Internet Dating Affiliates

Top Affiliate Programs

AFFILIATE TIP -- Sep 9 -- Below are the Top Ten Affiliate Programs for August 2008 as tracked by the Affiliate Tip Affiliate Program Directory. The Top Ten affiliate programs are calculated by the number of clickthroughs each program received in the affiliate program directory.

   1. Shopzilla
   2. AzoogleAds
   3. zZounds.com
   4. Orbitz
   5. Advanta Bank Corp
   6. The Scholastic Store Online - Scholastic Inc.
   7. eHealthInsurance
   8. LegalZoom.com
   9. Amazon.com
  10. LinkConnector
FULL ARTICLE @ AFFILIATE TIP

Casual Dating Affiliate Payouts Top The Industry

FF -- Feb 15 -- Does anyone know of any dating affiliate programs that pay out higher than casual dating sites?  The super fast growing dating sites Fling and SexSearch are topping my research on payouts. SexSearch is paying out $90 and Fling $50 per paid sign up over Valentines. Adultfriendfinder is definitely feeling the heat on its tail from these two. I'm surprised how many dating sites don't have affiliate programs. Match, eHarmony, Perfectmatch and Yahoo! have good programs, but many top and second tier players have relatively small programs, if they have them at all. From the affiliate perspective adult dating sites just plain convert better, which would partly explain the rise in popularity of casual dating sites over the last few years. CJ, Linkshare, Azoogleads, Shareasale, Primary Ads, and Link Connector all drive significant amounts of traffic to dating sites.  CJ seems to have the most offers. Email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com for a copy of my spreadsheet listing all the dating offer payouts on the top affiliate networks. - Mark Brooks

Is TRUE Paying Affiliates?

FF -- Nov 29 -- Word on the street is that TRUE is leaving affiliates awash and not paying out.  Here's the word from TRUE... 

" We have been migrating to Link Connector for some time now in response to the amount of fraud that comes in from Commission Junction. We are eliminating Commission Junction and will be building an in-house affiliate solution in the future. We do continue to use many affiliate networks through our major partners."

TRUE has been unhappy with CJ for sending them craptastic fraudulent traffic. They've settled their differences and gone their separate ways. I guess that means if you're a CJ affiliate marketing TRUE, you're high and dry. Change out those links. I tried reaching CJ for comment but got the usual zilch response. I've been monitoring dollars-per-unique earned from the affiliate links on Online Personals Watch for a while now and TRUE has been one of the best paying dating programs. I used CJ for a while and switched out to their offer through Primary Ads because the payout was better. My recommendation, if you want to run TRUE offers, use Link Connector. They hold Link Connector in good favor. Looks like they're still running on Primary Ads as well.

Payout comparison: Back in May 2007 CJ was paying out a bounty of $30 per paid membership plus $2 per lead (free sign-up) with a 21 day cookie. They were also running on Azoogleads for $2.30 per lead in May. Right now Primary Ads is running TRUE offers and paying out $3.50 a lead, and Link Connector is paying out $2 per lead. 

[12/4 - I just got this heads up from LinkConnector. "TRUE no longer has an active campaign with LinkConnector.  It is our understanding that they have ended their campaigns with other networks as well."]