Dating Services That Bloggers Like
We have discussed some cool metric that allows us to see what dating service is hot right now online (or they are aggressively promoting their services to be hot). Another tool similar to the one used in that post is Google Blogsearch (similar service is available from Technorati).
It is based on the same principle and provides us with the stats of brand mentions by bloggers.
I was eager to test this tool as my previous research was not a success (remember – when 3 month mentions were greater than 6 month mentions?).
So, I did not change the selection of tested dating services (I had to drop GreatExpectations due to a large amount of irrelevant results – probably this fact skewed my previous test?). Let’s get down to the results that we have received this time:
|
Dating Service |
Past Week |
Past Month |
|
220 |
1 750 |
|
|
35 |
169 |
|
|
1 064 |
3 199 |
|
|
3 |
59 |
|
|
105 |
222 |
|
|
9 |
56 |
|
|
7 |
106 |
No surprises here (and no glitches this time). eHarmony is on top and undisputable leader of the selected list.
As I have already mentioned this research allows you not just find out most buzz generating (= popular?) dating services of the present time, but also see if the services gain increased or decreased buzz online over time. For example, take MillionaireMate – it looks like the guys enjoy summer like most their male (and female I guess) user base – 7 week mentions vs. 26 average mentions done in the last month.
What to do with all the info you get as a result of these tests? Well, it is up to you and your imagination:
- choose and join most popular dating services
- see what services are on the rise & become their competition
- get the feeling of dating industry trends to get the next wave (if it will ever come)
- do something else or nothing
While making this research I was impressed with the number of reviews made monthly for each service (reviews similar to those that you find on this website). For example, SinglesNet service was reviewed at least by 10 blogs in July!
What Online Dating Services Are On The Rise
One pretty cool metric to see if an online dating service is on the rise or decline is to check how often its domain name (assumed it is the brand name and all mentions of this brand name are assigned to this particular dating service) is mentioned last 2, 3 or 6 months online (indexed by Google) and compare these numbers.
Next step – to compare these numbers to the numbers of its top competitors.
To conduct this test we will use an advanced Google command.
This technique does not work with all dating services as many popular ones have some common keyword as their domain name – Date, Chemistry, Gay, Match Unfortunately, these services can’t be included into out test. But many others do fit into this.
OK, who should we try and compare? I assume some sort of mix of established and new services, general and specialty sounds like a good idea. Moreover, you can do your own tests comparing miscellaneous services.
|
Dating Service |
3 Month Mentions |
6 Month Mentions |
|
15 500 |
2 190 |
|
|
26 800 |
32 900 |
|
|
299 000 |
296 000 |
|
|
269 000 |
274 000 |
|
|
10 300 |
13 700 |
|
|
30 200 |
37 500 |
|
|
7 060 |
9 090 |
|
|
22 100 |
30 100 |
It is a mystery to me how could 3 month mentions exceed 6 month mentions (in my understanding 6 month mentions should include (and certainly exceed) 3 month mentions. But if you look through the above table you will see that two services - GreatExpectations & Singlesnet - show quite ‘unexpected’ results.
It is the first time I run into a situation like this… And my research to clear the situation did not help me to find an answer. I have checked most authoritative resources, but they did not shed any light. Let’s assume that it is a Google’s glitch (one of so few…) and accept other data as reliable.
Anyway, you see how greatly the dating services differ in brand awareness. The same way as they are different in traffic volume
Also have a look at the dynamics of those mentions: eHarmony is no doubt the leader of the list. It looks like the service has recently generated much buzz.
So, go and have some fun comparing other services. Or drop me a line if you have solved that mystery of 3 month mentions exceeding 6 month ones…
Dating Industry Quick Links for July 14-20, 2008
- We have published an entire series of dating service traffic estimations based on Google Trends Tool.
Hitwise has released their own rankings with top three dating sites in traffic – Singlesnet, Plenty of Fish, Yahoo! Personals. Find more rankings here
- Another valuable piece of Hitwise info published this week – top dating terms in June 2008:
1. match.com 4.67%
2. plentyoffish 3.40%
3. plenty of fish 2.63%
4. singlesnet.com 2.48%
5. singlesnet 2.18%
6. adam4adam 1.79%
7. eharmony 1.41%
8. plentyoffish.com 1.37%
9. www.plentyoffish.com 1.21%
10. datehookup 1.09%
It is fun to compare them with the same list dated 2006
- Yahoo! Personals is a great dating service, but they are also a cool source of dating tips: A Dating Guide for Women: “Man Talk” Translation published this week.
- Teenagers market is a great place for dating sites as it is really huge, but there are lots of issues teenager dating services run into like paedophiles. BBC covers story of MyLOL.net