This is the news for October 18th through October 23rd, 2009. Here are some of the topics we covered for this week:
PRESS RELEASE – International Dating Ventures, the holding company for The Right One and Together Dating, and the online dating sites LoveAccess.com and TogetherChristian.com, announced the availability of a co-brand dating solution for media outlets such as a newspaper, radio or television station or show to incorporate a dating service element into their website. 'The solution provides media outlets with ‘dating out of a box' – which means the media outlet provides the brand and marketing and International Dating Ventures takes care of the rest,' explained Nelson Rodriguez, the company's CTO.
The full article was originally published at PR Inside, but is no longer available.
MARKETING SHERPA — Mar 4 — Paul Falzone, CEO of International Dating Ventures (IDV), purchased LoveAccess.com in 2008. He planned to use the dating site to produce leads for a high-end matchmaking company, The Right One/TogetherDating. Falzone’s marketing team attracts online subscribers for LoveAccess.com and leads for The Right One/TogetherDating mostly through affiliate/co-registration, paid search and SEO. “What’s important is to identify if this user qualifies for matchmaking,” says Terry Fitzpatrick, COO of IDV. The team needs to know: Does the prospect live near one of the matchmaking offices? Does the prospect earn enough to consider paying the $3,000 matchmaking fees? Is the prospect single? As a rule, the team won’t email online dating subscribers about the matchmaking services unless they have been in the database for 90 days. “We give them 90 days just to find out … is online dating working?", says Falzone. If it’s not, they’re asked if they would be interested in matchmaking. The last step is a contact via phone. The team generates ~15,000+ leads per month for the telemarketing centers. Results: This year, 25% of gross revenue for TRO/TD came from converting online subscribers into offline matchmaking buyers. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING SHERPA
See all posts on LoveAccess
See all posts on TheRightOne
See all posts on TogetherDating
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
See all posts on Lavalife See all posts on Amor.com
See all posts on PlentyofFish See all posts on Date.com
See all posts on Match.com See all posts on Matchmaker.com
See all posts on PerfectMatch See all posts on LoveAccess
PRESS RELEASE — May 1 — Two dating service leaders are marrying. The Right One and Together Dating, a traditional, brick and mortar matchmaking company with 60 locations in the USA, has acquired the internet dating site LoveAccess.com. Every member of the site will receive a phone call to confirm both their single status and the facts presented in their profiles. A VIP membership will also allow for certifications of the memberships, so that potential dates know they have been cleared with background checks. Mark Brooks, analyst and consultant to the online dating industry and editor of Online Personals Watch, commented, "Match tried matchmaking, now the matchmakers are responding. The matchmakers at The Right One / Together Dating have the real world experience, and Nelson Rodriguez and the team at LoveAccess.com have the online marketing savvy to meld this combination of companies into a highly effective marketing powerhouse."
The full article was originally published at 1888 Press Release, but is no longer available.
OPW — Jan 2 — Online Personals Watch is for online personals marketing managers and executives to stay ahead of the news, and for the press to research the industry. It's not really designed for end users. Having said that, I make a few bucks from affiliate text links. $5k last year. Not too shabby. I thought I'd share the conversion numbers with you, for open discussion. I'm listing companies with which I had more than 1000 click throughs. I'm told affiliates will usually send an affiliate program 300 clicks before drawing initial conclusions on conversions. Here's the rankings drawn from stats for January 1st 2005, through December 25th 2006. I'll redo them for a smaller date range later this quarter.
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Dating site | Affiliate System | Total Commission | Total Uniques | Income per Unique | |
| #1 | PerfectMatch | Commission Junction | $899 | 2567 | 35c | |
| #2 | SexSearch | In House | $1,580 | 4690 | 34c | |
| #3 | TRUE | Commission Junction* | $1,459 | 5626 | 26c | |
| #4 | AdultFriendFinder | In House | $1,523 | 6144 | 25c | |
| #5 | Yahoo Personals | Commission Junction | $1,595 | 6780 | 24c | |
| #6 | eHarmony | Commission Junction | $502 | 3536 | 14.2c | |
| #7 | American Singles | Commission Junction | $285 | 3591 | 7.9c | |
| #8 | Match | Link Share** | $503 | 4887 | 7.7c | |
| #9 | Cupid | Direct Track | $210 | 3334 | 5c | |
| #10 | Joint: Webdate and Love Access |
Both In House | $0 | 2923/1916 | 0c |
* I switched out to TRUE under Primaryads.com and they are paying out a little better.
** I've not had a good experience with LinkShare.
All the sites pay out slightly differently. Where I had an option, I opted to be paid by % of revenue generated. I've focused on Dollars per Unique for this comparison. If you want the full spreadsheet, email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com and I'll send you the stats including the number of registrants, paying members, revenue and additional ratios. Your comments please…
OPW — Jan 2 — Online Personals Watch is for online personals marketing managers and executives to stay ahead of the news, and for the press to research the industry. It's not really designed for end users. Having said that, I make a few bucks from affiliate text links. $5k last year. Not too shabby. I thought I'd share the conversion numbers with you, for open discussion. I'm listing companies with which I had more than 1000 click throughs. I'm told affiliates will usually send an affiliate program 300 clicks before drawing initial conclusions on conversions. Here's the rankings drawn from stats for January 1st 2005, through December 25th 2006. I'll redo them for a smaller date range later this quarter.
