Speeddate saw a 40% increase in users the week after Valentine’s Day this year, and saw a 34% increase in online speed dating in 2009.
It’s common practice for dating sites to feature an associated magazine, blog, Twitter or Facebook account. These are usually filled with first date stories and “expert” advice from dating coaches and enticements to get people to visit the site and sign up. I have been meeting with content providers who will provide dating site magazines with content, some of which provide a much deeper level of service to companies like Match.com. Many daters get their advice and stories from big online magazines like The Frisky, YourTango and AskMen or syndicated content from Single Edition.
This is old news, but I just learned that the guy who sued Match.com dropped his lawsuit against Match.com because he was Humiliated by the media coverage. Turns out the guy actually found a girlfriend on Match. That is hilarious!
Lead generation, member swapping and other forms of acquiring members in the dating industry feels antiquated. Agree or Disagree?
I can imagine a Quantcast-style report for dating sites, which users can leverage to decide which site is best for them. It’s the next version of dating site reviews and a much more targeted affiliate model.
I was reading about Scout Analytics which got me thinking about iovation. What if Iovation Became the Next ComScore? They track millions of computers already, why not get into the traffic measurement business, a market that’s ripe for someone to come in and fix once and for all.
Gay social networking startup Fabulis thingk that citibank is so not fabulis. Why they used Citibank is beyond me.
SecondLife Now So Simple Even Singles Can Use it: Robert Scoble says Second Life’s new player builds toward Web. Watch the first 30 seconds of this video to see why SecondLife makes sense as a virtual dating environment. IMVU would too if it wasnt’ all kids and PC-only.
Google real-time search adds status updates from Facebook Pages.
Checking out Zoosk’s keyword information on Keywordspy. Look at the top competitors with 30-70,000 keywords. Success in the online dating space is basically 100% based on marketing.
Hunch is the new recommendation site from Caterina Fake, who is a Hunch Co-founder and Chief Product Officer. Hunch’s claim is that it gets smarter the more it’s used. I’m partial to Aardvark, but Hunch has some decent first date suggestions. Their What our Valentine’s Day outlook says about us post reminded me of OKCupid’s research.
Last week meetMoi Introduced White Label Mobile Dating with Time Out New York.
Dating site sysadmins will appreciate Making Facebook 2x Faster.
Ignighter.com is Now an Ugly Copy of Singlesnet.
Nerve’s Sex Position of the Day iPhone app.
Funnies from Mingle2:
9 Reasons Not to Date a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Every so often I branch out into other areas of focus, change is good and it gives me a broader perspective which I find helpful when working with the online dating industry. To that end, I’m taking a few days off from the blog to go to New York and give a presentation at the New York Restaurant Show with Tom Jaffee of 8MinuteDating. Our session is titled Creative Strategies for Restaurants to Attract Customers using Social Media.
I’m going to meet with several dating companies in New York as well, contact me if you want to connect on Tuesday.
