THE PARADIGM SHIFT – Sep 30 - Google has added view through conversions to google adwords today. I’ve long used view throughs as click throughs are absolutely meaningless. Plentyoffish's users spend 10’s of millions on other dating sites every month and now using view thoughs other dating sites can find out just how much they are really making advertising on plentyoffish.com.
The full article was originally published at The Paradigm Shift, but is no longer available.
PARADIGM SHIFT – Sep 24 - Here are the top dating sites in the world, from the latest Comscore July 2009 report.
The most interesting trend over the last year is the growing difference between usage at paid sites verses free sites and hybrids like Singlesnet. If you combine total visits at Singlesnet and Plentyoffish in the US, those 2 sites combined already have more monthly visits than all pure paid sites combined.
The full article was originally published at The Paradigm Shift, but is no longer available.
FLORIDA TODAY – Sep 22 – Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch and an industry consultant, said that online dating is growing in popularity because it is a cheaper alternative to filtering your way through the real world to the match of your dreams. PlentyofFish.com, a free dating site averaging ~3M unique visitors per month, has seen a jump in growth since the economic downturn. The site saw a 94% increase in traffic from June 2008 to June 2009. eHarmony.com has seen a 48% gain in traffic since last year and Match.com saw its strongest fourth quarter in about seven years in 2008. Two Indialantic entrepreneurs have capitalized on the trend, creating a new site called vacancylove.com. It is in beta-testing until Oct. 1, when it will officially launch. Until then, users who sign up will get a free 90-day membership.
The full article was originally published at Florida Today, but is no longer available.
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June 2009 OPW News Summary from Mark Brooks.
This is actually the news for June. We're playing catch up. July and August are in process. Here's the news we covered for June.
- eHarmony survey finds 51% of single parents believe that they and their children are better off emotionally when the parent is in a committed relationship
– Match and eHarmony success rates.
– Spark Networks revenue down
– DatingTrail.co.uk launches
– Virtual goods startups raise $69 million funding in Q1
– Great Expectations complaints
– PlentyOfFish.com and rapper Flo Rida team up
– McGinn vs Match.com lawsuit
- ChristianCafe.com and Single Christian Network combines
– IAC completes transaction with Meetic
– Meetic signs partnership with MSN for distribution in 12 European countries
-meetMoi location based mobile dating partners with ClearSky
– Virtual Greats and Viximo partner
– Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine selected to power Deutsche Telekom’s FriendScout24
WESTENDER — Aug 26 — Singles in Vancouver seem to put more effort into finding a mate when the leaves start to turn. “Once it starts getting a little bit colder, people stay indoors a lot more — and, of course, are on their computers — and would like to find someone to snuggle up and watch a movie with,” says Kate Bilenki, spokesperson for Plentyoffish.com. “We notice an increase in the fall, and a very large jump comes around Christmas.” While Plentyoffish generates a high volume of traffic because it offers free membership, local paid dating services such as Executive Search Dating (ESD) also see an increase in business in the fall.
The full article was originally published at Westender, but is no longer available.
FORBES — Aug 25 — Online dating is now a $950M industry and according to Nielsen dating sites snared 27.5M unique visitors in June. Forbes used Nielsen's latest unique-visitor data for June 2009 to rank the 10 most popular dating sites. #1: eHarmony.com, with 4.25M visitors, up 48% YOY. Yahoo Personals came in at #2, with 4.1M uniques, followed by Match.com, with 3.4M. Plentyoffish.com, at #6, boasting 2.2M viewers, nearly double the amount a year ago. Noteworthy is the 91 minutes that an average users spends per visit. "Unlike other dating sites, Plentyoffish relies less on a marketing blitz than on word of mouth from satisfied customers", says founder Markus Frind. In Depth: The 10 Top Online Dating Sites. FULL ARTICLE @ FORBES
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WSJ — July 29 — eHarmony has twice commissioned studies from Harris Interactive to estimate its impact on marriages. The first, in 2005, found that 90 people a day married because of the site. The second, in 2007, found that the number had surged to 236. Using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on marriages, eHarmony estimated that it could claim credit for 2% of marriages in the U.S. A Match.com media kit claimed that 12 marriages a day trace their roots to the site, but the company now says it's inaccurate. Markus Frind, CEO of PlenyofFish.com, says his site creates 800,000 relationships each year, according to exit interviews with departing members. ~100,000 marriages per year. The only statistic Mr. Frind knows with certainty is the number of members who have self-reported success stories on his site — now ~ 2,000. FULL ARTICLE @ WSJ
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NY TIMES — July 17 – Professor Helen Fisher, of Chemistry.com, studied the neural chemistry of people in love. She zeroes in on six specific chemicals, which are linked to certain traits. Those with a preponderance of dopamine and norepinephrine she named “explorers,” those with serotonin are “builders,” those with testosterone are “directors” and those with estrogen and oxytocin are “negotiators.” The 56-question test that Fisher has developed for Chemistry.com helps identify who is a builder, an explorer and so on. She has also studied 28,000 people and found that those who are explorers tend to pick explorers, builders tend to choose builders, while directors and negotiators often select each other. James Houran, a relationship psychologist who has developed “compatibility matching tools” for Plentyoffish.com, a free dating site, said his work indicated that people who met someone through the site were more satisfied in their relationships than those who met in other ways. GenePartner scientists developed a formula that successfully determined genetic compatibility. After receiving the DNA results users can hunt for their genetic soul mate on Genepartner.com. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
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ONLINE DATING MAGAZINE — July 13 — iDate is an
established conference for the online dating industry, but it’s not a
venue for consumers. It is the only dating conference in the US, and it
runs two US shows a year.
– Personalization
33TV — July 13 — After a long marriage, Alexander Drake is once again dating and in this economy he chose the free site PlentyOfFish.com. "I had zero expectations, but it wasn't worth spending money if it was going to turn out to be something that didn't work for me." It seems the down economy is not hurting dating. Match January membership was up 16% over the same time last year. And from January to May eHarmony saw its registration grow 20% over the same time period last year. eHarmony did a national survey recently and found one if four unmarried men and women want a long term relationship more as a result of the current economic climate.
The full article was originally published at 33TV, but is no longer available.
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