Free Dating Service As Business Model
Have a look at the stats below.
Yes, everyone’s talking (and not only those who are in the dating niche) about Plenty of Fish and how Markus Frind makes tons of money with his free dating website. But he is not the only one using FREE as business model with dating. In the below list of some top internet properties we see some dating services that employ the same model (True, Mate1, MillionaireMate - partly):
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Top 25 Companies by Sponsored Link Impressions, May 2008 |
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Company |
Sponsored Link Impressions, May 2008 (M) |
Sponsored Link Impressions, April 2008 (M) |
Change From Previous Month (%) |
|
eBay |
926.8 |
1,046.1 |
-11.4 |
|
InterActiveCorp |
687.2 |
755.0 |
-9.0 |
|
Internet Made Simple |
666.9 |
601.1 |
10.9 |
|
True |
616.6 |
1,790.3 |
-0.28 |
|
Yahoo |
561.8 |
1,124.1 |
-50.0 |
|
Pickamortgage |
442.8 |
614.7 |
-28.0 |
|
Wu Yi Source |
438.4 |
1,540.3 |
-71.5 |
|
Amazon.com |
388.2 |
467.0 |
-16.9 |
|
Target Corp. |
354.0 |
335.9 |
5.4 |
|
Experian Group Ltd. |
341.9 |
496.7 |
-31.2 |
|
driverTV |
337.6 |
0.0 |
N/A |
|
Fidelity Investments |
336.3 |
15.6 |
2,054.9 |
|
MillionaireMate.com |
326.3 |
1.4 |
23,291.6 |
|
Zencon Technologies LLC |
323.8 |
466.3 |
-30.6 |
|
Mate1.com |
318.8 |
116.6 |
173.4 |
|
NexTag Inc. |
300.8 |
431.5 |
-30.3 |
|
BizRate |
293.5 |
286.2 |
2.6 |
|
Shopzilla Inc. |
284.3 |
322.3 |
-11.8 |
|
Gigmasters.com Inc. |
275.6 |
16.6 |
1,563.9 |
|
Google |
251.3 |
275.4 |
-8.7 |
|
Smarter.com |
245.4 |
177.6 |
38.2 |
|
Time Warner |
231.2 |
809.0 |
-71.4 |
|
Money And Markets |
229.5 |
361.1 |
-36.4 |
|
FUZZ |
227.5 |
67.7 |
236.0 |
|
Esurance |
213.4 |
33.8 |
531.5 |
It is hard for me to say how those numbers are calculated and why we do not see the above mentioned Plenty of Fish if it is one of the most trafficked dating sites, but the stats source is reliable
Unlike Plenty of Fish, Mate1 and True.com run affiliate programs paying for each free subscriber that websites refer them. And they run their affiliate programs via a few affiliate networks – CJ, Azoogle, etc.
I remember Plenty of Fish attempt to test this source of attracting new users – their affiliate program was live with Azoogle for a few days and they promised to pay $1.00 for each new member referred, but then the program was suspended due to unknown reasons – probably the traffic quality was poor or something else - we can learn that only from Markus.
Also all mentioned dating services – Mate1, True, Plenty of Fish – heavily advertisee their services with top PPC engines. And it is not a cheap marketing channel (according to another reliable source):
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Average Search CPC by Category, April and May, 2008 |
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|
Category |
CPC May ($) |
CPC April ($) |
Change (%) |
|
|
|
|
Total finance |
2.96 |
2.85 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
Mortgage |
3.15 |
2.86 |
10 |
|
|
|
|
Auto finance |
1.93 |
1.79 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Insurance |
10.63 |
9.49 |
12 |
|
|
|
|
Travel |
0.74 |
0.76 |
-3 |
|
|
|
|
Automotive |
0.49 |
0.49 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
Retail |
0.45 |
0.40 |
12 |
|
|
|
|
Dating |
0.40 |
0.38 |
5 |
|
|
|
If free dating services can afford paying for free subscribers for years now it means that they do well collecting advertising dollars from someone else besides their members. Another question – is there any more space for new free dating services eager to enter the game? The story by OKCupid shows that it is likely not…
Stupid Idea To Name Site: Dating In Modern Style
Well, it took me some time to realize that my idea to call this website ‘dating in a modern style’ was stupid to put it mildly. I think the proper website title should be ‘online dating in the old fashioned way’ - and I have made changes to some parts of the website already.
Those dating services that we review here are ‘old school’ – Date.com, Match.com, Chemistry, even niche dating sites like Gay.com or JDate launched in the last century keep the traits of ‘that time’ Internet and technology. New generation dating is social websites.
Those dating gurus who stay in this industry for years now have long ago acknowledged this fact and run separate projects focused on traditional dating services and social websites.
Just two samples of popular dating resources:
OnlinePersonalsWatch vs SocialNetworkingWatch
OnlineDatingPost vs TheProgressBar
So, it is time for me to accept that fact too…
Or another feature that really modern dating site should include are videos. With that entire craze about videos, youtube and similar services it would be a smart move to address your website visitors with videos…
And mobile dating? I do not think that I will re-make this website for mobile internet, but I will certainly cover the most successful mobile dating services that come and go really fast (but some should last).
Another thing I would like to discuss in this offtopic post is a limited number of quality dating blogs and resources to read. There are just a few more to add to the above mentioned sites. Probably, I am wrong and it is a result of my improper research.
I guess people in the dating niche prefer to start their own dating ventures and not to waste time on covering its news and trends…
Most Trafficked Ethnic Dating Services
It is obvious that niches dating sites get many times less traffic that general dating monsters like Match.com. No surprises here, it is just interesting to see how those niche services compare to each other and who leads those niches.
Our ethnic dating site traffic review is certainly not ultimate (either our previous comparisons).
OK, let’s have a look at niche dating services. We will start with religious dating services:
ASIAN DATING: AsiaFriendFinder.com vs Asian Singles Connection
(you see a huge difference in traffic for AsiaFriendFinder & AsianSinglesConnection - so huge that it is impossible to get an idea about AsianSinglesConnection traffic volume from this chart - or probably Google Trends tool is not accurate in this case)
BLACK DATING: Blacksingles.com vs Match.com Black Dating
(unfortunately, it is impossible to find out what traffic gets Match.com Black Dating)
LATINO DATING: Amor.com vs Amigos.com
And the winner is…Amigos.com
And now see how ethnic dating services compare to religious ones – it is interesting to see what attracts people more in dating: ethic or religious roots.
As you can see ethnic dating sites are more crowded than religious dating services…
Also it is a fact that independent dating services have to compete hard to survive against dating sites networks like Date.com (some of their services - date.com: amor.com, gay.date.com, more; mingle: christianmingle.com, blacksingles.com, muslimmatrimonialsnetwork.com, more; adultfriendfinder: bigchurch.com, jewishfriendfinder.com, amigos.com, more)
It is not hard to guess what is still to come: gay/ lesbian niche dating and some specialty niche dating traffic analysis. Then we have more fun ideas to play with dating industry.