Online Dating Insider » Jobs

Senior Marketing Executive Seeks Dating Industry Position

David Evans — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:31:57 +0000

Senior level marketing executive possessing extensive experience with top 10 dating site seeking new opportunity. Over ten years of integrated marketing experience on both client and agency side with vast knowledge of the online dating industry. Experience defining and executing multi-million dollar marketing campaigns across all forms of media including online, print and radio. In-depth understanding of media planning/buying (CPA, CPM, SEM and email), including managing, optimizing and reporting. Contacts and working relationships with all top tier networks and websites and an extensive Rolodex of contacts. Contact seniormarketingexec@gmail.com.

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Userplane Founder Mike Jones Is New MySpace COO

David Evans — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:33:53 +0000

In 2004 I went to visit my god daughter in San Francisco. At the same time, Rich Goss, the founder of American Singles, was having a singles event. Evan Katz (Advice from a Single Dating Expert), Meir (Date), Mark Brooks (Online Personals Watch) and Mike Jones (Userplane) were all there, along with a bunch of other people I’m forgetting.

Reading Tech Crunch this morning, I see that Mike Jones has been tapped to be the next COO of MySpace. Anyone who has worked with Mike knows what an amazing person, entrepreneur and businessman he is and how lucky MySpace is to have him.

After selling Userplane to AOL in 2006 for around $40 million, Mike went on to found Tsavo, which is tasked with tailoring content to individuals based on their online actions and also acquiring a number of online properties. The company is off to a strong start.

More will be written about Mike’s new role in coming days, for now, read Confirmed: Former AOL Exec Mike Jones To Take COO Role At MySpace for the most up-to-date details.

Congratulations and best of luck to Mike. You can keep up with him at his Myspace page.

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Hirings at White Label Dating

David Evans — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:52:50 +0000

WhiteLabelDating has announced that Rick Jones has been named marketing director and appointed as a board member. Jones has 11 years online marketing experience and joins WLD from Greenbee.com, John Lewis’ services arm. As head of marketing he was responsible for the development and re-launch of the Greenbee brand as well as overseeing marketing of the Partnershipâ€™s credit card and loyalty programme.

WLD also today announces the appointment of Mel Kirk to the position of partner marketing manager. An experienced social media consultant and blogger, Kirk joins WLD from Aardman Animations.

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Match.com Announces New CEO

David Evans — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:25:51 +0000

Mandy Ginsberg at Match just called to fill me in on the Match deal with Meetic. I’m busy talking with people about the deal, In the meantime I wanted to let you know that Match has a new CEO.

IAC announced today that Greg Blatt, currently IAC’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Match.com.

Outgoing CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony grew Match 2.5X during his tenure, which began in April of 2007. Previously, Thomas was the COO of Match. Like most outgoing CEOs, Enraght-Moony is going to take some time off to spend time with family and evaluate opportunities.

Incoming CEO Greg Blatt was general council for IAC and has been heavily involved with Match operations during the last six months. Since September of 2008 he has had specific corporate oversight responsibility for Match.com (and on a personal note, as a user of the site).

As CEO of Match.com, Mr. Blatt will have primary responsibility for the strategic and operational leadership of IAC’s personals businesses, which includes the global operations for its flagship brand, Match.com, as well as Chemistry.com and DowntoEarth.com. Following the sale of Match.com Europe to Meetic, Match.com will operate leading subscription-based online dating sites in 24 countries, in eight languages and spanning five continents, as well as oversee its ongoing investment in Meetic.

Mr. Blatt will retain his current role as Executive Vice President of IAC and will continue to serve in IAC’s Office of the Chairman, but will no longer serve as General Counsel of IAC. Gregg Winiarski, previously Vice President, Associate General Counsel, has been named the Senior Vice President, General Counsel of IAC, reporting to Mr. Blatt.

Mandy said that Match is humming along, last quarter was the best in 14 years and Blatt will focus on keeping the momentum going and continuing to grow the global Match brand. Previously, Blatt served as Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and General Counsel of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc.

Best of luck to Thomas and a big welcome to Greg, who I hope will resurrect the Match CEO Blog.

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Plentyoffish is Hiring

David Evans — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:52:17 +0000

As Plentyoffish continues to grow, owner Markus Frind is looking to hire additional staff. He is tired of building servers and tending to storage arrays. Great problems to have when you’re making several million dollars a year working a few hours a day. I respectfully submit my resume to be his chief innovation officer, kidding.

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Executive Changes at Match.com

David Evans — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:27:12 +0000

Mandy Ginsberg, General Manager of Chemistry.com, has been named GM and SVP for all North American operations at Match.com. Ginsberg replaces Craig Wax, who is no longer with the company.

Congrats to Mandy, who I finally got to meet in person at iDate in Miami this year. Match CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony was GM and SVP for three years before becoming CEO in April 2007. Will she follow suit?

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Online Dating News: July 18, 2008

David Evans — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:38:18 +0000

Back from a few days on Nantucket. I feel like I’ve been away for a month. Next week I’m taking a few days off as well, need to get in some summertime fun while it lasts.

ReadWriteWeb says:

More than 10% of the searches for the top 10 dating search terms were URLs (match.com, plentyoffish.com) and almost all of the queries were something that .com could have been added to for direct navigation. If mainstream users learned to navigate using the address bar instead of the search bar – what would happen to the search economy and innovation online?

Follow the link to see dating search terms, from Hitwise. Turns out browser builders should probably get rid of the address bar and just go with a Google search box instead.

