DENVER POST — Feb 28 — "There are certainly more niche sites coming online, because I seem to hear about more wackier new ones every day," says Nate Elliott, an online personals analyst with Jupiter Research. Some offer bells and whistles such as the video chat and mobile dating technology available at Webdate. Others like adultfriendfinder.com brazenly tackle subjects such as casual sex encounters and fetishes. Everybody has his or her "thing," whether it's a passion for Catholicism, a love of dogs or spelunking. The niche dating concept hinges on the idea that if you find someone with that same thing, you'll be more likely to foster a stronger connection. Cowboydating.com, Geek2Geek, SingleParentsMingle.com, BlackPlanet.com. Datemypet.com receives 50,000 visitors a month. "Niche dating is a solid model right now because [each site] has branding that's appealing," says Mark Brooks, editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com. "But what you give up is more choice available on the larger, general-use sites. You've just gone from a pool of millions with everything under the sun, every age, every demographic to a pool of thousands." Larger general-use sites are updating search engines to allow users to pinpoint must-haves in their profiles. Match, Yahoo Personals and eHarmony together account for more than 50 percent of all online dating traffic. FULL ARTICLE @ DENVER POST
Category: All Adult Dating
Techies, not Trekkies, Present the Future of Dating
COURIER POST ONLINE — Feb 28 — When I showed up in Miami Beach for the internet dating convention I found hundreds of modern-day Cupids — the people who run dating Web sites, speed dating companies, self-help services and matchmaking businesses. "There is a huge societal problem. People aren't finding the right matches. Marriages are failing," said Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. "In some sense, we have a chance to change that." Dating companies really do believe their duty is to help people find happiness in a partner (or partners). John Gray, author of the biggest selling relationship book in the history of the world, "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus," was at the conference to deliver shocking news: "Men and women still don't understand each other." But the conference wasn't all about boring dating. There also was a lot of sex talk. More sites, like AdultFriendFinder.com and IWantYou.com, now deal with the sex side of dating. "No one talks about these groups, but they're there," noted Brooks, who knows more about online dating than anyone in the world. "We're in the business of love, but by default we're in the sex business." So what will dating look like in 10 years? According to Brooks, we will be carrying Star Trek devices with speech recognition capabilities that will allow searches for nearby dates anytime, anywhere.
Techies, not Trekkies, Present the Future of Dating
COURIER POST ONLINE — Feb 28 — When I showed up in Miami Beach for the internet dating convention I found hundreds of modern-day Cupids — the people who run dating Web sites, speed dating companies, self-help services and matchmaking businesses. "There is a huge societal problem. People aren't finding the right matches. Marriages are failing," said Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. "In some sense, we have a chance to change that." Dating companies really do believe their duty is to help people find happiness in a partner (or partners). John Gray, author of the biggest selling relationship book in the history of the world, "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus," was at the conference to deliver shocking news: "Men and women still don't understand each other." But the conference wasn't all about boring dating. There also was a lot of sex talk. More sites, like AdultFriendFinder.com and IWantYou.com, now deal with the sex side of dating. "No one talks about these groups, but they're there," noted Brooks, who knows more about online dating than anyone in the world. "We're in the business of love, but by default we're in the sex business." So what will dating look like in 10 years? According to Brooks, we will be carrying Star Trek devices with speech recognition capabilities that will allow searches for nearby dates anytime, anywhere.
Where Should We Meet in Cyberspace?
Mark Brooks: OKCupid and Plentyoffish.com are the big freebie sites these days. Sexsearch.com is next in line to adultfriendfinder in the casual dating space.
Thousands Seek Sexual Partners Online
THE ROYAL GAZETTE — Jan 22 — Adultfindfriends.com, an international website which boasts that it is the "world’s largest sex and swingers personals site" has 3,825 listings for Bermuda. Dr. Adhemar explained that there are two types of socio-sexual orientation: People are either ‘unrestricted’ or ‘restricted’. People surfing these sites are more likely to fall into the first group. Characteristics of the unrestricted group include "a willingness to engage in sexual interactions with partners even in the absence of closeness, commitment or emotional bonding," Dr. Adhemar said. A recent article piqued the interest of 208 men and 27 women who have since joined the site.
