Category: Courtland Brooks Press

The Morning Show With Mike And Juliet

Posted on February 3, 2009

Mike and juliet FOX NEWS — Feb 3 — There a plenty of fish in the sea, and nearly as many online dating sites. M&J investigate which services will help you find that perfect catch. M&J spoke to Dr. Gian Gonzaga from eHarmony, CEO of Lavalife Marina Glogovac and Mark Brooks from PlentyofFish.com. 

Juliet: Dr Gian what are the components to making a successfully compatible relationship?
Dr. Gian Gonzaga: One thing relationship science has shown for the last 40 years is that people who are similar to each other on some important core personality traits, attitudes, values and interests are going to get along better.

Juliet: We’re going to move from E-Harmony to Lavalife.
Mike: Marina, I’ve heard this site called sort of the Sex and the City website.
Marina Glogovac: Yeah, we have 3 distinct communities- a dating community, a relationship community and an intimate community and that’s for people who are more open minded about exploring intimacy. The point is if you’re single you can quickly be surrounded by likeminded people who share your relationship goals.

Juliet: Next we’re going to look at PlentyofFish.com. What set’s PlentyofFish apart from all the other sites?
Mark Brooks: Well we heard a lot of talk about Plenty of Fish being free, free, free, but the real difference these days is it’s big, big, big. We have 900,000 people logging in every day. And we know now that 800,000 people a year are meeting and are in successful relationships because of PlentyofFish.com.
Juliet: Is there a science behind why you hook up so many people together?
Mark Brooks: The fellow who started the site is actually a math wizard and he’s observed the real world and he’s bottled the best of matchmaking. We have a chemistry test but there is a lot going on behind the scenes to match compatible people.

Stephanie: I’m a huge fan of PlentyofFish. Because it’s free and with the economy being down like it is, why not try a free site for 3, 4, and 5 months and then if it doesn’t work you can always pay later. And then take your saved money and go on a date.

Watch the show @ Mandjshow.com
PART 1
PART 2

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www.cheapdate.com

Posted on January 29, 2009

Online dating - heart on keyboard GLOBE & MAIL — Jan 29 — Lavalife, PlentyofFish, Match and PerfectMatch have seen their memberships soar after the stock-market plunge. Lavalife registrations are up 11% from last month, PlentyofFish enjoyed 77% growth in visits from Dec '07 through Dec '08. "Unlike the real world, dating sites offer the lovelorn a "completely refined, focused community", says Mark Brooks. Dating sites take care of the formalities. "If somebody wants to wander around and meet somebody, that's not a good idea on two counts: No. 1, it'll take them a long while and No. 2, they've got to get all the difficult questions out of the way." A survey by Florida-based Avalanche LLC – which operates international sites date.com, matchmaker.com and amor.com – found that 48 per cent of respondents were spending more time online or on the phone with a potential date before spending cash on a face-to-face meeting. Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine, agrees that bad economic times force people to "reprioritize their goals in life." Paul A. Falzone, CEO of LoveAccess.com agrees. "People, when they're confronted with any type of dilemma in their lives, tend to want to migrate back to what's comfortable to them. They go back to eating their comfort foods, they crank up the heat by the fire instead of going out all night, and they want someone to be able to share things with." FULL ARTICLE @ GLOBE & MAIL

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Love Is Now A Niche Affair

Posted on January 22, 2009

Arablounge logo THE NATIONAL — Jan 22 — When Saïd Amin started IranianPersonals.com there were few niche sites. Today, sites similar to his make up almost half the market, and they are growing. Mark Brooks, editor of www.onlinepersonalswatch.com, said there are about 14,000 such sites currently online and nearly 43% are niche. This is up from 34% in 2006. Religious and cultural niche sites are particularly popular. At 500,000 members, ArabLounge has become a leading singles site for Arabs in North America and Mr Amin said he expects to expand. Why the popularity of internet dating? For many men, Mr Brooks said, the internet offers a new solution to that old fear: face-to-face rejection. But he also believes the way people meet online is healthier. Then there is travel. Because niche sites tend to have fewer members, Mr Brooks said travel will often be a reality for those serious about meeting someone. "Probably with niche dating, if the person lives way out in the boonies then they're going to have to travel, there're just no two ways about it. One of the key questions for people who use these sites is, 'Am I prepared to travel?' " Mr Brooks said. It was a question Mr Amin had to answer: "Yes."

