Adult local dating: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

AURA2222 36 years old Kaunas

<a href="http://www.hotlovedates.com/ed_hacky"><img src="http://static5.dating.lt/photos/ads/c4/c4pmadsw2j/c4pmadsw2j.jpg" /></a> to wholly women...hi!!!

Nickiberli 31 years old Vlkermarkt

<a href="http://www.PureLoveDating.com/el_aleman_le_gusta_latinas"><img src="http://static5.dating.lt/photos/wom/b3/b313womcn1/b313womcn1.jpg" /></a> Hello :-)
I'm looking despite a serious,nice,inteligent,pretty woman...

Brief_ly 49 years old Zelenogorsk

<a href="http://www.usalovedates.com/tapike123"><img src="http://static5.dating.lt/photos/ho9/99/99lhho9y9h/99lhho9y9h.jpg" /></a> Elu up~ lill!

I love my beautiful daughter more then anything!

Profile URL: http://www.iflirtyou.com/profile29047.htm
Nickname: Mommy_of_one_2012
Sex: Woman
Age: 18 y.o.
From: Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States 15906
More about me: I hate doing these... But I'm 18 years old, and I have a beautiful daughter. Before anyone thinks they can or will come before her.. She is and ALWAYS will be my number 1 priority!! Anyway, if you want to know anything else, just ask.
I look for a man

Wiliboy 61 years old Wellington

Magnnus 53 years old Troms

Sunday, April 29, 2012

POKEMON_369 44 years old Jurong West New Town

<a href="http://www.PureLoveDating.com/FireFly100"><img src="http://static5.dating.lt/photos/024/52/52k4024y57/52k4024y57.jpg" /></a> Hello to wholly. My name is Ben and I hope that I will have ~ing able to find the one and only other half for my life to be complete.
I work hard but I enjoy life and family and it is noted to have good friends.
I enjoyed meeting wonderful people who get becom

DitaFon 59 years old Vilnius

<a href="http://www.PureLoveDating.com/grapssik"><img src="http://static5.dating.lt/photos/ho9/c3/c3ufho97e6/c3ufho97e6.jpg" /></a> Olen mees parimais aastates!!

MRoman49 62 years old Rga

<a href="http://www.PureLoveDating.com/elueluke"><img src="http://static5.dating.lt/photos/dfi/b5/b56adfich9/b56adfich9.jpg" /></a> Elu on ilus!

Gazele3 55 years old Vilnius

<a href="http://russianwomen.chebra.lt/imbih2rm"><img src="http://static5.dating.lt/photos/3nq/97/97ld3nqsv7/97ld3nqsv7.jpg" /></a> Vanem kui tahaks,
tundlikum kui tohiks,
targem kui peaks...
The fair garment is for body decoring,but a good friend is for soul joy.
NB! Chattida saavad ainult "maksumaksjad",kahju!

ON71 42 years old Tartu

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Are You Keeping Your Partner Satisfied?

I Love Me

Satisfaction in a relationship can take several forms вЂ“ physical, emotional and mental. As a relationship matures, companionship becomes important as well. Whether it is a husband-wife relationship or that of a boyfriend-girlfriend, for it to be successful, both partners must be receptive to each othersвЂ™ needs and desires. If you want to keep your partner satisfied, start by being there for him/her while understanding just when they might need some personal space as well. Share your partnerвЂ™s interests and be there to listen when he/she needs a good listener. Surprise your partner once in a while by sending a bouquet of fresh roses, planning a weekend away or simply cooking a nice meal.

We can all get caught up in the rat race sometimes and when you get home from work it is easy to tune out and just shut down. Try to leave your work problems at work so you can come home with an open mind. If you or your spouse are at home taking care of the children then keep in mind that as much as you just want to just pass them off to them when they get home that they need a little time to adjust back to home life and this could be the cause of unneeded stress at home. If you have family that lives close by and that can watch your children then be sure to reach out to them to give your and your loved one a little personal space. Hire a sitter if they are old enough and plan out date nights. Everyone needs a break from the daily routines that we are engulfed in. Make sure you make these plans and cherish that time spend alone together.

We all have different expectations with our physical needs. Make sure that you and your partner talk about these needs so you have a mutual understanding. It is always nice to have a balance with your partners sexual needs so that you or your partner doesn’t become frustrated. You don’t necessarily want to plan out and calendar your ‘love-making’ but you should have a general understanding of whether you are not spending enough intimate time with each other.

-Brian R.

eHarmony Gay Dating Service (Compatible Partners)

On Nov 19, Reuters reported that the online dating service eHarmony agreed to create a new website for gays and lesbians as part of a settlement with a gay man in New Jersey, says the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.

The new website named Compatible Partners will provide a dating service with “male seeking a male” or “female seeking a female” options. The site will be launched by March 31st. The settlement was the result of a discrimination complaint filed by Eric McKinley against eHarmony in 2005, which will be dismissed under the settlement agreement. The New Jersey complaint is not the only legal action to be brought against eHarmony for failing to provide a same-sex option.

In March, lawyers in California brought a lawsuit against the company on behalf of San Francisco resident Linda Carlson, who was denied access to eHarmony because she is gay. eHarmony was founded by evangelical Christian Dr. Neil Clark Warren and had ties with the influential religious conservative group Focus on the Family. Since eHarmony has taken on the $110 million investment from two Silicon Valley venture capital firms, Sequoia Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures, there marketing has become a little more main stream and hopefully this law suit will open up the companies views on servicing the gay and religious singles communities.

eHarmony.com has grown to a top dating service with it’s focus on TV commercial spots and partnerships with large portals like AOL Personals and Comcast.net Dating. Have you had a positive or negative experience with eHarmony? Post your comments below.

Sign-up to be notified when the site goes live: Compatible Partners

-Brian R.

Ending the Relationship

A relationship can be successful when both individuals involved are happy and satisfied with the way things are going. If you are sure that you do not want to continue and want out, prepare yourself to break the news to your partner. This is not going to be easy for the other person no matter how convinced you are that it is entirely their fault.

Meet in person: Do not discuss this over the phone / email or chat. Instead, meet them personally to talk about how you feel.

Be calm: Make sure that you are calm and composed while talking about a break-up.

Do not blame the other person entirely: Share the responsibility when you tell them why you feel that relationship is not working.

Also, make sure that your talk does not end abruptly or on a harsh note. It is always better to maintain friendships after breakups as you most likely will see each other again socially or might even get back together on different terms. Sometimes that timing is just not right and your priorities might not be in sync with your partner. No one is really to blame in this case. Being open and honest about the situation is a good thing and you’ll usually see it reciprocated.

If you have just broken up and ended a relationship with someone then take a little time to analyze what went wrong so that you don’t just go out on a rebound and get into the same mess again. This is probably one of the biggest relationship blunders: The Rebound. Everyone needs a little time for healing even if the relationship wasn’t a long or intense one. You might think that you are ready to be back in the relationship game but you need to also factor in or consider whether your ex has gotten over you so that you don’t hurt someone elses feelings because of your own selfessness.

-Brian R.

Interracial Romance

Interracial dating is no longer uncommon what with a growing acceptance and respect for different cultures and ethnicities. In fact, more and more singles are broadening their horizons and looking towards interracial dating when it comes to finding someone special. To cater to such individuals, a number of interracial dating services have sprung up that offer singles the opportunity to create their profile and search for prospective matches. These websites not only provide a large choice but also make it possible to search for singles of a different race who may be located locally in your area. WhatвЂ™s more, you can even chat with other singles and get to know more about them by visiting specific chat rooms for interracial relationships. Here are a couple of interractial dating services that you can join and visit:

Interracial Romance – Recommended.

