Online Dating Insider » Niche

Online Dating Niches, How Small is Too Small?

David Evans — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:23:32 +0000

First, some research from PeopleMedia, who says the majority of black men and women don’t seem care about Valentine’s Day.

A minority, however, does take the holiday to heart, scrambling for any date at all (15 percent) or seeking the comfort of a favorite vice (12 percent). And that’s especially true for Black men, who are more than twice as likely as women to see Valentine’s Day as a fine reason to go on a date.

I love these polls, have received so many of them this week that they all flow together now in a kind of weird online dating zeitgeist of un-related statistics.

PeopleMedia has so many niche sites, Littlepeople, SeniorBlackPeople, BlackBabyBoomerMeet, the list goes on and on. I joined DemocraticPeopleMeet for kicks, but there is one man and one woman from MA there who have logged in in the last 30 days. We are the most democratic state in the union and there is one person for me? That’s too nich-y for me, thankyouverymuch.

Niche dating has all but killed the idea of competing on superior functionality for many dating sites. Might want to scrap those plans for an expensive search engine and put the money into marketing, because the number of people who care if the search works or not, or if the email system stinks, seems to be a minority. Who cares, I’m with my people, all 2,700 of them!

I kid, partially, but the writing is on the wall and I fear that the true innovators like VisualDNA, IntroAnalytics, Basisnote and the other vendors out there fighting the good fight (who I love to talk to, work with and help succeed) and the others pushing the limits are going to be marginalized by the online marketers. I certainly hope this is not the case.

The success of PeopleMedia’s black and senior sites is similar to the story of Spark Networks and JDate. 20+ sites in a network with just a few sites that matter. PeopleMedia timed their acquisition perfectly. The niche dating market is now pretty much sewn up in the US, although if you can identify a micro-niche with a few thousand people in a specific geographic area you could still make a go of it.

That’s the niche market these days, put up as many template-driven sites as you can, turn on the marketing dollars spigot and see what happens. It’s all about effective marketing spend. The roulette-wheel type of luck resembles the record labels, which tend to back 20 bands to get one star, two middling singers and the rest sit in tour busses for the rest of their lives. Here’s to hoping that PeopleMedia doesn’t cannibalize their underperforming sites to support the popular ones. Where will the big, the little and the really big folks go then?

Easydate Ltd has partnered with Dating Factory so they can focus on niche marketing and leave the infrastructure issues to their new partner. The good news for both parties is that adult is what drives the revenue for white label providers and there are no shortage of naughty people in Europe.

I saw today that World Singles are giving away some of their profits for Hatian relief efforts. Good job guys!

Ok, that’s a wrap. Snow day tomorrow!

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People Media Tells All- Succeeding in the Online Dating Business

David Evans — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000

This is one session I wish I had been able to attend last week at iDate. People Media VP Ron Worthy told the story of how the leading niche dating brand went from startup to Match.com acquisition in a few short years. People Media operates 27 individual web properties, reaching nearly 4 million unique users per month. Its portfolio includes six of the Top 50-ranked personal websites.

Worthy was the senior product manager with Community Connect, Inc. (now Interactive One, a unit of Radio One) where he launched several targeted dating sites including the dating vertical for BlackPlanet.com. In 2007, Worthy joined People Media to guide the relaunch of People Mediaâ€™s portfolio of targeted personals sites including BlackPeopleMeet.com — resulting in 30% annual revenue growth for the site. In his current role, Worthy oversees marketing programs, strategic alliances, and community outreach

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This Valentineâ€™s Day there will be Fewer Lonely Farmers

David Evans — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:41:35 +0000

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 to tell.

Great testimonial: Recently, a member called to thank Farmers Only. She met the man of her dreams. On their first date, he drove the 3.5 hours to her home and, knowing she worked with horses, he brought 40 bales of hay instead of the traditional flowers.

How awesome is that? I don’t like to go out to dinner on the first date, let alone lug around bales of hay.

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Online Dating Insider Update 11-22-09

David Evans — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:11:57 +0000

I had a super first trip to Toronto last weekend where I spoke at an FICP conference about social media and social tools. Thanks to Kris Covino at Date.com for showing me around town and taking me out for a great lunch. I got to meet up with a few other people but unfortunately wasn’t able to meet everyone I wanted to (sorry Sam!)