Mark Brooks: Here’s how the adult/casual dating sites rank against the PG sites, per ranking.websearch.com. Adultfriendfinder 32, Sexsearch 66, Match 120, TRUE 133, eHarmony 333, American Singles 335.
Friends with Benefits. Buddies. Booty calls. Is this what dating has become?
THE SEATTLE TIMES — Dec 11 — Today's dating scene is about as easy to pigeonhole as the color of paint. Sure, there are plenty of traditionalists out there, but there are many others who don't date so much as hang out or hook up. Some rely on what I'll politely call "bed buddies" to get them through the lonely times. Dating has changed dramatically. Fifty years ago, a single woman would sooner hide out in a darkened apartment than let her neighbors know she didn't have a Saturday night steady. These days, she'll post her picture on AdultFriendFinder or Lavalife's "Intimate Encounters" section to find a no-strings sex partner for the night. "If somebody has no intention of looking for someone special in their life and just wants sex for fun and pleasure, isn't it better that they tell you up front?" says Pepper Schwartz, University of Washington sociology professor and author of "Finding Your Perfect Match." (and PerfectMatch.com spokesperson). "The honesty may be a little difficult to take, but it might hurt less in the long run."
The full article was originally published at Seattle Times, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: This is a groundbreaking article. I rarely see the subject of casual dating sites broached in the press. Some interesting social trends are empowering the press to start picking this subject area up. Adultfriendfinder, Sexsearch and Mate1 are the top adult dating sites.
Alt.com Personal Ads for Wide Range of Sexual Fetishes
Mark Brooks: I used to work for FriendFinder. There are actually some taboo's that their abuse team grooms the site for, but Alt is indeed the most extreme of their communities. Their 'adult' communities(AdultFriendFinder, Alt, OutPersonals) do a good job of helping people match on their not so mainstream sexual preferences. Sexsearch is a newer entrant that is stealing some of AdultFriendFinder's thunder and is approaching 5 million members. This important segment demands not to be ignored. However, I've yet to see these sites mentioned/recognised in the mainstream press. Everyone likes sex, right? Some people have more specific preferences. Generally these more explicit, sexually oriented sites are regarded as 'casual,' but many couples have married after meeting their match on these sites. They are the antithesis of the more altruistic relationship sites. Except for TRUE which recently launched their 'Sexploration' which is a very nice adaptive 'lite' sexual preferences test. I'm a maverick apparently. 'Are you mild or wild?'
Adult Personals Focus on Casual Encounters and Big Bucks
WALL STREET NEWS CAST — Nov 7 — The “naughty niches” has become a major matchmaking market. And like its straight-arrow sibling, it is a very profitable one. The reason for the success is simple: The sites are more important to them because their tastes are harder to match. “When we started Friendfinder early in 1996, we found a lot of guys were posting profiles that were more risqué than we wanted on the site,” recalls Andrew Conru, Founder of Friendfinder. “We started out deleting them, but then we recognized the opportunity and started Adultfriendfinder.” ComScore Media Metrix said the site drew 2,321,000 unique visitors in July 2002. That dwarfs the 788,000 that the generalized Friendfinder attracted that month.
Mark Brooks: According to Alexa, for adult a.k.a. casual dating sites, Adultfriendfinder.com is #1, Alt.com is #2 and Sexsearch.com is #3
PrivateDateFinder.com Lures Marrieds
PRWEB — Sept 28 — Newly launched PrivateDateFinder.com is the first and only dating site where you can find romance without anyone else knowing. The site offers a unique way to conceal both how you pay as well as eliminating all the tracks you leave behind. RELEASE @ PR WEB
Mark Brooks: This is a very controversial area. Adultfriendfinder, Sexsearch and Eroticy are loaded with marrieds. Ashley Madison actually targets them. PrivateDateFinder is run on the Relationship Exchange platform which is owned by Vintacom, which was recently bought by CGI Holding, which was just renamed to Think Partnership. I find the practice of encouraging marrieds to cheat of great concern. Your comments please.
SexSearch.com Adult Personals Mentioned On Howard Stern Show
PR NEWSWIRE — July 8 — Heidi Fleiss, Hollywood’s madam and sex boutique owner, mentioned SexSearch.com adult personals three times in the course of the show, joking on how she should post her profile, while Howard Stern dropped the name twice.
Mark Brooks: A separate press release mentions Sexsearch has surpassed 3.5 million registrations.