Years ago, eHarmony had a relationship with the ultra-Christian organization Focus on The Family. After the relationship was uncovered and fairly savaged in the press, eHarmony decided it drop the Christian dating angle and went more mainstream.

Fast forward a few years and after a long courtship, Boundless.org, Focus on the Family’s singles webzine, is partnering exclusively with ChristianCafe.com for their new dating partner. Boundless reaches 238 million people in 130 countries, which could be a huge win for ChristianCafe.com.

This looks like a good fit for both companies, hopefully the relationship with Boundless will be a positive one. Can’t get much closer to your optimum customer than this. Congrats to Sam and the team at ChristianCafe.com on the partnership win.

Getting a big whale of a traffic source like this reminds me of how so many companies clamor after AARP partnerships. No doubt this deal was more emotionally weighted and discussed than most traffic deals with interest sites and portals.

What is the Jewish version of Boundless/AARP?

Boundless readers will also benefit from a special offer at ChristianCafe.com of an additional free week during their trial period. To get that extended trial membership to ChristianCafe.com, users can enter the special promo code “Boundless” at www.christiancafe.com, or click on any ChristianCafe.com ad on Boundless.org.

No related posts.

Bravo Partners With OkCupid—It’s a Match: To promote its new show “Most Eligible Dallas”, which follows a group of attractive singles (including a couple NFL players) as they navigate the Texas dating scene, Bravo teamed up with online dating site OkCupid to expand its marketing reach. Bravo calls OkCupid members “smart funny.”

I haven’t seen a dating site media tie-in like this in a while. PerfectMatch did a lot of great media partnerships in the past but has all but dropped off the map in the last few years. Hey Bachelor producers, are you paying attention?

Man Pleads No Contest To Match.com Sex Assault Case: I was pleased to hear that the predatory monster otherwise known as Paul Wurtzel is facing up to a year in prison and must register as a sex offender for life after pleading no contest to sexual assault charges stemming from his online dating escapades. I spent some time on the phone with the woman he attacked and its satisfying to see her put her attacker away. Wonder what this means in terms of her legal injunction against Match.com?

Match.com Tender Offer for Meetic S.A. Successful Based on Results of Initial Offer Period: Raise your glass to Founder Marc Simoncini, who absolutely nailed it with Meetic.

Uninhibited Matchmaking Show “Love Talk” Launches on SiriusXM: professional matchmakers Susan Rose and Jennifer Heller—co-founders of New York-based matchmaking business Rose & Heller and dating site www.susanandjen.com will host Love Talk with Susan and Jennifer, a six-week live, call-in series dedicated to helping listeners across the country find their perfect love match.

Relationship coaches are like social media consultants, its very trendy to offer advice and make a name for yourself, but now that there are literally a thousand dating coaches, who knows which ones are any good and who’s full of it? Full story.

Dating Factory Offers Co-reg API: Co-registration (POST) API update. Usually private label systems and affiliate programs require you to send traffic directly to your website or to their web-sites via the referral link with tracking ID. With the Co-reg API you will be able to up-sell or cross-sell your existing members/leads to your dating site without making people add their details again and fill out a new registration form.

New Dating Book for Dudes: “The Art of War for Dating” by BachelorGuy.com’s Eric Rogell: New-ish dating book for dudes: The Art of War for Dating: Master Sun Tzu’s Tactics to Win Over Women. Just as they turn to Sun Tzu’s honored text for military guidance, guys can sharpen their dating skills by adapting the good general’s advice.

Google is Testing Infinite Scroll: In a move that will slightly impact second-tier SEO players, Google is testing infinite scroll rather than the page-one, page-two paradigm. If they make this permanent, it will make click-through rates decline a little more slowly and a little more smoothly.

How will dating sites leverage the latest iteration of Google Site Links?

No related posts.

A great time was had by all at the eAmore Dating Industry Summit in New York. 150 people got together in Brooklyn to listen to dating industry executives, startups, financiers and vendors.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the event. The main gripe was that the schedule ran too long, and this will certainly be addressed at the next event. From my perspective this was easy to overlook while engaging with a roomful of bright young and passionate dating entrepreneurs for a few hours at a hip event space under the Brooklyn Bridge.

I felt like an elder statesman. Some presenters were 12 when I started covering the dating space. I ended up spending a lot of time on stage and tried to educate and provide perspective by sharing what I’ve learned working with dating sites over the years.

