NEWSWIRE — Jan 13 — Lavalife today announced a five-year exclusive integrated personals partnership with Sympatico.MSN.ca. The new partnership gives singles the opportunity to access Lavalife content and services across all Sympatico.MSN.ca properties, including its portal, MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger providing Lavalife with access to more than 85% of all Canadian Internet users.
Sure-fire Sweetheart Suggestions from Dr Warren of eHarmony
NASHVILLE CITY PAPER — Jan 11 — 50% of marriages survive the long haul, but half of those relationships have at least one partner who’s unhappy, according to Dr. Neil Clark Warren, a California-based psychotherapist, marital counselor and author of best-selling books on relationships. "This culture is being eaten alive by marital dissatisfaction," said Warren, married for more than 45 years." So Warren founded eHarmony.com, an online dating site that gives members an extensive questionnaire based on 37 years of clinical experience and research with 7,000 individuals and couples. His latest book is Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons: How to Find Your Soul Mate. Warren also suggests holding back on sharing your heart or your bed with any person until you’ve determined that they’re worthy of your most intimate beliefs and feelings.
Mark Brooks: We’re in dire straits aren’t we? Good news though; 5% of marriages last 50 years! (Of course, they were raised when it was the expectation that people stayed married forever) Dr Warren has written several relationships books. Also books on anger management and religion.
Pitt, Aniston Offered Free Membership to Divorcedating.com
US Newswire — Jan 10 — Founder of divorcedating.com, the nation's premiere dating and information website for singles, divorcees, widows and more, today offered the recently separated Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston a free membership the to the website.
Mark Brooks: FACT:Unmarried singles tend to search for unmarried singles. Nice niche, no traffic, brand new site.
eHarmony and ThirdAge Partner
PRNewswire — Jan 10 — eHarmony and ThirdAge, the only online content, marketing and research company focused exclusively on Baby Boomers, today announced a partnership to provide branded access to eHarmony's patented Compatibility Matching System(TM) to millions of Baby Boomers via ThirdAge.com. More than one-third of the 97 million Americans over 45 are unattached and are turning to the Internet for love.
Mark Brooks: The seniors niche is booming as the 45+ set warm up to online dating. Seniorfriendfinder is the niche leader. Seniorscircle is a small player.
MatchNet plc Changes Its Name to Spark Networks plc
PRNewswire — Jan 10 — MatchNet plc (AmericanSingles, JDate) today announced that the company has changed its corporate name to Spark Networks plc, effective today. It expects the Spark Networks name to more sharply distinguish the company in the marketplace. The company also said that it has launched a new corporate Web site at www.spark-networks.com.
Nielsen/NetRatings Figures Reveal Meetic is Leader of European Online Dating
PR WEB – Jan 8 — According to the latest data compiled by Nielsen NetRatings* (November 2004) for Western Europe, the online dating website Meetic is #1 in Europe. PR WEB
Mark Brooks: I compared Nielsen numbers and Comscore Mediametrix numbers for FriendFinder in September 2003 and was blown away by the difference. Nielsen used a 55,000 USA user sample, Comscore a 110,000 sample set. Hitwise draws it’s numbers from millions of ISP users. Of course, if you don’t want to spend a few grand you can always use Alexa’s rough numbers.
Dating Goes Back Offline
On dates more than a few of the handsome, rugged, athletic types she thought she had been corresponding with looked more like George Costanza than George Clooney. Some of those “single” guys turned out to have wives. Feeling weary and, she said, “jerked around,” Gold let her paid subscription to Match.com expire, and she has turned to real-life singles mixers for professionals. “It’s a lot of effort, and it’s really no different from the people you meet in the offline world,” she said. “I’m becoming disenchanted. I’ve got people contacting me from North Carolina and New Mexico, and that’s not going to work.”
Mark Brooks: Where else can you go to fast search through over one million eligibles? Yes, online dating is a lot of work…but if your goal is to hook-up for the long haul, it’s the most important decision you’ll ever make so it’s worth investing in a quality online dating service to help narrow the field in a hurry. btw…One of the reasons online dating is settling down from three figure growth rates is because of massive amounts of competition for online advertising. The industry is still growing by $100’s of millions of dollars a year.
TRUE Adds Online Profile Coaching
PRNewswire — Jan 5 — TRUE will offer all members personalized recommendations on how to successfully market themselves to potential dates by drafting the ultimate online personal profile. Additionally, for a limited time can receive the profile advice free, courtesy of TRUE.
Mark Brooks: Profile Doctor, e-cyrano, Look Better Online look out. Profile writing is being wrapped up into the online dating services.
Match.com Launches 15-Day Love Challenge
PRNewswire — Jan 4 — Match launched its 15-day "workout" program to help singles simplify their search for love in 2005; offers fun and realistic advice and tips for taking a proactive approach to dating in the New Year.
Where Everyone Becomes an Advertiser
INTERNET RETAILER — Buy.com sees social networking as a springboard to the future of retail e-commerce; acquired metails.com last fall and has since renamed it Yub.com. “Social networking is the next wave of the Internet,” asserts Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, which expects to boost its number of subscribers with a social networking feature it launched late November. Friendster (13 million members) just sells commercial advertising space so far. eBay’s system of letting buyers and sellers rate each other has for years served as a form of social networking. For now, Yub.com appears to be the only site offering to pay commissions to members whose product referrals lead to purchases. INTERNET RETAILER
Mark Brooks: Affiliate programs to the power ten. But will the ideavirus spread when there’s an obvious commercial agenda. Yub pays 1% to both buyer and seller. Add a little more weight to the percentages and everyone will become an MLM based affiliate. Shhh, don’t tell Amway.