A handful of online dating sites are reporting activity spikes following September's global financial crisis.
"On days when the US Dow Jones industrial went down […] by more than 100 points, more people were likely to log in and spend more time on the site," stated Senior Research Scientist Gian Gonzaga in an interview with Reuters.
"People seek out companionship in times of stress. Studies repeatedly show that being in a relationship can help a person's psychological and physical health."
CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony of Match.com corroborates Gonzaga's view. "During these trying times, people are looking for hope in their inbox," he said.
November brought Match.com its largest membership increase in the last seven years.
But even lesser-known dating sites, like Perfectmatch.com, are seeing bounty. The latter reported a 47% hike in membership, in the three months to November compared to the previous quarter.
An Opinion Research Corp. poll, sponsored by eHarmony, found 57% of Americans worry more about their love lives amidst the credit crunch. Married men were most affected, with 63% stressed over love.
And 75% of poll-takers between 25 and 34 worried whether the economy would negatively impact their love lives. Younger, single respondents were more likely to pursue a relationship as a result of these concerns.
Older respondents, which were more likely to be married, still worried financial issues would harm their existing relationships. "There are often more fights over bills and household budgets" among couples in climates like this one, Gonzaga pointed out.
The Opinion/eHarmony poll comprised 1,092 users. Meanwhile, a survey by Avalanche LLC — which operates date.com, matchmaker.com and amor.com — found 84% of people are spending more time online or over the phone before meeting face-to-face.
With all that in mind, it bodes well for the online dating industry that the Dow is down 35% this year.
Online dating services became aggressive advertisers in '07, with eHarmony spending the most: $110.1 million in total as of February last year. Match.com followed, spending $66.4 million in total.
Their efforts weren't wasted. Prior to 2008, Mediamark Research found US adults were increasingly receptive to online dating, which was previously stigmatized as an arena for the desperate and unloveable. Men were slightly more likely to log onto an online dating site (52.2% versus 47.8%), and people between 18-34 consisted of over half of the online dating population. Single parents were significantly more likely than average to pursue a 'net-based romance.
The face of online dating in general has evolved since then. Online speed dating debuted late last year. And last month, online dating conglomerate eHarmony lost a three-year-old suit for refusing to match gays, lesbians and bisexuals. The company will launch a gay dating site, "Compatible Partners," in early 2009. (article source marketingvox.com)
You've finally made the decision to enter the online dating market. You have come up with a splendid idea which will definitely make your visitors join your dating site. That's great! Having a unique approach is so important when dating business is so competitive and the potential for dating traffic is bigger than ever.
This article will give you some tips for making your dating site a success. You want your database of members to grow daily, so you need information on how to ensure the delivery of quality dating traffic to your site. These 5 easy to follow tips will show you how to attract that traffic, identify what makes your visitors leave or stay, target your desired demographic and encourage your visitors to join your site.
How to Get Highly Targeted Dating Traffic:
Marketing comes in many forms. There is traditional advertising, which brings in targeted, immediate traffic; and SEO, which gives your site more visibility and enhances your reputation. Advertising can be online or offline and include a variety of different methods; SEO works by distributing links and information throughout the web to pull in highly targeted traffic. There are three types of traditional advertising and two SEO tactics you can use to immediately start seeing more visitors at your dating site.
1. Offline Advertising. Niche and local dating sites can benefit tremendously from offline advertising such as local newspaper ads, outdoor advertising, leaflets flyers or even radio or TV ads. Think about who your target visitor is, and what advertising medium they are likely to pay attention to. Once you select an audience to target, finding the right promotion method should be easy. This type of advertising offers both immediate and long term benefits for your site.
2. Banner advertising. This is the most popular way of getting new, targeted visitors. It is a very good method of promotion and has the added advantage of being completely free. You don't have to spend a lot of time managing a banner advertising campaign, and it works like water circulating - constantly delivering more and more targeted traffic to your site. This can free you up to work on SEO and traditional advertising campaigns, secure in the knowledge that a steady stream of visitors will be arriving at your site. All you have to do is choose the right Banner Exchange System and create highly targeted banners. Dating Ad Network is one of the biggest and most reliable dating exchange networks. It's like a webring for dating sites - simple idea polished to its best.
3. CPC, CPA or CPM advertising. These are the basic forms of online advertising, and stand for cost per click, cost per action, or cost per impression (page view). You can use these promotion methods at any time to attract more dating visitors. It is also recommended to join some affiliate networks, like cj.com, for even more success. By running campaigns like these you will be able to save valuable time as you won't need to manage everything by yourself. We would suggest running CPM or CPC campaigns all the time; Google has an excellent program set up for this type of marketing effort. These methods of promotion are fairly inexpensive and quite effective.
4. Article marketing. This is a very efficient tactic for obtaining highly targeted dating traffic! It has a twofold benefit from an SEO standpoint; you can receive specifically targeted visitors from both directories and organic search results, and you will get links back to your website which increases the chances of a higher ranking in the search index. Keyword targeting is the main tool you can use in article based marketing, so some research should be done to pinpoint the most valuable keywords. You can then write the articles yourself, or hire a professional to write and optimize them for you. This is worth paying for because the higher quality the article, the more traffic it will deliver to your site.
5. Dating Directories. Another SEO tactic which can help you to get strong back links and even more targeted visitors. Only quality and reliable directories which are full of information and reviews can bring you quality visitors, so submit wisely! The amount of traffic from each directory may not be very big, but it will consist of high quality, specifically targeted dating visitors.
These five very effective methods of advertising can be easily added to your marketing plan to obtain targeted visitors for your dating site. They offer quick results to kick start your dating site's business, and long term residual traffic for ongoing success. Quality dating traffic is what you need to start your own dating site on the right path!
