The dating industry has been in the public eye recently due to recent OKCupid blog posts, including The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures and The Case For An Older Woman. I cannot tell you how many press calls I’ve received in the last couple of weeks asking about what this all means for online daters.
At the same time, cable television watchers have been inundated buy the same two Match ads and some new copycat ads from eHarmony. The new Match ads are fantastic the first few times you see them. But after Burn Notice or CSI breaks to the same Match.com guy dropping his meatball on the floor for the fifth time in an hour, one wishes that Match could have spent a few more dollars cranking out a few more commercials.
On Friday, I received a call from Sam Yagan, a co-founder of OKCupid. (The other founders are Chris Coyne, Christian Rudder and Max Krohn.) We had a long conversation, talking about online dating industry trends, recent blog posts, the rise of free dating sites, Sam’s presentation and final panel experience at iDate, the status of the online dating M&A market and much more.
What I want to share with you today is a few stats about the recent blog posts Sam’s team has published which have driven a tremendous amount of traffic to OKCupid. Being interested in customer acquisition costs and the effectiveness of blogs to drive visitors, I asked Sam what sort of resources are assigned to the OKCupid blog.
Hint: if you send me interesting stats about your dating site, I’ll probably write about it here.
I like to talk to people who are open to discussing their businesses, both the wins and the challenges. That’s what turns me on, as opposed to the generally paranoid nature of the online dating industry, which I still don’t fully understand and is holding so many companies back right now.
Publishing the customer acquisition costs, churn rates, lifetime customer value and number of paying members for Match, SinglesNet and eHarmony wouldn’t change a darn thing in the online dating industry.
I wish the phrase “Rising tides raise all ships” were more prevalent in the online dating industry.
Commercials Vs. Public Relations Vs. Social Media
Think about how much Match spends on those commercials. Let’s just say $100 million overall. That’s probably way off but it doesn’t matter, I’m talking about the efforts relative to each other. Now let’s look at the cost of the OKCupid research blog.
Approximately two days a week for an engineer to work the numbers. Christian, the blog author, works on posts around 2.5 days each week. For the equivalent of approximately $50,000/year, or $1,000/week, recent OKCupid blog posts have been read more than 800,000 times a piece. And guess what, the latest post is trending *twice* as popular as the previous one. And they just started a few months ago. I can imagine that they will come up with a game-changing post at some point. Fingers crossed.
It turns out that lots of people reading the posts are married and/or not on OKCupid, resulting in legions of new brand advocates who talk about the blog posts with their friends, on their own blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. This is why social media matters. It’s the next generation of affiliate marketing, although nowhere near as lucrative, at least for now.
Sam was quoted in the New York Times that the first post got them 10,000 new signups. The real number is higher and I hope he will update us with new numbers at some point.
Let’s talk about press releases vs. social media. OKcupid blog posts are receiving an enormous amount of media attention, tweets, blog posts and mentions, all for $1,000/week. Compare that to sending out a press release. They have sent out exactly four press releases since 2006, the last one being February 2007.
There is a difference between the effectiveness of press releases and social media. The primary one is that press releases in general have been so overly abused over the years that the current versions are watered down in terms of news and extremely spiky in terms of traffic. People argue with me over the long tail (shelf life) of press releases, and I think that’s a bunch of baloney.
Well-crafted social media efforts, on the other hand, have a much greater potential to make a great story go viral in a very short period of time, and the overall story tends to have a longer tail. I don’t have the research handy, but the results of a typic dating site press release don’t hold a candle to the amount of attention OKCupid has been able to accomplish with fantastic blog posts.
The entire dating industry is based on acquiring any and all cheap traffic online and off. I on the other hand, am more attuned to branding, messaging and “beyond the banner” trends like social media. Can I just say that I hate the term social media? It’s really just another form of marketing, albeit newer and more exciting than buying banner ads, which is why so many people flock to it.