One issue that was continuously reinforced throughout the night is that entrepreneurs tend to avoid focusing on previous attempts in their market. This can be useful if they leverage their myopia in positive ways, or may lead to pain-inducing times if they don’t understand how the market has evolved. That’s where I can help.

Some of my rapid-fire “state of the dating industry” presentation ended up repeating key points Sam Yagan made in his keynote. Example: Social exhaust data is interesting in dating profiles but no one is leveraging it to its full capacity. Mobile is easy to get into, difficult to succeed. The Q&A with Sam was super, he is one of the nicest and smartest people in the industry. We could have listened to Sam talk for an hour straight, he’s that good.

Here’s part 1 of a recap for those of you who were unable to attend. Leave a comment if you have found other write-ups of the event and I’ll add at the bottom. Speaking of attending, people came from all over the US and several people who went to iDate LA came to eAmore on their way home which was great!

As an optimist cynic who thinks he’s heard it all, I learned an incredible amount from some very bright people hell-bent on changing online dating for the better.

The event turned me on to a number of new concepts based on previously-attempted ideas that failed to get significant traction in the marketplace. Examples: mobile matchmaking, white label providers, introduction services and dating site meta-search. Reality is that sometimes it takes a few iterations of an idea for it to take off. Society has to be ready, technology advances, having enough money, the right founders and team and plenty of luck are required to succeed in the dating industry.

Mobile was a hot topic. Most services had or are planning some sort of mobile apps. HowAboutWe talked about their new mobile app.

Andrew Weinreich, founder of mobile dating service MeetMoi was the moderator. Kudos to Andrew for his efforts to keep the event moving along and insightful Q&A sessions.

Parlor.fm is soup-to-nuts voice-based social networking. Almost too much to comprehend in a quick demo. Founder brought LoveDetect to market, a concept I love to this day.

LoKast, creators of disposable social networks impressed. Great for parties and events.

MeepMe has a new take on flirting at events. Lots of UPenn/Wharton people at the event.

A Small World-inspired Invite-only services like Refreshing Note and Clique NYC caught my attention. Great examples of leveraging local networks and the social graph.

I enjoyed finally meeting Lori from Cheek’d. She has great energy and while I was lukewarm from the start on “dating business cards”, her foray into Facebook is worth paying close attention to.

Moonit is based on better relationships through astrology, and does a good job masking the new-age feel of most astro-based services. They have a new API available to dating sites. I can’t believe I didn’t get a chance to say to Dana, who I’ve spoken with a number of times but never met.

Same goes for so many people. I was on stage too much and didn’t get to mingle enough until the very end of a long night. If I didn’t get a chance to say hi, please don’t take it personally. I’d love to talk with you if you are doing something interesting in the dating space.

Spent time with Kareem Ahmed, the founder of Inbox Cupid, a Groupon-style service where members are the deal of the day. I am totally bullish on the concept, huge potential. I would be surprised if the company didn’t attract investment interest in the near future. Kareem called me the Simon Cowell of the dating industry. I’ll take that as a compliment.

Special thanks to Adam Ludwin at RRE Ventures for talking about some of his criteria for investing in dating-related companies. RRE’s money in HowAboutWe is being put to good use. There has been a lot of discussion in the crowd about if suggested date ideas are a strong enough driver of growth.

One key indicator that HAW is on to something is that dating sites are copying the idea.

eFlirt Expert’s “How to pick a dating site” eFlirt Engine service won my vote for most likely to succeed. Built in a “startup weekend” environment, singles need a place where people can go to select the dating site that is right for them.

I love Lokast and a few other demos were great, but there are 60 million people not dating online in the US and we need to get people educated and comfortable with online dating. Then they can go hog-wild with mobile apps and Twitter and all the rest. Plenty of room for new and novel startups, that’s for sure.

Luv@FirstTweet leverages Twitter to build your profile on the go and then match you with other people. I’m slowly warming up to the idea that Twitter can play some sort of role in the matchmaking process.

MyYearbook and Hotlist both talked about social sites with a dating component. Hotlist is a social discovery engine that enables you to view where your Facebook friends and crowds have been in the past, are checked-in right now, and plan to go in the future. MyYearbook, which has that Myspace feel it it, gets over a billion pageviews/month.

I’ll follow up with some more thoughts on eAmore in a follow-up post. Did you attend? Leave a comment and let us know what you thought, it will help us improve the next one.

My hat is off to Maria for putting together a solid event, thanks for all your effort. I’m already looking forward to the next event. In the meantime I’ve got some smaller get-togethers and webinars planned, stay tuned.

