that it will also increase the likelihood of communication from relatively popular members and people with higher self-worth.
- Appreciate that men and women tend to initiate communication based on different criteria.
- Be mindful that people’s statements about intended dating behaviours are often at odds with their actual behaviours.
- Recognize that surveys of member’s desires, intentions, and opinions are insufficient to understand how they fully interact with your site and its other members.
Conversion Conference, San Francisco, March 5-6, 2012
OPW – Feb 8 – The next Conversion Conference is held in San Francisco, March 5-6, 2012. This 2 days event focuses on learning how to increase your website conversion and making your marketing campaigns more effective. Keynote speakers are: BJ Fogg, PhD (Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University), Jared Spool, CEO & Founding Principal (User Interface Engineering), Roger Dooley, author of Brainfluence, Steve Krug, Web Usability Consultant & Author, Don't Make Me Thinkand Rocket Surgery Made Easy. Register here and get $100 discount.
iDate Startup Party In Boston, February 22, 2012
OPW – Feb 8 – I will be hosting the next iDate Startup in Boston on Feb 22nd, 2012 from 7:00PM – 10PM. The venue will be announced soon. iDateStartup provides a great opportunity to learn from your peers, find partners, as well as show off your product. Please RSVP here. See you there!
Anotherfriend.com Buys MaybeFriends.com
OPW – Feb 8 – WebDev Ltd, the Internet company behind the largest Irish dating site http://www.anotherfriend.com has acquired the Irish dating site, http://www.maybefriends.com from the Saon Group for an undisclosed sum. AnotherFriend.com currently has ~60% market share of the Irish Online Dating market, with over 12.8M page impressions and 290K unique visitors monthly.
See all posts on AnotherFriend
See all posts on MaybeFriends
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Online Dating: The Secret Science Of Love At First Byte
MSNBC TODAY NEWS – Feb 8 – Punch cards and personal ads gave way to the first online dating sites, launched in the mid-90s. By 2001, industry revenues were just $40M. Today, they’re approaching $2 billion. eHarmony owns 15% of the market. The company says the goal is to help you find someone – like you. Similarity allows couples to understand each other better, said Gian Gonzaga, the company’s chief research scientist. “We like to say that opposites attract and then later on they attack.” Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, questions whether algorithms used by online dating sites actually work. He studied thousands of online interactions, examining market value — what makes us attractive online. In men, the research shows, height and salary are key. Education also counts – for some online daters. “More educated men are more desirable,” said Ariely. “For women, there's no value for education.”
by Amy Robach and Deborah Camiel
The full article was originally published at MSNBC News Today, but is no longer available.
The Small Business Interview: What’s Next For Online Dating?
MINYANVILLE – Feb 7 – When Mate1.com started up in 2003, social platforms were mostly chat rooms. Liz Wasserman, founder and CEO of Mate1.com, saw potential in this raw, new form of communication. Mate1.com now boasts ~40M subscribers (mainly in the US), and continues to grow and mature.
Q: Tell us about your business and what you do.
A: Liz Wasserman: Mate1.com is an online dating site. We’ve been around for 8 years. My brother Charles and I are the co-owners. I’m currently working on our new product, a brand new dating site with a different target audience that will be launching sometime this year.
Q: How has the company changed during the course of its lifespan?
LW: We’ve grown from eight people to over 40 now. We’ve had to provide a constantly adaptable service, making sure the user is kept engaged and nudged along with messaging and lots of feedback. Users now have the expectation that they’ll have the service in real time and will be able to use mobile technology, including location-based technology, and native apps.
Q: What's next?
LW: We’re launching iOS and Android apps this quarter.
Q: Where do you get your best ideas?
LW: A lot of them come in conversations with other business owners.
Q: What virtues do you admire in a business leader?
LW: Adaptability, persuasiveness, doggedness—setting your sights on a goal, going at it and not giving up.
Q: Do you put business first or life first?
LW: I would like to think that I put my life first, although that’s not always the case.
Q: What's your chief characteristic as a leader?
LW: I am analytical and skeptical.
Q: Your idea of small business CEO happiness?
LW: Apart from success, which is the raison d’etre of the CEO, my happiness is a function of the people in my company.
Q: If you weren’t running your own business, what would you be doing?
LW: I’d be writing and I’d be interviewing people. It was really my first love, journalism.
by Kathleen Culliton
The full article was originally published at Minyanville, but is no longer available.
New Dating Site For Those Who Want To Have A Baby
24-7PRESS RELEASE – Feb 8 - Coparents.com has a comprehensive range of search options allows people to find the favoured person they require. Whether an individual or couple are looking for a co-parent, sperm donor or a surrogate mother, Coparents.com connects those who wish to have a baby, but haven't found the right person yet.
The full article was originally published at World News Report, but is no longer available.
The Future Of Dating Is Mobile
BUSINESS INSIDER – Feb 8 – The popularity of Grindr, an app that helps gay men find nearby lovers, shows the power of combining location-based apps and dating. So far, there have been 3M downloads in 192 countries. RndVoo is a matchmaking service that matches friends of friends and gives personalized date ideas to try in the real world. OkCupid cofounder Sam Yagan wrote in an email: "Mobile dating is the future of dating. Period. Think about it. Dating is one of the few applications of technology that pretty much requires an in-person meeting for success. Amazon can send your item from a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, but your date sure as heck better be close to you. And not just close to you sometimes, close to you…now."
AstrologyDating.com Officially Launches
PR NEWSWIRE – Feb 8 – Catering to an estimated market of 89M astrology believers in the US, the site provides singles with the option to pay 99c for a compatibility match. Based on a comprehensive synastry-based matching algorithm, AstrologyDating.com matches singles along all of a person's astrological alignments as well as their stated interests.
The full article was originally published at MarketWatch, but is no longer available.