By publicly releasing such potentially-incendiary research, OKCupid has become dangerous. As the second largest free dating site (please correct me on this if I’m wrong), they are leveraging their ability to speak freely about their site in a way that other sites cannot, or will not reciprocate. The long-term effects of these efforts are not clear, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s all good to me.
Now there is an expectation that OKCupid will continue to deliver the goods. Unlike a press release, which unfortunately sounds like SHOUTING, OKCupid is telling a story, and we can’t wait to hear the next chapter. Nobody eagerly anticipates the next press release from a dating site.
I’ve been asking the dating industry to be more transparent and share their research for many years, and OKCupid is the first company to really take advantage of the wealth of information they have at their fingertips and turned it into a marketing machine.
Granted, the OKCupid team is way ahead of most dating sites in terms of the ability to do this sort of research, and they are much more forward-thinking than most, which gives them an unfair advantage from the start. I eagerly await other dating sites to start publishing their research as well. It’s too bad Match and eHarmony can’t/won’t do this, but there are other sites which are primed to publish.
Traditional dating site press releases are an ineffectual use of marketing resources much of the time. There are too many other channels available which carry more weight and potential upside. For example, having your site re-tweeted by a few big dating blogs could garner more attention than sending out a press release to thousands of people who probably aren’t going to write about you. It’s all about the story you are trying to tell and the action you want your readers to take. Signing up for a dating site is but one action worth considering, there are many others, like leading readers to your blog, which act as a lead-up to a confirmed subscriber.
If you want to talk about creating a social media marketing campaign for your dating site, contact me.
Disclaimer: I sometimes use the OKCupid office to park my stuff when I’m in New York.
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Dave, How do you know that OKCupid’s blog posts are correlated with increasing traffic?
Perhaps there is another cause like:
Free Online Dating Sites like OKCupid and PlentyOfFish had increased their traffic because online daters had noticed that paid sites are offering the same as free sites, there is no need to continue paying and using sites like Match, Chemistry, True, eHarmony, PerfectMatch, Be2, Parship, Meetic and others, which had a 2009 year with Worldwide less traffic than 1 year ago or decaying in traffic .
Moreover OKCupid is a fun online dating site, for entertainment purposes, for flirting, for instant gratification and not for serious dating.
I think a well know trained PhD. Psychologist like Dr. James Houran should check the research OKCupid’s team is conducting because it could be flawed.
Please see how the majority of OKCupid’s free users are big liars and cheaters, you cannot trust in what they say or do!!!
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/10/26/mofo-and-other-mysteries/
October 26th, 2009
46% of men and 30% of women say they are a genius, they think they are one in a thousand!
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Fernando, read carefully, OKC received a million or so additional visitors *to the blog*. I am surprised that you of all people would attack them for making this fascinating research public.
I’m curious which dating sites do you belong to and visit often. Why don’t you list them out in a comment. If you went out on a few dates or actually at least spent a few hours a week on POF and OKC, you would speak of these sites quite differently.
When is the last time you spent an evening in a bar with a bunch of single people talking about dating sites? I do that each and every month. It’s not scientific, but I certainly learn a lot about how people use dating sites and other useful information. You might want to do the same to refresh your perspective.
I can’t believe you call the second largest free dating site “for entertainment purposes”, as if you have to have a personality matching system to be serious? That is total and utter bullshit.
Fernando’s comments are total and utter BS or *he* is a total and utter BS’er?;) I know I have been razzing him, esp. lately, but am I the only one who thinks that his (most of) his comments are totally out there?
Every attempt to engage Fernando in some way or other is met with silence. Then, he comes out with some more ravings and incomprehensible gibberish, as if he no one called him on anything.
C’mon, Fernando, get with the program!
