Category: eHarmony

Keep Your Dictionaries Open

Posted on April 3, 2008

Singles JEWISH EXPONENT — Apr 3 — Just a few weeks ago, the American Dialect Society named "subprime" the word of the year for 2007. Each year, scholars, linguists and lexicographers decide which new words should be formally entered into our dictionaries. Every now and then, euphemisms and slang from the world of singles yield some new words, too.
– Re-vite – This is when someone attempts to invite someone out on another date, usually after already being rejected.
– JDate-Live – JDate singles event.
– De-Harmonized – The process of being rejected by an online dating service. 
– Shotgun Message – The practice of sending the same e-mail to every member of the opposite sex.
– E-jected – The process of breaking up with a partner or otherwise rejecting someone via e-mail, IM or SMS.

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

eHarmony Wins Award In The Growth Company Category

Posted on March 10, 2008

Eharmonylogo
BUSINESS WIRE — Mar 7 — eHarmony has been named the
leading growth company at this year’s Annual Entretech Entrepreneurship
Award Ceremony. The Awards Program honors leading-edge companies in
three categories based on annual revenue. eHarmony ultimately received the award for having clear evidence
of product acceptance and the ability to define new marketplaces;
vision and potential for future revenue growth and profitability; and
dynamic leadership with a proven record of execution. FULL ARTICLE @ THE EARTH TIMES

Casual Dating Affiliate Payouts Top The Industry

Posted on February 14, 2008

Money1_2 OPW — Feb 15 — Does anyone know of any dating affiliate programs that pay out higher than casual dating sites?  The super fast growing dating sites Fling and SexSearch are topping my research on payouts. SexSearch is paying out $90 and Fling $50 per paid sign up over Valentines. Adultfriendfinder is definitely feeling the heat on its tail from these two. I'm surprised how many dating sites don't have affiliate programs. Match, eHarmony, Perfectmatch and Yahoo! have good programs, but many top and second tier players have relatively small programs, if they have them at all. From the affiliate perspective adult dating sites just plain convert better, which would partly explain the rise in popularity of casual dating sites over the last few years. CJ, Linkshare, Azoogleads, Shareasale, Primary Ads, and Link Connector all drive significant amounts of traffic to dating sites.  CJ seems to have the most offers. Email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com for a copy of my spreadsheet listing all the dating offer payouts on the top affiliate networks. – Mark Brooks 

Gay Matchmaking Sites Find A Growing Market

Posted on February 14, 2008

Mypartner SF CHRONICLE — Feb 14 — After eHarmony said its psychological research is based exclusively on heterosexual relationships, a growing number of rival online matchmakers are using their algorithms to find same-sex love as well. "There are just not enough services for creating healthy relationships, and it is a major gap in the gay community," said matchmaker Patrick Perrine, founder MyPartner.com, which caters to "sophisticated, cultured and relationship-oriented gay men. "There has been a long-held stereotype that gay people are only looking to hook up." Matchmakers like Chemistry.com, which estimates that about 10% of its 3.7 million clients are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, say all love is equal, straight or gay. The matchmakers claim "you can actually find people who are compatible, and this is a major advance that is going to keep the industry alive for the upcoming 50 years," said Mark Brooks, an Internet dating and social networking consultant. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE

See all posts on myPartner

Dating Site Visits Up, Pre-Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2008

Hitwise_logo 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.

Starting Up: The Business Of Love

Posted on February 14, 2008

Online_dating_nove 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.

Can This Marriage Be Matched?

Posted on February 12, 2008

Eharmonylogo
NY TIMES — Feb 1 — After visiting the eHarmony Labs for my
Findings column on matchmaking, I wondered if its algorithm would match
me and my wife of 12 years, Dana. So we each registered separately with
eHarmony and answered the 258 questions. After we filled out the questions, we each were given a personality
profile. Our biggest difference was in the category of agreeableness:
Dana was rated as consistently taking care of others, while I was
consistently taking care of myself. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

eHarmony’s New Feature

Posted on February 11, 2008

Eharmonylogo EHARMONY BLOG — Feb 11 — eHarmony is introducing the "Who's Viewed Me?" feature, which allows users to see who's been viewing their profiles within the past two weeks. Users can stay incognito by switching the settings to "Anonymous" and their matches won't be able to see that they were checking them out on the sly. There has been numerous opinion of this new feature. Among them is praise because it shows which matches are active, and censure because it encourages game-playing.

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

The Hottest Trends In Online Dating

Posted on February 10, 2008

Mark NETWORK WORLD — Feb 7 — No one knows online dating better than Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. Brooks is a modern-day Cyrano — he's a consultant to many of the Web's largest online dating sites as well as traditional matchmaking services. Network World interviewed Brooks about the hottest trends in online dating.

Q:How many online dating services are there?
MB: Hitwise has estimated there are 800-plus. I think that's about right for the U.S. A lot of them are affiliate sites that are driving traffic to the main dating sites.

Q: How has online dating affected traditional matchmaking services?
MB: Internet dating has warmed an entire generation of users to the prospect of getting help in dating and paying for that help.

Q: What new technologies are you are seeing in online dating?
MB: One of the biggest innovations is avatar-based instant messaging. One site that's pioneering the use of avatars is OmniDate.com. Another emerging technology is iovation, which helps online dating sites battle fraud. With iovation's Reputation Manager, one dating site can flag a person as abusive and throw them out and then let other sites in the online dating community know about it.

Q: How has online dating technology changed in recent years?
MB: Actually, online dating is in about the same place that it has been in for the last three years. One of the things I'd like to see is more technology being applied to personality profiling. In this area there are four companies worth mentioning: Perfectmatch.com; eHarmony.com; Chemistry.com; and True.com.

Q: Have social networkings like Facebook and MySpace cut into online dating traffic?
MB: The numbers show that less people are coming to Internet dating sites. According to ComScore the number of people who came to Internet dating sites in December 2007 was down 10% over the prior year. But I don't think it's the end of online dating. I think the lookilous have gone away.

Q:What are the hottest trends in online dating?
MB: One is the rise in Baby Boomers and also rise of free dating sites, such as Plentyoffish.com, DateHookup.com, OkCupid.com, Matchdoctor.com, Bookofmatches.com, Smooch.com and CrazyBlindDate.com.

Q: What do you see as the future of online dating?
MB: It's difficult to enter the market and be a large generic dating site at this stage. The only thing you can build today is a niche dating site, and even niches are hard to build. That's why we're seeing the rise of a bunch of companies that offer white-label dating services. One of these companies is Whitelabeldating.com.

Full article @ NetworkWorld

eHarmony Launches In Australia

Posted on February 8, 2008

Eharmonylogo NEWS.COM.AU — Feb 7 — eHarmony, which uses a patented Compatibility Matching System to find members suitable partners from their psychological profiles officially launched in Australia. Oxford University researchers studied more than 700 Australian married couples to develop a country-specific matchmaking formula for website eHarmony.com.au.

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