Black and White Singles

All Interracial Dating – powered by TangoWire

Interracial Dating Central

Let us know how your experience goes with these sites or how you have handled interracial dating issues.

-Brian R.

How to End a Bad Date

Have you ever found yourself on a first date that is just horrible? You can’t seem to connect on any level or the conversation and energy in the room is making you very uncomfortable. You just want to end this date as soon as possible but don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings. Is there a way to do it pleasantly? Usually not.

I have found that the best way to keep the others persons feelings intact and to not cause any scene is to be very honest and direct so that you aren’t misleading or making up any excuses to end the date.

Here are a few suggestions for weary daters:

Let them know that they don’t seem to be the type of person that you are looking for.

If you want to be more casual about it let them know that you think that you both could find someone who is more compatible with each other and how hard that has been for you.

Tell them simply that you don’t think that this is going to work and that you don’t want to waste their time and they should appreciate your honesty.

What do you do after you have this uncomfortable conversation? It is usually good to just part ways and to leave separately. Call a cab or a friend to come pick you up if you both came together. It’ll just make the situation more comfortable faster by doing this.

If the date is going bad right from the start and you are catching negative vibes then I suggest you just cut things short and both of you will be able to walk away with minor bruises. I think that most daters can appreciate the honesty over being lead on or left confused or wondering.

I usually recommend keeping your fist dates very casual in public settings so that if anything goes wrong it makes for an easier exit. Coffee shop dates or luncheons are great first dates for this exact reason. You can slip out and be done with the nightmare before it scars you from the dating scene. Happy dating and remember to be direct and honest.

-Brian R.

Dating in a Down Economy

Bar Scene Dating is Out.

Is love and romance tied to the economy? Many would think that a dating service membership may be considered a service that you buy into if you have discretionary income but Reuter’s reported recently in an article “Falling stock markets spur searches for love online” that a list of web sites have reported increased activity since the economic crisis hit in September, 2008. People are looking for a companion during these rough times and are saving money on the traditional dating scene of meeting in bars and have headed to the internet in search of their partners instead.

I guess it is nice to have a partner with you for comfort when times get a little tough. People are understanding this need and while they can’t control the factors of the economy they can take charge of their personal lives.

Match.com reported that it had experienced its largest membership increase in the last 7 years in the month of November. Perfectmatch.com said that it saw a 47% increase in the number of members in the 3 months to November, 2008 as compared to the previous 3 months. Is online dating an recession proof business? All of this data seems to be supporting that theory and it sort of makes sense that if people aren’t going out as much and using traditional methods of meeting people that they will most likely be spending more time on their computers looking for love online instead.

One of these dating companies should do an “Economic Love Stimulus” package promotion and discount their membership for a week or so. Thomas Enraght-Moony, CEO of Match.com says “During these trying times, people are looking for hope in their inbox.”

I know that the winter season generally makes people feel lonely if they don’t have a date to bring to all of the holiday parties and family gatherings. You also have the anxiety of the New Years celebration where you want to bring in the new year with someone special. Of course the greeting card companies coming knocking right after with Valentine’s Day. It is so hard to be just single and happy anymore and know we got the economy pressuring us too. Wow. Quit saving your hard earned money and go buy a dating membership or you can just cancel your Netflix account and quit sitting at home watching movies by yourself.

added: LA Times article: No recession for online dating sites. – 12/28/08

-Brian R.

DUO.co.kr Korean Dating

DUO.co.kr Information

Site Name:Duo.co.kr

Member Size:P23,000 members

Description: DUO.co.kr is an online dating and relationship site for Korean singles.

Click here to Visit Duo.co.kr

Site Review

I recently came across this Korean dating service Duo.co.kr from a post on Online Personals Watch and it looks like matchmaking is booming big time in South Korea even with the global economic crisis we are facing.

Young Korean singles are rushing into marriage and women without jobs are finding financial security in married life. Duo.co.kr has seen the number of visitors jump to 35,000 in the second week of November 2008 from 23,800 in the first week of September 2008. Another leading Korean matchmaker service, Sunoo, experienced a two-fold increase over the same period. Wedian reported a whopping eight-time surge over a month starting October 22, 2008. Many Korean parents have signed up for the services because they want to get their children married off while fathers are still in work.

South Korea was hit by the East Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998. I was visiting Korea with my mother at this time who is from Korea and the country was in turmoil and the same concerns were expressed by parents to find financial stability in their children’s lives. In South Korea, it is customary for guests to bring envelopes of cash to marriages to help finance the costly event. The names of the contributors are carefully recorded to return the favor on similar occasions. Koreans have held the tradition of matchmaking for centuries and is still widespread culturally througout Korea, especially in the upper class.

Wealth and social status of the families involved, the occupations of grooms and brides and even their physical appearances are weighed carefully by traditional matchmaking agencies before they arrange meetings with the families.

The DUO website was established in February, 1995 under the slogan of “Creating a new matchmaking culture” and invested in preparing marketing research for six months and building a database system for one and a half years.

In the initial stage of company’s existence, it was difficult for them to break through preconceived ideas of the general public because of negative images about matchmaker and marriage agencies. DUO has since earned the public trust by concentrating on their concept and distinction of a marriage information service.

DUO has held a top position in the Korean dating industry in size/scale, public confidence, and customer service and has a database size over 40,000 members. They conduct strict and thorough pre-screening based on 150 categorized data points with nationwide networking. They even have an extended member connection with the US through the LA Korean community.

DUO also has built several connecting services into their matchmaking portfolio with a service for people that have been married and divorced and are back in the dating scene and a site that helps you plan your wedding once you have found a partner.

DuoReMarry.com – for the second time around singles with relationship advice and tips.

DuoWed.com – Wedding Planning site once you have met your soulmate.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they extended their service to Japan which has a lot of cultural similarities. If you are an American that is interested in Korean men or women then you should learn how to read Korean before using the site as it is very ethno-centric for Korean users only.

How much does it cost to be a DUO member? Get ready for this one…They have a membership called “First Marriage” that costs you $1,500 for 8 meetings, profiles offered unlimited and if you have positive feedback then 2 bonus meetings.

Related Article on Korean Matchmaking:

Korean matchmaking tradition goes high-tech

Military Dating Services

There are tons of single Military personnel in all branches of the armed services including the Army, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy. Single enlisted men and women sometimes have a hard time dating since there call of duty usually keeps them busy traveling or defending our country.

Military admirers have become increasingly popular with support of our troops overseas. With this recent rise in popularity, niche military dating sites have been on the rise as well and civilian and military singles are connecting through email correspondence and chat on these sites.

Dating a person in the service can be a difficult but rewarding experience. I was raised as a military brat and my father was in the Army for 20+ years which allowed me to travel extensively in Europe and all across the US. I lived in small German towns and learned the native language and culture. I have a good friend who is in the Navy and has gotten the opportunity to travel all through the South Pacific. If you are a single civilian or a service personnel and interested in dating men and women that are admirers of the military then you should give one of these sites a try below:

Military Singles – Recommended.

Military Love Links

Military Friends

Uniform Dating – UK Military Dating

Military Singles Connection

MilitaryDate.com

-Brian R.

