Online Dating Insider

Welcome!
Online Dating Insider delivers cutting-edge insight and commentary on all aspects of the online dating industry. Topics include industry news, site reviews, emerging trends, analysis of dating site features, discussion about safety safety, finance and other issues important to the online dating market. Don't miss our Tools & Services directory, useful to anyone running dating or social networking sites. Subscribe to the RSS feed (you can subscribe via email as well). Your comments and suggestions for stories are welcomed.

In 2002, when I started blogging about the online dating industry, there weren’t many news items in the daily press. It wasn’t until around 2004 that there was much daily news, with the exception of dating site launch press releases, of which there were many, some would argue too many.

These days, with the intersection of social networking, online dating, Web 2.0 and new technologies, there’s plenty of news to write about. It’s like drinking from a fire hose.

I used to browse 150+ blogs every day in my newsfeed and I continue to parse that number down to best of breed blogs in various markets and things I’m interested in. It’s a work in progress, just like this blog.

In the past, I’ve tried to stick with commentary, insight and a certain level of punditry, leaving the straight news to Online Personals Watch.

OPW gets more traffic than this blog, naturally. Turns out most people want quick hits, which is not my style of writing (most of the time). People have different needs, and our blogs compliment each other pretty well.

OPW has a lot of people writing for them, and I’m just one person, I can’t spend hours a day reading and writing about the daily news, I’d never get anything else done.

OPW is the front end of Mark Brooks online dating marketing business, as this blog is the primary way I harvest consulting engagements. He writes about companies he works with, or wants to work with, and I do the same, to a lesser extent. We’re both guilty as charged. Welcome to the blogosphere as a marketing medium.

I blog because I love writing and I’m too lazy to write a book and a newspaper deadline terrifies me (anyone watching The Wire this season? Best show on TV, a shame it’s in it’s last season.)

With news aggregators improving at a rapid pace, I think I’ve found better ways to aggregate news and commentary, all in the same blog.

As of today, I am feeding my Google Reader dating news through a new widget. I’m liking the accordion-style display, especially. I haven’t figured out how to include it in the regular Online Dating Insider news feed or email distribution list, but progress has been made in terms of getting the most timely and important news to ODI readers.

I’ll continue to adjust the newsfeed in order to improve results. Remember, this is all automated, and with automation comes a certain level of generic news which I will continue to remove.

As they say, laziness drives innovation.