Internet Dating Affiliates

Match.com Affiliates Instructed to Cease Listing Marketing Numbers

FREQUENT FLIRTERS - Aug 15 - You can't list things like 'over 15 million members' in your marketing copy for Match.com any more.  

To Match.com affiliates...

"We would like to ask for your immediate assistance in removing any marketing copy that refers to the number of free or paid members on Match.com or the estimated volume of users joining Match.com on a daily basis. Examples of such copy that we have seen includes, but is not limited to, "Over 15 million members" or "Over 20,000 singles join Match.com every day". Due to a change in the Match.com advertising policy, these types of marketing claims are no longer allowed. 
        
In addition, if you are currently using or find any creative or landing pages that quote these types of claims please let us know.  We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause, but appreciate your prompt action.  
        
Please be assured that Match.com continues to be a leader in the online dating industry and plans to continue its aggressive investment in its brand through television advertising, online display, search, e-mail marketing, and affiliate marketing as it has for the past 15 years.  
        
We appreciate your support."

PerfectMatch.com New Comission Offer

FF - July 22 - PerfectMatch.com has increased their commissions. Here’s the incentive for 20 sales a month.

• 1 month - $50.96
• 2 months - $67.92
• 3 months - $94.22
• 6 months - $169.96

How Affiliate Tax Will Hurt CPA Networks & Affiliates

PACE LATTIN - Jun 30 - There has been a great deal of discussion of all the Affiliate Tax laws being passed in the media. Unfortunately, thanks to a great spin campaign by companies such as Walmart, the discussion has been focused on how these new Nexus Tax laws will affect large companies like Amazon and Overstock. This is not an “Amazon” tax, or an “Overstock” tax, but instead a “Small Business Tax” that has been labeled incorrectly in order that the general media might ignore the reality of what these taxes will do to small businesses. The laws specify that if there is any affiliate of any company making revenue for a product in that state, then the company itself has to pay taxes for any transaction in those states. This means that anyone engaged in any sort of ecommerce, whether it is sale of a product, promotion of a program, signups to site, in theory could be forced to pay those states taxes.

Many companies, from lead generation firms to dating sites are going to start avoiding CPA networks in those States for that specific reason. They do not want to risk that working with a company in a certain State will somehow cause a nexus and thus require them to file paperwork, file additional taxes. They’d rather make it easy and work with someone else.

Dating Offers That Convert

OFFER VAULT - June 8 - Dating offers are hotter than ever. If you haven’t dabbled in the dating niche, now is the time to ride it. Sex sells. The question is, how well does it convert in the world of affiliate marketing? A common misconception about dating offers is that the imagery is what pushes the visitor to take action. The headline is equally as important. See the dating offers that convert.

Did You Know: Guys Vs Girls On Dating Sites

OPW - May 17 - Do you know what the ratio of guys and girls is on US Dating sites. Hitwise Competitive Intelligence tells us that for the 4 weeks ending May 7, 2011, the ratio was 56.6% male and 43.4% female. Does this surprise you? Your comments please. Thanks to Hitwise for letting us know.

This post also appears on OnlinePersonals.

Zoosk To Terminate Its Affiliate Program

REVENEWS - Mar 28 - California-based dating site Zoosk will be terminating its affiliate program entirely as of March 31. The reason stated was “the burden of the state sales-taxes” and the need to shift “marketing focus elsewhere until there is more certainty in the industry.” California is just one of the 17 states now facing legislation that would obligate online merchants to collect sales tax, despite lacking a physical presence in the state in question.

by Emily Wilkinson
See full article at Revenews

SexSearch.com's St.Patrick's Day Special Affiliate Offer

PRESS RELEASE - Mar 15 - Affiliates who promote adult dating sites SexSearch.com and XXXMatch.com through the Infinity Personals Network will earn an additional $5 per sale on all sales generated from Thursday, March 17 through Sunday, March 20. It’s called the St. Patrick’s Day Pot of Gold Bonus.

See full article at PR9.net

Anastasia Launches New Affiliate Offer

SYS CON - Mar 3 - AsianBeauties.com's affiliates will earn double commission on first order over the period of 1 March to 31 May 2011. This rewarding deal applies to all members of Anastasia's Affiliate who receive a total of 100 or more first orders from their promotional attempts over the three month campaign.