FriendFinder Networks IPO

FriendFinder Networks Inc, an owner of niche dating websites and publisher of the adult men’s magazine Penthouse, filed for a $460 million IPO. FriendFinder has plans to use the proceeds of its IPO primarily to pay off debt, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Penthouse Media Group, a Florida-based company bought FriendFinder, Inc in December of 2007 for $500 million in an effort to gain a leading position in the online adult market with FriendFinder’s AdultFriendFinder.com property. According to the regulatory filing, FriendFinder’s net income between Jan. 1 to Dec. 6, 2007, was $48.6 million, but down 20.5% from the full year in 2006. FriendFinder had seen a lot of new competition in the adult dating space with competitors like SexSearch.com and Fling.com coming on the scene and growing quickly. In July this year, Penthouse Media Group changed its name to FriendFinder Networks Inc. in getting ready for the initial public offering. This is an amazing story considering how many people over the years have said that Friendfinder.com would never be able to sell or be acquired because of its association with the adult industry. To top that off they are even going public. I will be quick to pick up some “FFN” stock as I know that sex sells and we have been an affiliate of AFF for years.

FriendFinder has close to 1 million paying subscribers to the adult sites, paying an average of $19 per month, and 78,000 paying members to its general sites, paying an average of $16 per month. Most of the revenue comes from the paid subscribers as dating sites typically don’t have outside advertising on them because of conversion dilution concerns. 44% of the FF revenue comes from their affiliate program which is where the risk factor comes in as the competitive programs have been really aggressive with payouts to try to take some of this market of adult webmasters.

Andrew Conru, former CEO of FriendFinder, Inc., Medley.com, Inc. and Various, Inc. will finally get his well deserved payday in the industry. He started in the dating industry in the mid 90′s with one if not the first dating site, Webpersonals.com. He sold the property in 1995 and started over again with Friendfinder.com. His dating empire grew to about 27 different niche dating and social networking properties under the company Various. Conru was always reinventing the industry and testing new verticals and had niche sites like BigChurch.com, SeniorFriendFinder.com and MillionaireMate.com. According to the SEC documents that FriendFinder filed, Andrew Conru might still be on the payroll as an Independent Contractor. It must be strange being a contractor for a business that you built and owned but very rewarding to watch it go public on the NYSE.

-Brian R.

ooVoo Webcam Meetings

ooVoo Webcam Meeting Software

I just came across this slick group video chat application called ooVoo.com. You can have webcam meetings with up to 6 people with high resolution video. I wonder if a dating service will integrate a feature or application like this for meeting rooms or virtual speed dating. There hasn’t been an application in online dating that has been revolutionary for years outside of sophisticated matching algorithms that usually send you bad matches 90% of the time.

ooVoo also allows you to record your video chats, send video messages, add video effects, call your non-ooVoo friends with their VOIP technology, send files, text chat and find friends. If I was a large online dating brand I would be knocking down their doors to acquire this business.

I have heard that students use the application for group study and since you can send files to people your homework and notes can be shared. When you make phone calls a neat record of your calls is listed, though Skype’s history tab in the contact window is a little more convenient. ooVoo lets you easily use your webcam to replace the placeholder avatar with your own face. Transferring files in ooVoo is easy and when you receive new files, they arrive with very clear and helpful dialog. You can create a Video Message in Oovoo as simple as hitting the red Record button. I am not sure how they intend on monetizing the application as it seems to still be in beta right now but they do have a webcam store with some good quality cam links so you can upgrade your video experience and quality. The application is available for both PC and Mac users which is also a huge plus for them.

I have partners in two different cities and we just might give this a shot since Skype didn’t turn out to be a easy enough solution for us all. My Mac came equipped with a webcam so I am all ready to go.

ooVoo Download

-Brian R.

DatetheUK.com Review (datetheuk)

DatetheUK.com Information

Site Name: DatetheUK.com

Established: August, 2001

Member Size: 3+ Million Members – UK Based Dating

Description: DatetheUK is the UK’s online singles meeting place.

Special Features: Chat – Who’s Online – Talk Live – Video Chat – Send SMS – Voice Mail – Block Members – Singles Events – Dating Stories – Saved Searches – Rating – Singles Forums – Dating Blogs – Flirt History

Click Here To Visit DatetheUK.com

DatetheUK.com Site Review:

DatetheUK is a leader in the UK online dating market and has been custom built to service UK singles with many cool features not found on other top and premium dating services. They have a very simple and quick sign-up process to get you online in just a few minutes searching their huge database of photo personals. You can continue to build your profile at your leisure adding photos from your mobile phone and filling our your personality questionaire. The site features live chat and online flirting, secure email services as well as a comprehensive free dating search and match process. Their postcode based singles search lets you find other people for dating within a few miles of you. Date the UK has been developed based on the feedback of a group of UK online dating services customers. Date the UK continues to listen to customer feedback in order to build the premier UK dating agency and add new features and functions to help you find dates in the UK.

Like with any other dating service, the more information you provide in your dating profile the more likely that someone will find you. Include your postcode (which will always be hidden to other members) to use the UK location search for sure otherwise you’ll be buried in their database. I found that their was a very high percentage of members that had posted one or more photos on the site. A photo personal increases your chances of response by up to 8-10 times. If you are feeling shy about putting up a picture then you can flag your photo only to appear for friends and then you chose who gets to see your pictures. This is a great feature that has been adopted from other popular social networking sites but that you don’t generally see on a dating site.

Searching singles databases can be tricky because most of them are top down searches and put photo members first and you end up thumbing through old and new profiles all the time. Date the UK allows your search results to be displayed with the most recent visitors to Date the UK first and you can also search to find people who are online dating now or members who have recently joined the site.

Summary of DatetheUK.com

Along with all of the great features that Date the UK has integrated into the site they have their own matching technology called “Search Plus” which allows you to find dates and rank them according to the profile criteria that matters to you. The online chat service feature is great and makes it easy for you to see who is online so you can engage in chat and setup a quick date for the evening.

You can use your mobile phone to pay for your dating membership by selecting ‘Pay by Mobile Phone’ in the ‘Make Payment’ page. You can also SMS chat with other members using your phone. Another cool feature is to search speed dating events in your area that are powered by SpeedDater.co.uk. Premium memberships are available in Gold and Platinum options with different features attached to each. You can pay by credit card, Direct Debit, Mobile Phone or by cheque or postal order. One other cool payment add-on feature I thought was really cool was that you can pay бё3 more per month and allow a standard member email you with no cost to them or you can make your profile stand out more for the same cost and they will highlight your profile when you appear in search results and will make sure you’re at the top.

DatetheUK.com Subscription Plans:

Gold Membership Plans

1 Month = бё19.99 – less than бё0.67 a day

3 Months = бё34.99, less than бё0.39 a day

6 Months = бё44.99, less than бё0.25 a day

1 Year = бё69.99, less than бё0.2 a day

Platinum Membership Plans

1 Month = бё24.99 – less than бё0.84 a day

3 Months = бё39.99, less than бё0.45 a day

6 Months = бё54.99, less than бё0.31 a day – Love Guarantee

1 Year = бё74.99, less than бё0.21 a day

The Love Guarantee – Buy the 6 month platinum membership and they will give you a free Love Guarantee; if you are not in a happy relationship within 6 months they will extend your full membership for another 180 days! If at the end of the year, you still haven’t found what you are looking for, we’ll simply extend it again, for another 6 months! This is a cast-iron, rock solid guarantee. No questions will be asked; you won’t have to fill in any forms and there are no catches. All that they ask is that you tell them by email that you want it extended – any time during 6 months of your membership. They’ll do it there and then, no hassle.