You said it, Dave. The rising tide raises all ships. OkCupid is a perfect example of looking ahead at how to lead in the future, instead of trying to wring a few extra dollars out of the old model. I’ve gone to probably a half-dozen iDates, pitching a vision of online dating sites which retain members by educating them. It’s fascinating to me that no one’s taken me up on the offer – since it would cost very little to teach members how to write profiles, how to write effective first emails, etc. If people knew how to do this stuff, they wouldn’t be quitting in 1-3 months because they’d have a more reasonable set of expectations and the tools to actually succeed in attracting more dates. Instead, sites get people to sign up, then watch them crash and burn – spending more money on marketing and than they do on retention.
Long story short: OkCupid, through statistical analysis, has arrived at the very same conclusions I’ve been making for years (except for their photo post, which blew my mind). I look forward to seeing whatever they produce next – and I highly encourage paid online dating sites to start educating their members, which breeds success, brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.
These are not just buzzwords. This is the kind of stuff that could increase your bottom line by 25% in a year.
I would certainly like to know more about Fernando, his success in the online dating business (or other) and share Sam’s views (really have to stop myself jumping in to follow up on some of Sam’s great posts!!) :)
David, how about a profile piece on who is, without doubt, online dating’s post prolific commenter!?!?
Ross,
Missed you at iDate.
Don’t hold back, man, comment on my comments! :-)
Sam
Datehookup is triple the size of okcupid according to hitwise. Hitwise shows okcupid losing traffic over the past year and they are about to fall out of the top 15.
Anyone can get a lot of attention, but unless it actually translates into more active users and marketshare no one is going to care. Matches new strategy seems to be driving a lot more traffic/revenue as well.
I don’t put Datehookup in the same category as OKCupid. It feels like more of a casual sex site than about dating. It’s another one of those sites that I’ve never, ever heard anyone mention. Ever.
It may be around the same size as OKC but it’s apples and oranges to me (Fling.com ads on the home page). The profile pages made my eyes bleed, ouch.
I guess we have to further differentiate the free market into generic date warehouses, casual sex and serious dating.
Heh, thanks Markus. Always annoying that DateHookup never gets a single mention here. Dave really really loves OKC for some reason, oh well.
Compete shows OKC with a loss of uniques in January(for www domain), so their blog strategy doesn’t seem to be working that well if you ask me, at least as far as driving users to their main site. Could change over time for sure but let’s not fawn over them just yet. The data itself means nothing really. Online daters in general are so lazy it doesn’t matter how much you try to help them, they don’t read anything or listen to any advice. Best just to make things as simple as possible and hope they take some time to create a half-decent profile.
Too bad I don’t have millions in VC funding to waste on having engineers writing blog posts. Must be nice, lol.
http://www.datehookup.com/Forum-4237.htm
All kinds of people on DH. Some casual, some serious, and some who think they’re one type of dater but really another once they meet the right person. And a diverse set of users requires a diverse set of ads ;-)
Dustin,
Imagine you buy some IKEA furniture and take it home. When you get home, you discover there are no directions. No matter. It seems really simple to put this bookshelf together. 4 hours later, you’re cursing at yourself because it’s just not working. You return the IKEA stuff for something that’s already built, or you hire someone to build it.
That’s online dating. And I’m the guy who builds your furniture. There are MILLIONS of motivated people who want online dating to succeed, but not one website has successfully communicated how to do it. This isn’t a function of daters being lazy; this is a function of dating site operators being lazy – not realizing that educating customers is DIRECTLY tied to their bottom line.
The little boxes that say “Tell us about your hobbies” are not directions. The forums where uninformed people coach uninformed people are not directions. The videos on Match.com from someone with no apparent expertise in online dating are not directions. And yet we hope that by “keeping it simple” people will get it right. That’s a very free-market, trickle-down theory – one that hasn’t proven to be correct. People SUCK at online dating and HATE online dating, precisely because they’ve never been taught the right way.
You guys are providing the furniture without the directions, and yet wonder why people can’t put it together and are demanding a refund.