|
|
Dating site | Affiliate System | Total Commission | Total Uniques | Income per Unique | |
| #1 | PerfectMatch | Commission Junction | $899 | 2567 | 35c | |
| #2 | SexSearch | In House | $1,580 | 4690 | 34c | |
| #3 | TRUE | Commission Junction* | $1,459 | 5626 | 26c | |
| #4 | AdultFriendFinder | In House | $1,523 | 6144 | 25c | |
| #5 | Yahoo Personals | Commission Junction | $1,595 | 6780 | 24c | |
| #6 | eHarmony | Commission Junction | $502 | 3536 | 14.2c | |
| #7 | American Singles | Commission Junction | $285 | 3591 | 7.9c | |
| #8 | Match | Link Share** | $503 | 4887 | 7.7c | |
| #9 | Cupid | Direct Track | $210 | 3334 | 5c | |
| #10 | Joint: Webdate and Love Access |
Both In House | $0 | 2923/1916 | 0c |
* I switched out to TRUE under Primaryads.com and they are paying out a little better.
** I've not had a good experience with LinkShare.
All the sites pay out slightly differently. Where I had an option, I opted to be paid by % of revenue generated. I've focused on Dollars per Unique for this comparison. If you want the full spreadsheet, email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com and I'll send you the stats including the number of registrants, paying members, revenue and additional ratios. Your comments please…
— Oct 14 — Markus Frind, of Plentyoffish, estimates that scammers operating on Internet dating sites steal at least $100 million a year. Those performing a ruse could be women in Russia asking for money to leave their country; or a Nigerian sending "business proposition" emails. Crooks often use stolen credit cards to join a site, send out messages to other members, wait for responses then sometimes chat for four or five months before asking for money. "It's bad for someone like Yahoo because it reduces the value of their service, it tarnishes their service," says Dave Evans, a consultant to the online dating and social networking industry who also writes a blog. Nelson Rodriguez, CEO of LoveAccess.com, explained that two and a half years ago Nigerian scammers used stolen credit cards to join the site causing so many charge backs (about 1% of all transactions) that it threatened his merchant account with his bank. But he's since blocked Russian and Nigerian IP addresses and cut that rate down by three-quarters. LoveAccess.com, with 3.5 million members, also reviews profiles manually, like its bigger competitors. TRUE created a stir in the industry last summer when it announced a nationwide campaign for legislation to require dating sites to conduct criminal checks of their members. Not everyone agrees with Evans, who estimates that on the majority of dating sites, nearly 10% of all profiles are fake. Mark Brooks, a former executive with Cupid.com, FriendFinder and Friendster, disputes that figure and says the actual dating sites, not their members, are even bigger targets. Fraudsters will set up an affiliate Web site to send traffic and fake members, which earn them a commission that can exceed the price of the monthly membership, says Brooks, who also writes a blog, Online Personals Watch.
Mark Brooks: Of 120 employees onsite at Friendfinder in Palo Alto, CA, over half are dedicated to customer service and the 'abuse team'…which grooms for scammers amongst other things. Smaller sites rely on automated methods for spotting scammers. Larger sites usually apply people resources for checking profiles and dealing with scammers more proactively.
PRNEWSWIRE — Feb 23 — Lycos Dating Search http://www.datingsearch.lycos.com allows users to browse results from iMatchup.com, LoveAccess, Matchmaker, Tickle and True all in one place. "Rather than searching on many different dating sites, online date seekers can now quickly narrow the available field of prospective matches on Lycos Dating Search. We also reintroduced Lycos the dog and the familiar 'Go Get It' slogan," said Adam Soroca, GM Search Services. 50% of online daters evaluate more than one dating site during any given month.
Mark Brooks: From an end user perspective this is a great service. But, does Lycos Dating Search commoditize the online dating sites involved? If many more sites jump on this bandwagon Lycos will be on to an extremely good thing.
USA TODAY — Feb 14 — The industry has grown so fast that Hitwise foresees a shakeout. Says Mark Brooks, who runs Online Personals Watch, "I think we're moving into the first stages of maturity." So companies are trying, like the most desperate bachelor in the bar, to stand out. Those who market love on the Internet are increasingly wooing customers by giving personality and compatibility tests. For the strongest players, the cyberspace dating game remains lucrative. In December, for instance, eHarmony attracted $110 million from two venture-capital firms. "What kind of metrics must eHarmony have shown the VCs to get $110 million?" asks Brooks. JupiterResearch says online-dating revenue hit $473 million in 2004, up from $396 million in 2003. <On background checks>…"That's a solution looking for a problem," complains Jim Safka, the new CEO of rival Match.com. But some competitors grudgingly admire the marketing strategy. "It was brilliant," says Nelson Rodriguez, CEO of LoveAccess.com. "You try to legislate into law your business model." True's CEO Herb Vest warns: "If a person is married or a criminal, they best go somewhere else." True says it intends to prosecute married people who masquerade as singles. "We don't think of ourselves as an online-dating service," says Greg Forgatch, CEO of eHarmony. "We're all about helping people get married and get married well." Yahoo has launched Personals Premier, a $35-a-month service with advanced searching and matchmaking and a personality test. IMatchup.com has unveiled a handwriting-analysis feature. Niche sites proliferate. "I'm not promoting Cupid.com anymore; I'm pitching DesMoines.Cupid.com," says Cupid.com CEO Eric Straus.