Platinum Membership Benefits:

Technical support within 12 HOURS.

Send and receive email via our secure system. UNLIMITED.

Chat for hours with other members. UNLIMITED.

Upload your photo and check others out. UNLIMITED.

Go back to previous emails at any time. Available for 1 year.

Gold Membership Benefits:

Technical support within 24 HOURS.

Send and receive email via our secure system 50 mails per day.

Chat with other members. 50 chat sessions per day.

Upload your photo and check others out. Maximum of 5 photos

Go back to previous emails at any time. Available for 60 days.

DatetheUK.com is a registered and secured VeriSign site and McAfee Secured.

Company Information:

DatetheUK.com is a privately held company operated by EasyDate with their main offices in Edinburgh, UK. Find serious relationships, friends or hook-ups at DatetheUK today.

EasyDate (DTUK)

PO Box 23777

Edinburgh EH3 7XY

Tel: 44 (0) 870 626 0581

customer service email: admin@datetheuk.com.

If you are looking for datetheuk, date the uk or datingtheuk the UK online dating and relationships site you are most likely looking for is datetheuk.com.

Match.com Launches Free Dating Site (DowntoEarth.com)

We have been following this rumor now for about 6 months that Match.com was going to be launching a free dating service and we had one of their developers asking our members on Meeta.com how they found our site and other questions. Markus of Plenty of Fish announced the news yesterday with a blog post titled, Its official Match.com Abandons Paid Dating on his Paradigm Shift dating blog. I wouldn’t take it that far but the headline got me to read the post.

It was interesting to read other people’s reaction to the site launch. Match.com like other large businesses is just fighting for market share. That is all it boils down to. They aren’t afraid of free dating models as they know the quality is the concern and that people will usually start off on a free site then migrate to a membership based service and pay for 3-4 months. They are just trying to position themselves to capture more of these types of referral leads. Sites like PlentyofFish.com, OKCupid.com and Mingle2.com (formerly Justsayhi.com) think that they are competing with the big boys when they should be doing partnerships with them. If you watch how the free sites in the adult industry work with the premium pay sites then it would all make sense instead of using Google AdSense as your revenue stream. Businesses that rely on Google are getting lower valuations because you are relying on the big boys buying advertising on Google’s content or site targeted network. I am an online media buyer and I usually don’t buy on Google’s content network due to fraud and low quality traffic from domain parkers.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this site doesn’t take off unless they are going to pour some serious marketing dollars into it. Dustin at DateHookup.com spent a lot of money and time to get his traffic and SEO going. I think he was like 3 years invested when he started hitting critical mass. I don’t think Match has that much patience for this project to go gold. My prediction for 2009 isn’t that the free dating sites will be fighting the pay sites but that we are going to see some acquisition activity on the free dating sites by the big boys. I would like to see Markus get acquired but I don’t think he has a good grasp of what his site is actually worth as he keeps comparing it to Facebook and other social network acquisitions. Trust me POF is far, far away from anything related to FB. Trust me, I am grossly addicted to Facebook and can’t even stand being on the POF homepage but I love what Markus has done for the industry.

If you want to check out Match.com’s new free dating service it is called DowntoEarth.com.

The site is visually appealing and I love that they are focused on the US and Canada to stay away from scammers in Africa and Eastern Europe. Hopefully they have some good IP address detection and proxy server blocking software built into the site.

-Brian R.

Hitwise Internet Dating Rankings вЂ“ 12/08

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Writing a Creative Personal Ad

Personal Ad

Writing an effective personal ad is a hard task for many people because you are writing about yourself which can seem a little vain but if you just apply a little effort, creativity and imagination you can create a story around all of your interests and personality traits. Below are a few sample profiles that we created based on fake people with specific interests and professions. Of course these were written by a professional copywriter but the most important thing to take from these profiles is the casual language and story telling structure. Keep your profile personal and talk about what you experienced in life, what you enjoy doing and what you are looking for in a partner.

Male, 36 БЂ“ architect БЂ“ likes eating out, sports and scary movies

I love my life. I love what I do. I love making the most out of opportunities and I want to share my life with a woman that feels the same way! I have a great sense of humor and need to be with a woman that can make me laugh; not only with jokes, but a few knee slappers definitely wouldnБЂ™t hurt your chances.

If youБЂ™re looking for a man that will try to win you over with bragging and possessions, youБЂ™re looking at the wrong profile. IБЂ™m an honest and modest guy who loves a night on the town at a fancy Italian restaurant, followed by a scary movie and a white cherry Slurpee!

IБЂ™m looking for a down-to-earth woman that is not afraid to try anything and everything, and is ready for whatever life throws at her. She must be prepared to laugh at everything БЂ“ including herself and if she knows what a БЂњfirst downБЂ« is, or what БЂњoff sidesБЂ« means, she would be just what the doctor ordered.

Male, 27 БЂ“ artist БЂ“ likes kung fu, reading and music

Painting is my lifeБЂ¦ but donБЂ™t run away just yet! I make a good living and have a lot of free time to spend with my elusive better half.б IБЂ™m an easy-going, well mannered African American who, according to friends, is not too terribly rough on the eyes and does not need constant attentionБЂ¦ I can certainly entertain myself eighty percent of the time but would enjoy a partner in crime for the other thirty percent. (Math was never my strong suite.)

When IБЂ™m not relaxing on my couch with a Douglas Noц«l Adams book, listening to my favorite Wu-tang album or painting a self proclaimed БЂњmasterpieceБЂ«, IБЂ™m usually eating sushi with close friends or renting a classic Bruce Lee film.

IБЂ™m a sucker for a woman that expresses herself through art, music or performance and if you can prepare a delicious, home-cooked feast (or at least know a good delivery joint), IБЂ™m yours forever! IБЂ™m looking for someone who doesnБЂ™t mind staying in more often than not but is not afraid to go out on occasion and let her hair down БЂ“ someone who is well-read, optimistic, and has a good ear for music. Tell me about yourselfБЂ¦

Male, 30 БЂ“ contractor БЂ“ likes baseball, politics and children

IБЂ™m here with a positive attitude and IБЂ™m ready to meet new and interesting people with whom I can spend my free time. A long-term relationship could be nice, but IБЂ™m definitely looking for friendship for starters.

In the short span that I have walked the earth, IБЂ™ve done pretty much everything when it comes to employment and have won countless bets when people say they can guess a job IБЂ™ve never done at least once БЂ“ currently, I the owner of my own contracting business where I build houses for a living and I love every minute of it. I have two wonderful boys, ages six and eleven; they are everything to me and anyone that I choose to be with must love children! Oh, and baseball, because we are obsessed with the New York Yankees and spend a great deal of our free time attending games during the season БЂ“ and hopefully post season.б My family is very close and extremely important to me and I get along best with people who feel the same way.

The perfect woman, to me, would be someone that can have an informed discussion about local or national politics and is not afraid to disagree with me or play devilБЂ™s advocate from time to time, gets excited about great seats at Yankee Stadium, loves or even has children and wants to see where our relationship leads while letting it set its own paceБЂ¦ no rushing.