See full article at Sys Con

Global Personals Launches Niche Dating Affiliate Program

GLOBAL PERSONALS - Jan 18 – Global Personals Ltd is now offering digital publishers the opportunity to place banner ads for the company's business-to-consumer niche dating sites. Operators of websites, blogs and other online spaces will earn commission for sales that have been generated. Targeted marketing of these niche dating sites will result in high conversion rates, which equal high commission for affiliates. Paul Fitzpatrick, Head of Consumer Marketing at Global Personals, comments: “This programme provides the perfect opportunity for tailored advertising directly with the publisher. We are keen to award affiliates, and high performers will be offered generous bonus incentives. Join today and start earning commissions of up to 100% and £50 a sale.” The program is currently offering DatingAgency.com for the over 40's market and JustSingleParents. FULL ARTICLE @ GLOBAL PERSONALS

Niche Site Building Strategies For Affiliate Marketers

EXPERIENCE ADVERTISING - Nov 18 - Focusing on niche site building is a good strategy. Focus on a theme and run with it. People like themed sites. To get your niche site online fast, use available content management platforms (Blogger.com, WordPress.com). Ways to increase free traffic to your site are:

- Post fresh content several times a day 

- Target obscure, less competitive keyword phrases, i.e. long-tail

- Syndicate your RSS feeds
- Social bookmark all your articles 
- Post to Twitter, Facebook,..
- Incorporate social sharing features – Facebook Like button, Wibiya
- Comment on related blogs

Capture visitor data so you can market to those users by sending deals, promotions, and coupons. Get the most out of your Affiliate relationships. Talk to your affiliate managers to learn more about their products or services. Once you’re producing, you can get a higher commission.
FULL ARTICLE @ EXPERIENCE ADVERTISING

Mark Brooks: Good advice for idating affiliates. You can drive traffic to existing dating sites and/or start your own white label brands so you have a bit more brand equity. Our client, White Label Dating is our recommended option. See Build A Dating Site for more options.

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Reaching Audiences Through Social Media

OPW - Dec 1 - "PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences" book, written by Deirdre Breckenridge, provides a public relations slant on Web 2.0. The author calls this PR 2.0 which is the convergence of PR and the Internet with potential to change how brands reach customers using social media. "Social networks are giving people more reach which extends to their friends' networks as well", says Mark Brooks. Being connected starts with a blog. A blog is the best way to say who you are. "Start a blog and take a stand", advises Brooks. "People are tired of advertising. PR and word of mouth are more important these days. "If people trust the people behind the company, they are going to trust the brand." Dr. Neil Clark Warren of eHarmony branded his company on himself and people have connected with his persona and brand, and that is the underlying principle of eHarmony's success. The key concept is "people buy from people".

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch and SocialNetworkingWatch.

Lead Generation And iDating Directories

FF - Oct 19 -There's a great interview on Mixergy with Jay Weintraub who runs the LeadCon shows which see ~3500 attendees a year. He points out a few sites that are doing well with Lead Gen. They can see $20-$40 a lead, with 10 fields of info. Boomerator, Vitals, and Healthgrades are good examples. Directory sites can do well. i.e. Relocation.com. Sometimes users don't know the right questions to ask. So sites like CoolerPanet (solar panels) do well. Sittercity and Angieslist take a different approach and charge users to view a directory of babysitters and contractors. There's value in providing a directory of dating sites. Just make sure you add value. Review the sites and explain how you think they are differentiated.  Help users ask understand the questions they should be asking about idating sites...and then provide the answers for them. Then you'll have something that is a rarity in the affiliate idating space - a useful affiliate dating site.  Help your users discern which sites they should be using, with honest and forthright reviews. - Mark Brooks

How to Drive Free Traffic To Your Dating Affiliate Site

EXPERIENCE ADVERTISING - Oct 9 -

1. Content Posting – Generate free traffic from the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Build “niche” sites or blogs that focus on a particular topic or theme. Post reviews. Daily posting is most effective.

2. Social Bookmarking – Submit your article or blog post urls to Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.

3. Blog Commenting – Leave quality blog comments. Have something valuable to contribute otherwise it will be a waste of time. List your name, email, and site url, which adds inbound links to your site. Use Google Blog Search to find related blogs to yours that rank well. Make it part of your daily routine.

4. Social Networking – Add friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter. Facebook Fan pages are a must.  Build up your own community on Facebook. Message your Fans via email and through “status updates”.

