Tap tap tap is this thing on? In early July the blog succumbed to a nasty hack while I was on vacation. After several attempts to fix it, I went away again and decided to leave it be. Summer in Boston is short and I’d much rather be camping and hiking, boating and fishing than tearing my hair out debugging my blogging platform (WordPress).
After fixing? the problem (my web host Media Temple and WordPress both dropped the ball, and me for being an idiot), I soon realized that I enjoyed the time off from all of the behind the scenes effort required to single-handedly keep this blog running.
This is a sure sign of burnout and I needed to do something. In this case, I did nothing, and it was exactly what the doctor ordered.
What led up to the big summer no-show? Short version: After eight years, I found myself repeating the same themes over and over again. Running a custom blog is a pain and, generally a positive person, I was feeling lackluster about listening to another “we’re the next Plentyoffish” phone conversation. And advertising dropped precipitously.
Long version: For the past several years, the majority of my time and effort went into this blog and working with dating sites. I was getting lots of requests to work with dating sites, from startups to top 10 properties. The media came knocking and just like that I was mentioned in hundreds of newspaper articles, radio and television interviews. This exposure kept me busy for a few years, and then things started slowing down.
It’s no wonder, really. Social networking has overtaken the Internet, and the blogs covering all things social, location and game-based really took off, while people are not exactly clamoring to read dating industry blogs. Thats what a business cycle is all about.
My goal was always to see if I could sustain myself by writing for hours every week, shaking things up, sharing my insights and expertise and spending the rest of my time doing great work. This worked very well for several years. Besides going to Miami in the dead of winter to drum up a year’s worth of new business and keeping in contact with industry friends, I was landing all of my business by marketing myself through this blog. It felt great to be ahead of the “inbound marketing” trend we hear so much about, but at some point, I could feel this ride was shifting gears.
At one point, I was hoping to earn enough through advertising that I could stop the consulting and focus on the blog 100%. Then I could hire a few writers to crank out posts and save myself for the times I really wanted say what was on my mind. I wish.
Then the economy tanked and killed the advertising on this blog, plain and simple. Which was frustrating, because where else can you reach the key decision makers of a billion-dollar industry for a few hundred dollars a month? I seriously don’t understand why companies looking to sell services or otherwise partner with the dating industry were so quick to bail.
Then there is the situation of my position as an industry observer/insider/consultant, which felt like it was becoming problematic because on one hand I’m talking about how shady and shoddy certain dating sites are, and then asking the industry for work. The irony of this was not lost on me. But I’d rather tell it like it is and sleep well with a few less dollars, thats just how I roll.
So, here we are at the end of summer 2010, and things are going to change around here. I’ll be posting every week or so and putting more focus into servicing existing clients, helping Hollywood parter with the dating industry (red-hot right now) and reaching out to dating site executives to talk about the challenges you face and how we can help (funding, M&A, traffic acquisition, conversions, marketing and much more).
Structurally, I’ll probably revise the blog so it’s less bloggy and more focused on driving new business. Simply put, writing about the online dating industry has been rewarding, but it doesn’t pay the bills on its own. If you want me to write more, buy an ad and hire me. It’s that simple. If you do, I might let you in on a tv show I think your dating site would look great being featured on ;-)
This blog is the definition of a tight-knit community. I know you’re out there and appreciate you ongoing support.
Rain stopped, time for a run.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re still the man. And I look forward to reading however much or however little you end up writing. I have no question it’ll be quality work.
Hi David,
Good to see you back. We were all getting tired of just reading newsfeeds. Blogging is tough and I struggle to come up with new subject matter on Dating Factory. It’seasy to write new stuff and not be repetative when you can write about anything but not when its a tight subject matter.
So lets try one of the new fads d’Jour, Crowdsourcing. Here’s something to write about. I was in mobile content and advertising before Dating Factory and I like many of the investment community aren’t convinced. Do people want mobile convergence of their on line lives? I think alerts are fine if you have a message from someone on a dating site but you can’t replicate the experience. By definition Mobile sucks and always will, the networks can’t cope with amount of data and the size of the screen is limited by the size of the inside pocket of a blazer. Mobile payments are a disaster as the operator takes all of the margin so why would I bother? Maybe some of the other readers can come up with some more topics for you to write about. I find that the biggest problem over time find the subject matter. So lets “crowdsource” it!!
Great to have you back, Dave. And it’s great to see you shaking things up too. I look forward to seeing how you evolve it.
welcome back dave!
the blog generates enough value for me to pay a small subscription fee. perhaps other operators/vendors feel the same way…food for thought.
Hey Dave,
I did a search on your site and noticed that Google is still displaying warnings about your site being hacked. You should log into Google Webmasters Tools and get that fixed.
BTW, Welcome Back!
Tom
Welcome back. We all need a vacation after a while. I notice you are now on Google without the Danger warning from Google.
Yes Dave, some of your pages show the warning thing by google. Hope you are able to get that fixed. Anyway, we are waiting for new posts from you after you get back on track.
Johnny
Dave, still enjoying you blog even if you write a little less.
Myself, I focus on a few quality updates every month instead of trying to cover all the news.
By the way: I agree with Saïd, a small fee would be no problem for me.
Glad to see you back, it will be good to change things up a bit…
Great to have you back Dave. I thought you ran off to Vegas and got married! I think there is still value for internet monetization outside of dating, especially in the social application and in facebook apps, and other communication tools that can be used with Dating, such as mobile. Asia is doing a lot with web monetization and social network monetization. Many companies want to grow and develop their marketing strategies on facebook and other social media. Dating is not just for single people, willing to spend money, that’s a very small niche and market, but as facebook has shown us the web is also for couples and families to share and meet new people through photos, IM, web cams, mobile, etc. There is also the use of web for corporate and professional reasons. Don’t box yourself in. I just had a new idea, how about a dating site set in Vegas and lets people get married after 24 hours of meeting? Call it Impulse Marriage.
i can certainly empathise with you, Dave, as i sit here down the bottom of the world in wonderful New Zealand blogging away and trying to get our magical new dating site http://www.loveonline.co.nz up and running.
like a race with the devil,it is…technology keeps running faster than i can blog but we’re getting there…and we’re proud of what we’re trying to achieve..good luck in your odyysey, Dave..come on down sometime.