Match

We will soon be seeing some new ads from Match.com 2008 ad campaign called Rewind. Rewind will feature couples who have met online using the Match.com dating service. Expect to see both internet and TV spots. The TV commercials will mainly be airing on the NBC and ABC TV networks during shows like Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. These ads will also include information on new features at Match including Match My Friends (see this story).

Match owes a large part of their success to smart and tasteful ad campaigns. Last year (2006) Match spent $92 million in several different advertising mediums.

Read more regarding this new ad campaign an about Match.com's previous campaigns at Brandweek. Go here for our review on Match.com.

I finally got more information on Match.com's new "Match My Friends" feature. Here is how it works, straight from the press release:

Match My Friends(TM) engages friends in two ways. First, anyone can get their friends in the game -- regardless of whether or not they're already a Match.com member. When someone wishes to sign up a single friend, they can create a suggested profile for their friend, upload a photo and even sponsor their friend's subscription. The resulting profile is then sent to the single friend for editing and approval before being posted on Match.com. From here, the "recommender" and single friend can search for and share recommendations on potential dates for the single friend.

Match My Friends(TM) also allows for personal testimonials to be added to Match.com profiles. Any existing Match.com member can email friends and/or family and ask them to create a short testimonial, which can then be approved by the Match.com member and posted on their profile. The testimonials will offer potential mates a glimpse into the person's life, personality and off-line friendships.

This is an interesting idea and it would be fun playing cupid on a dating site and finding matches for your friends. Match.com implemented this feature the correct way, by having the friend have to approve the profile first (through email) before it can go online at Match. This way the friend can correct any information or decline if they really don't want to have a dating profile.

Personal testimonials are a great tool as well. It helps legitimatize a profile since you have other people vouching for this profile and single. Friends and Family who may post a testimonial also may offer a personal insight of the person which may help you decide if he or she is a potential match for you. Of course if you don't like the testimonials you receive for your profile you can always decline them.

Match.com's have had several updates and new features lately for there service. This speaks to their commitment on being the number one dating service by reinvesting constantly into your business and letting your competition play catch-up.

My only small problem so far, a pet peeve really, with Match My Friends is the name. You have the name on the site with spaces and then in other places they call it "matchmyfriends". Match has done this before with Match Mobile. I never know what to use! I plan on playing around with this feature a lot more to see how it turns out.

For more information on Match.com please check our review.

CBS 5 is reporting that one of the largest dating sites, Match.com is about too debut an application with everyone's favorite social networking site, Facebook. The application is called "Little Black Book" and it allows Facebook users to see other Facebook users and Match.com members who wish to date. With this application you can also share your matches with any of your Facebook friends. The other key feature is, users of Facebook with the Little Black Book don't necessary have to be members of Match.com. The reason for this is the application is a new paying service for Match.com. Once you have your matches, It will allow Facebook users to contact other users on a "pay per contact" basis instead of the regular monthly subscription which Match.com itself offers. At this point I would assume, if you are a member of the Match.com dating site you would not have to pay this fee. The Little Black Book also allows you to purchase keys to unlock a potential match for a friend. This feature ties in nicely with Match.com other new feature this week, matchmyFriends. Match My Friends allows people to create a dating profile for their friends (with the friends permission of course). We will have more information on matchmyFriends in another story. (UPDATE - Story now available here)

As everyone knows, social networking on the internet is huge. Sites like Facebook and MySpace have made it very popular. Facebook itself has an estimated 58 million users, while Match.com themselves have over 15 million. With the rise of social networking sites internet gurus expected dating sites to decline. In fact the opposite is true. Internet Dating has never been more popular. Singles like the dedicated service and features which dating sites offers. Plus, you know people on a dating site are actively looking for a relationship, on Social Networking sites a large percentage are not.

Allowing Facebook users to access Match.com's features is a very smart move on the part of Match.com and opens the door to more potential customers. IMO it should work out well just as long as Match.com doesn't charge too much to Facebook users to contact a match through the Little Black Book application.

The Facebook Little Black Book application is expected to launch next week, for more information on Match.com read our review.

First we wish to congratulate Match.com for winning our Editor's Top Pick - Over All, Award. It was a tough decision with so many good dating services available to choose from in our reviews. In the end, Match.com stood out. There are several reasons for this:

• First off, one of the main reasons is the general popularity of Match.com. Combined with their years of experience in the dating business, an excellent feature rich site and well placed advertising, single men and woman have been flocking to this online dating service not only in North America but in Europe as well.
• I don't plan on going over all the dating features of Match (you can read our review for that) but one which stands out is matchMobile. While not the first in the dating industry to allow members to use there dating membership with cell phones, with a recent update to matchMobile it has become one of the best mobile phone dating services. With more and more people using cell phones and with them becoming more powerful, the mobile phone dating services are predicted to explode in popularity over the next several years.
• Make Love Happen Guarantee, is the first dating service guarantee that I have heard of. It shows Match.com is confident in their service and is willing to back it up with a guarantee. If in the first 6 months of your membership you don't meet someone special, then Match will give you the next 6 months for free. The terms for this guarantee are not too bad either. The main condition to be eligible is, you must contact at least 5 different members each month. This is to show you are at least participating and trying to find someone. While not a money back guarantee it is a step in the right direction and as other dating sites start to offer something similar I am sure these types of guarantees will get better and better.
• The last point which made Match.com our Over All Top Pick was their recent site redesign and ad campaign. The new interface is very slick and modern looking. Plus, they incorporate actual members into their ads and entrance web pages, not just young good looking generic models. The new trend in dating sites lately has been to use implied sex in ads to try and lure singles to join.

Read our review of Match.com for more information about this dating service or visit Match.com directly.

This Years Runner Ups for this award include (in no particular order): PerfectMatch, eHarmony and Yahoo! Personals.

I noticed a feel good article at the MiamiHerald.com today about how a couple met using Match.com. The small twist in this story is the woman, Cheryl, is in a wheel chair. She has been in a wheel chair her entire adult life. When Cheryl first tried online dating she go a lot of email replies stating that the single men she had emailed couldn't handle her situation. That is until she met Mathew. He was hesitant at first but thought he should give it a try. Now 3 years later they are married.

To update an older story we did on Paying For Perks at dating sites, I noticed on Online Dating Insider that Match.com has added a few more perks above and beyond what a normal paying membership covers. Their main push is still MindFIndBInd with Dr. Phil but, the new perks included:

• matchMobile - Allows you to access features of Match.com right from your cell phone. Includes viewing profiles and instant messaging singles. Costs $4.99 per month for 3 months.
• Email Read Notification - Find out when and if singles from Match read the emails you send them. Costs $3.99 per month for 3 months.
• matchTalk - Speak with other Singles on the phone but keep your phone number anonymous. Completely integrated into Match. Costs $4.99 per month for 3 months.

I wonder if these new features will work out. If they do, this is where paid dating sites will start to out shine there free counterparts. By having services that truly offer added value and are just too expensive to be implement by the free dating sites (costs couldn't be covered by on site advertising).

The only service I don't agree with here is the Email Read Notification. In my opinion, this service should be included with a normal paying membership. It should be part of the Hot Lists functionality like, who has viewed your profile. There also should be a privacy option here for members to disable notifications being sent out when you read someone's email, and not a paid option either!

One perk I did miss from my last article was:

• Highlighted Portrait - Your profile picture is highlighted with a border so it stands out in search results. Costs $2.84 per month for 3 months.

This perk may be worth it for some members since it does make your search listing much more noticeable, and the price for it is not bad either.