I wish more dating sites would have fun with their advertising like this.

advertising, Uncategorized, zipcar

I’m thinking about changing the title of the blog to Online Dating Post. This minor change change may help with how the blog shows up in search engines, and will allow me to connect with the growing number of non-industry single coming from search engines and stories in the media. Nothing more too it, really. Same in-depth coverage and insight as always. Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the idea.

Uncategorized

Fred Stutzman on the latest Pew Internet and American Life Project, which released data from their recent survey of teen Social Networks use.

pew, Research, social networking

Continental Europe’s leading online dating agency Meetic said on Monday it was close to concluding a friendly takeover of British peer, DatingDirect.

Meetic founder and chairman Marc Simoncini said, “Thanks to this acquisition we will have conquered in less than five years the leading position on most of the international markets on which we operate.”

The group, already present in 14 European countries and China and Brazil, planned to expand further in 2007, he added.

Meetic had sales in 2005 of 43 million euros. It is due to publish final 2006 figures on February 13. DatingDirect had sales in 2006 of 16 million euros, Meetic said.

The combined revenue is in the ballpark of what Match spends on advertising every year.

datingdirect, Finance, meetic

The Safer Online Dating Alliance (SODA), a nationwide coalition dedicated to improving online dating safety, is working with public safety proponents nationally and in Michigan, Florida, Illinois and Texas to advance legislation addressing cyber crime and improving online dating safety.

Protections include:
- requiring disclosure to consumers on safer online dating practices
- disclosing to consumers the extent of background and other safety
screenings conducted by their online dating company
- providing safety information on the importance of not disclosing
information about young children — a vital step in protecting kids
from sexual predators targeting single mothers to enter into a
relationship to victimize the child.

For more information, visit the Safer Online Dating Alliance website at http://www.SaferOnlineDating.org. SODA is a True.com initiative.

Safety, soda

At this past weekend’s annual meeting of the American Economic Association borrowed from online dating - to more efficiently match job candidates and potential employers. It is called “€œsignaling”,€ and it is designed to reduce the time and cost of hiring professors by weeding out those who aren’t serious prospects and homing in on those who are.

The AEA system shares an idea and an advisor - Stanford economist Muriel Niederle - with Cupid.com. On that online dating site, women face a problem akin to that of employers: Men signal their interest in women by sending electronic messages, but because it is easy to send hundreds of messages, it is difficult and time-consuming for women to separate spammers from good prospects.

In the summer of 2005, at the suggestion of Prof. Niederle and MIT economist Dan Ariely, Cupid began allotting each of its male members two electronic roses a month, which they could send along with messages to women whom they wanted to impress. The scarcity of roses motivates the suitors to be selective and serious.

“€œIt’s been a wonderful thing”, says Eric Straus, CEO of Cupid.com, who estimates the roses have increased a suitor’s chances of getting a reply 35 percent. “One of the problems in online dating is that men are ignored and women are inundated. Anything that allows a message to stand out is a great benefit.€

Two roses a month is not a lot, that would really force you to think hard about who you are sending them to, and possibly extend the duration of the subscription, to the benefit of Cupid.com.

More at AZCentral.

Features

Ever since I moved Online Dating Insider to the new blog at OnlineDatingPost.com I’ve been closely watching the traffic migrate from the old site to the new blog. It’s going to take a while to get everyone visiting the new site, as Google and other search engines re-index everything and replace the excellent GoogleJuice I had at the old blog. Change is often difficult, but it’s good in the end. I’m adding small text-only ads to the RSS feeds, revamping the categories and making navigating by tags easier.

The good news is that the site’s uptime is running close to 100% barring a few database problems in the first few days. Now I can get back to focusing on writing, not learning and managing the blog system like I had to do over the holidays. Thanks for bearing with us as we continue the transition. Keep those story ideas and comments coming.

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Think about how phones have improved over the last ten years or so. We've gone from rotary phones to touchtone to cordless to the invention of the cell phone. Just like phone upgrades, there's no reason you can't upgrade...

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