Male, 40 БЂ“ software engineer БЂ“ likes travelling, wine and fine art

I’ve been to the beautiful Savannah Desert of South Africa, the Indian Himalayans and the sandy beaches of Thailand. I’ve meditated in rain forests of Central America, inhaling the intoxicating scent of the flourishing vegetation just after the afternoon rainfall. I’ve sailed from San Diego to the Caribbean БЂ“ but for all the paths I’ve traveled, ours have yet to cross.

Maybe I was facing the wrong direction in Germany, when I was cooking at a gourmet restaurant on the German Riviera and you strolled past? I looked for you in Spain, while I sat in a narrow alley cafц©; dipping my churro into chocolate so thick it reminded me of a cup of pudding БЂ“ bittersweet not just in taste, but in actual fact, because you weren’t there to share it with meБЂ¦ or were you? It’s not that my life isn’t full. Between family and friends, my work as a software engineer, my yoga classes, hiking and volunteering in my community, I’m happy in my life, especially giving service to others. Also, I consider myself a wine БЂњconnoisseurБЂ«, but what fun is great wine without you to share it with?

I see us hiking together, swimming, going to local art openings or museum, discovering out-of-the-way mom and pop cafes. We’ll probably be the last couple to leave, since we’re deep into a conversation not about people, but about ideas and philosophies. I’m loyal and sincere, and promise to treat you with courtesy and respect. If respect comes first, then true intimacy naturally follows. But consider yourself warned: I’m old-fashioned and will want to open doors for you! Since we’ll be discovering a whole new world together, I expect you’ll get your chance to open a door or two for me as well.

Male, 50 БЂ“ Col. United States Army (ret.) БЂ“ restoring classic cars, skydiving and water polo

After 20 exciting years serving my country as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal expert in the United States Army (I made things go boom), IБЂ™m ready to follow my dreams of restoring classic cars with a woman that will roll her sleeves up and jump right in there with me БЂ“ I have a 1920БЂ™s Ford Model T that needs БЂ

SitterCity.com Review (Sittercity)

Babysitter

Are you a second time a rounder with kids? Single parenting can be a difficult task when trying to get back into the dating scene while keeping your children safe and out of the picture until you are ready to introduce them to someone that you get serious with. We have found a great Baby Sitter matchmaking, SitterCity.com, which also helps you find a nanny, senior care, pet care, a house sitter or a tutor for your child. SitterCity.com also ensures your safety while helping you locate a babysitter with a four-step screening process to carefully guide you through the hiring process so that you can make the best decision to protect your loved ones.

Below is the four step process that SitterCity suggest you use for screening:

Step One: Read online reviews and ratings on a caregiver’s profile.

Step Two: Conduct in-person interviews with your favorite caregivers.

Step Three: Check a caregiver’s references which are also listed on the caregiver profiles.

Step Four: Run a background check. They are partnered with LexisNexis which is a leader in background checks.

To make the screening process even easier, Sittercity has tons of articles for care seekers, interview questions and tactics to ask the prospect sitter. The background checks are done with an easy-to-use tool that can get you a response in just minutes and allows you to preserve each others privacy with respect to personal information like Social Security numbers.

A standard background check includes an identity check that verifies the applicants legal name, current address, SSN, previouses addresses and any aliases. You can and should also conduct a national criminal search that checks records appearing in state and count criminal record databases, state sex offender registries and prison, parole and release files from state Department of Corrections.

It just takes a few minutes to sign-up to post a job notice to start your search for a babysitter. You will also have to confirm your own email address. You can sign-up for a 7-day free trial to the service and if you decide to upgrade to a full membership to continue using their services you will have access to post unlimited jobs across all care types, view full caregiver profiles and contact information, see caregivers’ background checks for free, run background checks on caregivers, view and contact caregivers’ references.

Below are the two full membership packages that SitterCity.com offers:

Annual Membership: $7.99 month, no signup fee

$95.88 one-time payment billed now and good for a year

Monthly Membership: $9.99 month + $39.99 signup fee

$39.99 one-time payment billed for the first month, then $9.99 billed each month thereafter

Let Sitter City find you a trusted babysitter so you can take some time our for yourself so that you can find new romance in your life. There are thousands of single parents out there that are looking for relationships with serious minded singles. What are you waiting for?

If you are looking for SitterCity, Sitter City or www.sittercity.com then visit the official site at: SitterCity.com. Don’t forget to use this special promo code for 10% off: SCSAVE10

-Brian R.

Ashley Madison Review (AshleyMadison.com)

AshleyMadison.com Information

Site Name: AshleyMadison.com

Established: 2001

Member Size: Over 12.7 million Members

Description: Ashley Madison is an online dating service and social network service marketed primarily to people who are already in a relationship

Click to visit AshleyMadison.com

Site Review

The name Ashley Madison is a little deceiving and not so upfront and obvious as other cheating sites like LonelyWivesAffairs.com. Ashley Madison has been really strategic in their advertising targeting traveling married business men on in-flight magazines and with billboards in Times Square saying “Life is short, have an affair.”

It is free to join Ashley Madison but in order to contact other members you’ll have to purchase contact tokens at $49 for 100 tokens. Each contact costs five credits or about $2.75. One of the obvious downfalls to the service is because of the nature of the business targeting cheating husbands and wives you don’t see many photos on profiles.

Under the AshleyMadison.com Affair Guarantee Program, if you don’t find someone within the initial 3 months after purchasing the “Affair Guarantee” Membership Package, we’ll refund you $249, being the amount you paid for participating in the Program. At the $249 price point this is obviously targeting business professionals that might be interested in extramarital affairs while traveling. Most of the other cheating dating sites seem to promote lonely and horny housewives where as Ashley Madison is very blunt about infidelity and sex on the side hookups.

There are several features that you can use on the site for free once you have signed up and are debating whether to upgrade and buy tokens. You can send pre-composed “Winks” to members for free. To send a wink, access the member’s profile details page and click “Send me a wink”.

Keep your personal pictures confidential with a Private Showcase key. If an admirer wants to see your photos you can send them a Key to view your Private Showcase and let them see more of you. To send a key, access the member’s profile details page and click “Send me a private key”. You may revoke keys at anytime by accessing the member’s profile detail page and clicking “Revoke the private key”.

The Search Tool is free which allows you to see who’s available online now. You can also block a member by accessing their Ad Profile details page, scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking “Block”. If you use credits to send a mail message to any member that becomes involuntarily suspended, they automatically refund those credits back to your account. That way, you can initiate contact with confidence.

AshleyMadison.com reports that the sign-up ratio between males and females are about 8.5 men for every 1.5 women. Another interesting statistic is that about one out of every 10 men actually purchases credits enabling them to contact female members, which bring the active ratio closer to 1:1.

If you are looking for Ashley Madison, AshleyMadison, www.ashleymadison.com, Ashely Madison, Asley Madison then you are probably looking for AshleyMadison.com.

Ashley Madison Address: 2300 Yonge Street, Suite 1906, P.O. Box 2313, Toronto, ON Canada M4P 1E4

Age Gap Relationships

Relationship Age Gap

People are always wondering what is an acceptable age gap for relationships. Many couples are worried about how their friends and family will perceive their relationship if the age gap between them is too wide. My wife is 10 years younger then me but women tend to mature much faster then men in most cases so I don’t feel the age difference much. I am in my late 30′s now and when I was in my 20′s I dated women my age or maybe a few years younger. Some of the more important things that you should be focused on instead of any age differences is to make sure your motives and goals for your relationship are inline with each other. I didn’t date my wife because she was much younger then me, we had a lot of common interests and connected on an emotional level because of past life experiences.