The full article was originally published at The National, but is no longer available.

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Plentyoffish Money Comes Rolling In

Posted on January 8, 2009

Markus frind plentyoffish logo INC MAGAZINE — Jan 8 — Plentyoffish is on track to book revenue of $10M for 2008, with 50%+ profit. Frind can be disarmingly frank. Yahoo, he says, is "a complete joke," Google is "a cult," and Match is "dying." Mark Brooks, a marketing consultant who has advised Frind since 2006 said "I've never known anybody so competitive. He always says exactly what he thinks." Frind made just $5 in his 1st month but by the end of the year he was making $3,300 a month, largely by selling ads to paid dating sites. From March to Nov' '03 he expanded from 40 members to 10,000. By 2006, Plentyoffish was serving 200m pages/mo. In 2008 he rented an office and hired 3 people. Frind estimates, based on exit surveys, that the site creates 800k successful relationships a year. FULL ARTICLE @ INC MAGAZINE   

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Free Dating Sites Give Paid Sites A Run For Their Money

Posted on January 7, 2009
Cc TECH CRUNCH — Jan 7 — Earlier this week IAC (owns Match & Chemistry) launched a completely free dating site called DownToEarth.com. This move is IAC/Match.com's answer to Plentyoffish.com. Apparently IAC believes if someone is going to put Match out of business, it might as well be Match. But Markus Frind fancies his chances with Plentyoffish.com.

The top free dating sites in the USA are currently:

#1 Plentyoffish
#2 Adam4Adam
#3 Date Hookup
#4 OKCupid
#5 Mingle2

And in the UK:
#1 Plentyoffish
#2 Person
#3 FriendsReunitedDating.co.uk
#4 Smooch
#5 Freedating.co.uk

FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Recession Boosts Online Dating

Posted on January 5, 2009

Online_dating_070615_ms TELEGRAPH.CO.UK — Jan 5 — Match.com reported pre-tax profit of £3.67m in the year to 12/31/07, compared with a loss of £2.19m a year before. Last year, total revenue for Match worldwide rose 12% to $348.7m (£240m) and operating income rose 13% to $65.8m. The international growth was driven by the UK and Scandinavia. British dating sites in general are seeing a rise in members despite the credit crunch. Nielsen Online indicate a 15% rise in unique users visiting online dating sites in Nov compared with the same month last year. Match and EasyDate, which owns the SpeedDater, DatetheUK and BeNaughty brands, say they have seen some of their best days of trading since the collapse of Lehman Brothers ramped up global financial turmoil in September. Ross Williams, founder and chairman of WhiteLabelDating.com, says its database of members has grown by 250% to over 1m in the UK, and overall annualised revenues have increased by 450% to over £12m in the past 12 months as the dating sector booms in the economic gloom. Mark Brooks, an internet dating analyst, says: "The entire industry, with the exception of more marginal traditional matchmakers, is doing better despite the downturn." FULL ARTICLE @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

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Web Video Captures The Truth

Posted on January 5, 2009

52weekstofindhim header STAR LEDGER — Jan 5 — When she hit 40, Neenah Pickett decided to find a husband by 2010. She created 52Weeks2FindHim.com so she can post self-descriptive videos and speed-date with email responders from her home via webcam. Online dating took off in the early 1990s, with users posting detailed personality profiles and flattering photos. More recently, sites like webdate.com and speeddate.com began to feature video dating, said Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com, an industry site for online personals. "Sometimes, you go out on a date with somebody and find out they don't have a full head of hair, or are 20 pounds heavier than that photo taken years ago," Brooks said. "With a video date, you see what you're going to get. It's very compelling."

The full article was originally published at NJ.com, but is no longer available.