Love this Google/Match.com mashup, courtesy of Adam Richardson.

Skout is using Crowdflower to manage user created content. Crowdflower is a very cool company which, among other things, is built on top of Amazon Turk. Crowdsourcing done right.

A though for the day: The problem with hosted white label dating solutions is that you get what you get, can’t change course midstream, as often happens with custom development. The services which allow customers to change around the look and feel, features and offer the best marketing advice and back-end CRM tools is going to win. There are six or so white label providers out there and a few more on the way. The market is not even getting started yet, expecting many small and mid-tier sites to move to private label solutions, but only if marketing and CRM systems advice are strong, it’s the missing piece.

Tired of Farmville? Try FarmersOnly. I’ve lived in the suburbs or cities all my life and I wouldn’t have the faintest idea what goes on in a feed store, but singles who lead the flannel life might want to check out FarmersOnly.com.

Foursquare Lets Others Play With Its API. Dating sites, take advantage of this!

Patrick Perrine, great, guy, past clients, owner of the original gay eHarmony site, myPartner.com, has written a second book, Sex vs. Love: The Ultimate Showdown.

Unlike my first book, Bringing Perfect Back, Sex vs Love (SvL) is written for men, women, gay or straight! It is an easy read, with a fun and insightful look into sex, love and relationships as they exist today. SvL deconstructs and compartmentalizes sex, love and relationships in a way that helps the reader understand their individual desires and how one can go about fulfilling them through a multitude of satisfying ways.

I hope you enjoy the book, if nothing else, it will make a great stocking stuffer!

Order your copy here: http://www.amazon.com/Sex-vs-Love-Ultimate-Showdown/dp/1439259763/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258394033&sr=8-1

Tweaking the blog this week, let me know if you see anything broken.

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Niche Dating Domains for Sale

David Evans — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:02:42 +0000

Premium *match niche domain portfolio is for sale (examples can be found at MatchZine.com). This covers 120 nationalities all over the world (GermanMatch.com, MexicanMatch.com, etc.) including all of Latin America. Traffic and demographic metrics are available to responding parties â€“ pricing is very reasonable and below market value. Indulge in the hot niche marketplace with higher conversions, SE placement, and the economies of scale of improved branding. To check out more examples, go to MatchZine.com or email MatchZine@tranztek.com for full portfolio information.

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Hotornot Comes to Twitter

David Evans — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:14:15 +0000

It was only a matter of time. It seems that the only browsing model social networking and now social media companies have come up with are variants on HotorNot. Sigh.

The new TwitOrFit shows a random user’s image, along with their most recent Tweet, and gives you the option to either follow their account, or give them a numerical rating, from a 1 (Twit) to a 10 (Fit). As with the “Hot or Not” model, you can select a pull-down menu that says “Show Guys Only”, “Show Girls Only” or “Show Both”.

Full details via uber-blogger Louis Gray.

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Bisexual sues eHarmony for discrimination

David Evans — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:56:22 +0000

Pandora’s box has been opened. Gays weren’t enough, now eHarmony is in the hotseat for not catering to bisexuals. Where is the logical end to the types of people eHarmony must serve. Unhappy polygamists? (thanks to anonymous for this.)

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The Rise Of Group Dating

David Evans — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:23:27 +0000

The 8at8 blog, Tales From The Table, has reprinted a story about group dating from the Wall Street Journal.

Is group dating gathering steam in the 20-something set, or is this just a fad? One thing is clear, 20-somethings are not getting what they need from generic internet dating.

In many ways, 21st-century group-dating is a confluence of its past iterations. It’s become a way for people to identify with youth culture, the Facebook generation’s rebellion against the traditional dating model, and a means for women to dial down the pressure of today’s hypersexualized dating scene. All while increasing the odds that these faces in a crowd will find the right someone.

If your dating site sends out press releases, take a moment to read the entire article. Notice how the reporter writes about several group dating companies, not only 8by8. The piece is more of a survey of the group dating landscape, complete with historical perspective, informative, interesting and well written. All dating site press releases should follow this example. Thats what will get you mentioned in the WSJ as opposed to generic internet coverage. Not that getting mentioned in the Journal will make or break your company, but it certainly elevates your brand above the fray of dating sites competing for attention, at least for a few days.

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Online dating Insider Links for 8-25-08

David Evans — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:23:01 +0000

Using Utterz for today’s today’s podcast.