If you are in your teens still and dating a man or woman much older then you then you just need to make sure that you are not doing it for the wrong reasons. If you are a younger woman and feel that an older man is more mature and gives you more stability in your relationship then there is probably not any problem with this type of relationship. One issue I have seen with relationships where there is a wide age gap is that typically (not all of the time though) the older person is in the mode or mind set to settle down and the younger person wants to go out and still explore. I have seen some of these situations turn into jealous relationships where the older person will try to command all of the time spent together and suffocate their partner and this can be unhealthy if that is not what the other person is wanting in the relationship.

In the end if you are in love with your partner and not their age then you will have a healthy relationship together and shouldn’t worry about any social criticisms that might occur. Hey, if they can do it in Hollywood and make it work with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher which both have a 16 year age gap then your friends and family should accept your relationship too. If you have a unique situation that you would like to share or get advice on post your comments below.

-Brian R.

Zoosk.com Review вЂ“ (Zoosk)

Zoosk.com Information

Site Name: Zoosk.com

Established: January 2007

Member Size: Over 16.5 Million Members

Description: Zoosk is an online dating website with third-party applications on several social networking services. Zoosk is based in San Francisco, California, and was ranked number 29 on Wall Street Journal’s The Next Big Thing: Top 50 Venture-Backed Companies in March 2011.

Click Here to Visit Zoosk.com

Zoosk Review

In the wonderful world of Facebook APPs one has risen to the top of the pile – Zoosk.com. Zoosk, based in San Francisco, calls itself a social dating community and has grown more than 16.5 Million users since its launch in December of 2007. With over 1,500 Facebook dating applications it is a pretty crowded vertical for Apps. I can see how website applications like Hot or Not took off on Facebook Apps but I just don’t get how Zoosk made such a run out the gate in such a small amount of time. Zoosk was funded by Amidzad, a technology startup incubator for over 100 companies in Silicon Valley. The Zoosk Platform runs as an application, widget, and embedded feature inside social networks like Bebo, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster and Myspace.

After launching on December 21, 2007, Zoosk boasted 1.8 million installs, with daily traffic ranging in the neighborhood of 200,000 users and 2.5M uniques per month. A lot of growth came on the social networks from the viral mechanisms like invites, access to news feeds, share app to a friend, etc.

In January 2009, nearly 100,000 new users have joined Zoosk each day. New user growth was driven largely among the Facebook community. In addition, 20% of new users joined Zoosk through its website at http://www.zoosk.com. Zoosk is one of the only social dating sites that allows users to seamlessly connect across multiple networks, meaning a Facebook user can interact with a MySpace or Bebo user. Zoosk claims to have made more than 228 million connections for its users already. Users can send messages to others through a wink or a flirt for free. When users send a flirt, they also have the ability to attach a virtual gift, such as a rose or flower bouquet. Virtual gifts are available for purchase with “Zoosk Coins,” which users can buy through Zoosk’s online store.

Zoosk’s Premium Membership allows you the unlimited ability to respond to any flirt, be contacted by any Zoosk member, and can see who has viewed their Date Card. Upgrading members also get premium placement throughout the network, which results in more visibility and ultimately more connections. A Premium Membership will cost you $24.95 per month, with 3-month and 6-month memberships available at discounted rates.

“We receive stories everyday from users who share with us how Zoosk has made it easy for them to meet and connect with someone special for a date or long-lasting relationship,” said Mehr, CEO of Zoosk. “Many never expected they would find a love interest through a social network, but Zoosk’s unique ability to connect people within the context of their online social networks makes it not only possible, but fun, to meet others in that way.”

Zoosk won the 2009 People’s Choice Open Web Award in the “Dating and Romance” category. The application is very easy to use and to search through thousands of photo profiles with their zip code search which shows how far in miles each user is to you. Let us know if you have had any positive or negative experiences with the application and if you have met quality people on the site. I found it to be a very addicting site almost as much as Hot or Not when it first launched years ago. Visit the official Zoosk.com website or Zoosk Facebook App or Zoosk on MySpace (need to be logged in to view).

-Brian R.

Match.com Sells European Presence to Meetic

The InterActiveCorp (IAC) that owns and operates Match.com, signed a deal to sell off their European operations of Match.com which include Match.co.uk to the French-based company Meetic for a 5 million euro note (about $6.3 million) along with a 27% interest in the Meetic online dating service company.

The IAC said that the Match European operation contributed about 13% of their operating income before amortization. That equals about $11.9 million of their overall unadjusted 2008 operating income of $91.3 million.

Meetic, which operates 10 online dating services in 15 European countries and Latin America, offers both online and mobile-phone based programs and has been a fast mover in online dating across the UK and Europe. Match.com is essentially licensing the Match.com brand for its European operations to Meetic, and Meetic will optimize the two brands on a market by market basis.

This deal basically puts an end to any competition in the UK dating market since Meetic has already acquired the other big contender DatingDirect.com and Match.co.uk had uDate.com through an older acquisition. It’ll be interesting to see how much money eHarmony wastes in the UK market this year trying to get a food hold of their US-based brand established. It is almost like Classmates trying to enter into the UK market and compete against FriendsReunited.com. It just won’t work.

-Brian R.

Are You Ready To Take It To The Next Level

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There comes a time in every relationship where you start wondering if the person you are with is the one that you want to spend the rest of your life with. There are some very important questions that you need to ask yourself which include compatibility, children, money, addiction, sexual fulfillment, family and fidelity.

How compatible are you with each other really? Do you see eye to eye on most issues and share enough interests where you won’t be alienating each other with hobbies that don’t relate. You have to make sure you don’t have persistent problems that you can’t seem to fix and that continue to irritate you.

One big problem in a lot of relationships is the timing of when you want to have kids. I have had a bunch of friends that have had major break-ups over this issue. You need to make sure you are aligned with when you want to start having kids so you don’t have one person ready and the other in a different mind state.

Money causes us enough emotional stress as is and once you put a relationship in the middle it can get pretty crazy. One thing to realize in a relationship is that you are going to have to give and take and sometimes times may be rough financially but to stay focused and if you lose a job or don’t think you are making enough money to keep your partner and yourself satisfied that in the end money isn’t that important. Just make sure that you are not living above your means and that you save whenever you can for rainy days.

Everyone has vices of some sort whether it be coffee, smoking or drinking but the important thing here is to make sure that they don’t consume you and that you are balanced with any addictions you might have. I love caffeine and sweets but I try to minimize my intake just because I know it isn’t healthy for me. If you have a partner that is addicted to some sort of drug and you are not comfortable with their use then you should seriously consider getting out of that relationship because once you take it to the next level things will only escalate more. If you are a non-smoker and your partner is a smoker and you want them to quit then you should work this out with them immediately if it really is a big issue for you. If you don’t mind then don’t bring it up and make them feel lower then you because they make this lifestyle decision. It can and will cause dissent in your relationship.

Sex is a much larger issue then most couples realize. Are you always the one wanting more attention and sex? If that is the case then you need to make your partner aware that you aren’t receiving the amount of love and affection and see if it is just that they are currently too busy with work and life or if they have a much lower sexual drive then you. You would be surprised to see that women actually crave sex just as much as men do but might not make it so apparent. Be sure to communicate your feelings so you don’t always feel like you are getting turned down when you want intimacy.

