THE GUARDIAN – Oct 13 – Lisa Hoehn's website, Profile Polish, offers editing of dating profiles. “Writing about yourself is really hard,” says Hoehn. She spends three to four hours on each client, rewriting their profiles to sound conversational, upbeat and interesting. Business is steady, if seasonal. Major dating sites tried to offer professional profile editing services themselves but failed, says Mark Brooks, an internet dating industry analyst. Match and eHarmony learned that people required all-around coaching on online romance. It’s a territory Brooks terms “hazardous” for the dating sites to do themselves. Evan Marc Katz has a dating coaching business that is focused entirely on women. He charges $5,250/4weeks and $7,775/12 weeks to teach women how to make a man commit. If that may seem like big money, Brooks is not surprised. It’s behavioural economics, he says. “When people do good [in dating], then they are willing to pay good in business.” More and more users are moving to mobile apps. The distant future, Brooks says, may be wearable computing. More data could lead to better algorithms. In 10 years’ time, dating websites may track everything that goes on when you meet your online date. “Do we know your heart rate? Do we know if you’re sweating. There’s going to be so many more observables,” Brooks says.
Month: October 2014
Domain4Sale: Romantically.com For $69
OPW – Oct 13 – Romantically.com domain has been put up for auction. Starting bid is just $69. You can bid here.
Q&A With Sam Yagan, CEO Of Match Group
THE ATLANTIC – Oct 13 – Last week, IAC launched Delightful, a dating site aimed at people who seek love and relationships, rather than just hookups. It will be headed in part by the comedian Steve Harvey, who will serve as the brand’s “Chief Love Officer.” “This is our first brand focused on the L word as opposed to other brands that focus on dates,” said Sam Yagan, the Match.com CEO who will run Delightful with Harvey.
Q: What is your role at Match?
A: We sold OkCupid to Match in Jan '11. In Sep '12, I became CEO of all of Match. We haven't slowed OkCupid down. I run all the brands like cousins. You want your cousins to do well, but you want to do better.
Q: Why did you decide to pursue dating?
A: Before we launched SparkNotes, everybody used CliffsNotes, which was sort of the Match of study guides. What really made it work is that SparkNotes was a better product than CliffsNotes, and it was free. We decided for online dating because it was one of the things people pay for, and we wanted to make it free.
by Olga Khazan
See full article at The Atlantic
See all posts on OkCupid
See all posts on Match
See all posts on Delightful
Mesh Filters Out Creepy Messages
CAMBIO – Oct 11 – There's a new online dating site for New Yorkers called Mesh that is built around smart filters, which filter out spam and fake gibberish messages. It can also detect vulgarity and 'text speak'.
Nigerian Scammer Arrested In U.K.
STL TODAY – Oct 11 – A Nigerian man, accused of running an online “romance scam” that victimized ~30 women in USA, has been arrested in London. He pretended to be a member of the military, using information and photos he’d stolen from real people on online dating sites.
by Robert Patrick
See full article at STL Today
Tinder Spammers Move To SMS
TECH CRUNCH – Oct 10 - Tinder for a long time had been flooded with spam bots – fake accounts that flirt with users in order to redirect them to adult sites and take their money. Tinder addressed the issue with a technical update. It cut down the in-app spam. However, it didn’t necessarily address the spamming activities themselves. According to a new report, Tinder bot spammers just moved to a new channel: SMS.
Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – October 2014
OPW – Oct 12 - The new Internet dating jobs listing is live on the Internet Dating Jobs blog.
Below see a couple of this month's most interesting offers:
____
From our esteemed Courtland Brooks clients:
DatingFactory
Customer Communication and Marketing Manager
Global Personals USA (Webdate, Fling, WealthyMen)
Brand Manager (Stunr.com)
MillionaireMatch
Marketing Managers
____
eHarmony
Vice President, Product Management
Jiayuan
VIP sales
Match.com, Chemistry.com, People Media
Director of Engineering, Mobile Messaging – Tinder
Online-Buddies
Vice President of Engineering
POF
Director of Growth and Analytics
To see more open positions go here.
Do you have an idating industry job offer which is not included? Please, send it to petra@courtlandbrooks.com and we will add it to the list.
Delightful Is Back, This Time As A Relationship Platform
The full article was originally published at Virtual Strategy Magazine, but is no longer available.
Irena Brooks: IAC launched Delightful last year as a service to plan dates for couples. The site did not get enough traction and shut down just 3 months after its public launch.
Mark Brooks: We love the idea of couples services, but we don't see them doing well. Thats because they've not been done right or sold right, quite yet. Who will figure it out first? We need more continuity in our service offerings. Couples need help keeping it together, and we are well able to help them.
Lov.com Sells For $92k
OPW – Oct 9 – Thanks to Marc Lesnick for giving me a heads up on the NameJet.com auction of Lov.com. I caught it when the domain was at a $26k bid. I was tempted at that price, but the domain ended up selling yesterday for $91,800 to 'saidul84' a Mr Saidul Chowdhury from New York. I wonder what he'll do with it. I was surprised Spark Networks didn't pick it up, given that its their ticker symbol.
Post by Mark Brooks @
October Is The Last Month To Nominate For The iDate Awards
WEBWIRE – Oct 8 – The last day to nominate for the next iDate Awards is October 31. Nomination is free and is open to the public. Winners will be announced in January in Las Vegas during iDate. Self-nominations are accepted for the following categories:
- Best Dating Site
- Best Matchmaker
- Best Software Provider
- Best Mobile Dating App
- Best Dating Site Design
- Best Dating Coach
- Most Innovative Company
- Best New Technology
- Best Payment System
- Best Affiliate Program
- Best Marketing Campaign
- Best Niche Dating Site
- Best Up and Coming Dating Site