Take it from someone who charges thousands of dollars to help people succeed on your sites – a little education goes a LONG way. Too bad you still don’t see how this can make you money.
Best wishes,
Evan
Dustin, Someone named Rebecca emailed me about DH years ago but after repeated attempts to reach you or her I gave up. Don’t complain about coverage if the first time you mention your site is with a snarky comment ;-)
You’ve been quiet for years and now you’re a big site, so tell us what’s going on. I can’t read minds and if you can’t be bothered to send me an email, well there you have it. Give me something to write about DH. What’s your story, how did you start, what trends are you seeing on your site?
Compete is broken lately, stats are way off for a lot of sites, not just dating. Not sure what’s going on with their measurement system. DH must be underreporting about 25% or thereabouts.
Again, great stories, interesting trends, novel approaches. That’s worth talking about and I’m all ears. If the dating industry would actually say something every once in a while, I’d post a lot more, but everyone just lurks and keeps quiet, so I write what catches my eye and I feel like writing about.
Dating sites that don’t send me news, press releases or tweets pretty much don’t exist in my book.
It always amazes me how poor most dating sites are at internet marketing. I’m always looking for news about dating services to post, yet most send out little except for a press releases.
Tom, I don’t think that it is about dating sites being poor internet marketers, so much as them not seeing the point in sending out news releases – in whatever form – (to dating blogs, in this case) – most are too busy trying to make it in a brutal marketplace.
Those are are making it, don’t care about anything but making it.
I know what you’re saying Sam, but it could be a part of making it. It would be for similar reasons as Dave’s example of Commercials vs Social Media, but scaled down. A lot of dating sites use Google Adwords to generate traffic. The current estimated CPC of “dating sites” is between $1.75 – $2.63 for an ad position of 1 – 3. Not extremely expensive but not cheap either. For a day this ad could run you $500 to $900. For a small percentage of this budget, a dating site could also hire someone to send out news when anything worthwhile happens. Hopefully a few bloggers write about it. Sure nothing major is going to happen right away (i.e. seeing traffic from these posts), it could take even a few years. But within those few years as more posts are created, the dating site is slowly getting exposure and backlinks.
The great thing about this over Google Adwords is the cost. You pay Google X dollars for 1 click and that’s all you get. You will never get anything else. But, with promoting traffic through blogs, social media, etc.. given time, it could generate many visits to the dating site.
I am not saying this type of marketing is going to replace Google Adwords or anything; but it should be a small part in the overall marketing plan.
Tom, I agree with you about the cost/benefit of hiring somone to send out news vs spending $1.75 – $2.63 CPC for the top 3 spots.
Anyone who spends that amount of money CPC is an idiot, and has too much money. No one can make money at that price. No one.
You will never see us spending even close to that amount. Why would we when for just twice that, we can get a full trial profile? Unless we were getting a 50% conversion from clicks to trial profiles, it would never make sense to spend that amount per click.
So, the argument that *we* should spend money on someone to send out news doesn’t work, as we don’t waste marketing dollars on crazy-high CPC bidding in the first place:-)
Besides, why spend *anything at all* on CPC when you can get a top 3 spot on the organic side, which costs us nothing, except for the salaries we are already paying? :-)
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Hi Dave, I am Coleen. I read your blog. I am very impressed to read this blog. thanks for write this blog. Dave, According to me your in right way. So man keep it up. I always with you.
Thank You.
Try eFeelGood.com, I think it will help.
One thing I’m curious about and haven’t seen any real numbers anywhere (which of course is understandable) is how much the big sites such as Mate and AshleyMadison are really spending on advertising and if they’re really making any profit.
I’ve seen astronomical numbers float around like David’s 100 million above (and I’ve seen much bigger). I may be naive but seems to me you need a LOT of users to generate profit above investments of that magnitude.
As for marketing strategy, I do agree that at least blog posts are cheap and tend to leave a trace that stays around.
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