Dating Services

It looks like Plenty of Fish has a new advertising and marketing plan aimed at young adults and it involves celebrities. The first hint of this new tactic was when PlentyOfFish.com appeared in a Flo Rida video for the song Available (see Story). At first I thought it was a strictly a promotional partnership between the dating site and Flo (POF is in the video, so the dating site will then promote Flo Rida) but now I am not so sure. I have a feeling POF basically paid to be included in the video for the publicity.

Plenty Of Fish now has a new promotion featuring Lady Gaga. At each concert stop on The Monster Ball tour, two singles can win a "date of a lifetime". The date includes tickets to the concert and backstage passes. To enter the contest you can visit the Lady Gaga page on POF.

It definitely looks like POF is trying to attract young adults to their dating site by being associated with popular music artists. I wonder if they will be doing other advertising, besides using the internet, to promote this new contest?

For a bit more on the story, read the press release. To find out what singles are saying about POF, read our Plentyoffish.com review.

CEO Noel Biderman is the face of Ashley Madison, and he has taken the marketing of the affairs dating site to the next level. He has a partnership with the Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show, has ads on billboards and has created TV commercials (that most never seem to be allowed on air, see Story). He has even started to market AshleyMadison.com as a place where the married can pursue their same-sex attractions.

Currently The Ashley Madison Agency has between 4.6 and 4.7 million members who have logged on seeking and extramarital affair (I assume since the site launched in 2001). 30 percent (or 1.41 million) of these members are women. Also, about 150 thousand members are looking for a same-sex affair with two thirds being women looking for women. From a survey run on the affairs site, 50 percent of all respondents (both men and women) are not first timers and admit to cheating within a relationship at least once.

It is estimated that Ashley Madison generates tens of millions in revenue a year. People who have created a membership on the website can search for other members for free but must buy credits to message or chat. Ashley Madison even guarantees an affair with their most expensive subscription package. For $249 USD it is guaranteed you will find someone in 3 months to have an affair with, or you will get your money refunded. Currently AshleyMadison.com is the leading extramarital affairs dating site in the United States, Canada and Australia.

For more on this story, read MSN Money.

On November 5th, 2009 Spark Networks reported their third quarter results which ended on September 30, 2009. For Q3, 2009 Spark Networks revenue was $11.1 million. This is a 21 percent decrease from Q3, 2008 of $14 million and a 2 percent decrease from last quarter. For the first 9 months of this year total revenue is now at $34.3 million which is a 22 percent decrease from last year of $44.1 million.

The Jewish Networks saw revenue fall to $7.1 million for Q3. For the same quarter last year, revenue was 16 percent more at $8.4 million. Some good news is to be found though, for the first time in a few quarters, the Jewish Networks had an increase of subscribers to 86,051. This is a decrease of 6 percent from Q3, 2008 but a 4 percent increase from the prior quarter.

The Other Affinity Networks (MingleMatch) saw a decrease of 9% in revenue to $3.2 million when compared to last year. This is 3 percent less than the last quarter. Subscriber wise for the third quarter, there was 66,786. This is virtually identical to Q3 in 2008 and a 2 percent increase from last quarter.

What services are included in the mobile dating market? Basically anything designed to be accessed by a cell phone for the purposes of finding and communicating with a date. This includes mobile phone applications (think iPhone Apps), mobile internet services (accessible via the phones web browser) and text based services (Twitter like).

The global mobile dating market appears to have a bright future indeed. In 2007 the industry was worth $330 million already (Juniper Research). By 2008 it had jumped over 60% to $550 million and by 2013 it is expected to double to $1.3 billion.

In part what is driving this industry are the capabilities of the phones themselves. As more people get GPS enabled smart phones and as the dating software become more sophisticated, yet easier to use for the user, more people are willing to try out these services. Still, mobile phone dating is more about instant gratification. It is considered a tech-savvy young adults tool, who is not looking for so much a long term relationship, but a casual fling or hook-up. This is why most dating profiles on a mobile dating service contains only a few questions since it is designed primarily to get the user to be able to search for matches as soon as possible.