5. Online Forums – Joining forums and connect with other like-minded people in your niche. Set-up your “signature” so it posts under every forum comment you leave . Add a few links to your websites and Facebook and Twitter links.
FULL ARTICLE @ EXPERIENCE ADVERTISING

Intertnet Advertising Hits New Revenue Record

MASHABLE - Oct 13 - According to IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, businesses and individuals spent ~$12.1 billion on online advertising in the first six months of 2010, up 11.3% from the from the first half of 2009 and 13.9% from the Q2 '09. Search advertising has attracted ~$5.7 billion in spending between January and June this year — a YOY increase of 11.6%. Display advertising, which includes banner ads, digital video, rich media and sponsorships, garnered ~$4.4 billion in the first half of 2010, a 16% increase over the same period in 2009. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

Mark Brooks: Ad Tech should be busy this year. 

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Thanks To iDate Exhibitors

FF - Sep 20 - A special thank you to the iDate Paris exhibitors and sponsors.

Exhibitors
Dating Factory - Continental European white label leader.
EasyDate - Runs some of the top sites in the UK, along with white labels.
Introanalytics - Behavioral matchmaking and discovery.
OculusAI - Image moderation for dating sites.

Sponsor
messmo - Extending dating sites to mobile.

The Return Of The Google Affiliate Network

SEARCH ENGINE ROUNDTABLE - Sep 17 - Two years after Google closes their affiliate network they have announced they are re-opening it. The concept is basic, you refer someone to a site, they buy something on the site, you earn a percent of the sale. You are only paid when you refer a sale or a desired action. FULL ARTICLE @ SEARCH ENGINE ROUNDTABLE

AffiliateConvention.com Event To Be Held In Paris

PR ZOOM - Sep 7 - The Affiliate Marketing Convention evening party will be held on Sep 15th at the ASIAN Lounge in Paris, France. AffiliateConvention.com Events are intimate networking events that provide a relaxed and enjoyable forum for affiliates to make new business contacts, network with colleagues and leaders in their industry. The event also takes place the same time as the Paris Internet Dating Conference. Affiliates will have the opportunity to meet with owners of the top European online dating sites. FULL ARTICLE @ PR ZOOM

Mark Brooks: I'll be there. See you there perhaps.

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Got Rogue Affiliates?

FF - Aug 30 -A rogue affiliate is running this ad on Facebook. We removed the identity of this site to protect the [somewhat] innocent. The site in this ad is definitely NOT 100% free. Its a paid dating site. This is NOT COOL. It's not good for the idating industry as a whole when affiliates falsely represent dating sites. How can you/we possibly police against this practice? Affiliates often find innovative messaging and methods to get high click through rates and conversions. This is great for short term profits for both the affiliate, and the dating sites. But the industry suffers when rogue practices mislead people. Users remember that they had a bad experience with 'internet dating' and we all suffer, in the long run.

When I was an affiliate manager at FriendFinder in 2003 we had to police affiliates who used email, and then CAN-SPAM came about. FriendFinder could not risk breaking CAN-SPAM rules. So the FriendFinder edict was, if affiliates used email their affiliate accounts would be cancelled. Affiliates were not permitted to use email to promote FriendFinder. It was relatively easy to monitor. If an affiliate had bursts and lulls of traffic that was an indication that they were using email promotion.

Dating sites can use similar edicts to get the attention of affiliates. Your brand related ad messaging should be consistent and pre-approved on all site promotions. If an affiliate mentions your internet dating brand name in an ad, that ad should have been approved by you. Protect your brand! Protect this industry from misleading, rogue affiliates.

Sexinyourcity.com Dating Affiliate Program Ceases To Operate

PRESS RELEASE - Aug 13 - The affiliate program tied to sexinyourcity.com will cease to operate in 30 days. All of the site’s affiliates are being asked to pull all links within 30 days. All rev share sales revenue will continue to payout until every last rebill has expired.

Affiliate Convention To Be Held On August 6

NEWSWIRE TODAY - Aug 3 - The next AffiliateConvention event will be in Hollywood, Florida on August 6, 2010 from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm at the AZIA Lounge. The event attracts hundreds of affiliate marketers, including super-affiliates. The attendance is free for affiliates that RSVP online by June 15 at AffiliateConvention.com. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWSWIRE TODAY