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The Real Cougar Woman Radio Interview

Posted on December 23, 2008

Therealcougarwoman on blog radio BLOG TALK RADIO — Dec 19 — The Real Cougar Woman Radio was coined by Linda Franklin who has a website, RealCougarWoman.com. Linda focuses on real concerns of today's Cougar Woman – wellness, beauty and relationships. Linda and her co-host Bonnie D. Graham interviewed Paul Falzone, CEO and founder of The Right One and Together Dating and Mark Brooks, the online dating guru. Paul believes that people want to go back to face to face and there is a trend moving away from online. TRO/TD made an acquisition of a  Love Access which will be changed to eLove.com in the very near future. " Right now we are converting a lot of online people to the offline centers and giving them a lot more service and it's proving to be ideal", said Paul. FULL INTERVIEW @ OPW

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Lonely Log On To Find Love In A Cold Climate

Posted on December 15, 2008

Easy date logo.jpg THE INDEPENDENT — Dec 14 — Membership is booming at internet dating sites as the credit crunch and impending recession bring a rush to find a partner to share the pain. Companies such as Match.com and EasyDate, which owns the SpeedDater, DatetheUK and BeNaughty brands, say they have seen some of their best days trading ever. Match says it has experienced its 10 biggest days in terms of visitors in the past year, and three of those have been in the past few months. EasyDate says its sites have seen growth 10% above average since the beginning of September. DatingDirect hit 5m registered users five weeks ago. Nielsen Online indicate an 18% rise in unique users visiting internet dating sites between September and October, although that follows a 14% decline in the previous month. According to Jupiter Research, the industry will grow from 2.8m paid users in Europe in 2006 to about 6m by 2011. Over that period, revenues from British dating sites, will increase from €85m last year to €147.3m. Industry expert Mark Brooks says only four or five internet dating sites worldwide make serious money and that the growth in online dating is likely to slow in the UK next year as the market begins to reach maturity. FULL ARTICLE @ THE INDEPENDENT

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Online Personals: Changing Norms, Changing Business Models

Posted on November 10, 2008

Datingmatchmaking_obrazek CLASSIFIED INTELLIGENCE REPORT — Oct '08 — JupiterResearch predicts the online dating industry will hit $1.9 billion by 2012, not including matchmaking services at $250m+ in the U.S. Mark Brooks, who monitors the personals industry, pegs 2004 as the year when dating sites matured. "There are less people on dating sites, but they're spending more money." The CEO of The Right One/Together Dating, Paul Falzone has been in the business 20 years. "When times are good, people want someone to share the fun with. When times are bad, they want companionship."

The Free factor – Free has become a very real factor in the industry, with the emergence of PlentyOfFish.com. POF has more than 10m profiles, and 2m active monthly users. "He's the renegade of the market," said Brooks. "He's making the other players think about advertising money." Frind acknowledges that his $10m in yearly ad revenue has gotten people's attention, but he thinks the traditional dating sites are too invested in the paid-membership model to shift gears.

The Facebook factor – Many in the online dating industry believe social networks will not be a negative factor because SN are for friends and people are posting all sorts of material there they might not want a prospective date to see. But Robert Lee, who has been reviewing dating sites at ALoveLinksPlus.com, believes Facebook is going to figure out how to establish different layers of access, so a user can create a dating-oriented profiles that not everyone can see. As of Oct. 18, Facebook had 497 dating applications.

Different marketing and revenue models – "Personals ads" in newspapers was disrupted by the Internet in the mid-1990s but is being revived with a new focus on Web-first publishing, promoted in print. Another model uses the Web as its operating venue, but drives new customers through heavy advertising in traditional media. Cupid.com makes deals with radio stations to run ads for free in exchange for a share of revenue and claims a conversion rate of 13%. eHarmony and Match spend millions on TV advertising. The typical revenue model is "browse for free, connect for a fee." Matchmaking sites such as Kelleher and Associates, Together Dating and It's Just Lunch have a dual role in the online ecosphere. First, they buy leads from online dating sites, creating yet another line of revenue. Paul Falzone bought LoveAccess.com as a way to generate his own leads. In the 1980s, Falzone's cost per lead was $200-$250 using direct mail. Now his goal is to get that number to zero.

Growth of explicit sites – At the Internet Dating Conference held in London in September, the hallway buzz was all about the explosion in numbers of women signing up for adult sites like Fling.com and AdultFriendFinder. "I'd call it a sexual awakening," said Brooks. "Guys have always been interested in the adult sites, but this is new." The average length of membership on a regular dating site is three months, compared with five months on an adult site.

The future – Mobile and video remain theoretical game-changers, enabling potential match-ups by proximity or direct communication. Brooks sees another potential business model emerging from academic research: a dramatic improvement in the quality of matching.

The full report was originally published at AIM Group, but is no longer available.

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