OPW -- Sep 9 -- AdultFriendFinder and Fling.com have been running close on traffic for a while now, but Fling.com just overtook AdultFriendFinder.com for total traffic according to Compete.com. I included Match.com to give some perspective on the graph. Fling is up 7.4% for the month with 22m unique visitors, and AdultFriendFinder is down 3.5% for the month with 21.7m uniques. AFF has a LOT of momentum, but Fling rides on a very considerable affiliate network of its own. AFF still has a considerable lead for user engagement and visits. These collossals of the adult dating world will be duking it out for a long while to come but without Andrew Conru at the helm, will AFF be able to maintain a lead? Your comments please. (Disclosure: Fling is a client of Courtland Brooks).
I've promoted both of these programs as an Affiliate. I have to say I am very impressed with Flings growth, and the ease of their affiliate tools.
From a members perspective AFF wins hands down. Fling will have a long way to go to compete on any KPI's which include any kind of length or number of pages per visit in to account.
Neither AFF or Fling give you brilliant reporting but they give you what you need, and no more or less than most other affiliate programs. Fling always converted quickly for me which may be why affiliates like it. It's always easier to promote something when you see a quick return. While AFF's CPA's were similar to Flings I would probably prefer Fling.
However, right now with AFF paying out massive CPA's its difficult not to send them traffic first. This may only be for verified credit card payments, but even taking this in to account if you have any sort of quality of traffic its an impressive payout which right now I don't think anyone else comes close to.
Who knows how long this can continue; It may be that AFF get enough extra cash from each member by cross selling its other Penthouse properties to support the rates, or might just be a short term pre-public offering stunt!
Posted by: Tim Rees | Sep 09, 2008 at 07:56 AM
Amazing to see this level of traffic... HookUP.com just merged this week with DatingGold as a whitelable partner. This will put HookUP into a network of nearly 3M monthly uniques... As certainly one of the best names in the adult dating space... Keep an eye out! Conversions have been phenominal so far!
Posted by: jason | Sep 09, 2008 at 06:34 PM
Fling is one of the biggest scams on the net. It's sites like this that give the adult dating industry such a bad reputation.
You can sign up to Fling.com as a 67 year-old convicted rapist just out of prison and within minutes start receiving messages, profile views and friend requests from naked 20 year-old models.
In fact, you will start receiving messages from these "women" before you've even written a profile, so their numbers are a scam as well. You are considered a registered member without ever actually creating a profile, just giving them an email address and username.
You will also find the same photos of women under different usernames living in different cities, and receive identical messages from different users. Either Fling.com is creating these profiles (most likely) or they are a willing haven of scammers to skew their female numbers.
Snatching purses would be a more honest way to make a living. I'm surprised you represent these people Mark.
Posted by: Simon Crowe | Sep 11, 2009 at 12:19 AM