Online Dating Services

Any money to be made in these?

[defanjos]

Are online dating services a good area (profitable) to get into? I mean as affiliate programs go.

I have read articles that this is a fast growing area of the net, any truth in that?

[jimbeetle]

Just from personal experience -- we tried affiliating with an online service about a year and a half ago. It wasn't one of the couple of big ones but what seemed a fairly solid startup that offered branded sites with content and such similar to all the rest.

We grabbed a great domain name localized for our content, put a few bucks into Google adwords, promoted it on our local sites and started to get good traffic and some *free* memberships.

Conversion to paid members? Zilch.

Granted, we didn't do all that we could have with it, were just trying to fill in a few holes in the income stream. If you find something good that *makes* folks convert to a paid membership it might be worth a shot.

Jim

[Warden]

I am co-owner of a niche dating service (female inmates) and we do a lot of promoting to mainstream sites. For the most part, I think the mainstream market is already becoming saturated. Like any other industry it pays to have a niche that sets you apart. I can tell you that we are the only company that I know of that have an affiliate program, WM content, yada yada yada in our class. Over all I would say the online dating industry is still relatively fresh and still has much growth opportunity. So, find the affiliate program that you feel your traffic will convert to the best. After all, everyone and their mother is a member of Match.com, Date.com etc. Give them new and unique options and you will see better conversions.

Warden

[edited by: Woz at 5:26 am (utc) on Jan. 24, 2003]
[edit reason] No sigs please - TOS#13 [/edit]

[fathom]

Someone tried to scam me into this... said he was making 100K per month and I could do the same.

I politely replied:

shhh! don't tell anyone - they'll all want in

[Hunter]

Warden, warden, warden... won't you break my lock and key...

[Warden]

Sorry,
You'll have to wait till your next parole hearing!

[Shawn Collins]

I've been an affiliate with One & Only for years, and have been happy with the results. I send them traffic via FindWhat, and routinely make 2x to 3x what I spend on the PPCs.

But I've tested others with very poor results.

Coming soon, Yahoo Personals will have a program, and I think it will perform well - the name recognition and the fact that they are a reputable company make it a safe bet (IMHO).

Shawn

[defanjos]

Thanks all for your replies, it is appreciated.

[hobbnet]

There a quite a few great programs out there which we make pretty good returns on. Sticky mail me if you want to know some specific programs we have had success with.

[kiddo]

What is IMHO mean?

[Warden]

IMHO = In My Honest Opinion

[hobbnet]

Not to stray this further off it's topic but I've always thought the "H" to stand for "humble".

;)

[bcc1234]

Not to stray this further off it's topic but I've always thought the "H" to stand for "humble".

IMHO, It is :)

[vitaplease]

Yes it should be humble,

as, since, are all your opinions not honest?

[Shawn Collins]

Just recently, Yahoo! Personals launched an affiliate program. It should be interesting to see how that impacts the landscape of dating affiliate programs.

[vik_c]

On my site I ran a small campaign for a well known dating site. They had a pay per lead program paying 75 cents per lead. It would take too long for someone to fill out those forms they provided making it impossible to generate enough qualified leads to make the campaign worthwhile despite a good CTR.

[eljefe3]

I pushed one program pretty hard a few years ago and I still receive $1.19 per month even though I haven't done anything in that arena in at least two years. If I could have pushed it harder, I might be getting a residual $100 per month which isn't much, but every little bit of extra $$ for keeping a site up is fine by me.

[mfishy]

I am keenly interested in this topic as well. For the first time in a while, I decided to jump into a new area of affiliate marketing without the proper research.

My thought was that dating traffic would convert pretty well as the service is cheap and very easy to use. Also, the business itself is growing exponentially.

I hope I don't learn this lesson the hard way by finding that my traffic doesn't convert. I get 99% of my traffic via search engines so I don't expect much until the next Google update- so I still have to select a merchant.

Yahoo personals is interesting- I wasn't aware that they charged. The only problem is that, if Yahoos other area of customer service are any indication of how difficult affiliate communications are going to be...

Shawn- stickymail me if you get any info on how they paln on managing the program and launch date.

Anyone try Match.com?

Also any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

mfishy

[Shawn Collins]

I can vouch for the Yahoo Personals program affiliate manager - he's a guy named Michael Brucker that's been in affiliate marketing for years.

Because I know that he is committed to the success of the program, I've switched my links, which had been going to One & Only and Match.com over to Yahoo.

Early results are encouraging... 125 clicks -> 1 sale. The sales are $20.

[thaedge]

I just slipped a link in for yahoo on my site this week. It truly doesnt go with my content, but it does go with the target of my content: the young ins that you see on webcam and rateme type sites. With the possibility of the worst position on my site I am getting clicks. If they turn to sales Ill let you know (and be very happy/suprised myself).

- Dave