No related posts.

No related posts.

Sponsored Post

Real flowers have always been a part of dating and romance. Shouldn’t flowers be a part of online dating? Dating websites can now let their members send each other real flowers.

Florist One Inc has created a free application that allows a dating website to let their members send each other flowers. Flowers are delivered by local FTD florists in the United States and Canada and the dating website earns a 22% commission on every sale. More importantly, deeper and more meaningful connections are created between members.

How are real flowers sent through dating websites?

Real flowers are selected and paid for the by the sender inside the dating website. The recipient receives notification inside the dating website telling them flowers have been purchased for them. The recipient accepts the flowers and provides a delivery address – flowers are then delivered by a local florist to the address provided. The sender never knows, or has access to, the delivery address. The process is simple, safe, secure.

What does the Florist One application look like?

The Florist One application lets a dating website create a storefront to offer flowers inside the dating website. The storefront to sell flowers will look exactly like the dating website. The Florist One application does not have any look and feel – only images and descriptions of flower products are supplied, this information is integrated into the current look and feel of any dating website.

Flowers are viewed, purchased, and accepted completely inside the dating website. Both the sender and the recipient never have to leave the dating website to buy or accept flowers.

Cost and Setup Time

The Florist One application is free to use – a commission of 22% is paid by Florist One to the dating website on every sale. Florist One handles every aspect of customer service and order fulfillment.

The Florist One application can be setup in as little as 40 hours. The application is compatible with any programming language a dating website can be built in.

Flowers and Online Dating

Flowers have always been a part of love and romance. Dating websites never had a way of letting their members send each other flowers. The Florist One application creates a new and significant revenue stream for dating websites by allowing their members to send each other flowers.  Letting members send each other flowers helps them connect in a new and meaningful way and adds excitement to online dating. Members who have received flowers will also be telling their friends about it.

Dating websites that are interested in letting their members send each other flowers can sign-up for the Florist One application, learn more or contact Florist One.

No related posts.

Dating industry executives, we know that sometimes you you need a full-blown consultant to work with you on long-term tactical efforts like marketing plan execution, member acquisition programs or product development efforts. But what if you don’t want to go through the hassle and expense of hiring an expensive consultant for a long-term engagement?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Introducing Online Dating Insider Advisory Services, for those times when a conversation with a dating industry expert is what you need. Buy an hour or two of phone time and you’ll receive access to our wealth of online dating industry knowledge and insight.

No lengthy contracts or hidden fees. You pick up the phone, ask your burning questions, we discuss, and you walk away with the answers you need immediately.

Scheduling advisory services couldn’t be easier. Simply select the number of hours you would like to reserve. Once your order is complete we will be in touch to schedule a time to talk. All you have to do ahead of the call is send us an email with a bullet-point list of reasonable topics you would like to cover. See below to get an idea of whats ok to talk about.

Sign up for Introducing Online Dating Insider Advisory Services below and lets talk.

One Hour $250.00 Two Hours $500.00 Three Hours $700.00

No related posts.

Susan Mernit, who used to run product at Yahoo Personals, had this to say about deal where Match now powers Yahoo Personals.

During the time I was running product at Yahoo! Personals, we had at least 3 different SVPs the unit reported to. Not only did the group get switched around repeatedly, it was clear no one at the top had strong interest in managing this kind of transactional revenue, despite good ROI, strong team, etc.

…And it is a great idea if Yahoo’s best plan is to be an aggregator and make $3-4 MM a year in affiliate referrals via partner payouts for customer acquisition rather than manage greater revenue against greater cost.

But is a great idea?

Not really, But Yahoo! stopped having great ideas a long time ago.

More at Susan’s blog.

No related posts.

Newsflash: Match.com, an operating business of IAC, today announced an agreement by which Match will become the exclusive online dating site on Yahoo!. Yahoo! Personals users will have the opportunity to move to a new co-branded Match.com experience, “Match.com on Yahoo!” where they will combine with the greater Match.com community. The Match.com on Yahoo! service is available starting today.

Sure enough, the Yahoo! Personals home page is branded as “match.com on Yahoo!” Yahoo.match.com, who would have thunk it?

Several months ago I spent time with someone who put together a deal to acquire Yahoo Personals which fell through. Interesting back-story to say the least. Yahoo owned a (once upon a time) top-10 dating site where they got most of their business from marketing to their own 500 million members and to have to sell it to a competitor. Awkward, oh how the mighty have fallen.

