True.com: No More Faces

March 8th, 2008 · 8 Comments

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.

Look at the new True.com ads. They don’t even bother showing faces anymore. Is this progress? No. Does this raise the bar for online dating? No. Does this type of marketing even make a dent in the Adult Friend Finder revenue? Probably not. I’m surprised that they didn’t say that the a*s in question was a True.com member.

Let’s look at the difference between total monthly visits and the number of unique visitors at a few upstart dating sites (thanks Markus).

Look at the drop in total number of monthly visitors to True.com last summer (2007), from 45 million monthly visitors down to 10 million and up around 20 million today. The number plummeted so much because, among other reasons, they stopped buying as much traffic and advertising.

Monthly Visitors: Singlesnet is up 50% over this time last year, Mate1 is down 27%, True is down 36% and match is down 12.5%.

Match’s numbers are more stable because they spend pretty much the same amount on marketing each year. Everyone else is all over the map, because they are buying so much cheap traffic on social networks. This type of spending is generally unsustainable.

A press release will bring a bump in traffic just like an ad on Myspace. Do you want short term spikes that usually can’t be sustained, or a long term strategy for increasing growth over time, including a strong brand, positive reputation and a service that’s actually useful?

I don’t feel that many sites can withstand the hit they take when the ad dollars run out and there is no corresponding growth in the number of signups. We’ll see where these sites are in another year. By that time they will have made their millions, so this exercise is really a waste of time.

Go raise $10-20 million. Start a generic dating site for less than $100k. Spend all your money on driving visitors to your site. Make millions. Pay out millions, rinse, repeat. The problem is the millions it takes to get the initial traction.

I listened to a lot of people this week pitching their site as the next big thing. Without a tremendous amount of capital, it simply isn’t going to happen. Everyone thinks they can start a site for short money, sit back and watch the money pour in. Reality Check: It doesn’t work that way.

A few thoughts:

It makes more sense to focus on niche sites these days. Without a huge war chest, nobody can compete with the majors, at least in the US.

Running a dating site means 10 hour days for the first year. Are you ready for that kind of commitment?

Don’t overestimate the power of press releases at launch time. Send one on the free PR nets, follow up with key people, move on and start focusing on smart spending. There is traffic to be acquired, myriad ways, and you don’t have to resort to lowest-common denominator ads on Facebook and Myspace.

If you want to make a lot of money, do an adult site and take a sliver of the market from AFF and Fling. Or just become an affiliate. It’s a lot less work and there are no customers to deal with. You’re going to be an internet marketer, not running a dating site, so you better get used to it.

If you really are passionate about the business of online dating, why not get a job at a dating site? Better hours, stability and you won’t get a call at 3am when your server crashes. Just a though.

8 responses so far ↓

1 Ross Williams (Check me out!) // Mar 10, 2008 at 4:23 am
Here here!!

Marketing is where the money should be spent - we set up WhiteLabelDating so people could create niche sites for free and then just focus their efforts on marketing to their niche (which hopefully they know well!!)

I am surprised that True are going down that route with their brand rather than creating a separate adult brand on a white label platform - once you go the casual/adult route with your brand there’s no going back but with a separate adult brand at least there’s some differentiation to protect the general brand.

Ross
Rate this:

2.2
2 David Evans (Check me out!) // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:06 am
Ross, I can see a startup starting an adult dating site on a while label provider. That’s a strong niche.

However, you are ignoring the fact that True has it’s own advertising system, security, affiliate marketing programs (for good or for bad), and a lot of infrastructure.

In the case of True, a white label system would not make the best business sense. Sites have different needs based on their requirements and the reality of their situation. A bit of a stretch to think they would start all over again, yes?
Rate this:

3.2
3 Ross Williams (Check me out!) // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:14 am
David,

Let me clarify why I think it still makes sense - by using a white label platform, a site gets immediate access to lots of casual dating members within a proven framework and no cost.

Whilst a site like True servers it’s general dating market well, to set up a casual network they’d need to recruit members and spend time on developing the site.

They could be up and running with a casual version of their site within a few hours of creating the design - there’s no cost to them to do it and if it doesn’t work out they can drop it.

Doing it in-house requires time to grow the casual database, development to support this other network - both expensive and time-consuming rather than being up and running immediately with no cost.

And with most white label providers providing up to 70% of net revenue (and operating costs for most dating sites being above 30% anyway) it’s actually quite a considered decision.

Ross
Rate this:

2.2
4 David Evans (Check me out!) // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:33 am
Your clarification makes perfect sense for newcomers to the market, no arguments there.

True is probably not the best example to use for your argument, is all I am saying.
Rate this:

3.2
5 Craig (Check me out!) // Mar 10, 2008 at 10:13 am
I’m not sure exactly how your white label dating site works, simply because both times I have reached out to white label I have not received a response. (miami right?)
Anyway, I would imagine True would want to use their same platform to hit the more risque market and continue the successful model that works for them now, but I do agree, they should separate the two as different business entities. True.com and TrueAdult.com or something. It prevents True.com users from feeling imposed on by those more “sexually open minded” people. And it prevents those “sexually open” people from feeling short changed when they meet uptight people in your typical True.com membership.
Rate this:

3.2
6 Leonid S. Knyshov (Check me out!) // Mar 10, 2008 at 3:12 pm
It seems true is having a true identity crisis.

These ads signal a complete destruction of the brand and make me think that the board of directors is distracted.

“Endorsed by Psychology Today” - I am tempted to write to Psychology Today and to see if they’d like to re-evaluate their endorsement in light of this change of direction.

http://www.true.com/magazine/saferdating_prosecute.htm - this reads to me like an early 90s adult website disclaimer. “Do not enter if you are under 18, otherwise bad things will happen.”

Maybe they deserve this. :)
Rate this:

2.4
7 David Evans (Check me out!) // Mar 10, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I’ve tried to contact Psychology Today on numerous occasions. The lack of any response is enough for me.
Rate this:

3.2
8 EXPOSED (Check me out!) // Mar 25, 2008 at 1:44 am
Psychology Today does not endorse True.com. I have talk to them. They put an endorsment on the first test created by Jim Houran. It is just another deceptive trade practice by True.

Update on Vest, the guy is off his meds again. Thought/Thinks his wife was/is cheating on him. This is before they went for Invetro and had the twin girls. Wonder if he hired detectives?

Bought a new house and moved out without telling his son that he con into loaning him money for True more then three years ago. Vest was to paid rent, but never did and now his son is in debt and broke because of his dad. Vest then took 2.5 million from his oldest son without his knowledge. Vest’s name was on the Trust account.

Good news! The IRS, SEC, and FBI are investigating Vest and a long history of illegal activities both business and personal. Documents from the lawsuits from the ex and her cooperation with agents may send him to prison and bring her a nice size reward. Good for her! Her main goal has been to stop Vest from destroying the lives of people that loved Vest. Vest ripping off people just wanting to find love and happiness and ripping off his own mother, children, and ex-wife she felt she didn’t have a choice but to go to the proper agencies. Vest can thank his attorney for some damaging information he include in court documents. I understand a conversion with another attorney at the firm also set the ex on the path to the IRS. Her background is in accounting, taxes, and financial matters and knows some things about tax laws. Maybe she was put in his life for a reason

Anyone that signs up with True.com is crazier then Vest! If I were Vest I would start mending fences pretty fast!
Rate this:

3.2