Today’s audio blog topics:

Gender-bending Match.com thinks my women are men.

Match.com powers Penguin books dating site. Via Mynameiskate.

Speed Dating Goes White Label with Randodate.

DatingAdNetwork blog: Dmitry from RussianFlora talks about foreign brides scam fighting, while Julia from Pilot Group shares her thoughts on dating start-ups and more. http://blog.datingadnetwork.com/

I received this from eHarmony:

As a valued member of eHarmony, we’d like to inform you about an important upgrade to eHarmony’s service that will be launching this week.

Improved customer experience with “My Matches”
Your feedback is very important to us. To address the feedback weâ€™ve received, we have removed the ‘On Hold’ feature to help improve the communication process.

As a result, new matches delivered to you starting August 22, 2008 can no longer be placed ‘On Hold’. This will enable and encourage you to let your matches know if you’re interested sooner. This will also make it easier for you to manage your matches.

How this will affect your Matches
Any matches put ‘On Hold’ prior to August 22nd, will remain on hold and can be easily removed from ‘On Hold’ status by clicking the ‘Re-Open’ button. Please be aware that any matches you re-open cannot be placed on hold again.

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5-1-08 Links

David Evans — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:04:59 +0000

A warm welcome to our new sponsor, Dating Ad Network.
Match closed down their “match studios” service and re-opened it under the name of Match Profile Pro. You can see the ad unit if you go to “edit profile” it’s on the far left hand side of the page. It offers the same things as match studios. Match studios used to cost $40… Match Profile Pro costs $39.99.
Big shout out to Adriana at Lavalife.

I was quoted in the Houston Chronicle talking about Facebook dating applications.

People are tired of shelling out even $10 to $60 per month when they can find dates for free on social networks such as Facebook, according to Dave Evans, a Boston-based social media consultant who writes the blog onlinedatingpost.com. Indeed, Match.com, Yahoo! Personals, True.com and eHarmony have, on average, shed 50 percent of their market share as love seekers have ventured elsewhere, based on figures from Hitwise, a New York City-based Web consulting firm.

Talked to Kelly Brough, CEO of Allegran. Great to learn more about what’s happening with LoopyLove and the UK dating market.
Social dating continues to attract attention. With Sparkbliss, members create and mobilize their private social network for romantic introductions. Each social network consists of trusted friends and family. Profiles and photos are confidential within each social network, as well as identities of persons who receive introductions. Matchmakers are an integral part of Sparkbliss which helps trustworthy people meet trustworthy people.

Look what I found on Facebook. A comparison between myself and Markus Megabucks of PlentyOfFish. No fair, he is in bed with several hotties and I’m goofing around on the beach.
Plentyoffish: Google CTR Down 60%.

Mark Brooks has an article on TechCrunch, Niche Dating Sites Grow Steadily As Mainstream Ones Flail. Misleading sensational headline, typical attention-grabber. Where’s the analysis, all I see is Hitwise stats. Match revenue is up 10% over last year. Not exactly flailing. Casual dating is different from adult dating, I wish people would get this right.
Mark says:

In theory, the perfect dating site would be a single dating site with all the singles on the planet on itâ€¦and really, really good search functionality. In reality, it appears that the market is moving in the opposite direction to this perfect model.

People are poking around the edges of the answer, it’s not monolithic and it’s not niche, it’s something else that I can’t talk about, yet.

Like bad boys? Meet an Inmate.

NY times on niche sites, Let’s Say You Want to Date a Hog Farmer.

SpeedDate.com – 26-year-old girl wants to date 300 guys.
Newsweek on eHarmony, An Algorithm for Mr. Right. This article was news three years ago, execept for the legal matters with Chemistry.com. I don’t think Chemistry should be gunning for eHarmony like this.
So what if eHarmony discriminates as long as they are up front about it? Problem is, they haven’t been. Why would gays want to be on eHarmony anyway when there is so much hype about the growth of the gay dating market, and sites like MyPartner (past client.)

Date a Golfer redesigned their site.

My German dating guru told me that last week the first german online speed date website, OWONDA, launched (www.owonda.de). However it’s rather an online dating website with a speed date module and other cool gadgets then a WooMee or Speeddate, which to me makes it special and worth noting.

Current TV segment on dating tips from Cablight.com.

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