June Hitwise Dating Site Rankings from Online Personals Watch. I don’t know why I bother to even mention traffic stats, all they reflect is the amount of money sites spend on advertising. It’s the same handful of sites which continue to buy lots of cheap traffic. The numbers have zero to do with the quality of the sites, so what if you can drive a lot of traffic to your site? Just look at how Mate1 is falling off the chart after spending millions to break into the top 10.

What is the value of Yahoo Personals? I can’t believe Hitwise didn’t break out Y! Personals traffic in this article about the value of Yahoo properties.

SNAP Interactive’s ‘Are You Interested’ Dating Application Surpasses 10 Million Users on Facebook.

I love hearing about advice for making a great first impression. Lately I’ve been thinking about the importance of a great personal ad photo. I have 25 photos on Match. I’m snowboarding, driving a tractor, riding my bike, standard boring professional headshot, holding up a giant fish, relaxing with friends or doing rock-star karaoke. I want to show that I have range.

But what constitutes a great primary photo? A friend told me that he put his profile photos on HotOrNot and found out that his primary photo didn’t get nearly as good a response as some of his other pix. What a great idea.

IsACatch takes on Engage. Site home page features a McCain ad, huh?

Because sometimes someone else isn’t around to help.

Facebook Chat Easter Eggs.

SpeedDate Facebook application bites the dust.

Online Dating Goes Web 3.0 with MyLove2be.com. Throwing a bunch of features together isn’t what makes a great dating site, and what’s with charging for the service?

G-dating Dating Site Builder.

HuffPo on Today’s #1 Dating Problem: Love Maximization.

Unfortunately, in today’s online world, it’s very easy to become a “love maximizer” with the tempting smorgasbord of dating choices constantly available. With so much choice, it’s so easy to fall into the temptation of seeking an “upgrade”–even when your sweetie is total sweetie! Or you can wind up with “choice paralysis” and not be able to get into a relationship at all.

OPW’s MyDouble CEO interview. Facial recognition is the new speed dating. There are several well-funded facial recognition companies entering the online dating space. I don’t see the value in the whole “sharing matched photos with friends” thing. That’s not a business, that’s a fun little widget for your profile page. Based on the demos I’ve seen and the conversations I’m having with companies in the space, there are much more compelling ways to implement pattern matching. I’ll be talking a lot more about this in the near future.

Eharmony blog says eHarmony is buying ProjectWedding.

Client Viximo was mentioned in a Boston Globe article about virtual goods. Businessweek has a similar article, Venture Capital Loves Virtual.

Match.com has tiered pricing on the subscription page (thanks to my friend up north for the info.) Did someone at Match go buy some new servers? Site is positively snappy these days.

According to Job listing aggregator Indeed, Yahoo! Personals is looking for a new General Manager. What’s that, 4 managers in as many years? Current GM Egon Smola has been in the position eight months. Here are the official Y! Personals Job Openings.

Bring out the Tinfoil Hats: Paranormal Passions introduces 100% free social networking & online dating for believers in the paranormal…and for those who aren’t sure, but have an open mind. With groups allowing members to focus on their particular area of interest, it is easy to find people who share a passion for ghost hunting, psychic phenomena, UFO’s & hauntings. While there is no way of knowing if other-worldly participants watch over the site too, it would be a great place for them to find open minds, wouldn’t it.

My favorite story of the week by far: President Bush Boosts Porn Industry With Economic Stimulus Plan.

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Job: eHarmony Data Modeller Architect

David Evans — Sun, 04 May 2008 23:12:22 +0000

Eharmony is looking for a Data Modeller / Architect.

Perform data design in transactional, reporting and data warehouse database environments accessed by global applications. Supporting several development teams simultaneously, analyze system requirements and data to create logical and physical data models conforming to corporate standards. Create data mappings and specifications for ETL routines, DML for data loads, and creation of Microstrategy universes.

I’ve always wondered if dating site developers inserted undocumented Easter Eggs (hidden feature or message) into their code, so if you, for example, searched for people over 8 feet tall and 900 lbs the search results would say something funny.

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World Dating Partners Announces new N.A CEO

David Evans — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:00:54 +0000

World Dating Partners has hired Christine Johanson to be the new CEO of North American Operations. Christine is tasked with managing and further developing WDP alliances with leading North American brands. Before joining World Dating Partners, Christine was Head of the Global Strategies Division of NeuStar Ultra Services, an organization which works with the largest web properties within Advertising, Affiliate, Software, Retail, Gaming, Dating, and Domains to promote property growth and web traffic through increased availability.

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Ex-Match.com CEO to Head Ask.com

David Evans — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:01:34 +0000

Jim Safka has been named CEO of Ask.com effective immediately.

He will oversee Ask.comâ€™s global operations and continue in his role as CEO of Primal Ventures, a new-venture entity that identifies seeds and incubates business opportunities for IAC (NSDQ: IACI). He was appointed to that role last year after serving as CEO of Match.com from 2004 to 2006.

Congrats to Jim on his new position.

Via paidContent.

The Compete blog says:

Ask held the dubious title of posting the largest overall decline in search volume in December. Although a 5% month-over-month decline in search volume after a substantial increase is hardly anything new to Ask. Despite the roller coaster ride, year-over-year Ask volume was up nearly 31%. Unfortunately, when youâ€™re the little guy you need astronomical gains to make real headway. Market share for Ask was essentially unchanged from December 2006.

Safka certainly has his work cut out for himself.

ask.com, Jobs

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