From the category archives:

Dating Sites

Thread Offers Matchmaker Rewards

by David Evans on March 5, 2010   in Dating Sites

Social dating site Thread continues to slowly releasing new features. the latest batch lets people offer rewards to their friends if they successfully match them up. For example, wine for the first date, $100 to become exclusive and a trip to Australia if they get married. Great idea, and fun.
I was just talking to someone [...]

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What Is Match.com Going to Do Next?

by David Evans on February 26, 2010   in Dating Sites

Given yesterday’s impending acquisition of Singlesnet, I wanted to throw out a few things that I have been thinking about lately.
Recently dating industry insiders have been talking more about how to compete with Match.com.
In my mind, to compete with Match its important to understand the company’s history, various marketing strategies, branding and several other factors, [...]

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Date-Based Dating at How About We…

by David Evans on February 18, 2010   in Dating Sites

Some time ago I met with Aaron Schildkrout and Brian Schechter in Boston to talk about their online dating startup. Fast forward several months and behold the soft launch of How About We, a dating site that puts the date back in dating. Instead of rating people on their dating profiles, you rate them based [...]

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The Guardian Releases Dating Book and a Film

by David Evans on February 15, 2010   in Dating Sites, Marketing

Some interesting news regarding the Guardian newspaper’s Soulmates dating site. The online dating service, which runs on The Dating Lab platform, launched in 2004 to introduce likeminded readers of the Guardian to other likeminded readers. Just over five years later there are 145,000 active members of the site and the Guardian have just commissioned and [...]

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Gay Dating Site Commercial Banned From Superbowl

by David Evans on January 30, 2010   in Dating Sites, Marketing

This is a classic gorilla marketing tactic deserving a golf-clap. ManCrunch (related to sugar daddy site EstablishedMen), creates an ad that CBS will never approve. Planning on being rejected from the start, they send news to TMZ and enjoy the free publicity. Arguments about double standards (see GoDaddy ads), and appropriate content for super bowl [...]

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When it comes to niches one of my favorite originals is FarmersOnly. Of course PeopleMedia is now the clear 500-pound gorilla in the space with it’s network of niche sites, but I’m still a fan of small, passionate dating sites based on well-defined niches. They may not make millions but they have great stories [...]

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Spark Networks, operators of such popular online dating destinations such as JDate.com and ChristianMingle.com, has merged AmericanSingles.com and Date.ca into Spark.com. Having suffered ongoing declines in membership across the majority of their dating site portfolio, Spark has decided that it is now going to compete with Match and eHarmony/Chemistry/Perfectmatch, while attempting to keep the majority [...]

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Women Run the Show on HerWay Dating Site

by David Evans on December 10, 2009   in Dating Sites

Dating sites launch all the time. I receive a constant stream from startups claiming to be the next big Match.com or Plentyoffish killer, the majority of which leave me nonplussed and end up in the circular filing cabinet. This is a big week for dating site launches and Herway, the latest dating site from Mobeze, [...]

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Black Box Republic has launched a new personal relationship oriented members-only community. If you run a dating site or social network or are considering starting one, you should pay close attention to the Blackbox Republic launch.
Case in point, last week I was at a Mega-Tweetup at Microsoft in Cambridge and I ran into Stowe Boyd, [...]

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Dog Lovers Dating Site For Sale

by David Evans on November 21, 2009   in Dating Sites

For Sale: online dating site. Launched in 2006, the world’s first dog lovers dating site was born with a mission to bring single people together from all over the world who shared a passion for dogs.
Niche: Dog lovers.
Potential Market size: 43 million single dog lovers in the US alone.
Membership: Thousands of active members.
Revenue model: Subscription [...]

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