Here is a list of a few dating applications usable on your phone:

• DateCheck - For background checks. You can search criminal records and if they own property, etc...
• Skout - An iPhone app that uses the iPhones GPS to offer a real-time location based service for online daters.
• Radaroo - A Twitter app for meeting singles.
• Zoosk - A dating site which integrates with social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The free dating site OkCupid is also planning to launch a free iPhone dating app in the near future which will offer a location based service. Sam Yagan, CEO of OkCupid.com says that the main challenges is to create a big enough user base in which to work from and to try to get people to the same place and at the same time.

For more on this story, read Chicago Now. For dating sites which offer services for your phone (web based and applications), check out our Mobile Phone Dating category. Our Zoosk review can be found here.

Are you creeped out by the idea of posting a dating profile for all to see and then going on dates with total strangers? Is the whole idea just a little too.... technological for you? You're not alone! But on the other hand, maybe you're new to town and don't know anyone. You're not religious, so meeting people through a church or temple is out. You don't dip your pen in company ink, so that cutie in Accounting is off limits. Where are you going to meet other singles if you don't do online dating?

Consider Meetup.com. Their tagline is: Do something • Learn something • Share something • Change something. No matter what type of activities you enjoy, you can bet there's a meetup group somewhere in your area devoted to it.

Do something
Why not join a meetup group of fellow runners and train for a local marathon together? Or maybe a meetup group of Civil War enthusiasts who put on reenactments? What about a meetup of hiking enthusiasts who take on a different mountain every weekend?

Learn something
Always wanted to learn how to knit? Join a knitting circle! (And remember ladies, even if the group lacks single men, it has ladies who KNOW single men!) Want to learn French cooking? Brush up on your German you've neglected since high school?

Share something
Join a local book club to share your experiences reading great literature. Find others who enjoy going to new restaurants and share in some great cuisine together. Join a playgroup for owners of Labrador Retrievers and give your dog a workout while you meet new friends.

Change something
Volunteer to help build or renovate a playground (also check kaboom.org for groups in your area helping local kids play!). Go door to door to encourage voters to support your favorite candidate. Join a group of environmentally-minded singles and adopt a section of highway to clean.

Meetup is a great way to meet new friends with similar interests. Don't by shy about signing up! Most meetups take place in public places, so you can meet your German language meetup at the local coffeeshop and your Labrador Retriever group at the dog park and feel perfectly safe while meeting new friends.

While Meetup does have singles groups, you will find a more relaxed atmosphere, without the pressure of "OMG-THIS-IS-A-DATE!" that we often feel on one-on-one dates. If the group of people mesh with you, you can come to the next meetup, or make plans to see people at other times. If they don't, you don't have to go back. No pressure, no problems.

I found Meetup to be very useful when I moved to take a job in a new city where I knew hardly anyone. I looked up some of my interests, dropped in on a couple meetups, and developed a circle of friends faster than I ever thought was possible. I really recommend meetup.com as an alternative to online dating and a great way to make new friends.

If you would like to meet some new friends, check out our full review of Meetup.com now.

eHarmony launched their Celebration of Love marketing campaign on their Facebook page during the last week of October and it sure has been busy. There are currently 2,156 fans and over 600 success stories (I stopped counting after 20 pages) from Facebook members posted on the wall. Fans of the page have also uploaded 379 photos for these success stories.

Most of these success stories are in response to a weekly contest being run. Facebook members can submit eHarmony success stories about how they met their partner and if they follow the official contest rules they could when a $50, $100 or $200 Amazon E-Mail Gift card.

Entries will be judged based on the criteria set forth in each weekly Contest announcement post. The judge or judging panel will select the entry that best represents the theme or purpose of the weekly post. The judge or judging panel will evaluate all qualifying entries and the subjective opinion of the judge or judging panel will be the deciding factor. Entries must be entrant’s own original work, must not infringe on any third-party rights and must be deemed suitable by Sponsor.

This is a great idea by eHarmony's marketing team. They get lots of great exposure and a lot of new success stories. These success stories also seem more legitimate than your typical quotes of successes on most dating sites since they are linked to the actual Facebook members account that people can contact or become friends with.

For more information on the Facebook page and the contest, visit the eHarmony Facebook Page and for more details about the dating site, read our eHarmony review.