Match, which just got a *lot* bigger, has done deals like this in the past. In November of 2008, eHarmony and Yahoo Announce partnership in Australia. I wonder how Match is going to deal with this?

Yahoo! Personals users will receive special offers designed to help them enjoy all that Match.com has to offer. The two companies are working together to help users easily migrate to Match.com on Yahoo!. Over the next two months, existing Yahoo! Personals members will be given the opportunity to seamlessly migrate their Yahoo! Personals accounts over to the new experience. Match.com on Yahoo! offers compelling features including mobile access, daily personalized matches and robust search tools and will fully replace the existing Yahoo! Personals experience at the end of the transition period.

If you migrate over from Yahoo to Match, let us know how it goes.

Yahoo tried to roll out social services like 360, new profiles and scores of other social services, the majority which have been shut down or buried. It sounds like someone at Yahoo finally decided enough is enough. Fish or cut bait, as they say.

Back in 2008 I said:

Yahoo spent an enormous amount of time and energy upgrading their dating site platform. I spoke with Yahoo a year ago, about the upgrade, back when Susan Mernit was still around. Doesn’t seem like anything has changed in ages. Why go through the process of a massive infrastructure upgrade and do so little with it? At least they can start to achieve feature parity with the competition.

At this point it’s safe to say that Match is the Honda Accord of dating. Nobody else come close in terms of worldwide brand recognition, marketing spend and mainstream advertising (the new commercials are very good.) I’ve known in my gut that Match was going to take the brass ring, just like I knew that YouTube was going to be the big winner in the online video business. Both exhibited traits of winning companies and continued to build upon a strong foundation and make solid strategic deals for the most part (Singlesnet, cough, cough.)

Who the heck is Match going to acquire next? Place your bets in the comments.

Congrats to Match, and if you worked at Yahoo! Personals, contact me for help getting another job in the industry. Better yet, come freelance with me while you figure out your next move.

I hope that someone at Yahoo will comment on this. In the meantime, what do you think the sale price was?

No related posts.

Not satisfied with European market domination, Match and Meetic have established a joint venture in Latin America.

Match.com and Meetic will each own 50 percent of the joint venture’s equity, and Match.com will control the new entity’s operations. Match.com will pay Meetic $3 million in cash at the closing, which is expected by March 15, 2010. Meetic’s participation in this new entity is subject to put-and-call rights that can be triggered beginning in the fourth year, when Match could purchase Meetic’s stake at fair market value. An additional payment of $1.5 million could be triggered at that time.

Greg Blatt, CEO, Match.com:

By combining ParPerfeito’s strength in the Brazilian market with Match.com’s presence in the rest of Latin America, we believe we’re best positioned to drive that expansion and create an asset of meaningful value. We’re confident from our work together in Europe that further partnering with Meetic will be a productive experience.

Another day, another big deal for Match and Meetic, who seem quite comfortable with each other given their expanding online dating empire. Match has been looking for partners for a long time, and Meetic and People Media seem to fit the bill quite nicely. Muy bueno.

And what pray tell are eHarmony and Yahoo up to? Eharmony’s international expansion is nowhere near as advanced as Match/Meetic and Yahoo appears to be stagnant, if not faltering.

Something tells me we’ll be hearing more about Match in Asia as well. They have a couple of properties there but we haven’t heard a peep about them in a long time.

More at Boston.com.

No related posts.

DatingHeadshots and Honesty Online have announced a strategic partnership to provide daters with the tools they want to make online dating more fun and successful. Disclaimer, I work with both companies. Through this new partnership, DatingHeadshots and Honesty Online address two areas that have disappointed users — unreliable photos and inaccurate personal information.

DatingHeadshots, an industry leader in online dating photography, offers professional photo shoots that produce accurate, yet flattering photos to post on a dater’s profile. Honesty Online, a leader in online identity verification, provides a secure identity credential so daters can share verified personal information, such as a dater’s age.

Full press release.

This is a terrific partnership. I’ve been working hard to get complimentary companies to work together while pitching their services to online dating sites. Both startups and established dating sites need an a la carte menu of services to choose from. Right now the online dating business development process seems pretty broken and I hope to change that.

Dating sites often don’t have the technical resources to implement third-party technology solutions, but thankfully this new crop of partners have made integration and implementation much easier than say a generation ago.

Ric Fleisher of Honesty Online was on Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show today talking about the company. I spent the 4th of July weekend hanging out with both companies, exciting things are coming, I’ll keep you posted.

No related posts.