General News

I was reading the article "Niche dating websites help picky singles find love" at Canada.com and it got me wondering if some of these niche dating services have gone too far?

Don't get me wrong, a lot of dating niches work with most of them being based on religion or your ethnicity, or even popular interests like pets. I just have to wonder about dating sites who service niches like people who are interested in pirates (see press release). Where is this going to end? I'm sure there are people who are passionate about pirates and pirate history but I have a hard time believing there are enough singles out there so passionate about pirates that they need a dating service dedicated to them. This would be like someone creating a dating service for astronauts. Sure there are single astronauts out there but not that many. From 1978 to 2003 NASA had only trained 237, how many of these people are single? Who cares, let's start an online dating site!

Match.com recently launched the “Who’s Favorited Me” feature. This lets members know when they have been added to a Favorites list of another member. This feature has been a little late in coming to Match since most other dating services have had this type of hot list information available for a while now.

For more information on the dating service Match.com and its features, please read our review.

The Earth Times has a press release from Chemistry.com regarding a new promotion to celebrate California's ruling to overturn the state's ban on gay marriage. Chemistry will offer free 7 day memberships to anyone in the state of California who visits this promotional page on Monday, June 16. This is the same day San Francisco will begin issuing marriage licenses.

I'm glad Chemistry supports equal opportunity for all couples who want to declare their commitment, I just have to wonder what is so special about this particular promotion. We have been advertising a 7 day free trial Chemistry promotion for all U.S. and Canadian singles for a while now. It is available from our Chemistry review or our Dating Service Coupon page (which also has some good deals for other online dating sites as well).

India's matrimony market is estimated to be worth almost $230 million annually (£118 million). This includes online dating and matrimony services which brings in about $13.5 million (£7 million). An Indian matchmaking service called Shaadi.com has become quite popular among singles in the 20 to 40 age range and is now one of India's five most popular sites according to the Britain’s Telegraph newspaper. The dating and marriage service reports it has over 10 million members and is responsible for a million marriages worldwide since its inception in 1997. 6000 profiles are created every day on the site with 60% of them being male. Shaadi.com is not just a website, there are more than 150 Shaadi Centres in 87 Indian cities. This allows parents and children to sit down with a relationship adviser and review the dating services huge database of potential matches.

One of the reasons Shaadi.com succeeds according to the Telegraph is because:

The unofficial eHarmony Blog got the scoop on eHarmony's traffic statistics being accessible to the public at Quantcast. eHarmony has been a Quantified Publisher since February 2008. This means the traffic information is very accurate because a script or tracking image is inserted into every page at eHarmony which allows detailed tracking of all visitors.

The first thing to realize is (if you don't know too much about this type of thing), don't worry about being tracked. It happens on most web sites. Online businesses(and blog owners) want to know about their traffic, since obviously visitors are the bread and butter. If you do worry about it, visit the sites Privacy Policy where they should tell you what is done with this information. The main things most companies want to know about visitors are:

• How many there are?
• How many come back?
• Where are they coming from?
• What do they visit on the site?

As with most other online dating services Senior FriendFinder allows visitors to join for free. At Senior FriendFinder, this is called a Standard Membership. 2 other types of membership are available called Silver and Gold. Both of these are paid memberships. When you sign up for free as a Standard Member (and once your profile is approved) the features of the dating site you have access to include the standard search with a limit of 10 profile views a day, reading of your email, message boards, instant messaging and chat rooms. Already Senior FriendFinder is providing something most other dating services do not, the use of a number of communication tools for free. This allows members to see how active the senior community is and if Senior FriendFinder is the right dating service for them. In return is also gives the dating service more user interaction and increased sales of their paid memberships.

Now what are some more innovated ways Senior FriendFinder motivates members to use the site which can also help you use the service for free? One way is to take advantage of Standard Member Popularity Privileges. This function awards members who's profile is viewed a certain number of times in any 3 day period. I'm not sure the number of views needed (comment on the story if you know!) but if you are rewarded with Popularity Privileges you get access to 50 member profiles as well as the ability to email them (up to 10 emails a day). There are a number of ways to increase profile views with the most obvious being a well written introduction and profile accompanied by a good quality photo and video. Other ways to boost your views is to participate in chat, message groups or blogs. Every message you write includes your username, a thumbnail picture of you and a link to your profile which only gets your profile out in front of people. This brings a greater chance of someone clicking on your profile to find out more about you.

The other way in which Senior FriendFinder motivates its members to participate on the site is by rewarding points for doing a number of activities. You can get from 10 to 2000 points per activity. These activities range from commenting on a blog post (10 points) to uploading a photo for your profile (100 points). Most activities are around 30 points. The highest point activity is referring a friend (who successfully registers) for 2000 points. All members automatically participate in the point system and at any time you can redeem points for a number of Senior FriendFinder upgrades. These upgrades include emailing members (100 points) and viewing profiles (200 points) for Standard Members to sending virtual flowers (50 points). Highlighting your profile for a 1 month period in search results costs a 1000 points and you can even upgrade your membership to Silver for 2200 points or Gold for 4000 points. A history of the points awarded to you can be found on the member homepage.

The Popularity Privileges and Points System has resulted in an active and lively community at Senior FriendFinder. This not only benefits Senior FriendFinder but the members as well.

Find out more about Senior FriendFinder by reading our dating review.