Some couples ignore or overlook the importance of having positive relations with your family and vice versa. Family is the ones that’ll be there when you get into arguments or break ups. They usually have a large effect on your actions since they know your personality the best and what is good for you when your thoughts might be clouded emotionally. If you plan on having kids then they are a great outlet for help in many various ways.

Fidelity is the big relationship breaker unfortunately. When you get hitched you are making a commitment to that person to be loyal, truthful and faithful to them. If you ever have thoughts of infidelity then you should either confront those feelings with a friend before you make the bad decision to act on them. If something your mate has done is making you feel this way then you need to get that issue sorted out quickly before you throw away everything you have built in your relationship. Cheating never ends with a good story. It’s that plain and simple.

-Brian R.

True.com Class Action Lawsuit Settled

The Dallas Morning News reported on March 10th, 2009 that True.com dating web site settles a class action lawsuit for $1.5M. The Irving, Texas based internet dating site will pay $1.5 million in refunds to their customers that were still charged monthly membership fees after they canceled their memberships.

Under an agreement filed the previous week, True.com will compensate customers who were incorrectly charged for services since 2003. Customers were incorrectly charged membership fees after canceling their accounts or after accidentally clicking on links, according to the federal lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Texas. The agreement still must be approved by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey before the refund process can begin, said Jonathan Tycko, an attorney representing plaintiff Thomas Wong.

Thomas Wong filed the lawsuit in June 2007, claiming he was billed at least three times by True.com after trying to cancel his membership. He claimed the company violated state and federal laws.

According to the settlement, True.com must also revise its auto-subscription system to avoid future members from being accidentally charged. This is going to put a real hurt in their renewals and I am sure that we’ll be seeing less of this slutty advertising that they have been doing for the past 5 years.

Both parties will identify eligible former customers and refer them to a Web site for refunds. Those charged one month of membership would receive $35 and those charged for more than two months would receive $50, according to the court documents. Some members would also be given a free 45-day membership to the site.

Jonathan Tycko said at least 150,000 members are expected to get a cash or membership refund, but the number could grow once the agreement is finalized. Gary D. Eisenstat, an attorney representing True.com, said the company believed it had a strong defense against WongвЂ™s allegations, but decided it was more economical to settle the lawsuit. What kind of defense do you have against people that cancel their memberships and still get billed. That is called billing fraud and the adult industry has been notorious for this type of behavior and with CC payment systems already putting a ton of pressure on the dating industry with bad debt and charge backs I am surprised that they even still have their merchant account.

Give True.com a try to see if you can cancel their membership and not be continuously billed each month. Ha.

Online Dating Banner Archives

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How to Handle a Break Up

Handle a Break Up

Break ups are definitely no fun for both parties involved. One of the most important things for you to come the realization is being comfortable with yourself again and not having a dependency to just jump right back into another relationship until you have had enough alone time. You have to get your head cleared even if you are getting out of a relationship to be with another person. You should have enough respect for your last partner to settle your differences with them and let the wounds heal a bit before you just jump in head first to another one. People are always making this mistake and end up paying for it in the long run. I would recommend that you spend some time with your friends especially the ones that you might have pushed away when you were together with your last partner.

One of the other hard things for people after a break up is investing the time to learn about another person and getting back into the dating scene. I seriously recommend you spend a few weeks or months being single again and enjoying yourself, family and friends. Once you are comfortable with your status of being single you will see that you will have opportunities all around you to meet new people. You can try online dating if you are trying to meet someone outside of your immediate circle of friends or the bar scene if you want to keep it casual. Church is also a good place to meet singles if you are at all religious. If you are a guy then you might want to try some Salsa or Swing dance classes as there is usually about a 4-to-1 ratio of women to men. If you are a pet lover then there are tons of singles that walk their pets in dog parks and to dog friendly eateries. Pets can be an easy conversation ice breaker if you have any issues with approaching strangers. If you are into sports and outdoor activities then get involved in league play where there are big groups of players like softball, bowling or volleyball.

-Brian R.

eHarmony Advertising on MySpace

I saw a flash ad for eHarmony running on Myspace today which I thought was a bit strange since I am listed as a 37-year old married man on Myspace. Is eHarmony doing a little monkey see monkey do with Match.com and just testing the waters with a run of site campaign? I find it interesting that eHarmony wouldn’t be running this campaign geo-targeted to single people in the 34-45 age group bracket. They should be running a campaign on Facebook because of the extensive targeting options that Facebook is able to offer.

eharmony-myspace-ad

eHarmony’s latest move with their creative seems to be targeting the main stream dating scene and not being so scientific in approach and more natural in their messaging. I just don’t get why they aren’t doing targeting when they can so easily. There are 12,211,940 people on Facebook that live in the US, over 18 and single. You can even drill down your target to different cities and education and have the option to pay on a CPC or CPM.

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-Brian R.

Match to Buy Yahoo Personals

The InterActiveCorp says that it is in talks to buy Yahoo’s online-dating business, Yahoo Personals, after posting a first-quarter loss due to a dip in online advertising. IAC CEO Barry Diller said Wednesday his company was in discussions around acquiring the Yahoo Personals property, but he cautioned that it was too early to know whether the talks would amount to anything.

Yahoo Personals

Match.com

“We would love to have Yahoo Personals, and there are discussions about that,” Mr. Diller said on a conference call. IAC owns rival dating site Match.com. Yahoo management has thrown around the idea on whether to sell its dating site for several years. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has expressed a new desire to sell-off products and services that aren’t core to its business.

Gene Munster, analyst at Piper Jaffray, said Yahoo Personals could be worth about $500 million, or three to four times an estimated $150 million in annual revenue for the unit.

This consolidation in the dating vertical would be huge leaving only one other top tier competitor, eHarmony left in the space. Sites like American Singles, Perfectmatch.com, Mate1, and Lavalife would move up a notch as new acquisition prospects. I am surprised some of the portals and newspaper properties like McClatchy Company haven’t purchased their own Personals site since classifieds are such an integrated service to the papers. Most portal sites like Comcast.net, Earthlink.net & ATT.net all have personals channels where they partner with sites like Match.com and eHarmony.com.

I wonder how much overlap in subscriber base exists between Match.com and Yahoo Personals and whether they would merge the databases into one if Yahoo would then become Yahoo Personals powered by Match.com or be left as a stand alone brand. It would make sense to me that they merge the data and then allow the Yahoo base full access to additional Match members and vice versa. This could increase conversions on both properties and really allow Match.com to move further ahead of its major competition eHarmony. The acquisition could also be very beneficial for the Chemistry.com brand that Match has struggled to grow and giving it a wider audience on Yahoo Personals would allow for a premium match-making service option.

-Brian R.

Match.com Agrees To Buy People Media For $80 Million

People Media Logo

IAC/Match.com is buying into the niche groups subscription dating business with the acquisition of People Media from private equity firm American Capital Ltd. and various investors for $80 million in cash. The deal will add 27 dating sites with a combined 255,000 paying subcribers to the IAC (NSDQ: IACI) portfolio, including BlackPeopleMeet.com, LDSPlanet.com (Latter Day Saints dating), SingleParentMeet.com, SeniorPeopleMeet.com.

People Media earned $11.6 million in 2008 before depreciation and amortization, while Match.com reported $9.9 million in operating income before amortization. Fourteen-year-old Match.com had some 5.8 million unique users in May, compared with nearly 4 million for People Media’s combined sites, according to comScore Media Metrix. Both have a portal deals in place: Match.com powers MSN & AOL Personals online dating in the U.S and other countries; People Media has a similar deal with AOL Personals niche dating communities.

Match.com CEO Greg Blatt explains in the announcement that the combined company will continue to look for ways to play off the interest some people have in dating by demographics. Despite the disparities in the two businesses, Blatt expects to share product development and online marketing expertise and to market “a broader array of services” to the combined customer base. On area that isn’t mentioned: international expansion, which would seem likely given Match.com’s presence across in 24 countries and its overseas investment in European service Meetic.

The IAC has plenty of cash left: IAC Chairman and CEO Barry Diller has said he’s willing to spend on the right properties. The $80 million cash payment for People Media barely makes a dent in the nearly $2 billion on hand. That gives them more than enough reserves if they should decide to follow through on the Yahoo Personals acquisition that has been valued at about $500 million. Read the IAC formal press release: IAC’s Match.com to Acquire People Media from American Capital.

Facebook Ad Matches Husband with Wife

БЂњPeterБЂ« in this case is the Facebook user logged in to his account. The woman in the БЂњHot SinglesБЂ« ad is his own wife. This isnБЂ™t an ad directly served by Facebook, but rather one from a third-party ad network that operates within the social network. Facebook does however use member photos in ads. YouБЂ™re automatically opted-in by Facebook. ThatБЂ™s right, you have to actually go into your settings to turn this off. Your face may have already been used to advertise any number of things to the people on your friends-list. You can opt-out of being featured in ads by following these steps below:

Sign-in to your Facebook account and click Settings -> Privacy Settings -> News Feed and Wall -> Facebook Ads -> Appearance in Facebook Ads drop-down and click БЂњNo One.БЂ«

Online dating is one of the only verticals that seems to be working with Facebook advertising right now since you are able to filter out and target ads to users’ age, location, gender and whether they are married or single. In this case the advertiser didn’t mind advertising to married men since they do make up a good percentage of online dating site users anyways.

Internet Dating Rankings вЂ“ June/July 09

Hitwise ~ 7/09

1. PlentyofFish.com (free dating)

2. Singlesnet.com

3. Match.com

4. Yahoo Personals

5. DateHookup.com (free dating)

6. Adam4Adam (gay personals)

7. eHarmony.com

8. TRUE

9. Blackpeoplemeet (owned by Match)

10. Manhunt.net (gay personals)

11. Seniorpeoplemeet.com (owned by Match)

12. OnlineBootyCall.com

13. OkCupid (free dating)

14. Christian Mingle

15. Chemistry.com (Match.com premium dating)

16. Mingle2.com (free dating)

17. Mate1.com

18. Dream-Marriage.com

19. Black Singles

20. OutPersonals.com (gay personals)

21. SingleParentMeet.com (owned by Match)

22. Woome.com (live video dating)

23. Cupid.com

24. Zoosk.com (facebook app dating)

25. MSN Match (this should be added to Match.com)

I am not sure why Hitwise isn’t tracking the Friendfinder network, Meetic and Perfectmatch.com. I wonder where Date.com/Matchmaker.com, Lavalife and Jdate show up on this list.

Comscore ~ 6/09 / Unique Visitors

1. Singlesnet (3,428,000)

2. Yahoo Personals (3,159,000)

3. PlentyofFish (3,026,000)

4. Match (2,990,000)

5. TRUE (2,780,000)

6. People Media Sites (2,001,000) – BlackPeopleMeet, SeniorPeopleMeet.com

7. eHarmony (1,678,000)

8. Spark Networks (1,368,000) – Jdate, AmericanSingles.com

9. Mate1.com (1,301,000)

10. DateHookup.com (721,000)

If you add People Media to Match then they would be around 4,991,000 uniques which put them on top. Match recently acquired People Media’s network of sites. I am surprised to see eHarmony so low on this list considering all of the money they spend on TV placements.

Hitwise Top 10 Dating Site Rankings September 2009

The Hitwise top rankings are in for September, 2009.

1. PlentyofFish (free dating site)

2. Match.com

3. Singlesnet

4. Yahoo! Personals

5. DateHookup.com (free dating site)

6. eHarmony (up one spot even with all of that TV advertising)

7. Adam4Adam (down one spot)

8. True.com (not sure how they are still top 10)

9. SeniorPeopleMeet.com

10. BlackPeopleMeet.com (both #9 and #10 are now Match.com properties)

Not much has changed in the online dating landscape except that the People Media niche properties jumped up high on the list probably because of that great partnership with AOL Personals. Some of the other note worthy sites that just made it into the top 25 list were Mate1.com (#15 to #12), Zoosk.com (#20 to #17) and the affair website AshleyMadison.com at #24.

Finding Love on Facebook

I just saw on TV last night that Facebook is up to 350+ million users which is nuts. It used to be this tiny private university network for students then it came and took over Myspace as a social network in which seemed to be a month. I remember when Myspace did that to Friendster about 5 years ago. I recently had a good friend of mine in town last week that is an old internet veteran of the dating space. He used to run a few affiliate programs for some popular online dating brands. He met his current girlfriend on Facebook through his ex-girlfriends friends. She contacted him so he didn’t have to troll friends-friends lists like many people do. The interesting thing about Facebook is that social connection sites have existed sine the inception of the internet like Classmates.com and Mylife.com (formerly Reunion.com) but since they had a pay to contact business model you usually didn’t go back to the site after you paid to get into contact with one of your old friends or high school sweat hearts. This killed their business even though I remember at one point that they had over 25+ million registered high school graduates on their sites. They just didn’t allow people to connect when they wanted unless they pulled out their wallets even though these people were once friends that had lost touch over the years.

Facebook.com has changed the game and face of dating via friends of friends which is classically how a lot of people actually meet in real life. The interesting thing about my friends hook up on Facebook is that his girlfriend lives in Montreal and is quite younger then he is and if they were both on a dating site like Perfectmatch.com or Match.com that there is a great chance that they would have never met no matter what they put down as their dating preferences because he is a very unique person in what musical tastes he likes and his taste in girls. He comes across as a rock-a-billy meets urban business man and he is tattooed almost top down. He seems to be attracted to the hipster-pin-up girl type. How do you tell that to a dating site? It just seems so complicated but whenever I see that type of person I usually say something like “So and So would probably like her huh?”.

Facebook can also be scary if you are a female that is trying to stay away from old creepy boyfriends and stalkers that can search for you by name or trolling your friends lists. Good thing Facebook fully understood this and put a ton of work into your privacy settings on who can see you and they even have a feature that allows your name to be unsearchable in their database. Pretty impressive stuff. It still doesn’t work too well for celebrities and sport figures. I have a friend that manages a few sports people and their wives won’t let them create facebook or twitter profiles for stalking groupies.

The permission based friendships are a great ice breaker and way to see who the person contacting you is friends with if you have never met them. If you think about a typical dating site you rarely see group photos on people’s profiles which doesn’t help you when trying to determine whether someone is a social person or what type of friends they might have. Facebook is all that and more. I have wedding photos, travel photos, concert photos, videos and links that I have posted to my profile. People that you meet on Facebook seem to not have a problem putting up personal items and posts since they feel that only people that they have approved are consuming the content.

I can’t wait to see what the face of Facebook will look like in about 3 years from now. Will it still be around or will the next social phenomena like Twitter takes its place? I know all of the early adopters of Facebook are pissed that us old folks have taken over and that it is just a fancy version of what Classmates should have been 10 years ago.

-Brian R.